Bill, all KVs were fitted with a radio and hence an antenna. Most of the surviving photos show vehicles that were shot to hell and since the antenna was on the glacis (SMART design decision) it was often shot away.

Drilling the hole is not an easy proposition on the small rounded head of the antenna base. I usually use the point of a new #11 blade to make a small starter hole, then follow up with a really thin drill bit like a #78 or #80.

Cheers,

Neil

Bill: I'm actually itching to try the stuff, I just need to figure out the final length needed for the Jagdtiger.

Neil: Just out of curiosity, was the antenna permanently fixed on the KV series, or was it removable?

I'm wondering if I need to be installing antennas on my KV's when I start building them. If they were removed while the vehicle was in combat, or if the vehicle had seen heavy action, I'm not going to worry about it.

Seems like combat would likely be a pretty good time to have communications between vehicles. The radio wasn't picking up their favorite songs.

Jesse: Of course, what am I thinking? Guess it wouldn't matter whether or not it was removable then, as the Russians were probably cranking the tanks out of the factories as fast as possible and rushing them straight to their Western Front for combat.

It's been a while since my last real update, so here's what I've been up to:

- Attached the foremost bracket on the right fender and filled in the notch on the left front fender next to the idler, because I had forgotten to do so during construction. The former simply involved gluing on the kit part. The latter involved cutting a piece of evergreen down to size and gluing it into place. Not a complicated fix but filing something that small to shape posed its own challenge.

- Painted and attached the tow cable, head light, tail light, exhaust pipes, and MG barrels. The head light went in a bit wonky (grrrrr), but I'm moving on. Per Neil's input, I painted the top of the tail light gloss black (closest thing I had to blue) and the bottom gloss red. The exhaust pipes took a few quick passes on consecutive evenings … first red-brown, then gray, then rust until I was happy with the look. One item I did paint was the periscope lenses on the turret. You really can't tell unless you deliberately look for it. I noted this for the next go round … paint the lenses during construction and save yourself time and effort later.

- Drilled out the antenna mount on the front of the hull and mounted the aerial (done after I took the photos below). Per Neil's calculations, the smaller size antenna would be 34mm in 1/35 scale. I'm not sure if that length includes the mount itself because when I attached a 34mm length of sprue it was too tall for the turret to rotate. Perhaps I didn't angle it far enough forward? In any event, I cut the antenna just enough to give the gun barrel clearance. It might not be precisely to scale now, but the turret rotates and the crew tells me that's important. It also seems in line with the height of the antenna in the photo I posted earlier in this thread.

- Rubbed the drive sprockets, road wheels, and idlers with graphite and attached them to the hull. The return rollers are glued, but everything else is just pressure fitted. The road wheels are snug enough that I don't think I'll have to glue them. The drive sprockets and idlers are left to rotate to facilitate mounting the Friuls later. I also attached the track cleaners, which need to go on after the drive sprockets. In his SBS, Mike painted the contact points on the wheels with Gunze Mr. Color Steel a bit later in the process. I did it now to avoid painting later (and because I didn't want to wait on a bottle of paint).

- Mike pointed out that new color information has become available since he made his KV-1 and that he believes the paint on his JSU-122 as seen here is more accurate: http://www.network54.com/Forum/110741/thread/1260937718/WIP+-+1-35+Tamiya+JSU. I'm no expert on Russian paint colors, so perhaps Neil can comment, but based purely on my mark one eyeball, I would go with something closer to the JSU-122 in the future as the color on the KV-1 seems bright.

- Mike also saved me from making a critical error. I had planned to use spray Future, then apply water slide decals, and then spray another coat of Future. Mike pointed out that doing this would completely eliminate the intended effect of spraying the green base coat with gloss varnish. The Future would cover the sheen provided by the gloss varnish and, as a result, I would start my weathering from a different surface. So, I decided to skip the decals and go with generic dry transfers instead. I'm not thrilled with how they turned out, as there appears to be a film around some of the numbers. It's not readily visible to the naked eye, though, so perhaps it will fade with weathering.

- Finally, I gave the tracks a wash of MIG Productions dark and brown washes in a 50:50 ratio.

Next step is a detail wash, which I understand Mike uses in lieu of either pre- or post-shading. That will take me a couple nights, so I'll post more photos when I can. As always, all comments are welcome!

Hi Bill...a soft pencil eraser should take care of the edges around the dry transfers.

Couple of notes on colors:

The color of 4BO green varied considerably due to differences in the original mix, exposure to sunlight and the elements, and chemical aging of the paint due to instability in the pigments. Don't get crazy about the exact shade.

