Hey guys, showing my WIP for my Academy M1126 Stryker.

Main aim here is to get more practise on drybrushing & washing. So I would be building this out of the box and won't be too particular over the accuracy of the kit.

This is the kit I'm using.


Assembled and painted in Tamiya NATO Green(XF-67). The overall fit seems to be quite good and plenty of detail to practise on.




Tyres painted in Tamiya Flat Black(XF-1) and Tamiya NATO Green. I'm planning to drybrush the tyres to bring out the details.


Painted the mirrors, headlights with Tamiya Flat Aluminium and rear lights with Tamiya Red. I also drybrushed the gun with Tamiya Metallic Grey to break the monotonity of the Flat Black base colour.


Headlights


Mirror


The gun




Hopefully, can give it a gloss coat sometime soon and start on the washing.

Comments & feedback welcomed!

Caleb,

Looking good so far.

There a some mold lines on the .50 cal CROWS mount, but like you stated, this is an OOB build to improve your painting skills,

Thanks Jeff.

Yup, in future when accuracy is of concern I would have to remember to sand off those lines.

Nice little build there, Caleb. I've made the Trumpeter offering of this vehicle and I must say that the detailing on the Academy in several areas seems superior. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
tread_geek

Thanks Jan.

I was also looking at the Trumpeter offering too at the shop, was comparing between the two and decided for the Academy one. The details on the Academy version seemed better from the photos provided on both boxes.

Maybe some day I'll get the Trumpeter version and compare the two.

Finally found time to work on this again.

The gloss coat has been applied and next step would be a wash. Planning to use a raw umber oil colour wash.


Wheels have been dry brushed lightly with zinc white oil colour. Going to do a wash for the rims in raw umber too.

Haven't touched this in awhile, been distracted by another WIP. Today, I've attached the wheels.

Looks good. I don't know if you plan to do any weathering, but you might want to consider adding some wear to the tires and removing the mold lines.

Thanks. I'm probably going to leave the mould lines alone for this one.

Plan is to try out some dry brushing & washing on this model. I would try to weather the tires slightly to remove the new & shiny look.

Good luck with the weathering. For a 1/72 it looks like an impressive kit.

I'm finding that the best way to figure out weathering is practice.

I crush pastels (don't be afraid to mix ;em up), applied by using a camera cleaning air-blower and fixed with drops of acetone (cheap nail varnish remover) is a bit messy but works! (Well works on 1/35- never tried it on 1/72!)

Good luck with the weathering!

Eoin

Thanks.

Agreed, I think only through practise can we improve on our weathering skills. For me, I've got some mig pigments that I'm going to use.

Going to work on this again soon, stay tuned for more updates!

After much delay and distraction by other projects, I'm finally done with this one. Weathered with raw umber wash and Mig pigment(Gulf War Sand). Though I think I may have overdone the dust effect with the pigments.. :lol:

Here are some shots of the finished product.

Juan is right.You have over done the pigment or whatever you used for the dust. It has compromised the detailing that you do not see it. Things like panel lines and small accentuating details are all lost through over-weathering. I love weathering but it has to be done right otherwise the detailing is lost.

I understand that 1/72 scale is not an easy scale to work with, especially if you are going to paint it. You have to start sparely. Painting has to be done lightly, especially on a scale this small.

Yup, I was too heavy handed with the pigment powders. Over-weathered the vehicle, making it seem unnatural. I'll have to keep in mind to be less heavy handed next round.

Look like its time to buy more kits and practise..

To go along with the weathering comments, I've never used Mig Pigments, so I don't know exactly how it all works, but I've had pretty good success (or at least in my opinion) with doing washes with Vallejo. When it dries it makes it look all dusty, especially in 1/72. Example here.

HTH & looking forward to your next build (esp if its braille scale )

Take care,
Austin

Thanks for the suggestion, your stryker diorama looks pretty good. Are you referring to using Vallejo pigments and apply them as a wash? Or Vallejo produces a wash for the dust effect?