Quickie: Takom M29 Weasel

[Jim R]

Quite a journey to get on a base coat. Still it looks fine now.
As for colour in photos and on screens - I find it a nightmare.

[Guest]

There’s no point trying to match colours to screens or on-screen photographs to real colours, no. Most of the time it doesn’t bother me, but the difference now was so great that I decided to experiment with another background to see what that would do.

[Guest]

Last week, I put a dark wash over all of the OD (Army Painter Strong Tone, thinned down) and last night, did some quick drybrushing with Revell 45 Light Olive:

[ATTACH]493046[/ATTACH][ATTACH]493047[/ATTACH]

Oh yeah, and I painted the exhaust a basic rust colour. That needs a little more work before I can add the guard over it. Meanwhile I applied the decals:

[ATTACH]493048[/ATTACH][ATTACH]493049[/ATTACH]

Just the first option from the instructions, which give two in OD and two with white snow camouflage over the OD. I didn’t feel adding like that, though. There should be a star on the rear of the hull, but because the shovel and axe are glue to that, the decal wouldn’t want to slide under them, so I didn’t bother adding it. If you leave the tools off until after painting, it would be easy to add, and also if you only glue the tools on by their locating points. By the way, the instructions tell you to paint the tools in wood and metal colours, which is wrong: they would have been OD on the real thing.

There are also lots of decals for inside:

[ATTACH]493050[/ATTACH]

Some are tricky to apply, not to mention to get them the right way up. I’m not quite sure I got the decals for the radio the right way up: the instructions have the front panel drawn upside down in step 13, so is the orientation of the decals shown the correct for the panel as drawn or if it were the right way up? I don’t know, and I didn’t feel like doing the research, so I took the second option.

[Guest]

Primer, had the same result myself but with Vallejo primer. I think we must have got hold of a bad batch.
Love the Weasel work you have done.
Mike.

[Guest]

By now I’ve painted the undercarriage and weathered the vehicle:

[ATTACH]493646[/ATTACH]

I first painted the whole lower hull, suspension and tracks with Tamiya XF-52 Flat Earth, followed by a wash of that over the upper hull (but inside only where people would put their feet) and a wash of X-9 Brown over the lower parts to represent wet mud. I then took an old toothbrush and put a drop of airbrush-ready sand-coloured paint on it, then pulled a cocktail stick over it to create paint spatters everywhere I figure mud would come off the suspension:

[ATTACH]493647[/ATTACH][ATTACH]493648[/ATTACH]

On the hull sides, I aimed to get them going diagonally forward from the track, except at the rear where the track would throw them vertically as well.

That done, I drybrushed the outside of the track with matt black and painted the running surfaces of the outer roadwheels in the same colour, and also the parts of the track in contact with the wheels. This is because I think these areas are where the mud would quickly get removed, and because on the real thing, the whole track was rubberised — including the steel track plates — but only the outer and inner wheels had rubber tyres.

[Tim Marlow]

It’s looking good Jakko.

[Guest]

Now parked on a muddy Bastogne street while the driver nips into the bar for a quick beer....

[scottie3158]

Looks good mate.

[Jim R]

That a great looking model Jakko.

[Guest]

Thanks all The driver will be in the front seat, so I guess he’s waiting for his para buddies to get back from the local estaminet in Bastogne.

[Guest]

After measuring the windscreen wipers, I drew some circles onto masking tape and cut out pieces to mask off the parts of the windshield swept by them:

[ATTACH]493671[/ATTACH]

Then some dabbing with a big, nearly dry brush with more Tamiya Flat Earth, and after removing the tape, it looks convincing enough:

[ATTACH]493672[/ATTACH]

And when I had also attached the wipers, seats and driver, it was done!