Hi there.

This is my AFV Club Tiger late which I have fitted with atak resin zimmerit. I have decided to use this kit for airbrush practice so I went for the colourful( or garish, depends how you look at it ) camo scheme shown on the box art.

All colours used so far are Tamiya. Base coat is dark yellow lightend with buff, followed by olive green and red brown. I had preshaded with red brown before the base coat but this was a waste of time as it all but disappeared under the camo. I have gone over the colours sevaral times experimenting with ways of lightening the finish but finally just settled on red brown and olive green straight from the jar. I have post-shaded with red brown mixed with a little nato black and heavily thinned then sprayed through the airbrush along panel lines, recesses, bolts, edges of camo,etc. I havent started to weather the drivetrain yet.

I am not sure what to do next but I thought that I would share what I have done so far with your kind selfs.
Thanks for looking, Cheers , Jim.

Great job on the camo! Model looks super also, will be nice with the tracks & final weathering. I used the indy link AFV tracks on mine and they look ten times better than the kit tracks.How was the ATAK zimm? I have one of their sets for my Dragon tiger on deck for my next build.Keep up the great work. Rick.

love the camo jim nice work yet to try atak zimm myself but it looks good.

Hello Jim,
Great looking Tiger there my friend! That is an awesome paint job, I know your unsure what to do next, but if I may suggest.

1. Grab a beer and relax in a job well done.


2. Use a burnt umber or similar wash to "darken" out the recess of the tank. especially the zimmerit that way it would give it some "depth". Then maybe some stains or chipping but that is up to you.

3. Some stowage or such would be a normal thing to be seen on AFV's. Maybe a helmet hanging off the side of the spare tracks on the turret.

But I'm just tossing out ideas here and then again I maybe babbling on...


But anyway, Great job on the Big Kitty. So how did you like it? How was the Atak set of Zimmerit?


Best,

Walter

Excellent paint job, Jim. I love the camo scheme and those Tamiyas go on dead flat. You probably want to do a filter over all that camo to get some nice tonal variation. The washes will look really good in that zimmerit. I like to use oils thinned with thinner. How was the AFV build? Also did you like the ATAK zimmerit , I built the AFV 1/48 Tiger and it practically built itself it was so nice. I really want to follow your build, keep up the good work, Jim Rosado

If you are going to add a wash to the zimm I would recommend that you apply it very thin. Otherwise the zimmed areas could look much darker than the rest of the tank. Personally I think just a few pin washes here and there to help bring out details would be enough. Just my two cents.

I must say it looks beautiful as is. I love that camo pattern. All of the subtle airbrush work looks spot on.

Hi Jim! Real nice Tiger you have brought to us all for consideration! Love the camo, not to heavy with some real scale clouding in the waves/stripes, excellently executed sir! You could use a slightly lighter wash of burnt sienna and yellow ochre for the zimmerit... but very thinned and in stages. If it looks a bit strong on application, a later thin wash of yellow ochre and flake white can bring back the vibrant tones . And you can subtly drybrush the zimmerit for highlighting with good effect... Just what I have been thinking of doing on one of my Tigers!.. Looking forwards to the weathering.

Phil.

Is a nice paint job.
A nice wash as stated would help it a little.
Try Mig's stuff if you can Filters and Washes.

very nice paint job!
love the colors you used!

good luck with the weathering!

Koen

Hi there everyone,

First of all many thanks for the kind words Rick, Wayne, Walter, Jim, Matthew, Phil, Jeff and Koen, I really appreciate it.

The AFV Club tiger went together real easy and has working suspension plus a metal barrel which was included in kit. I would definately recommend it as a cheap alternative to dragons great kits. The only thing I did to it was to cut up and thin out the fenders to show some damage and added the headlight cable with 15 amp fuse wire.

The atak zimmerit was fairly easy to apply. I rubbed the whole sheet of resin on a piece of sandpaper untl the individual pieces just about popped out on their own. After a little bit of trimming I glued the pieces on with c.a. glue. You have to make sure you have it lined up just right, no second chances. A few butt clenching moments during that process! I did not use the resin pieces for the turret vision slots. Instead I used a small screwdriver ,heated up, to melt the kit plastic, which I think turned out OK. The atak set also includes a full replacement mantlet, which fits perfectly, along with replacement resin canvas covers for the end of the barrel (both large and small) and the hull machine gun. All in all the atak set is very good even if it costs almost as much as the kit. .

I have some of the sin industries filters which I will try for the first time here. Then maybe a coat of Klear (Future) in preparation for decals and further washes. Before any of that I will be doing the detail painting of the tools, tow cables, etc. Stil a long way to go but much fun to be had!!!

