Here is where I am at. I added mud using a ceramic tile pigment from my friends tile shop. It is very easy to use and I think it looks pretty realistic. I am once again frustrated by the camo and my airbrushes spatters (I am beginning to think it is the paint). As always your comments are quite encouraged.







Cheers

Branden

My opinion:

The mud material can, and will look convincing if you consider:

1. The rubber on the road wheels looks factory fresh. Distress them with a coarse sanding stick or an abrasion tool. The chunks out of 'em look good though. Maybe a sewing needle will work. Why not?

2. I probably would'nt wash and drybrush the mud too heavily. It could look like anything except mud. Just a lite application of wash and dry with some pastel chalk applied should be fine.

Note: is the mud fresh - or dry? What context is it in - or out of?

My two cents. Your on track to complete a good model.

Calahan

Mud looks good, but those wheels need to be roughed up more. Your Camo looks fine aswel, after you have toned it done and blended with a few washes the AB splatters will mostly ( if not completely) dissapear. As for the paint splatter, your paint may be to thin, pressure to high and too close to the model. I find doing freehand soft edge camo easiest with paint (Acrylic) thinned about 40-60 or 50-50 (thinner to paint) on not too high a pressure. Do you use a single or double action brush?

Cheers
Henk

Looking good Brandon,

I like the look of your side skirts, looking very realistic.

Are you going to use the kit tracks or after market ones?

Thnaks for all of the tips and advice.

Paul- Great suggestion on roughing up the road wheels. I love having multiple sets of eyes to pick up on subtlies like that.

Henk- I use a single action with a 50-50 mix of Polly-S. The problem I am having is that the paint will not come out consistently and I will give it a little more pressure and it will come out too much. I don't have a regulator on the compressor (it's borrowed). Do you think a regulator would be the solution?

Stavka-Thanks, I am not too thrilled with the inconsistency, but you make a very good point.

Neil- I think I will stick to the kit tracks b/c I can't see spending more for am tracks than I spent on the kit. Are there good, reasonably priced AM tracks out there for this kit?

Finally, anyone know of a good paint color for dried mud?

Cheers

Branden

Heres some more updates, I have done some filters, started rusting some of the bolt heads and schurzen, and painted the muzzle covers.







As always comment away.

Cheers

Branden

Heres a little update. Filters are done and some weathering has been done.







Cheers

Branden

Hi Branden looking good ...your mud looks great ...for the paint splattering I think the problem is more the paint needs to be thinned more and not less ..it might also be the type of thinner you are using ...I still haven't found out what type of thinner to us with Polly S paints.
What I do is thin quite a bit but the close the nozzle of my AB so that very little paint comes out at any given time the paint stream is no wider than a milimeter wide and that's big... as for the pressure try just losening the hose from the compressor a bit that should lower the pressure ...hey it works for me ..lol

Rick

Branden,

Keep a soft brush wet with thinner on hand and give the nozzle of the airbrush a wipe every so often. If there is any build up on the nozzle (which it sounds like is the problem) this will clean it off and keep your spraying more consistent.

Another issue with a single action airbrush, when you first press the button the pressure is higher, and it drops as you spray. I was frustrated by this, and it will not make things like camo easy. My compressor would lose over 5lbs of pressure with the first push of the button. To reduce the pressure drop, I loosened the adaptor between the airbrush hose and the compressor, creating a steady leak. It helped but I wasn't really satisfied until I bought a double action brush (Iwata Revolution CR