Bowcat's 1/35 Meng Gepard A1/A2

[Ian M]

rather you than me.

[papa 695]

And people moan about rubber tracks.

[Mr Bowcat]

The end result should be worth it, but if I had to do it again £30 would definitely be on its way to Friul.

[spanner570]

Bob,
No wonder I have a Tee shirt with 'I Love Vinyl' written on it. I didn't realise until now that the statement also included tank tracks......:surprised:!

[Mr Bowcat]

Interestingly enough, Meng do an aftermarket set of tracks for the Leopard family. They are exactly the same as the kit supplied ones, just supplied removed from the spure and pre-cleaned up. I wonder how many people got fed up with the kit parts and spent extra on the aftermarket? Clever marketing by Meng maybe. :thinking:

[Mr Bowcat]

Got the tracks finished. Instructions call for 85 links a side, but I found 83 fit better.

They are certainly very posable.

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[Mr Bowcat]

Haven't updated for a while as I have been having an absolute nightmare with the paint.

I'd ordered the Ammo by Mig paints specified in the Takom scheme I've chosen. I don't know if it's me, but these are a complete pig to spray. The paint is constantly drying on the tip meaning I've had to stop and clean the needle tip literally every 10 seconds. I couldn't even get them to go through the .2 needle so I've had to use the .4 for the fine work. Worst of all, the sand brown was a pinky flesh tone, so I scrapped that and made up a custom mix with Tamiya.

To say I am disappointed with the result would be an understatement. I'm just going to have to try and hide it with weathering.

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[stillp]

That's a shame. What are you thinning with?

Pete

[Mr Bowcat]

I was spraying it straight out the bottle. I did a number of tests thinning in various degrees with water, IPA & x20a. Whenever thinned it tended to spider web, sprayed at various pressures. Maybe I should have got their proprietary thinner??

[stillp]

I've only used their paints once, and it seemed OK-ish - a bit spattery, but I put that down to my lack of skill. I think I put a drop of Vallejo Flow Improver in it, which improved it.

Pete

[Mr Bowcat]

Ill stick with Tamiya, I only used it because they had the correct RAL colours, although as I said the sand brown came out more flesh pink??

[Ian M]

That the colour was off I can get with you on that, but the ammo paints I have tried sprayed like a dream. No clogging, drying on the tip was minimal and the coverage was very good.
I just used them straight out of the bottle. I did add a steel ball and shook the sh... Out of them first.

[Mr Bowcat]

Quick update.

After the paint had fully cured I gave it a couple of coats of filter to tone down and blend in the camo a bit, then varnished/decaled/varnished, so at that point it looked like this.

[ATTACH]296926[/ATTACH]

The I went at it with a starship filth wash. Hmmmmm, dirty.

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After 24 hours most of this was taken off with a brush and cotton buds & odourless thinners, which left it looking like this.

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Although that all looks quite dark and dirty, it's eventually going to have a pigment scrub which will lighten it and hopefully leave it looking like dry dust over ingrained dirt. I still have to clean up the top of the hull, so no pic of that yet.

[papa 695]

Nice work Bob, looking very good.

[Mr Bowcat]

Cheers Ian. :smiling3:

I'm now at the point of the build that I have to let everything dry for a day or two before I can move on the the next bit. Might have to start building something else to keep me occupied.