Hi Fellas, back in business again! This time a easy kit for me, the Leopard 2A6 from Tamiya, wonderful kit, very easy to work with. Mine was a trade with a friend from FB, everything was ok, but the rubber tracks were over stretched, so I have to replace it, I choose the Friulmodel tracks, metal barrel and whatnot, a small PE Set too.

Construction was very straight forward, no problemas at all. Done in 3 weekends more or less. Gun barrel consist of 8 parts between barrel, rings, PE and Resin parts. Metal tracks took me 8 hours(4 each side) to complete it.

Once the kit was 90% built, I started to coat it with tamiya white primer.

The next phase was to Add shadows using black very thin with the airbrush and with the help of plastic cards and tape I "modulate" the kit. Its very dark at this stage, in the next part I will add white to add light then I will paint particular parts by hand using other tone of white to enhance the appearance of the kit .

I love the shading technique you are using... very nice.

CHris

Thanks Chris, Glad that you like it, more to come!

Well what next? I need to soften a bit that black color, so this time I use tamiya xf-2 white for that task, very diluted and applied in thin layers until the color accumulate. Later I hand painted all the rings, lines and bolts.

It's looking very nice! Can't wait to see the next update!

Here a Quick view of how the kit changed in 3 steps.

Very cool! Looking forward to seeing more of this!

Cheers,
Cristian

Pedro, great looking build so far ! I love the black & white pre-shading. It looks almost like some of the CAD drawings in the new release postings. Can't wait to see it with the NATO tri-color camo scheme. Please, keep us posted !
Thanks for sharing !
Tom

Christian & Tom:

Thank you very much for your encouragement! A few more steps in black and white ahead, chipping, scrachtes, some filters then I start with the base color, more pictures soon.

Hey, it's looks good! I'm looking forward to the next steps in painting.

I would almost suggest keeping the white with black shading. Looks like some sort of very wicked NATO winter camo.
I have this one in the stash (along with baout 500 other models....)

Thank you Roland and Dave! Well here is the next step. After roaming the internet looking for modern tank chipping and scratches pictures I done my part on this matter, here the results.

A closer look of the scratches, chipping and fine detailing of lines and shapes of the kit using more black and white diluted with water.
(Vallejo paints).

Pedro, your Leo looks killer! Will be watching to see how you finish it up.
Terry

You're shading is spectacular

Hola Pedro,
A quick question : Did you use the kit supplied mesh for the turret baskets or a PE Mesh ? I'm working on the A5 Leo and that kit supplied mesh is making me crazy. Any tips ?
Have a good weekend and thanks in advance !
Tom

Terry: Thank you very much, glad you like it!

James: Thx! still a newbie on this kind of art, but I guess I'm on the right track.


Hola Tom:

I have the same problem a while ago with a Abrams from Tamiya and It was a bad experience, so for the Leopard I went safe with a PE SET. Tamiya even have one, so I you ask me, go for it!

I finished last night the work on the wheels and the tracks, so here is the pictures of the progress.

Nice one, will following closely

That is some wicked shadow effect. Love it!!!

Eric

The next step is the base color, thinking of a Nato Green I used the XF-71 Cockpit Green. This color is more lighter, but no worries, this color will get darker in the weathering process. Next I will revise the darker areas then I start with the next color.

Last night progress, I retouched the shadows in green.