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!