The wash will darken your base coat a little anyway and, if you use raw umber oil paint like I do, will also make it a little more brown.

Be careful of going for 'exact' paint matches because you need to allow for scale effect. A 1/35 scale model is a lot smaller than the real thing and reflects a lot less light. It therefore appears darker even if it's exactly the same color as the real vehicle. I've seen models that, while they might be correctly colored, look so dark that they suck light and become shadowy blobs. A little lighter is a good thing.

Don't sweat the sheen in the base coat. Anything look will flat at a distance, so again, allow for scale effect. Besides, nix the gloss varnish and you won't have to unclog your airbrush so often

Cheers,

Neil

Neil - Thanks for the tip on the dry transfers. I used a bit of the green base color and a small brush to touch up the areas where the film was visible. I'll snap a few photos this evening to see if the "face lift" was successful. It looked perfect from 3-4 inches away under a bright light ...

And I hear you on the question of color. I respect folks who strive for maximum accuracy with their builds, but I think color has too many variables to be pinned down perfectly. I'll use for a different shade next time, but my goal here was to follow Mike's SBS as closely as possible. That's why it was important for me not to use Future and water slide decals ... I won't be able to tell how close I've come if I don't follow the same steps.

By the way, I just realized the IPMS AMPSEast 2010 show is in a few weeks. I can only make it on Saturday, so I'll be sorry to miss your seminar on the JSU-122 / JSU-152. Looking forward to picking up another KV-1 model, though. Now that I've cut my teeth on this one, I'll use all the notes I've taken down to produce a (hopefully) error-free vehicle for the upcoming KV campaign.

Hi Bill,

Look me up at AMPSEast. I'll be the tall bald geeky looking guy with glasses...that should narrow it down

Sorry you'll miss the ISU seminar but several of the presenters couldn't make Friday so I took one of the Friday spots to free up a Saturday spot. I'll make sure the materials are available on 4bogreen after the show though.

Cheers,

Neil

Quick update:

Here's a photo of the antenna. Thanks for not letting me off the hook, Neil ... I'm glad I took the time to add it.



And two photos of the cleaned up turret numbers:





Which means I deserve this:

You did all that AFTER 3/4 of a Chardy??? Damn, you're good

Hey Neil, most of us in this hobby look the same anyway.....!

Hahahah

Bill,

I see a mold line on the right exhaust outlet, was this intentional?

Paul

Hunts down Daffy and shoots him in the knee, on Bill's behalf

Here's an update with some progress photos.

I mixed the MIG Productions dark and brown washes in a 50:50 ratio, thinned it further with turpenoid, and applied it to the raised details all around the model. Two questions came to mind as I was doing this:

1) Does anyone else find the MIG washes thick straight out of the bottle?
2) Do folks normally apply a detail wash to the lower hull and running gear or not bother on the assumption that subsequent weathering (e.g. pigments) will cover the wash?

The engine deck will get a blackish wash later on to bring out the detail and separate it a bit from this wash, but here's where the model stands now:







This photo, taken in different light, shows best how the wash has added contrast to the details (less obvious in the some of the previous photos):



And a couple other random thoughts:

1) The Vallejo paint seems to chip very easily compared to Tamiya paint. For example, the end of the tow cable has chipped down to the primer from simple friction with shackle. Has anyone else found this to be the case?
2) The tie-downs are too light ... I was going for a leather effect. What do folks use for leather and buckles?
3) I continue to give the tracks a black wash to darken them overall and increase the contrast in the recesses. Here's how they look now:





Next steps are to repaint the tie-downs and attempt some chipping with Mike's model as an example. I botch this every time I attempt it, so I look forward to embarrassing myself in front of you all. It'll be just like that time in high school when I botched the Miles Davis solo in front of the entire school ...

Comments welcome!

Your build is looking great Bill!

I can't find my instructions for using the Black4Track, waiting for a reply from Tankrats rergarding its use. Last thing any of us need is to ruin a $40usd set of tracks Hopefully I hear back from him by Tuesday, otherwise I'll have to wait until I get back in a couple weeks.

Thanks, Jeremy. I look forward to seeing how you do with the Black4Track. I still use Blacken-It because it works well and (until recently) hasn't been hard to find. True, it's expensive on a per use basis, but if I'm going spend $35 and a fair bit of time assembling Friuls I'm not going to blink at $8-$9 to weather them. Just my two cents. I haven't tried Black4Track because I've read mixed reviews about the degree of control one has over the process. I'd love to be wrong about that, so please post photos when you have them.

I find the Mig washes too thick to use straight from the bottle as well

I agree with you Bill. I wanted to try out the Black4Track because it is supposed to be neutral with it's interactions with the metal, meaning that it does not attack or eat it so to speak.

