I recently finished my quarter scale project, the Tamyia deuce and a half. It was a premiere to the so called quarter scale for me and I must say it was quite fun building something smaller than 1/35th scale.
I buildt the truck out of the box, but mades everal changes to the kit myself. For example the two buckles on the outside of the drivers cabin. I assume these hooks were used to be able to fasten canvas door if needed. Anyhow, I bent old PE parts and glued them to the cabin. Makes it look a little better than just the plain plastic sprue that was atatched. I also thought the front bumper needed some attention, a little dint would look cool. But how to make a dint that looks realistic into a plastic part? After some thinking I had an idea. I cut out a chunk of the plastic bumber, and glued another left over PE part (which amazingly fit without having to do any rework) over the bumber and then formed a dint in teh metal over the recess in the plastic. I filled gaps with putty and sanded it smooth.
Next thing were the seats. They looked a little plain to me so i used some Milliput and "upholstered" them a little. Not sure if there was ever a 6x6 with leather seats but I thought it would be a change in color. So therefore I am not sure if this is historically correct or not, however it looks good and that's what counts most to me.
I also thought that the figure that's included in the kit looked a little boring, thus I decided to make changes to the left arm. I thought a friendly "hello" arm waving pose would be nice. So I used some Milliput and formed a new arm, I then attached it to the figure and a new left hand from a different kit to the arm. The results are OK, but I am not totally satisfied with it, unfortunately I didn't have the right sculpting tools to add proper folds. Anyhow it was a start and I had fun making the new arm.
I also cut the axle in order to put the wheels in an angle to add more "movement" to the model.
I painted the model with Tamyia olive drab, mixed with some Tamyia buff to brighten the relatively dark OD shade up a little. Then the truck got some filters done with different oil paints. I used different filters on the wood slats of the truck bed to have a color difference between the metal and wood parts. Next thing was to do a washing but only for the details, like around the head lights etc. After that stuff dried I applied a coat of flat varnish to start the weathering with different pigment powders. I "dusted" the drivers compartment first and added dreid up mud splashes to the fenders and compartment. I dipped the brush in water and then in teh pigments, when that stuff is still wet I applied it to the designated spots and let it dry out. After that I applied more pigment powder (dry) of a different shade on the surrounding areas.
The fuel drums were painted with a mixture of steel and brown paint first. Then I put Maskol on random spots, after that I sprayed them Olive drab, removed the maskol. The result were very nice chippings in the lacquer. I used a brighter shade of OD to intensify the outlines of teh scratches. After applying flat lacquer I used pigments for teh final touch. Tamyia smoke was used for the fuel leakage. I intentionally used untinted OD for teh drums to again achieve a different shade of OD, so there are at least some color deviations between the individual parts.
The only bad part about this build were the decals. There is so much glue on these things that it is very very hard to put them in position. Ones laid down you either tear it when you try to move it in place or it can't be moved at all anymore In my case I had esxcess glue coming out underneath the allied star on the hood.
Other than that I must say it was fun experiencing the quarter scale.
Said enough, here are some pictures! I hope you'll like them.
Cheers,
Heli
