Here are a few pics of my first "serious" bit of Armour - looks like I'm on my way to becoming a plastic whore :-) :-) :-)

This is the Emhar 1/35 Whippet. I've used selected parts from the Airwaves PE set, like the pistol ports, and handles. I decided not to replace the engine air intake with those provided in the PE set - reason being they looked alot smaller than the plastic molded ones... okay, and they are a dog to put together. Also, I used neither the kit track guard brackets or the PE ones as the Whippet I'm trying to model didn't have them fitted in the 1920's.

In terms of painting and weathering I'm following a method laid out by Mark Bannerman in an old edition of Military Modelling.

So far I've primed the vehicle with Tamiya white primer (from an aerosol). Next was dirt texturing, so once dry I applied liquid glue to selected areas and sprinkled some fine model ground cover (Mark used ground Sage - I'd rather cook with that ) onto said areas. I then liberally applied Tamiya Thinner 22A to selected areas around the lower tank and gently blew MIG pigments onto the wet area.





The next step will be to apply 2-3 thin coats of flat black to the vehicle, firstly to seal the dirt texturing, and secondly to apply a preshade.

One thing I can say, is that photographing a model certainly does give you a different view of it... suddenly I see a lot more things that need to be filed down...


Well? Is there hope for me yet as an armour modeller? :-)

Don't worry figure guys... I'm not jumping ship, just trying something different for a change :-) :-)

Rudi

You should stop right now, go back to figures and forget you were ever here.
Naa, seriously, you've done a great job so far. The dirt texturing looks great.
Did you have any problems assembling the Whippet?

Could you take a picture, once you have applied the preshading?

Thanks Jesper.

The Emhar Whippet is a dog of a kit. There are mold seams all over the place, and the sprue plugs are (IMHO) in the oddest places. Fitment is not great, and planty of filing, sanding and filling is required. In several places I had to change my approach from that recommended in the assembly instruction to get things to fit in place while minimising gaps...

Unfortunately it's the only 1/35 plastic injection Whippet on the market. Accurate Armour had a resin kit on he market a few years back - but that's since been discontinued.

That said, it's an interesting looking beast and provides a great platform for trying new things (to me at least), like application of simple PE, drilling out MG barrels and intake vents, and now the weathering and painting techniques. :-)

Hi Rudi

Now it's too late to tell you to wrap the exhausts with thread to simulate the asbestos rope used on the original (same stuff as used on the buffer of the 18pdr I think).

What about tracks and figures?

Bought the ICM WW1 British a week or two ago and was not too impressed by the way the 08 Pattern webbing was modelled

Hi David,

I was wondering about the asbestos heat shield. Perhaps it's not too late.... not forgetting that there should be a steel (?) plate covering the asbestos as well... foil should work fine for that

I'm using the tracks supplied with the kit. I'll fit them closer to the end of the project.

Figgies.... this is a bit of a sore point for me... I originally ordered the Emhar 1/35 WWI British Infantry... imagine my suprise and annoyance when I opened the box to find toy soldiers... :-)
I've since ordered 2 sets of the ICM figures. They should in theory suit my purpose since I'll be doing a small conversion to South African Army troops as at 1922 (Rand Revolt). I've got some 1/35 heads with pith helmets for them.

Thanks for the comments

Rudi

Well done Rudi a great job on a kit that I would say is not normally the first choice to build due to the amount of work involved in filling and fitting before getting to the primer stage.

I look forward to seeing the beast painted.

John

Hi Rudi

I had a quick look at the ICM figures then put them back in the box in annoyance, mostly because of the issues with the webbing.

Whoever sculpted the two riflemen figures got lost in the details of the personal equipment. The bayonet is too short and doesn't have the handle for the intrenching tool strapped to it, like it should, though you do get the head in its carrier. The cartridge carriers are a bit soft in detail and don't have the straps on the LHS set of carriers that were added in late 1914 to prevent the loss of cartridges.

The riflemen also seem to be in FSMO with valises (later to become the large pack of 37 Pattern set) but apparently no haversack on the left hip. Instead there is something that looks like the case for the small box respirator, which shouldn't be worn there. This is annoying as the lack of haversack (and messtin) means that you can't model the figures in Battle Order.

The SMLE looked a little odd at first glance, but I'll wait until I've looked at the set properly before making any more comments.

I think that you will be able to avoid most of the problems, presuming that your figures will only be wearing skeleton webbing and cartridge carriers.