I haven't heard back from Mr. Tankrat yet, so it looks like I'll have to wait until I get back in two weeks to try it out.

Also interesting thought about the filters, I'm glad you guys said something about it. I haven't decided whether or not I want to try them out.

Here's a quick update and some progress photos:

- I noted a few posts back that my next step would be chipping. I realized afterwards that I had overlooked filters. In his SBS, Mike air brushed on Humbrol 83 and 62. I don't spray enamels, so I substituted tan and brown filters from SIN Industries, which I brushed on. I really can't see the difference, but I saw the color go on the model, so I know it's there somewhere.

- I repainted the tie-downs with Tamiya NATO Brown.

- With this done, I moved on to chipping. I really haven't done this before, so it was one of the techniques I had in mind when I decided to follow Mike's build log. Unfortunately, I misread his notes and used a 5/0 round brush to paint on the chips with Vallejo Camo Light Green. Mike then clarified that he first uses a sponge to apply chips and then uses a brush to "connect the dots" where it makes sense. Oops. I hadn't done all the chipping yet, so I finished it off with a sponge. I think the difference is clear if you compare the chips on the front (done with a brush) to those on the rear (done with a sponge). Once the paint was dry, I went back over the chips with Vallejo Rust and, in some cases, Tamiya Dark Grey, to show where the damage got beneath the paint and primer. There are probably too many chips overall and too many chips that show rust and/or bare metal, but I'll chalk that up to inexperience.

A couple things came to mind as I was doing this:

1) I attempted the chipping because it's part of Mike's SBS and I wanted to push myself, but I'm ambivalent about chipping in general. The vehicle I'm modeling likely had a life span measured in weeks or months, so how many chips would it have had? On the other hand, I think chipping adds a lot from a visual / artistic point of view. So it seems to me that chipping is like color ... just as modelers adjust their paint for the scale effect, they accept that chips add visual appeal that might not be completely realistic. Neil, have you seen a lot of heavily chipped vehicles in the course of your research?
2) Do folks use magnification when applying chips? I painted as finely as I could with a 5/0 brush, but the chips still look monstrous in close-up photos. True, a sponge will help address this, but when I look at models by Mike, Mig, Adam Wilder, et al., they look perfect at a molecular level.

Anyway, here are some photos of the model. If badly chipped models make you queasy, then I suggest you avert your eyes:











The next step is dry brushing enamels to achieve fading / discoloration, a favorite technique of the Nordic school. I completely misunderstood Mike's build notes and thought he had used enamels in lieu of oils in certain spots, not over the entire model. I've never used enamels before, but I signed myself up for this, so I'll give it a go. However, since Mike's traveling for the next two weeks, I'm going to put this on hold until he's back.

(Cue the elevator music.)

Bumping this one up Bill, I think you missed it?

Paul

I didn't miss it, Paul. I ignored it because the question pretty much answers itself.

Bill: The chipping actually looks good here on my end. The one thing I noticed when looking at your new photos is that the headlight lens is crooked. Not sure if you want to try rotating it or not at this point in time.

Hi Jeremy - Not having done chipping like this before (just some tentative dabbing on a fender here and there), I'm not sure what to say about them. They don't look bad to me when viewed from a normal distance and I have a feeling the weathering steps to come will blend them in better. Adding rust and gray to the center of some chips to give the appearance of primer and/or bare metal is a really cool effect. I'm definitely going to keep experimenting with that going forward.

As for the head light, you're right, it's in there wonky. And as Paul pointed out, there's a mold line on one (or both) of the exhausts. Ironically, two-thirds of the way through this model it's the construction rather than the weathering that has me frustrated. Lots of little mistakes like the head light, the mold lines (not all of which are readily visible from a normal distance), the antenna, the fender gaps, the putty lines, etc. At this point, I just want to get it off my workbench and into a dark cabinet.

hi Bill, this project has come a long way and though there may be some minor points here and there the overall impact is very good!! i read how Spencer Pollard takes pics of his primed models and reviews them before painting so that he can scrutinize the little details.

for me personally, it's hard to get everything right the first time and if i made the model again a second time it would be so much better but there are so many other models i want to build... oh well. cheers, mh.

Hellhound - Totally agree about getting things right the second time around. Usually I just move on to the next model when I'm done, but this time I'm documenting my mistakes, things to do differently, etc. to save alongside Neil's "recipe". That way when I come back to this kit for the KV campaign I'll be in good shape. Speaking of which, if anyone would be interested in my notes, I'll be happy to share them when I'm done.