Hanomag's Completed Interior...Minus the Painting

This blog post has been sitting in a relatively drafty sort of state for over two months now, so I think it's time to finish it up. As I mentioned in the previous post, the innards of the Hanomag are pretty sparse, and what do you know? I was right! I knew you would believe me. It's on the Internet, that's how you know it's true. Let's move on and take a look at the build.

The seats got a little squished in there. Not exactly sure what happened. Maybe I pushed the floor down too far in an effort to secure the front axle? This kit is designed to have moveable wheels and I'm building it that way. There are slots on the bottom of the floor that line up with the bottom of the chassis to hold the axles in place without glue. In the future, I think I'll probably just glue them. I won't be running this on the floor making "pew-pew" sounds when it's done. Model airplanes are a little easier to test fly when the wings are on.

I had to install the wheel shafts before installing the floor. After completing the shafts and installing the floor, I skipped ahead and installed the fenders. As you can see they go into guide holes on the vehicle. I think the plan was that the benches that go in would hide the holes. After a dry fit of the benches, that was not the case. At least not hidden enough for me!

I figured that having those holes even partially visible would have annoyed the heck out of me, so I taped them up and got that lovely green putty in there. Some of the putty squished to the outside I had to clean up. The holes on the other side will be hidden by storage containers.

In order to prep the interior for painting I had to jump ahead and install the armor on the view holes...ports...windows, or whatever you would like to call them.

The cleaned up benches and the rear doors.

The sanded holes. A bit dirty in there from all the dust, but I'll get it cleaned out before priming.

The completed interior.

That's it. I think I'm finally posting now. Next step will be to prime and paint the interior, finish the exterior and prime and paint. Don't worry I'll post some pictures of that process...when I get there. This post lacked a bit of humor this time around, so I'll conclude with Calvin and Hobbes.

U-Boot Typ VII D

Back in 2012 I started building Revell's 1/350 German Minelayer Type VII D Unterseeboot or U-Boat. It wasn't until after this model that I discovered Tamiya's Extra Thin Cement and primer. A few parts kept coming off because I had just used CA glue in most areas. The periscope had come off a number of times and after I used Extra Thin, I've had no further problems. After putting down the initial black coat, I started to mask the bottom half when I had some paint pull off near the front and rear of the ship. I was so frustrated I put it down for a while. In March 2014, I got the bug again and set off to work. I cleaned up the problem areas by using a piece of plastic to scrape the paint to the surrounding panel lines. I masked off the areas and re-painted them, removed the masking and blended it into the surrounding area.

And here is the result. The front elevators came off, but it was easily remedied. The black I used was Model Master Acryl Flat Black.

I masked off the bottom and sprayed Tamiya's Dark Sea Gray, then masked again for spraying Tamiya's Light Sea Gray. Masking is always the most tedious and time consuming part of the process. It seems like 95% prep, and 5% actual painting.

The Final Result. 

After the paint cured, I sprayed it with a coat or two of Testor's gloss lacquer. I added the decals, which there was a grand total of three on the conning tower and three on the base, using Micro Sol and Micro Set. I gave it a coat of gloss again to add the wash.

I really had no idea what I was doing with the wash since it was my first time. I used an acrylic artist paint, Winsor & Newton Burnt Umber, which is a bit difficult to take off once it dries in 20-30 minutes. I used a Mig rust pigment afterwards for some rust effect and at the back I airbrushed some exhaust stains.

After all that was done, I sprayed it with Testors dull coat lacquer. As you can see on this side it fogged up on me. I think it actually adds to the model though, a happy accident. I think I put it on too thickly at first. EZ-Line was finally added for the rigging.

It was a fun little kit and I really enjoyed its great detail for such a small size. I would definitely consider picking up some more U-boats in this scale as they are easy to build, cheap (around $20) and they don't take up much space after they are built.

The Spitfire's Unveiling

This will be the last post for the Spitfire build and the fastest model that I have completed. From start to finish this took me just about three months. A new record for me! I won't bore you with too much talk, I'll wait until the end. On to the pictures!

