njtp80,

Good to see you here. I helped jusdge this model at Heritagecon last weekend (where it won Best Armour). Having looked at it long and hard I would like to pass on a couple of the comments that we, the judges, were making at the time.

- The scope of the work was very impressive as was the execution of the build. Extremely nice.
- the model was let down by the finish. It was too high-gloss. For a 1/72 model it really should be dead flat everywhere. No shine at all on the painted surfaces, especially if it's been weathered. If the paint is normally even high gloss, the most the model should be is semigloss, and then only if clean.
- We also thought that some of the weathering was a tad heavy handed, again, especially for 1/72 scale. The streaking and colour variation needed to be a bit more subtle and a lot less shiney.

These are meant to be constructive criticisms. If the finish was better, this model would definitely be a contender for best armour at even the AMPS nationals. It's a great build.

Good work!

Paul

njtp80,

- the model was let down by the finish. It was too high-gloss. For a 1/72 model it really should be dead flat everywhere. No shine at all on the painted surfaces, especially if it's been weathered. If the paint is normally even high gloss, the most the model should be is semigloss, and then only if clean.
- We also thought that some of the weathering was a tad heavy handed, again, especially for 1/72 scale. The streaking and colour variation needed to be a bit more subtle and a lot less shiney.
Paul

Please forgive me my ignorance, Paul, I'm really sorry but I can't get why this thing cannot be gloss and heavy weathered in the same time. Having some experience with the method of painting of the military vehicles in that country and the weather conditions there as well, I dare to say you're not quite right here.
Cheers!
Ilian

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Please forgive me my ignorance, Paul, I'm really sorry but I can't get why this thing cannot be gloss and heavy weathered in the same time. Having some experience with the method of painting of the military vehicles in that country and the weather conditions there as well, I dare to say you're not quite right here.
Cheers!
Ilian

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It's not so much that the real thing can't be gloss (although models in the field are almost never gloss), it's that in 1/72 scale the "scale effect" will force the appearance of it being flat or, at the very most, semi-gloss. It's not that the gloss it wrong, it's that it looks wrong in this scale. But that's for a clean vehicle. If there is dirt (which is what weathering implies) then the dirt isself acts to flatten the apperance of the model,even if the undelying paint is pure high gloss. The fine particles in the dirt take the shineyness off the gloss surface making the vehicle look very, very flat.

Even higly glossy civilian vehicles look quite flat close up when coated in a fine layer of dust. Step back 100 m (or 1.4m in 1/72 scale and that car will look even flatter. Step back a normal model viewing distance ot 2 m (or over 144m in real terms) and that car should look dead, dead flat.

In addition, if you had seen the model in real life, you'd probably agree that the finish had an "oily" or "greasy" appearance to it which was not reprentative of the real thing.

Of course, if it's a rainy day, things will look much more shiny, but the model and the base did not suggest that it was raining, so that didn't come into it.

All the best,

Paul