Saturday 28 March 2015

Base coating - the VK1602 'Leopard' (part 2)

I love 'paper panzers' - they give us creative license as modellers, or dare I say, as artists, to to let our minds envisage how a tank, vehicle, or airplane might have appeared had it actually made it into reality.  It all depends on how far you're willing to venture away from reality as to your finished model's final appearance. 

Personally, I like to have some sort of pre-knowledge about my subject matter and its time-frame, so as to create a machine that was at least plausible. This being said, don't let anyone else ruin your fun, although be prepared to take the flak from hard-core history buffs who are not so open-minded,  

To summarize, we build models for ourselves using our precious time and money, our aim being an attractive model to admire on/in our display shelf/cabinets, and if we're lucky, we'll produce a model that others may also be excited and inspired by.


Okay, back to business!  With my primer and pre-shading complete I moved onto my base coat.  I might add that most of this work was lost in subsequent paint coats, but it's better to have it present, just in case 
I wanted a late-war dunkelgelb, a much lighter version of the earlier shade which I personally don't like. I had previously bought Mig's 'Late War German camoflages' which concentrate on the 1944-1945 time-frame. The paints are excellent and I can thoroughly recommend them; as a side note, I thin them in my airbrush cup with Vallejo airbrush thinner (71.061). although they can be sprayed neat.


You can hopefully make out the subtle shading with the darker shade at the bottom of the turret; you can see the pre-shading on the turret's near corner,




I had real fun with these road wheels introducing some lovely shades from the Mig paint set and a couple from Vallejo. Although this tank is destined for a single colour camo scheme, some might still consider it quite an insipid choice compared to alternative schemes, however, invoking some visual interest by using brighter colours is a good option.  I  always try to remember - weathering will dull colours right down, so don't be afraid to go bright!


With the base coat in place the whole model was given a couple of coats of Klear floor polish to protect the paint beneath,  I normally wait a few hours for a Klear coat to dry before repeating the procedure.

See part 3 HERE

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