Before dry brushing the upper surfaces.

I dry brushed Winsor & Netwon oil mixing white over the top surfaces. It muted down the paint job and blended the decals for a sun beaten look. I'm still not completely sold on it and may still remove it with some Turpenoid.

Remember the Bare Metal Foil (BMF) I used to mask the front two canopies? The downside is that it is not really easy to remove. It breaks and tears when you are taking it off. You will either have to resort to using your fingernail or a toothpick. Once the foil is off, it leaves a lot of the adhesive residue behind. It took a soft cloth and quite a bit of Goo Gone to clean it up. I broke the pitot tube off for a fourth time while unmasking the canopy.

The Final Pictures.

I used EZ-Line for the antenna wire and rigging coming off of the horizontal stabilizers.

I used BMF for the rear-view mirror. It gives it a nice reflective quality like... a mirror.

I used a silver pencil to dot the walkway and the areas that got a bit of wear.

The following pictures include a 1/48 Revell JU-87D Stuka I did a few years back. It was only my second model back in this hobby. I can't say I would recommend the kit, but for this purpose, it shows the relative size comparison since they are both the same scale. One was an easier target than the other in real life.


Two Warriors From the Battle of Britain.

As I'm in the project management field, I find it valuable to capture lessons learned. Here is what I learned from this project.

• Siphon airbrushes suck. Literally and figuratively.
• Attach as many parts together with Tamiya Extra Thin before painting as possible.
• Attach as many parts together with Tamiya Extra Thin before painting as possible. (Not a typo)
• Extra Thin is the best method of adhesion. Use sparingly and with as many parts as you can. 
• Don't worry about the cockpit too much unless you leave the canopy open.
• Keep a light touch when dry brushing. Otherwise, you may find some wet paint.
• Tamiya decals are thick, like everyone says.
• Oil brushes and acrylic brushes are different. Use the right one and don't mix them.
• Blue tack leaves an oily residue, use white tack instead.
• Keep the same downward angle all over when spraying soft camo lines with the sticky tack method.
• Don't spray lacquer thickly or over 50% humidity, otherwise it will either get foggy or settle unevenly and distort your washes.
• Foil is a pain to get off after painting and lacquering.
• Rattle cans suck, adapt everything for the airbrush, including primer and lacquer.
• Never spray air directly onto the model from the airbrush after running paint dilutant thru it before you know it's completely blown out.
• Primer actually has benefits, like preventing paint from peeling up from using Tamiya masking tape.

That's all there is to this project and the Spitfire wraps up my third aircraft. I hope you've enjoyed the build process, found it entertaining and perhaps learned something along the way. I have.

If you have any questions or comments and would like to contact me, my email address is amodelforants@gmail.com .

While You're Waiting....

The final Spitfire post should be coming soon. In the meantime, I'll just leave this here.....

 (Image courtesy of the Intertubes.)

Tamiya German Hanomag Sdkfz 251/1 Armored Vehicle

Amazon has struck again! I needed to fill an order to meet the $35 free shipping limit and just like grocery store end caps at check out, they snagged me with some targeted marketing. I've been eying this kit for a while now and I finally took the bait. This will be my first ever armor/vehicle kit. What better way than to combine the two? I've always enjoyed the look of half tracks, they're just beastly vehicles. I've been tossing around the paint scheme on this one and I think I've figured out what I'm going to do. Since this kit was only $15, I'm going to mess around with weathering again and as vehicles got pretty dirty, it should be fun. I'm also going to try mud and dirt this time.

The box! How exciting! This kit has been produced since 1973. As you can see, there was no roof in the back and the troops had max headroom.

The lower and upper hull. The vehicle itself is about 6 1/2 inches long.

La di da. Parts.

Wheels?

More parts.

Little guys! I may mess around with painting them, haven't quite decided that yet. I really like what I've seen in the world of dioramas and you usually don't have a diorama without characters.

There was a pretty good sized square ejector pin mark in the bottom, I masked it off and smudged some putty in it.

