Tamiya 1/25 Tiger I Update 2/11/16

[Robert1968]

Wow and wow again your making this look like an engineering dream come true. Caught up on this and your theory to the wheel painting is awesome ( Saves buting lots of masks that you can use only once and also it's a very good idea too ( nice wee tool )


Loving what you have done so far and there's so much detail in this


Regards


Robert

[Guest]

Sorry about it being almost two weeks since the last update, but work is picking up with the nice weather, I went to Disneyland with me wife for a couple of days, and the stuff I am doing on the model takes a bit longer since paint is involved and it has to cure.


So, anyways... I got the Tiger painted and a clear coat applied. I have seen many opinions on clear coats versus no clear coat, regular hobby brand clears (i.e., Model Master, Vallejo, Tamiya, etc.) versus Future. Personally, I prefer a clear coat, and I use Future. Future is cheap, and goes on very thin. I also find it easy to clean the airbrush afterwards. In my opinion, a clear coat makes decal application easier, and gives me a good base for the weathering process, starting with a wash. I have found that an acrylic wash directly onto acrylic paint doesn't work that great for me. So, a base of clear goes down first.


After the clear coat, it was time for decals. I was quite worried about the kit decals since they are 25+ years old, but figured I would give them a shot. Amazingly enough, they worked fine. I soaked them a little longer than normal, but after that, they slid right off and stuck with no silvering, or tearing. One thing I didn't like was the strange matte finish they had. I don't know if that was due to the age of the decals, or if that is the way they were printed.






Next, I worked on the tracks a bit. I gave them a dark reddish wash, then black.






Since I forgot to spray clear on the wheels for weathering, I did that next.






Then I applied a black wash using Vallejo Model Color black, heavily diluted with water.






Next up will be chipping, then some weathering.

[monica]

this is looking great,Brett,very good progress so far,

[Guest]

Very impressive work on this build Brett

[Guest]

This is coming along really well, cant wait to see the final product.

[Guest]

what a great idea,but how do you cut out the holes so very neat,? plz
as it would save so much time,

Sorry I didn't respond to this sooner, Monica... I just now saw it. I will do a photo thing in a bit and post it outlining what I do, and where i got the device I use.


Everybody else, thanks for the compliments! This project has been a lot of fun and it is turning out a bit better than I had anticipated.

[Guest]

Monica, and anyone else that is interested, I posted my wheel masking technique in the Painting Chit-Chat forum.

http://www.scale-models.co.uk/threads/how-i-mask-and-paint-wheels.33597/