Note : I filled the hatch first with a piece of plastic and then, for the remaining gaps, with the Tamiya light curing putty. Interesting stuff, not so easy to use in winter as it needs sunlight to cure
Let me know what you think, expecially for the colours of the sponsons. I will add a coat of Klir (French version of Future) prior to decaling and to start weathering.
Don't hesitate to comment, make some remarks, I am also here to improve myself.
Now, I have to finish the tracks prior to add mud. In the tips and trick of the Landship site, there is a reference to a heavy dry brush with gun metal. Is it necessary to add a coat of Klir (or similar) before, and do you have a reference to recommend for the gun metal ?
About the tracks: I sometimes do it the other way around: first paint the gun metal paint, then do a rust wash, then a silver dry-brush, and finally pastels or even more hefty "earth".
Thx for properly re-arranging your Group Build thread Your project looks just dandy, and in Brailee scale too! I must say I have never used the majority of the products you so kindly showed in your thread, and am happy you shared their application with us all.... I particularly enjoyed your 'doctoring' of the roof of the driver's cabin, which is funny since I usually enjoy opening hatches and the like...but your attention to such detail is admirable. Now, just so you don't think I have forgotten the 'nits'....{you did say "...Don't hesitate to comment, make some remarks, I am also here to improve myself....", correct? I have a small one and a slightly larger one, and I will keep them short. The first is regarding your washes. Since it is more difficult to properly wash a kit that is in the Braille scales, I think you could have maybe fine-tuned your nook-and-cranny work by adding some 'pin' washes to compliment your overall wash applications and maybe stepped-up the visuals in places like the track tensioner, idler wheel mounting brackets, rear drive sprocket axle mounting, etc... And the second is about your track treatment. As our good Peter kindly shared with us, a potentially more accurate rendition of the appearance of tracks on this machine would seem to be a little less 'shiny' {your drybrushing of Tamiya XF-16 Aluminum} considering the literal daily 'grind' that most of them had to go through on the muddy battlefield of western europe....
Please take my or Farthing's worth of input as the kind, constructive words of support they are meant to be. I certainly don't have the courage {nor the eyes} for building in such dimunitive scales, so I really don't have any legs to stand on with my grumblings...I just thought I'd do my best to share so that maybe a discussion about washes and weathering / painting / detailing, etc would grow out of it!...... For the record, your project is a fine addition to the ranks of the first official Landships Group Build
Thank you for your comments. Regarding the second one about the tracks, I agree as after "silver" treatment, I added mud and now the shiny effect is completely removed Regarding the first point of your comment, I am not sure to understand well, sorry about my English . Do you think I have to add some grease leak (black wash) under the various rounded bolted plates and under the track tensioner ? If yes, do you have an advice to do that ? As I am mainly an aircraft modeler, I don't have the habit to dirt a lot my kits.
Anyway, with this build and thread, I already learned a lot about tank building and various version of Mark tanks. There are some mistakes on my kit that I will not redo on the future projects.
Eric
PS : I wil add pictures of the finished tank soon
-- Edited by Eric at 06:40, 2006-02-18
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Eric
On going : Obice da 305/17 su affusto de Stefano, Mark 1 female ...
Finished : Dennis 3 tons lorry, Jeffery Poplavko, Renault EG, Renault FT