It's almost a shame to cover up all that neat work with paint......
Still watching!

Great use of the preshading. I have tried it once before with various success, but you look like you have it down pat. Awesome work, can't wait to see it done.

Ryan as the glue was trying to attach the un-painted fenders to the painted surface, surely that was the reason you had so much difficulty with it or was it for other reasons?

Good point Darren, but I had indeed removed the paint from areas I was going to glue.

The problem has to do more with the width of the track preventing the fenders to sit flush with the lower hull. The inner fender is only slightly larger than the tracks, any mis-allignment will cause this problem. I had not taken the care I did on the lower run because they are not as visible.

Alvaro and Russel thanks!

Mike, Pre-shading takes a lot of practice, there are folk better than me doing it! It also seems all for not when you go and cover it with pigments, but there are no short cuts....it would look different if I hadn't done all of these steps.

Ryan

Nice approuch to this build Ryan. I'll be watching it.

Hey guys, after a year (+) of sitting in a plastic box I decided to get down to business and finsh her up!

Although I had painted and weathered the lower hull, I was just not happy with the look, and I think my skills have improved since I finished these areas anyway....so I held my breath and repainted all the work I had done in hopes of a better finish this time around!

This painting/ weathering proceedure is now more complicated since the tracks are now attached, but I wanted a fresh start on it so here goes.

The model was preshaded with Rustoluem Dark Grey auto primer, with all of the nooks and crannies filled in with aribrushed mixture of MM Aircraft Interior Blk and Helo Drab mixed 50/50. MM ANA OD Green and MM ANA Faded OD was used for the final color coats. After masking the tracks and skirts the MM OD green was misted on.


Once the lower hull was painted it was on the the upper with the OD base and Faded OD as the highlights.


Finished product.


Thanks for looking (a year later)
Ryan

I just read the entire thread, I have 3 of these kits in the stash. I'm a bit of a Pershing fan. I thought you were doing great the first time. I'm looking forward to seeing how this comes out.

As a retired tanker I always wondered why the periscopes were molded closed. Most new kits have the periscopes up, (its about time). If the tank is depicted in action all the scopes would be mounted. Its too late for your T26 and I don't mean to nit pick. Your added details are great and I will use them, just in future think about your scale crew driving around blind.

Tom

Thanks for reading through the post Tom, and I hope you get something from it. I don't have plans on depicting an in action display so closed periscopes are ok.

Another update tonight....the decals have been applied and the model has been futured ahead of an oil pant wash.

The decals were really thin and had almost no carrier film to trim away, but the large stars didn't settle all the way down in a couple of place..hard to see in the pics. BTW gotta love the "Lift Here" stencils......can you just see the harbor crane operator wondering were to lif this beast from?? "glad those stencils are there or I never would have figured out what those (4) huge 2" thick steel lugs are for"





There was zero chance of the rear star decal conforming around the fuel cap and other extreme curvatures in this area, so I made a stencil in CAD. The Paper mask was overlayed onto some Tamiya tape and the xacto blade passed right through the paper into the tape...easy mask!



Thanks
Ryan

Nice work

Slick masking trick

Todays update: Wash complete, with an airbrushed MM Dull Cote clear coat.
I used Holbein Raw Umber thinned with Turpenoid. Next up some detail painting and a little drybrushing on a few high spots.




Sure glad to have the Dull Cote on the tank, I hate looking at them all glossed up with Future!

Ryan

The "stencils" look kick arse on this kit! I haven't seen one built with them yet, and now I want to build one of these just to put all of those stencils on

Looking forward to seeing this one complete the home stretch!

Thanks man, yes I'm about there! (new update soon)

The stencils went on with no problems.

Ryan

Holy cow almost 13,000 hits...thanks everyone for looking (even thought it's been over a year ).

Hopefully todays post won't let anyone down. With major painting and drybrushing largely finished it's on to detail painting and weathering.

This shot of the rear shows the painted tow cable as well as the left tail light and exhaust manifold. The manifold was brush painted flat black and then an orange acrylic paint was sponged on the the surface. A later application of rust(ish) pigments will finish the look. Chipping was kept on the down low and mainly applied to the tow hook ends and armored fuel caps.



I have a "system" to painting solid molded headlights....not quite the same effect as a clear lense but looks OK in my book. The lense was brush painted with AV aluminum paint then a thick wash was applied using "The Detailer" brown wash. This cough syrup looking wash is easy to manipulate, but dries glossy. Once dry it can be re-wet and pushed around very simmilar to oil paints. A shot of Dull Cote knocks it down to a good looking finish for what it is.....paint on a solid lense.



The same "Detailer" wash was used to imitate the spilt fuel around the caps. Remember it dries glossy....so if you are carefull with your dull cote you can blend it in and still retain the glossy look in the cracks and next to the cap.



Dusting and pigments up next!
Ryan

wow that looks fantastic.
what are you using for your photo setup?

No disapointments here mate I too would like to know your photo setup...

Thanks guys....here is the photo set up, it ain't pretty.

I have this area all set up to take pics....once a step is completed it is just carted over here to be photographed.

The lights are Target items with tungston bulbs. My pics improved a lot once I got the tripod. Using the tripod and the cameras' timer insure a nice steady shot. In all of my shots the flash is disabled, so good lighting is important. My camera is at about it's limits though...I really need a new one to improve my shots.



The paper towls taped to the lights are to diffuse the light and create soft shadows. I'm hardly an expert, just a lot of trial and error (mostly error).

Ryan

Dust work and intial pigment application....

A thin veil of dust was airbrushed onto the fenders and lower hull.

After drying, AV flat coat was mixed with water and was applied to the selected areas show in the pics. Mig pigments were flicked onto these areas while the mixture was still wet. The cool thing about that tecnique is it really looks like flicked up dirt as opposed to just slathering on the pigments with a wet brush.





Once dry I'll remove most of the pigments with a stiff bush....till next time.

Ryan

Damn thats looking good! Ill have to give that a try real soon!

Cool upate tonight.....running gear and tracks!

The running gear was made worn and used by selective pigments and oil paint wash applications...the result is below. Iv'e also added more pigment in the form of splashes above the sprocket.



Tracks were dusted with a (2) part pigment application then fixed into place with a wash of AV flat clear and water...about 50/50. Metalizing of the units was made possible with a makeup applicator stained with pencil lead. Since the applicator only hits the high spots this effect is achieved.





And close up...



The tracks being attached to the model is a real pain to work around and next time I will finish them seperately. You have to be real careful not to muck up the other work you've done while finishing the tracks.

Thanks
Ryan

Whoah man this is turning out good

Very interesting, I have never seen anyone use paper towels to diffuse lights I'm assuming that you don't leave the lights on long enough to ignite the paper towels?

The weathering is looking really good, the texture is especially nice.

That IS a cool update. The weathering looks very convincing!

Cheers!
Stefan

Very nice progress, Ryan. The weathering is coming along nicely.

Looking forward to see more

Ryan - I made this tank a while back and this blog is making me want to take another shot. That's the mark of a great build log IMHO. The dust you sprayed onto the fenders is really effective ... I'm usually too scared of mucking up the paint to spray on dust that way. I'm not overly jumpy, but I fear the one twitch on the airbrush trigger that will ruin things.