Hi all,

It's been a while since I post anything here....just managed to find time to complete the Gepard from Tamiya, ...add in the olive drap base coat...

still a long way to go for this one...next will paint all the head + tail light and then add in the decal before I start to weather it....

As usual, commets are always welcome

No flaws that I can see. Ohter than the ones the kit has due to age. I wish this one would get a modern update.

Looking forward to the finished product.

Oops I just noticed something. It looks like you have a gap between the lower and upper hull pieces in the front. If I remember correctly this should be a weld seem. I would recommend at least filling it in with putty, unless you are going to use the motorized version of the kit.

Sean

Looks good but it looks like the barrels are not inline with each other.

For an added challenge you could have attempted the slight additional gap between the road wheels. I forget which roadwheels though.

Paul

I agree that you need ot fill in the slight gap at the edge of the glacis plate.

The Tamiya kit represents one of the prototype Gepards that is why the side skirts are mounted and no increased gap between the thrid and fourth road wheels. On production versions the hull was lengthened slightly resulting in the gap between the third and fourth road wheels.

The kit front fenders are also the prototype version and not the standardized Leopard 1 type.

The side skirts now appear to be only used on the Dutch Cheetahs.

I look forward to seeing it finished.

Hi Sean, Paul and Jason,

thanks for your comment.

The gap between the upper and lower hull is now looking more and more distrubing to me

But as I have already apply the base coat, I guess I will leave it as it is....maybe I will put some home-made camo net to hide this gap....Let see how it goes....

So far, I have added in the decal and paint the head + tail light and apply a layer of gloss coat over it....

Will start to paint the track and weather the vehicle this weekend....

I guess for modern vehicle, there should not be any paint chips, maybe more de-colorization of the original OD....so have to figure that out how to do the de-colorization ...any comment or suggestion is always welcome :-)

Read in a magazine that raw umber and buff filter works for green vehicle
before and after picture....

the filter does not work for me....or...is it the way the photo are taken ???

Hi,
it looks good to me maybe your green shade is a bit too light for a German Gepard. When you're finished with the weathering and the filters this should be fixed.

Did you glue to mobile radar electronics rack at the turret back ?

Olivier

Hi all,

I decided to re-do the gepard from a mono-tone OD color to the Nato color. After sanding off the decal, fill up the gap with putty on the front of the hull went to the hobby shop, got myself 3 bottle of Tamiya paint (Nato Geen/Brown/Black).

I managed to put the Nato green and Nato brown in..... I am more used to using Gunze laquer paint so using Tamiya paint is very different for me.....

First of all the tamiya paint is more dilute than gunze paint, I did not need to thin it....straight from the bottle, then when I airbrush it, the paint kinda "run" of the surface, my pressure was set to about 25 PSI for the base coat (Green) and 18 PSI for the Brown.

Then I found out that tamiya paint take longer to dry than laquer paint....finally to my surprise, tamiya paint when it dries, give a glossy finish....and finally tamiya paints gives me the sticky feeling..."yuck..."

I can't help feeling but the gepard starts to look like a toy now....I still have the Nato black to add in...My SWMBO comment was that she sees similar finish on RC tank on sale in the local supe market :-(

Luckily I still have half a rattle can of Mr Hobby flat, hopefully, after I apply that, it glossy finish would go away...

I need help here....anyone outt here use Tamiya paint and do not face the same problem ? What am I doing wrong with Tamiay paint ?

Is it the pressure setting ?
Is it because I did not thin the paint ?...But it was already very dilute ?
Is the paint suppose to leave a glossy finish ?

Thanks for help in advance :-)

Mike,
regards the glossy finish, did you stir the paint very well? Tamiya needs to be stirred well, and frequent. That may explain why your paint was already so diluted. Sounds like you have been spraying the thinner which settles on the top...
No worry, just get a bottle of Tamyia Thinner, add some to the bottle and stir. The thick sludge add the botttom is the pigment.
That would also explain why it was running of the model. Tamiya needs to be thinned from the bottle before you airbrush it. About 50/50 will do the trick. Some people will use laboratory meassuring devices to use exact amounts, I just add 'a few drops' untill I'm happy with the flow... some people tell you to thin your paint untill it looks like 'milk', I tried that, but no matter how much thinner or water I add, my paint won't turn white...
And for freehand camo you want to use a low pressure, to avoid both runs and splatter.

Cheers
Henk

yes, mixing tamiya acrylics well before pouring it out of the bottle is important. otherwise, you end up with the thinner and leave most of the pigment at the bottom. worse, if not mixed properly, the "paint' dries to a glossy finish (ok for cars but not so good for military vehicles). i had the same problem painting some figures until some nice guys here at armorama helped me out. (thanks people!)

another thing i learned from experience, if you're painting the camo free-hand (without the help of masking), it's best to try to paint in smooth continuous strokes. its ok if the paint didn't cover the area completely, just make another pass. if you stay in one area too long trying to ensure good coverage, you may end up putting too much paint on it and the paint will start to pool or run down the sides.

it might also help to "cheat" by drawing the borders of the camo design with a light pencil. that way you know exactly where to place the paint. i'm a newbie modeler and it helped with me. just make sure to cover up the pencil marks with the paint job. happy modeling!

I have been driving around in one of these and it is definitively a weld seem.


About a glossy finish: we used to clean our Gepoards with diesel ???!!! It made them very nice and shining ;-);-)

Thanks very much for the help previously.
Went and bought a bottle of Tamiya thinner ....
Stir the nato black paint for a few minutues,reduce the pressure down to 12 PSI instead of 18 PSI and got the nato back on :-)

This monster looks like it is brand new from the factory....need to touch up on the track before the weathering ...

drabslab...you drive one this monster...does the paint on this vehicle chip off ......?


Anyone has any picture of this monster out in the field in somekind of exercise in Europe....???

Well I didn't drive it most of the time, I was in the turret "pretending" that I was the "commander" of the Gepard.

Aboput chipping: These tanks have never seen combat and there were 3 people (the driver, shooter and commander) allocated to a single vehicle.

Our days existed out of making the tank dirty during field exercises one week and then cleaning it up again the next week (of course to go back in the field immediately after). As said before we even used a clotch dipped in diesel to clean our tanks because that made them nice and shining.

Consequently there was no chipping and if there would have been we would have attacked the area with a bucket of paint and an enormous brush immediately).

Something extra, the metal surface was very slippery, certainly when wet. Therefore some of these surfaces were painted with black tar in which we mixed small stones (a bit like asphalt). This gave a much more stable surface to walk on.

Unfortunately I haven't found a good picture of this yet. Our officers were not very keen on us taking pictures. But I will contact somebody who might have one.

Oh, the horizontal grills left and right on the back of the tank are the main engine exhausts. To have it realistic you have to add some smoke residu here.

And the caps of the smoke pods on the turret and the protectors around the rear view mirrors in front were made out of black flexible rubber. We never painted that because it would chip in no time.

And if you want to show a tank "in operation " then don't forget the antennes at the rear of the turret.

Oh, what I forgot to tell you, excellent built; i have never seen one painted like yours back in 1984 when I was there but it surely looks good.

http://www.panzer-modell.de/referenz/in_detail/gepard_a1/gepard.htm

I think you should take the side skirts off and dull down the paint job a little.

Paul