This is the follow up to my "Finished - but unpainted M3 Grant" Topic.

Please refer to that topic for detailed building information.

I used Gunze Sangyo exclusively for the paint. The weathering was accomplished using Tamiya's new line of moist pastels. I also used oil wash & dry pastels to complement the finish.

The finish you see now is only a very light mist coat. The sand paint was sprayed over a motteled base layer consisting of bright colors (i.e. red, blue, yellow). A finish with color variety was the result of using this technique.

The scuffs & scratches are actually real. The super-thin final coat allowed me to easily scratch paint off to reveal the bottom paint layers.

The painting process was:
1. Olive Drab - primer coat
2. Dark Yellow - for shadows
3. Entire model washed in primary colors
4. Mist coat of sand applied over primary colors
5. Silly Putty mask / Black for camo
6. Another light sand spray to blend layers.
7. Weathering Process

Hope you enjoy. Expect to see my complete FT-17 in 3-4 months.

Calahan

Nice job! Don't know too much about the tank, but that's a neat finish from the typical Olive Drab/Green.

Thanks for the pictures!

Cheers!

Tim

Great job all over.

Tools look killer, painting is great ,wheels look great,chipping good also.
Weathering dead on at least to me.

The only things that say something to me are the Window in front is clean and the Headlights I think would look even better if you use MV lens.

Well a great job.
can't wait to see the Renault

great job!
i really like the unevenness of the dust layer very realistic and not over scale too!

I agree with everyone else. It looks superb. Well done. The layer of dust in particular looks great. I have never seen this particular camo scheme before. Looks great.

Wow! Nice grant! Paintjob and weathering are awesome!

Nice Job. What camera and lens are you using.

Thanks for all of your comments and support!

I'll take note of the MV lenses mentioned on one of the first posts. The day I delt with the lenses was a real struggle! Turns out I had to make the best of what I already painted. Yeah, white headlights are not all that stunning.

As for the type of camera and lenses I used:

Pentax K100D DSLR 6.3 megapixel
50 mm pentax lense used for this shoot

* I actually took this at my workbench. I have great lighting there. 3 overhead lights! I just added some Astrobright paper underneath.

The 50 mm lense won't allow me to get too close due to its limitations. So I shot in RAW (digital equivalent to film negative) and cropped my images (close) in photoshop at a 5x7 ratio. This method makes it appear I have one sweet camera! In reality the model took up about 1/4 of the frame. The 6.3 megapixels did the real job. The pictures are 800 pixels wide.

Hope this helps photograph your models.

Calahan

Really excellent Paul, as others have said its nice to see something a bit different.
I really like the dust work you've given it and the scuffing works perfectly.
The camo is a new one on me but I'm no British armour expert.

Hi Paul, do you use the camera in manual mode?

Nice looking Grant! Great weathering.

Thanks for the reply!

Hi Paul,

This looks excellent and a very unusual camo scheme. I think you've done an terrific job on this one.



Cheers

Al

Yes, I did shoot in manual during this session. However, I did have "autofocus" switched on. Manual focusing is usually sufficient in many situations. Autofocusing allows you to capture every detail on that model in a controlled setting.

The camo scheme is actually a real one. It was used by the British in Africa during WWII.

I'm happy to see others like this model. It sure is fun building & improving a 30 year old kit. Models like these have taught me things that new Tamiya & Dragon kits cannot. Give one a try.

Calahan

Excellent weathering and paintwork! Its just a shame you didn't swap out the wheels for the 5 spoke variety and then theres the turret issue.

What unit is this Grant based on?

Chris

The tank is based on a number of crude photographs & line drawings. I could not find worth while details about individual companies or tanks. So I took advantage of my artistic license - doing what ever looks good. Both with the finish & the building.

I choose not to add the correct aftermarket wheels due to the amount of money I already blew on the model.