Here's the first coat of paint. It's a custom mix, and I don't know the exact mix, just went along until it felt ok. Sorry for the crappy pic, the colour seems different in reality, but this is just for show. More painting to come soon

Great looking build! This is truly inspirational for me to start mine. If I may ask aquestion; your persicopes look fabulous, what did you use for them? Keep up the good work, looking good.

Thanks, basically it's the metallic layer sandwiched between the plastic of every dvd. Just make sure it's the purplish kind of dvd, not the coloured ones

Nice trick for the periscopes

Here's the base coat that i finally got to my liking. A lot more dusting and fading will be necessary to get it looking somewhat like this:



I decided to combine the AM barrel with the kit one. The resin thermal sleeve was not consistent in details and looked a bit on the thin side. Ive cut up both and used the Tamiya sleeve with the lionmarc metal core, rubber boot and muzzle.

Fantastic work Mario , I too am building a challenger, but I'm using after market tracks which are taking me ages to do because I'm leaving the side skirts off.
The paint work so far looks great.Very well done.

Sorry , forgot to ask , but I need some reference on where the cables go on the front lights, thanks,
John.

Finally some time to do actual modeling! John, PM me your e-mail, I'll see if I can find some that I have on my disk. Anyway, the side CIP's have finally arrived, They look better than the kit part that's for sure. I'm STILL waiting for the stowage set from wem and am feeling a little bit I've done some painting, all the basics are done, and I'm having fun trying out some preliminary weathering. Enough talk here's some pics

This is the look I'm after:



And here's mine:

Just got these today!!!

Looking amazing! Don't forget to paint the forward CIP brackets the tanks base color. Other than that it looks amazing

Excellent work Mario.

The restrained wear marks in the paint are brilliant. How did you do them?

Hi guys, sorry for not bringing another update sooner, here are some more pics. I've added the decals from Echelon, they are really great and very thin so some care is needed. Surprisingly, there are few markings that actually make it on the tank but I've found which one I wanted so here are some pics!











The chipped paint was made with hairspray and sponge method. Now I need to dull cote everything and can start weathering some more

Awesome! How did you do the ashes for the burnt out seat of the car?

Thanks, Mig pigments smoke, and ashes white. Liberal quantities and some pigment fixer. The fastest and easiest way to do this

Here's some more. The tank is almost done, need a few minor things done and in the meantime I started doing a small base for it

Heh Mario,

those cookies on the table look quite tasty too!
Oh ... so does the Chally !

Cheers
Christopher

hey nice build mate, i just finnished a chally 2 and wish i had used some of your weather techniques, looks real good

Thanks guys. I guess everyone likes a good cookie got to do more but I ran out of styrene sheets... more to come for the weekend

This is slowly coming to an end. This is the general layout of things to come.









Some close ups:

nice looking build!
say, how did you make such fantastic looking sights?

Mario - I look at this build on maybe 5 or 6 occasions. What can I say - In my opinion it is the best depiction of modern armour I have seen a long time. I think you have everything perfect on this build. I very much like the weathering on the tank and compostion of the diorama. I hope you are adding crew to the diorama. I would like to know how you achieved the chipped/worn paint effects.
If you are having difficulty finding crew I have a suggestion as I am working on similar build.
regareds
Mark

I realized as I was posting some pics in the campaign section, that I never did post some pics of the crew. They are Blast figures, and the first figures I tried to paint the faces with artist oils. They really make all the difference on a diorama and I just might make more of these! Special thanks to Mario Matijasic - a local guru for figures and someone you probably know from historicus forma

Hi Mario

I have to say that is one hell of a bl**dy great looking challenger 2 op herrick
if only i could build a chally 2 like urs id be over the moon and the diorama is awesome
what figures did you use for the tank crew??

tony

Thanks, as I said, they are Blast Models UK tank crew minus the driver figure. Didn't like him

love your Chally, I have a purple type DVD, can you tell me how to get to the purple metalic layer please?