Voila, gone!

I thought the shaft for the steering wheel was pretty stinking short. It was barely in the hole assigned to it and it was laying against the component on the left hand side. I just took a piece of plastic that came with the kit sanded it down pretty roughly and glued it in place. I'm not too concerned with how it will look because you probably won't be able to see it in the end.

I think the big hole in the center is an ejection pin mark. The other side of the seat there are nine holes that are uniform and significantly smaller. The holes on this side will be filled and sanded.

Those awful holes are all nicely filled in now.

The near-completed interior! I was going to take another picture with the seats in so it would be complete but I forgot. Oh well.

The interior detail in this kit is pretty sparse and it definitely won't win any prizes on that mark. A number of armor geeks have commented numerous times on forums that "this part is not right, that part is inaccurate" and so on. I don't generally worry about stuff like that, at least not right now. I want to get this kit together and mess around with painting and weathering. Stay tuned!

Washing the Spitfire

This phase is sort of ironic, in the actual definition sort of way and not the Alanis Morissette way (link for educational purposes only, not meant for any form of entertainment). Yes, irony is not coincidence. I used Winsor & Newton raw umber oil paint thinned with odorless Turpenoid. It gets applied liberally, like Bill Clinton, all over the recesses of the model. After some time drying, an old t-shirt or a lot of Q-Tips with more Turpenoid will take the excess right off and leave behind the wash. We don't want to avoid the Noid in this case.  

Note: Here are the layers that I used up to this point with no ill effects; Tamiya Primer, Model Master Acryl paint, Testor's gloss lacquer, decals, gloss lacquer, oil wash with Turpenoid.

As you can see the process gets nice and dirty. We're washing to get dirty. Understand the irony now?

I wasn't completely happy with the wash in a few places, so I added a little more to those areas.

The unwashed bottom. I just thought of the other meaning after typing that last sentence.

The washed bottom, so much better.....or is it? The lighting is different than the comparison picture, this picture was taken in natural light while the previous photo was taken under a white fluorescent work lamp.

Before finishing the decals and washing, the comparison shot. Terrible recessed ceiling lighting here.

Washed.

Boy, I used a lot of references up there. I think it's a record for me. The oil wash will take at least 24 hours to completely dry. You may have noticed the pitot tube was missing again. Yes, I knocked it off a third time. My container storing the landing gear took a tumble as well and the wheel covers that were attached came off. I'll make more of an effort to clean off as much paint and primer in the contact areas as possible for better adhesion.

I think there will be one more post for this project, it will contain the last remaining steps; silver chipping, dull coat, attach the last few pieces and unmask the canopy. Stay tuned!

The Spitfire's Bottom Decals

This evening I started the decal process. I've decided to break it into a few nights for a few different reasons. 

1. I would like to do some work on the model but not consume the entire evening.
2. Prevent eye strain.
3. Reduce frustration.
4. Finally and most importantly, give the decals in one area an entire night to set. That way, I won't inevitably put my finger in the wrong spot and mess up a soft decal. 

I've noticed that after a couple of gloss coats, the underside was a bit bumpy. I took my highest grade of sandpaper, gave it a couple of light passes and it was nice and smooth.

Every modeller knows, Micro Set and Micro Sol. The Set goes down first while the decal is soaking. It increases adhesion to the model. Once you fiddle around with the decal for a while on the model, gently touch it with a cotton swab to soak up some excess liquid....then fiddle a little more, touch it again...fiddle, gently roll the cotton swab to set the decal and remove air bubbles. Put some Sol on top and move on. The Sol will make the decal wrinkle, but don't worry, it'll work itself out and it will look more painted on then a decal.

The finished decals for the bottom. This version of the model apparently didn't have roundels on the bottom and I decided not to sweat it. I started with the bottom since the decals were small and if I screwed something up, well, it's on the bottom.

Now it's time to let it sit over night and set.

That's all I have tonight. No witty wordplay this evening, I'll try to save some up for next time.