Here are the final pics of my In-progress Leo 2A6. The pics are a comparison of before and after I muddied up the tank using MIG mud set. I debated for about a week wether I would make it so muddy. I am not 100% happy with the final result, but live and learn. Next is to do a base and call it good, unless anyone sees anything I have forgotten. All feed back is appreciated, especially any hints on doing mud better. Sorry for the large number of photos.

Thanks,

Sean

Hey Sean

I love your leopard, looks really great!! The tankcrew member is also nice. The camo looks realistic. I know the german Dot camo is a real lady to paint.

But if I can be honest the mud looks like a disaster It does not look got. I hate to say it. Are you going to change it or give it a colour?? I believe it's to thick right now.

Cheers Roel

The mud does look a little like oatmeal but I'm sure it's easy fixed.

But since you've got it muddy and you put the snow grousers on then what it really needs is the winter camo. Take a look at the 2A4s in Concord's Leopard 2/2A5 book.

Paul

I wish I could argue about the mud being a bit of a disaster, but I have to agree. I will attempt a few things with the coloring to not make it look so monotonous. Unfortunately the lumpiness comes from the the intial texture resin I used. the texture material was just too big for this scale. After the intial I used the resin that comes with the MIG fresh mud set. This just made it worse and made the mud thicker. I had wanted a heav mud on the lower chasis, but this got out of control too quickly. Oh well, I guess we learn by making mistakes. IT is too bad since I am really happy with the camo. I should have just used some powder for a dusting, but wanted to try something new. Live and learn.

Paul, I don't see how I can reduce the thickness of the mud since the base material is resin. If you have any ideas, I am willing to listen.

Also, I considered doing a winter scheme, but I couldn't find any pics of the the A6 in it. Thus I stayed with the standard 3 tone. My goal is to have this as a tank in late fall after the first snow/ice storm.

Sean

were do i find MIG products?

perhaps the mud wold look better with a few washes of burnt umber? seems like barf right now.. but the way its applied is very nice so i think something can be done to save it... give it a darker look like that of real mud.

Other than that its a beauty.

Frank

Armor Junior, you can buy them online at stores such as Sprue Brothers.




I was thinking of doing the wash. And my wife has been giving me a hard time about the color of my mud. I was attempting to go for 3 levels of mud in the drying process from dry to semi wet. However, things didn't go as planed. I am ok with the application on the front and back but agree with others that it is too lumpy and thick for the sides.

by the way the current mud thickness happened in the following way. first layer is Liquitex Resin Sand, then some color. When this dried it was too splotchy for me, thick in some areas and too thin in others. this is what is givning the bumpy or oatmeal effect. Next I added the MIG resin (without any filler such as plaster as recommended to give texture). this was done to try and thicken the mud up.

I am currently redoing the side skirts so that the mud is thinner and not as heavy handed, and yes I will DEFINATELY redo the color.


Sean

Regardless of the mud, the camo job looks great and so does the figure.

Paul

thanks Paul!

by the way, I have removed the side skirts and cut off the mud. Even though it is resin, it was still moderately soft and came off pretty easily. I had anticipated it being rock solid. I will have rebase paint the camo on the lower skirts and reapply mud using the technique you suggested and with new colors for the mud. I am keeping my fingers crossed. I realize that the repainting will match exactly but in the areas were this will occurs will be covered by mud and haevy dust/dirt, so it shouldn't be noticeable. I am going to put the leather/canvas mud flap over the front lower hull I have seen in the Armored and heliborne warfare vol. 8. this will reduce the amount of repainting I have to do. The rear will be a bit more work. I know that hiding the mistake is like cheating, but I didn't earn my degree by complete honesty.

Thanks again to everyone for your responses, they have been very helpful.

Sean

post a pic after your done

I think you did great on this build Sean.

Personal preference for me but i liked the photos of it when it was clean.

Any plans to add more equipment on it? ie: duffel bags etc

I have repainted the side skirts after removing the excess mud and put a dusting of buff down. I still need to put on the mud flap over the front and I am waiting for my Liquitex blended medium for my mud base. hopefully I will finish this up this weekend or next. It will be cleaner than before with just a bit(hopefully) of mud on the sides. I agree in that I liked it cleaner too.

I am not planning on putting on any stowage. I personally don't like to put too much stowage on tanks just because after all the washes, drybrushing and paint depth I hate to cover it up (unless of course I need to hide mistakes :-) ) the exception of course is if the subject just requires it such as a sherman in WWII.

Sean

Hello Sean!

Nice Leopard. Looks very nice.

I served on the Strv 122 as a gunner and have alot of pictures of my tank and the rest of the company. Since I have been into modelling since I was 5 I took alot of pictures a modeller would appreciate of my tank. I can tell you that the way the mud has built up on the chassis of your leopard isnt realistic. Atleast not in I way I have ever seen in my days on tanks.

The side armor does a pretty good job protecting the side of the hull from such buildup, Instead we get to enjoy all that mud in the suspension and lower hull. Lots of fun cleaning with pressure hoses...

So unless your tank recently got pulled out of a ditch, that just to much. Now I know you have since redone it, so I might just be talking smack!

I can send you a few pictures of some very muddy tanks, 122s that have been in the field for 2-3 weeks on large exercises, Also a pic or two when we got our tank stuck in a fire pond, that was pretty muddy...

but be warned, my and my fellow tankers ugly dirty mugs might be in them!

Regards
Charles

I come from the school of "Clean". I like your model best before you muddied it up. However, great job regardless.

Now, get that tank to the washrack and clean it up before you park it back in the motorpool. :-)

Sorry Sgt, this one won't be clean. I am actually in the process of photographing it right now (new camera, playing around with settings for close ups). I will be submitting it soon to Armorama for the features and hopefully it will be good enough to display. I feel it has vastly improved from the photos in this particular thread.


Sean