This is my first time building a 1/35 model, and first time airbrushing as well. I learned a lot during the process. Here are a few things I learned, and a few of the many questions that arose during the build.
The build:
The model is a Tamiya Panther, from the 1960's?!?!? Anyway, it was pretty simple to put together, mostly.
The wheels...the instructions say to put the wheels on first, and not glue them. I am guessing it is so you can push the tank around like a toy when it is done? I did it the way they said, and I wish I didn't! It was a pain to get the black rubber painted when the wheels kept spinning. I noticed a lot of guys assemble and paint the wheels and then put them on LAST, now I know why. The only thing with doing it that way is that I can not get the camo on the tank to line up with the camo on the wheels how I would like. I am sure there is a way!
The Tracks....the old "rubber band" type. They were easy enough to paint, but getting them on was frustrating. First I tried to wrap them around the wheels then melt them together, didn't work to well. The second track I did I melted together first then stretched them over the wheels. It worked better, but was afraid I was about to break something off!
The tow cable...was a piece of plastic. I was supposed to heat it up in water and bend it to fit. The first one just snapped in half, guess I didn't heat it up enough. The second one sort of worked, but later fell off the tank and broke. All that is left is a paint line on the tank where it was
I noticed a lot of guys use real steel cable, although very thin, on their tanks. That looks like it works. Not sure if this is guitar string or something?Painting/weathering:
basecoat....sprayed it black, then Tamiya dark yellow out of their spray can. I noticed the dark yellow out of the spray can is a little different then the dark yellow out of their paint pot. I hit it with another spray out of the airgun with more dark yellow. The black helped to shade everything, and the dark yellow had no problem spraying over it. I know in the past hand painting yellow over black on my miniatures was nearly impossible, but spraying it with an airbrush works great!
Camo.....I used Tamiya olive green and red-brown. I wish I would have kept the lines a little close together, and made more of them. I think there may be to much of the dark yellow showing through. Next time I will also reduce the air pressure for the camo. I had it at 20, same as the base coat, and I thing the lines are to strong. I would like them to be a little softer on the edges. I think reducing the air pressure will help this.
Wash....I used black and redish-brown oil paints, mixed with mineral spirits, as was the technique I found online. I brushed it on over the whole model. I need to mix it better, I was getting little black dots all over the model, black dots of oil paint. I also found out about 3 hous later that it would be good to wipe away the excess wash with a paper towel or something. Even after 3 hours I was able to do this, as the oil paint was still wet! I am not sure if covering the whole model is the way to go however. Maybe I should just put the wash in the areas it is needed with a smaller brush?
weathering..... the rust went on okay on the exhaust and the spare tracks, not so good on the chipped areas. I tried to put dry dust on the wheels,a s I did not want heavy mud, but it looks like most of the dust came off when I went to spray it over with the matte varnish. How do I keep the dry dust weathering pigment on the wheels?
Also, it still looks shiny to me, even after hitting it with a coat of dullcote, any ideas how to get rid of the shiny?
Anyway, it was a lot of fun to build and paint, and look forward to doing another one. Already have a Stug inbound from amazon!
