Hanomag Pre-Painting Activities

The Hanomag is moving along! I've begun the always fun painting process. I think this is my favorite and most dreaded point of any project and where the model starts to get interesting. Painting is where the model comes to life, but also comes with so many things that can go wrong.

Hopefully this time, I won't experience any issues with my airbrush. As you may or may not recall, the inner seals on my Badger Anthem 155 went bad at the very beginning of the Spitfire project. It created pulsation with intermediate starts and stops that made painting are real challenge. It ended up OK, but significantly decreased any enjoyment that could have been had by being frustrated by the tool that should have been making my life easier. I'll be sending it in shortly for their lifetime warranty factory repair.

I'm using a Fengda airbrush this time that came free with my air compressor. It has a smaller needle and is gravity fed, I'm starting to get the hang of it and now that I have a new job, I will be in the market for a similar airbrush. Enough with this non-sense, on with the activities!

I just spent some time getting all the parts laid out/affixed and whatnot to get them ready. Here are the tools, machine guns and machine gun shield.

"Wheels, wheels, wheels!" says Mötley Crüe. Isn't that how it goes?

I cut this frame out of some foam core I had. I saw this done once so I thought I would give it a shot.

As I am not that great with an airbrush, I thought it would be best to use some white tack to seal around the edges and the crack of the door. I will be posting an experiment with the white tack shortly.

Just cut some paper towel to fit.

After a few hours split over a couple of days, here are the primed wheels. Yes, I know, "A couple of days?", you say? Yes, a couple of days.

Red tools for now.

After everything was put away, including my fluorescent light, I remembered that I forgot to take a picture of the tracks.

The primed Hanomag! I used AK Interactive's Red Primer. Most armor modelers use a black primer, but since this was traditionally what the Germans used to prime their armoured vehicles, I thought, "why not"?

"I'll see you, I'll see you on the other side."

Booty shot.

My finger is ready for painting now.

Look, a suds hat!

Here's a tip for you. Always tighten the primer lid whenever you're done adding primer to the airbrush. I had it loosely in place when I shook it up before adding more to the airbrush. It wasn't too bad, it just got on my un-gloved clean hand and as I discovered later, the wall and my shirt. I won't charge you for that one.

I'm still a bit unclear as to what I'm going to do for the next step, but I'll have to make a decision here shortly if I want this done or close to done before I start my new job on February 9th. See you soon!

Hanomag Assembly Completed

Finally, after far too many months, assemblage of the Hanomag is complete. I blame looking for a job for getting in the way. I learned a very important thing about working on armoured vehicles, there is a multitude of small parts that require trimming and sanding. I'm thinking WWII aircraft is more my thing at this point. However, I will finish this model! Let's get on with it.

Suspension assembled and attached.

After adding the top half of the hull, there was a bit of a gap at the back so I decided to try the Mr. Hobby White Putty that I had in my stash. I'm really not impressed with the stuff. Even after curing over night, it breaks when sanding and comes out of the gap. Squadron green putty for me thanks.

When getting the front cover flush with the top of the vehicle, there was a considerable gap on both sides.

Time for some tape and putty action with some Squadron green!

Sanding and clean up.

At this point, I glued the back doors shut. I was tired of having them continually flop open and they didn't quite close right either.

I nearly lost this piece to the carpet monster at least twice while trying to cleanup and attach this part. Thankfully, I found it both times.

Since this hitch didn't really have a realistic bolt, I wasn't satisfied just leaving it. I stretched some sprue and was going to trim the middle piece out and put it in the hitch.

So that last plan was a pain in the butt. As I was fitting the replacement bolt, it popped out of the tweezers like little parts do and was never seen again. I removed the remaining bolt and tapped a hole straight through. This will be a boltless hitch from now on!

The middle of the process attaching the front parts.

The completed front end.

Well, that's where it is at the moment. I'll be cleaning up the model and preparing it for priming.

At this point I suppose I'll give my layman's opinion on the quality of this kit. This is an older Tamiya kit from 1973 and it definitely was not as pleasant of an experience like the Spitfire. The raised rivets made it extremely challenging to fill and sand out any gaps that occur, maybe that should be expected with amoured kits? I really have no idea as this is the only one I've done. The instructions are overly simplistic at times. On at least two or three occasions, it left me wondering how exactly some parts were supposed to fit together and it was up to my best guess. Some parts just didn't fit that great, not the worst I've ever seen, but the Spitfire was far better. You'll have to deal with quite a few ejector pin marks, some flash and plenty of seam lines on small parts.

After this build completes, I already have my eye on the next aircraft...when this whole job search thing pans out.

Hanomag's Interior Painting

As I write this, my 5 and 7 years olds are running around the house because the Germans are attacking. Right now, they are "going to bed" because they have to be up at 6AM to be ready for the Italian attack at 7AM. Don't know where they got that, it's not like I talk about WWII a lot. The oldest one is "first top officer", and the other is "second top officer". Kids. On to the Hanomag. 

After cleaning out the model with some plastic prep, the first step was to put down the AK Interactive red primer. The primer went down nice and thin and didn't require any thinning for the airbrush. When I use it again, I will definitely need to be more careful with seams and sanded areas as it will definitely show up. I don't think I will ever go back to Tamiya's rattle can primer. This is my first time using a gravity feed airbrush, and I think I'm never going back to siphon feed. I now know that the pulsing problems I had while working on the Spitfire, were purely airbrush related.

Bah! Only after the airbrush is all cleaned up and I have the harsh revealing light of an LED that I saw all the spots I missed. Meh, I decided to move on regardless, especially since the most egregious spots are deep down near the front. I really noticed that the needle on the cheap Chinese airbrush is much narrower than my Badger. It was a bit more difficult to get broader even strokes, but it will be great once I need finer lines.

Top is primed.

This is where things didn't go as planned. After the primer cured, I sprayed some Future to protect the primer coat for the chipping process. once it dried a couple of hours, I sprayed the Mig Heavy Chipping Effects fluid and immediately sprayed the Model Master Panzer Schwarzgrau. I tried to activate the fluid with water but it was not working. Ugh....a little more water and a little more pressure.....a lot more pressure and.........I'm tearing it down to the bare plastic. 

At least I didn't do that too much. I added a bit of flat black to the inside of those "tears". I knew it could't be "perfect", I just had to move on. It was almost liberating.

The rear doors.

I added some black squiggles with flat black to the seats before painting them with leather color. Next was a clear gloss coat with Alclad lacquer.

This is the third attempt at weathering the interior. Maybe the weathering is a bit heavy, and I lightened it a little bit from this picture but I'll continue to learn that nuance as I progress in model building.

I used raw umber oil paint, Mig's Oil and Grease and winter streaking grime, wiped down with a wide oil brush with some Turpenoid.

I dry brushed steel on the floor and some other areas for a more worn effect. As you can see, I broke off the steering wheel and a little skinny lever. A project isn't complete unless you break something off.

That's all for now. Next will be the flat coat for the interior and continue building the exterior.