I have finished applying the decals as you can see in the following photographs.
I left the decals to dry for a full 24 hours & then applied a further coat of Johnsons "Future".
I allowed this to dry overnight & then gave the whole model two coats of Vallejo Acrylic matte varnish.
Once this was dry I followed up with Vallejo gloss varnish on the headlights, tail lights, indicators, etc; rear view mirrors & ammo belts.
Vallejo satin varnish was applied to the radio, tops of gear sticks, SLR butt & ammo boxes.
I will put the whole thing aside for a few days for the varnish to cure ready for the weathering process.


All decals are from the Archer generic numbers & letters sets.




The red cross symbol was taken from another Archer set.


This decal is taken from the Archer generic placards set & were also used in the cab & on the machine guns too.


As you can see here, I have applied gloss varnish to the various lights.


Satin varnish was applied to the radio set.


Again, gloss was added to all the rear lights & reflectors.




Satin was applied to the metal parts of these tools on this side of the vehicle.




A generic placard has been added to the gun cradle, gloss was used on the ammo belt & satin was used on the pistol grips.






Wheels.













Any comments, questions or constructive criticism would be appreciated.

Joe.

Wow! Really well done. I like how 'flat' you got the paint on the soft stowage, it really makes it look like a textile. Brass buckles is a nice detail too.

minor point - it looks like your paint might be drying before it hits the model, a fairly common issue with Tamiya paints. It leaves a kind of pebbled surface. I found using laquer or tamiya's own thinner helped mitigate that.

Hi Graeme,
Yes, you're right! The paint has left a slight pebbly surface.
I'm kind of hoping that I'll be able to hide it with the weathering process. What do you reckon?

Joe.

I had the same problem and always ended up stripping the paint from the model. I didn't think the surface could be "cleared" during the weathering and decided to repaint the model. I would love to hear other people thoughts about this.

Mario

"I had the same problem and always ended up stripping the paint from the model. I didn't think the surface could be "cleared" during the weathering and decided to repaint the model".

Oh, please don't say that....

Some of my friends say the surface could be sanded with 2000 grade sandpaper, but with such a complex model I don't think that is an option. I have also heard a tip of going over the painted surface with a wide brush dampened in white spirit (of course, if the base color is acrylic), but never tried it.

Mario

I've had a real close look again at the model. Not all surfaces are pebbly. It has only affected some areas.
I used Tamiya lacquer thinner when I was shooting pink so not sure why it has affected some areas & not others.
When I get back to the model later this week I will see how it looks after I've given it an overall oil wash. If it doesn't work then I may have to strip it...& then there will be tears!
However, there is quite a lot of stowage items to place on it!

Hi fellas,
Okay, so I've applied an oil wash using W&N Van Dyke Brown:





































And here is some of the stowage that I can be getting on with while I wait for the oil wash to dry:





Joe.

Okay, next instalment:
I used the following W&N oil colours for the filters:


Pink, white, Naples yellow & sand.

Followed by a pin wash using this product, concentrating more on the areas that are in the shade:



So, results so far:





















Back soon...

This is looking great.

My question is, why does the whole body of the vehicle seem to look like it has a non slip texture?

The Bromochlorodiflouromethane ('BCF') fire extinguishers were a Gloss deep Green color and the heads were made of Brass, later changed to Black.

Keith.

Its because the Tamyia Paint partly dried in the few tenths of a second that it took to leave the tip of the airbrush and make contact with the model.

It some times happens when the room is over heated, happened to me on a few occasions.

Oh boy, does it really show that much?
Do you really think I need to strip the whole model?
It's taken ages to get this far.
How do I go about stripping the paint off? I have no idea how to do that.

Hi Joe great work bringing a classic up-to-date. As for stripping paint. I've heard oven cleaner or brake fluid do the job well taking it back to the bare plastic.

Hi Joe,

The level of detail you added is terrific.

I don't know what to advise re the paint job. Oven cleaner works just seal the kit into a plastic bag and leave it for a short while. Then wash it off thoroughly. You can use a soft tooth brush or tooth picks to get out the stubborn stuff.

Only problem is the amount of small detail you have as it will probably loosen or separate some if not most of the parts which would mean a rebuild, plus the possible loss/breakage of some of the small parts when washing things up.

I'd have preferred the green version but I know where your coming from, so good luck with what every route you choose.

Al

One of my friends offered this to me when I wanted to strip color from my models:



It works great. Brush it on a part of the model, wait for a couple of seconds and them remove it with a dampened brush. Work on a part of the model at a time. It is a tedious process, especially for such complex models, but the stuff is far "softer" than oven cleaner and by using the brush you will probably be much gentler to all the tiny details you added.

Mario

Right do not strip the paint, you will probably damage the model and it looks great anyway. you will never get it all off and will probably end up binning the kit.

It is only noticable because you have posting very detailed images. Probably not that noticable in real life. You have almost completed the kit, complete it learn and start the next one.

After much deliberation I have decided to carry on & see what happens...

The next step was to mix up a pink colour that was slightly brighter than the base colour using red, white & sand oil colours.
I dry brushed this over the model paying particular attention to the surfaces that would be in direct sunlight most of the time.

























More later...

I'm in the process of painting some of the stowage but can anybody tell me what these are & what colour to paint them, please?





The figure has been added for scale.
Thanks for your help.

The next step was to add the headlight lenses from AK. These ones are 5mm with a fraction sanded off around the edges.



I also used a heavy wash of Vallejo Model Colour German camouflage black brown on the radiator grill.
Next the chipping & scuffing:



I used a mix of Vallejo chocolate brown & black.
The results:





Keith, notice that I changed the fire extinguisher heads from silver to brass!





















More later...

I've laid on various pigments using Vallejo matte varnish & AK pigments under the wheel arches & glued the wheels in place...





















Now its beginning to take shape...

Now I'm starting to add the kit...

It would seem to me that if you are going to weather this with some kind of "sand" effect that it would fix the issue with the paint drying as it was sprayed. What I got was the feeling of a vehicle that has just been through a sandstorm, and there's still some sand on it. I've been to some pretty dusty/dry/baked areas, and it looks a lot like some older vehicles I've seen. I didn't immediately place the look as "screwed up AB paint," I placed it as "advanced desert weathering" and thought it added to the depth of the piece.

Don't strip it, finish the build! You're making me go look up why these things existed in this color, which I'm sure will be a tale.

It was used on the series IIa Land Rovers and used as basis for conversion to desert warfare from 1968 onwards.

The colour was mixed by hand and was thought to be the best for desert camouflage at the time. They were nicknamed "Pink Panthers" or "Pinky" for short.

The colour is no longer used (officially).

The Long Range Desert Group and later the SAS also painted their Willis Jeeps Pink (and later Land Rovers).

Contrary to what you might think is common sense - camouflage is only about what tricks the human brain to not registering what the eye can see. Pink is extremely hard to see in the desert due to how our brain distinguishes patterns of light.

It works on the same premise of the US Army's digital camouflage.
Nobody would think square shapes would work but it has a blurring effect, the color was just wrong and hence the change to a year round pattern and climate changing color scheme.

Light Purple was also tested in the late 60's by the SAS.

Nice work on the model but with so much wonderful detail don't forget to add operating instructions to the Fire extinguishers and some color to your 'Bino' lenses...

Keith.

Hi,

Where did you get the 84mm launcher and ammo containers from?

Regards
Peter