Thanks again and happy modelling.

Cheers , Jim

What kind of airbrush do you have? this looks great!

Spectacular job on that Tiger I Jim. Very well done indeed. Can't wait to see some markings on her. Very well done. Very well done. I'd say you nailed this one!!!!!!

Truly awesome paint job Jim i like everyone else can't wait to see this bad boy finished truly stunning work so far mate well done p.s. the zimm looks ace

Hi there Jon,

Thank you kindly. I use an iwata HP-CH for the airbrushing. It replaced my old aztec a470, which is a decent enough piece of kit, but the iwata is just awesome. Well worth the money. I also use the pistol grip filter from iwata which makes everything sit nicely in the hand, as well as filtering out any remaining moisture( I think I'm beginning to sound like an advert for iwata now )

Hi James and Lyndon,

Your comments are much appreciated. Hopefully I will have some updates soon. I too look forward to seing this finished!!!

Thanks again,

Cheers, Jim.

Very impressive build. I will be watching this one for sure.
Darryl

Hi there everybody.

Darryl, thanks for your support mate.

Just a quick update . I haven't had much time to myself so only a couple of things done.

I have painted most of the tools, tow cables, etc. I painted the wood with a base coat of humbrol pale stone then used burnt sienna and yellow ochre oil paints to try to achieve a woodgrain effect( I think I will be needing some more practice at this ). The cables were painted lifecolor matt black then burnished with graphite from an HB pencil and given a wash with mig productions brown wash. Same for the metal parts of the tools.

I have used sin industries filters on the camo which changes the finish very slightly and is difficult to see in real life never mind the pictures, but is worthwhile all the same. I used brown for dark green, brown for dessert yellow and ochre for grey sand in that order.

My next step is a coat of future in preparation for decals and a nice wash on that zimmerit.

Thanks for looking and happy modelling,

Cheers, Jim.







Thanks again.

This will always be my favorite paint scheme for a Tiger. Than ks for your input on the airbrush. I have both an Iwata Revolution and HP-B. Funny, i use the revolution 99% of the time- my HP-B always splatters....

Excellent job Jim. Can't wait to see this one progress.

Looking good Jim. Only thing I'd recommend is that in the future you may want to apply your washes over a gloss or satin finish. This makes it much easier to remove any excess. If you want too. Maybe I'm just sloppy. Yeah, probably.

Matt

Hi there again,

Thanks Jon, James, Matthew.

I have now given the big kitty a gloss coat and applied the decals. The AFV Club decals disintegrated on me so I stole some from my Dragon kit. I know the numbers are not accurate but I think they look OK and it was as close as I could get to the originals(213 instead of 211).

Next will be to seal in the decals with some more Klear(Future) then a flat coat and then the fun really begins . Any comments or suggestions are most welcome.

The first picture shows how I use the Tamiya stand which is meant for holding car bodies for the turret.

Thanks for looking, Cheers, Jim.

Alright jim
Your tiger looks nice and shinny, just about ready for some pin washes
Just one thing ive been meaning to ask are you going to paint a metal finish on the faces of the wheels and the front sprocket where they touch the tracks ?
neil.............

Hi there Neil,

Thanks for joining in. I have already started with the pin wahes. I still can't make up my mind whether to use a wash in the zimmerit and if so what colour to use.

For the track contact points I will be using graphite. I usually just use ordinary pencil graphite but I saw someone using an artists soft graphite pencil so I think a visit to my local art shop is in order.

Once again any suggestions are most welcome.

Cheers, Jim

Hi jim
I have done the same myself. Once you have used the graphite pencil try polishing it with a soft cloth or cotton bud this will give you a very nice effect.......
neil.

Hi Jim Looking good! W H Smiths have a boxed set of artists graphite sticks that come in a range from hb to 6b, cheap nicely boxed and will probably outlive us all, they sharpen with little waste, and the shavings can be utilised as 'pigment'! I have a couple of sets and I am still using a set from 15years ago both for illustration purposes and weathering. Looking forwards to the next stages on this big cat... Cheers for sharing.

Regards Phil.

Thanks for that Neil, I have just been looking at your Tiger with the damaged atak zimmerit, very nice mate, and your chally is looking great too.

Hi there Phil. Thanks for the kind words. I am glad you told me about WH Smith as the local art store specialize in extorsion . I have been following your amazing build log with much admiration and look forward to seeing paint on those beasties!

Thanks again and happy modelling, Jim.