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T34/85
Hi guys, Here is the first model I painted after nearly 20 years without touching a brush! Please provide me any feedback / Advise! I will be glad to hear about you. Model is a Zvezda T34/85 tank in 1/72 scale. I selected this for the very reasonable price and the overall quality of the model… and I am fond of soviet tanks :-) It is a very little sized scale: I took one picture with a 28mm miniature alongside to represent this. The model has no stand yet as I will paint another model soon (considering I will manage to avoid my wife over-mighty-look-of-disapproval); stand will represent a silver birch wooden scenery. Model A to Z painting took approximatively 20 hours, knowing I lost approximatively 4 to 5 hours in trail fixing (later detailed). I am sure It can be done in 10 hours with some practice. A lot of time can be saved by painting several model in a row (I will work with 3 models later on). Step by step: • Model cleaning + assembling. I glued all part (including tracks: which appeared to be an awful idea later on…). 2 hours. • Grey primer. ½ hour: o VAL70601 - Vallejo Polyurethane o Cheap airbrush :-) o I learnt a lot about spider web… and pressure + distance + dilution management (thanks to Salaise Miniatures website’s owner advises) • Black and white zenithal pre-shading. ½ hour: o Black: Tamiya XF1 o White: Tamiya XF2 o Grey modulation smoothing: Vallejo grey primer • At this stage I lost nearly one hour in pre-weathering. I will not reproduce this approach anymore as It has no impact on the actual final weathering phase. 1 hour: o Black: Tamiya XF1 o White: Tamiya XF2 o Grey modulation smoothing: Vallejo grey primer o Brush: Games Workshop 0 • Russian 4BO modulation. ½ hour: o MIG-932: Russian Base with airbrush o MIG-932: Russian Base mixed with MIG-933: Russian Light Base with airbrush o MIG-933: Russian Light Base with airbrush • Then I noticed that mounted tracks forbid many areas to be properly painted. I had to cut them (I cut between each sprocket and shock absorber). ½ hour. • Russian 4BO modulation. 1 hour: o Modulation correction on dismantled tracks and sprockets + corresponding original place o I finished with a very thin layout of MIG-934: Russian High Lights with airbrush. o MIG-934: Russian High Lights with brush on light catching areas • Protective varnish. ½ hour. o Marabu acrylic Matt Varnish with airbrush. o At this stage I had to completely clean the airbrush. It was the first time I used it and I understood why it is advice to clean it regularly! o Marabu varnish is recommended by Jose Luis Lopez Ruis in his book, but I disliked it a lot: it is very thick and complicated to use with airbrush (even with a proper thinner: Marabu’s one (baaaaad), Tamiya one (better but…), or clear water). Furthermore It is not crystal transparent and create a kind of milky layout that tone down colors) • Transfers. ½ hour. • Inking and clear lines. 1 hour: o Winsor & Newton oil paints black + burnt umber with brush o I applied in all area to contrast then, after 30 minutes drying I cleaned + smoothen transition with art white spirit applied with a brush • Protective varnish. ½ hour. • Oil filter. 2 hours. o Dotting of Winsor & Newton oil (black, burnt umber, sienna yellow, yellow ochre, cobalt blue, cadmium green, titanium white) with brush o After 30 minutes drying I spread colors in very thin layout with art white spirit applied with cotton buds o As I am dumb I pressed cotton buds too strongly on the model and scratched it… So latter battle damages I did are actual battle damages :-D o Drips and sagging • Protective varnish. ½ hour. • Battle damage – scratch / mapping. 1 hour: o I used technique of Emilien Pepin (video on YouTube) o First layout of MIG-934: Russian High Lights with brush o Inside these layout I painted a mix of Vallejo Khaki Grey (70880) + Flat Earth (70983) (from Vallejo Soviet Paint Set) o I was satisfied of all these scratches, except a big one on the turret which looked like a tribal tattoo :-/ I had to do some serious brush job so that it looked more natural • Track and sprockets. 1 hour: o 4BO modulation on each sprocket as above mentioned o AK interactive TRACK AND WHEELS ACRYLIC SET brush use for the rubber of each sprocket o Trails: GW chaos black first layout o Trails: GW bolt gun metal dry brush o Trails: GW nuts brown (old reference…) juice o I was unpleased with the global look and feel of trails… I will have to work on this later on • 1st Weathering. 1 hour: o Mud-in-a-Pot for Reality in Scale applied on all relevant area in order to have some texture o Tamiya Tan xf57 with airbrush on large area + some part of trails o Tamiya brown xf72 with airbrush inside these areas • Trail fixing. 4 hours… o As I had to cut all trails and sprockets… I had to put then back in proper position. o To make it short after numerous failures I had to drill them and glued little metal stick in each of them o As I had to manipulate the model a lot I damaged some painted areas… I had to calmly fix this with a brush • 2nd Weathering. 2 hour: o Vallejo Environment Acrylic 73825 crushed grass. Very good product but hyper shiny after drying. Colors are tone down too. o Mig Pigments (Russian earth, Europe earth, dust, …) on miscellaneous places o Mig Pigments (rust and heavy rust) on exhaust pipes + chains + machine gun barrel o Mig Pigments (black + rust and heavy rust) on exhaust areas. I tried to keep them in particles so that it shows that the beast lived ;-) • Protective varnish. ½ hour. • OSL Attempt. ½ hour. o Serious masking o Lent was paint using GW sunburst yellow + orange + bleached bone as a gem o OSL effect was done with airbrush. First Tamiya XF2 white and then GW sunburst yellow. The white dotted a little… but I kept this as I did not know of to fix it :-) o I think it ill be sexy in the scenery with lightened trees • Final varnish. ½ hour. Thanks for reading guys. I wish you all the best. Regards. Fabien
Posted: 30 Dec 2016
