Saturday, July 31, 2010

Details, Clear Coat, and Decals







After the Olive Drab was completed, I allowed a few days to dry, and worked on painting the detail items. The tow cables were painted with Tamiya XF-56, Metallic Grey. I think this works well, and looks more realistic after weathering, than a Gunmetal. I also painted the bolt cutter, and the heads of the axe and sledge using the same color. For the jack, I painted it with Flat Black, then hit a few highlights with the Metallic Grey. The wooden items-axe and sledge handles, the barrel cleaning rods, and the jack block, were first painted with Citadel Bestial Brown. I think that it gives a good base for a wood. I then took Model Master Acryl Burnt Umber, and using a pin, gave some light streaking to simulate wood grain and knots. This was followed by a dilute wash of Bestial Brown combined with Vallejo 70913, Yellow Ochre, to give it a slight patina. The bolt cutter and tool heads were also given a very dilute wash of Burnt Umber. The coaxial machine gun was first painted with a 50/50 mix of Flat Black and Gunmetal, then drybrushed with Metallic Grey. The last part of the detail painting was to paint the smoke grenades with Vallejo 70866 Grey Green. I allowed this to dry for a day.
To clear coat, I used Future floor polish, sprayed using my trusty Aztek airbrush, at a low psi setting. There is no need to dilute, and I first flipped upside-down, and applied a number of light coats until I had built up a gloss, then once it was dry to the touch, turned it over and did the top in the same manner. Now here is where the Tiger almost met it's demise. It has been incredibly hot and humid, which doesn't work with Future, since it will trap moisture and instead of being clear, it will dry in a milky haze. My thinking was that if I took it easy and sprayed light coats, that I could avoid this. (And I did leave it out in the same environment prior to spraying so that it would not tend to condensate) WRONG!!!! As I was finishing up on the top parts, I noticed it starting to haze. Thinking quickly, I ran like a maniac with the tank on a board, to the basement, where I set it in front of the dehumidifier that runs to help dry the air. Added is that the house has central A/C, in the basement as well, so I instantly got it to 40% humidity and 74 degrees. As luck would have it, the hazing stopped immediately, and where it had started to haze, it disappeared, leaving a beautiful clear coat. PHEW!
Two days later, I moved on to decals. I did have a sheet from the Tamiya 1/25 Tiger set, but this was fairly yellowed from aging. I did put it in a sunny window for a few weeks, which will get rid of the yellowing, but unfortunately, it didn't completely clean them up. The unit insignia of a prowling cat was usable, but the numbers have a white edge, as do the crosses, and these were just a little too yellow. Digging in the spares box, I found a sheet from an old Italeri Tiger, and to my surprise, I had the exact numbers, and these were the same size as the numbers on the Tamiya 1/25 scale set. I trimmed these down as much as possible to eliminate carrier film silvering, and put them in place. Once dry, they were spot coated with clear gloss to protect them from the next round, which is weathering and washing.



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