All the best

David

Looks to me like you ARE making a silk purse out of a sows ear. :-)
I like what I see. And this is your 1st armour kit??

Hi Rudi

Great work so far the mud looks really effective

I can sympathise with you on these Emhar kits , ive just finshed buidling there tadpole and boy oh boy after building mainly Tamiya or DML the fit of this kit is awfull , sanding filling , badly moulded parts etc , but hey it was fun to build in a strange sort of way LOL
But i am looking forward to painting and weathering it still not sure what colour though , OD or Khaki brown lol


Ian

Great Work Rudi. Project is starting to take shape. It is an intereting subject. Cant wait to see more pics

Just a little note to let you know that when you finish that kit, you will be able to build ANY armor kit you want, resin or injected. After having said that, it is an interesting vehicle in a cute sort of way. By the way, I painted mine towards the dark gray side. What color are you planning on painting yours?
capnjock

Filler, primer, sanding, pre-shading, filing..........yup, Id say youre "turning tricks". :-) Its ok to be a whore here though. After all, we're all Pimps and Ho's here! LOL

Nice work Rudi so far. this is a cool looking tank and ibet withfair amount of job will be even nicer . I understand the need for change once in a while, but there is no way of escapingthe dark side !!!!

Hi all,

Thanks for your all too kind comments!

@ John (jlmurc): Thanks. I agree, but I wanted to do something a little off the beaten track for the SiyaAfrika campaign. A Whippet was sent to SA after WWI on some sort of promotional tour and ended up being used to suppress a miners' and communist revolt in 1922. It was also the first and only time a (tracked) tank has been used in anger against South Africans.

@ David (Drader): It looks like my figures will have to only wear the skeleton webbing and cartridge carriers. Looking at pictures of the troops in the Revolt, they were carrying the haversack, I guess I'll either need to scratch them or take some artistic license and ditch them. I'm still trying to work out exactly how the commando looking fellow fits into the "story" of the kit - he doesn't quite appear to fit in with the other 3 figures. BTW, do you feel like doing a review of that ICM set?

@ David (WingTzun): Thanks :-) Yup, this is my first serious attempt at a bit of armour - as I don't think counting all those 1:76 Matchbox kits that were slapped together 20 odd years ago should really count

@ Ian (MonkeyGun): Thanks. Aaah, you feel my pain! :-) :-) But yes, you are right, it kind of fun in a warped freaky sort of way :-) I'm planning on spraying mine Dark Earth 4B (Vallejo Model Air 29). I'll have to take some liberties on the name (HMLS Union) placement though, as early photos of this beast seem to be rather limited...

@ Brian (thedutchie): Thanks. I'll be sure to take some pictures after the next step - preshading.

@ capnjock: Thanks. You're right, these early armour subjects certainly are interesting. I'm planning on spraying mine Dark Earth 4B (Vallejo Model Air 29).

@ Gary (troubble27): LOL :-) I feel like such a plastic whore at the moment. Apart from this beast I'm also busy with some historical figures, and have another AFV as well as an aircraft lined up next! :-) :-)

@ Costas (Major_Goose): Thanks bro! It's a nice change of pace from historicals! But don't worry, as you can see in the third picture above I cannot escape the dark side! Did you notice the 80mm Chas C Stadden "Duke of Wellington, 1815" in the background? BTW, that's now primed and awaiting painting! :-)



Thanks again all. I applied the first of 2/3 preshading coats of flat black yesterday. Unfortunately using the compressed air can as propellant does not seem to work all too well for me Fortunately though, a relative is coming into the city from the countryside next weekend and will kindly be lending me his compressor for the weekend. Hopefully that'll work out for me

Rudi

OOOOOH!!!-------METAL-MACHINE!!!!...........with "clanky" bits-------what next -----"bangy things".......... or even "diggy-things"
:-) :-) :-) ....the hook is in........can I stand the shock????????
Looking good Rudi ----must go and lie-down........ its the shock!!!!!!
:-) :-) :-) :-)
aye
BARV
(GOSMG)

Hi Rudi

Back to the ICM figures. I had another look at them last night and the box-art and instructions show haversacks, but the pieces are definitely gas-mask bags Maybe ICM's sculptor got confused by the smaller bag for the earlier PH gas helmet. Since the webbing on the back of the figures terminates just below the buckles for attaching the valise/haversack, you're either going to have to add the tails of the webbing or scratchbuild haversacks. I did wonder about sanding down 37 Pattern small packs to fit.

