Hanomag Base Color and Decals

I've reached the slowest point of the project, painting and weathering. So much waiting. Not so much time. I don't think this is going to get done in the next 6 days. 

During the painting process I was able to "watch" Welcome To the Jungle (the Van Damme movie, and not related to Guns & Roses) and Gettysburg on Netflix, so about three hours. I saw things, followed a story, didn't really hear any words because of the air compressor. Something tells me that Welcome To the Jungle isn't going to see any Oscar nominations.

So exciting, pre-shaded wheels on sticks.

Nearing the end of the pre-shading extravaganza, I started to get the hang of it! Pre-shading was done with flat black. I was having some trouble getting a nice clean, fine line out of the airbrush. When I was shooting a fine line it was coming out like very small round dots. Maybe it was a paint consistency issue?

I seriously had doubts as to whether or not pre-shading was a futile exercise, but I thought I would give it a try anyway.

It's like a wheel graveyard!

The base coat is Panzer Schwarzgrau (black-grey). I think my skepticism was mostly accurate. It was difficult keeping the pre-shading visible, but it's a little more noticeable in person. My original plan was to chip the base coat to reveal the oxide primer. I didn't because I wanted to accelerate some progress on this build at the moment. I'll give it a shot soon though.

Now it looks pretty close to the plastic it was molded in!

After three coats of gloss, the decals were applied.

Based on some minimal research, Hanomags did not appear to be heavily marked.

The stuff I used here was Model Master Acryl Flat Black and Panzer Schwarzgrau. The gloss coat was Alclad II Gloss Klear Kote (ALC 310) Lacquer and the decals were set with Micro Set and Micro Sol.

I used this website for some historic photos of the Hanomag, World War Photos (Hanomag) 

Now that the decals are done, I will be putting on a few more coats of gloss for some basic oil streaking before moving on. There is plenty of work left on the little parts, rubber for the wheels, the tools, the guns and finally the tracks. I still need to figure out what to do with the tracks.

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.