Fitting the gas-mask bag in the alert position on the chest will interfere with the cartridge carriers which doesn't seem right, I shall have to look into this some more.

As for the trench raider I was thinking of removing the balaclava and giving him a steel helmet to match the other figures.

I'll think about a review of the figures, but I'll need to borrow pictures as I am a cameraphobe

David

Hi all,

Steve - dare I say it? The bug has bitten :-) :-)

David - I must say, I'll probably end up having to convert the whole lot... and not just the heads

I've managed to borrow a compressor to get over the horrible experience of using those compressed air cans... so here are the results:

These first 4 pics are of the Whippet preshaded using thinned Tamiya Flat Black. I went for a ratio of about 40 paint : 60 thinners.







These next 2 are after the basecoat of Vallejo Model Air Dark Earth has been applied. 2 coats were applied. This was my first experience with spraying AV Model Air, and I must say.... what a pleasure! Straight from the bottle to the AB's cup and onto the model. No mucking about with thinners.... my kinda paint! :-)




Sorry about the dark pics...

National marking are next... the area was masked off last night and hopefully I'll get to spraying them tonight - SWMBO depending... :-)

Later
Rudi

Hi Rudi

I'll have a go at assembling a couple of the ICM figures this week (possibly while the football is on tonight) and I'll e-mail you my thoughts on them when I've done. I might cheat on the haversacks and rob a couple of Scale Link figures I've had hanging around for ages.

David

Greetz all,

Well, it's not quite done... but here are a few more progress pics from the last week or so...

Pic 1: Here the national markings have been applied. They were sprayed on using Vallejo Model Air White and Red-Scarlet respectively. I decided to spray these on since the decals looked a bit fragile and difficult to apply these areas



Pics 2&3: Hmmmm. dusty! The dust coats were applied using various very thin layers of Tamiya Deck Tan, NATO Brown, and Brown (XF-10).




Pics 4&5: Next step was applying filters. I applied 2 filters. The first of Humbrol Dark Earth (29) to the entire vehicle. The second of Humbrol 84 to the lower portion of the vehicle.




The plan is still to finish by Wednesday... but we'll see how that goes :-)

Rudi

----Struggling ---nothing wants to fit ------- ------
aye
BARV
(GOSMG)

The filters tie everything together very nicely, how about a lighter one over the upper surfaces to represent fading?

I've now got the Europa Militaria on British webbing, so I can't really avoid writing something about the ICM figures much longer. Much to my annoyance, the book doesn't include respirator haversacks

David

That looks very nice. I've built one of Emhar's 1/35 scale tanks (Mark IV Male) and it was an OK kit. I have all of their 1/72 scale kits and they are simple, but well detailed.

Thanks for the comments, lads.

@ Steve: Ahhhhh, you must have noticed the huge gap at the rear of the chassis... I noticed the gap too late... believe it or not :-) :-) I also have had to cut most of the teeth on the rear gears (idler gears?) away to make the tracks fit snugly.... while I know that the tracks will probably look too tight realistically, they just didn't look right sitting on top of the gears' teeth either....

@ David: I agree. An extra lighter filter would fade it nicely... but unfortunately applying it now would probably ruin the work I've done on it since taking the pics... oh, well, live and learn... I'll apply a third filter the next time I'm looking forward to that review of the ICM figgies...

@ Robin: Thanks for commenting. It means a lot! It's not a terrible kit, but it can be pretty horrible at times :-) :-) It's pretty well detailed, it's just the fitment that tends to be a problem...

Another update coming soon...

Rudi

Hello folks,

Well... she's done!

After the filters, a pin-wash of Raw Umber and Sepia was applied to panel lines, and a pin wash of Raw Umber and Burnt Sienna applied around bolts and selected rivets. Thereafter African Earth MIG pigments were applied - first wet and then dry. African Earth is a perfect match for the red clay dust we get in Gauteng.

So without further ado... the HMLS Union








Sorry about the dark pics... I'll try take some better ones over the weekend

Rudi

Hi Rudi, You have done a great job with this "whippet" A very good first go at your armor rebirth!!!! :-) :-) (stay away from the dark side) Your dust and mud work and weathering is spot on. I only see a couple minor things that I would add. First since this an Early tank still back when petroleum based fuel engines were relatively new I would like to see some black around the exit of the exhaust pipes( i could be totally wrong here, its just a thought,) and secondly a little rain streaking as this beauty has those nice flat panels just aching for it. All in all an impressive build for your foray back into Armor! Cheers Kevin