Leman Russ - Tips to improve?

[adam dup]

Hey guys longtime lurker, seldom poster.

Just finished (just about anyway) a Leman Russ Punisher for a friend in a snow theme. Thought I'd throw it up to see how it goes and it is sitting on a six, which I'm happy with as that was the rating I gave it when I put it up

What I'm looking for is hints how to improve, as I want to do a Vanquisher in a desert theme for myself soon as a display piece. Really looking like it has been campaigning for ages, rust and oil, battle damage

This model has been painted mainly with an airbrush. The tracks and mud were done with pigments, the side mud with a very thinned paint sprayed on.

Now I realise that a) there are no decals or insignia etc. This is because I am awful at freehand and I didn't want to use any of the provided decals so I have to find my decal making stuff and that is an effort!

b) it is a small picture. This is because my main computer isn't working (due to a nasty case of processor-melted-onto-the-heatsink-itis) and my macbook doesn't have photoshop so I had to use the photobucket editor!

So here are some better pics:

















cheers!

oh! link: 267171

 

[cassar]

nice clean lines there if you want to try it you could give it a few light washes in all those straight lines really make em pop and give it a more weatherd outdoors look very light browns and reds waterd down to nothing almost should give it the rusty look

 

[supervike]

I agree with Ballscratcher up there....Some thin washes, especially around the rivets would help it pop.


Like the camo scheme though, you've really nailed that look.

Those aren't mold lines I see on the exhaust pipes?

 

[adam dup]

Thanks guys, I have a Vallejo colour that would be perfect actually so I will thin the bejeezus out of it!

Ha ha they do look like mold lines don't they? The exhausts are actually two parts each, needing to be glued together and they didn't fit as well as one might hope!

I was so frustrated with them that I decided to just leave them and fix them later and promptly forgot to do that!

 

[Gearhead]

If you want to really dirty it up, try an oil wash. Windsor & Newton make a water-mixable oil paint that I've been experimenting with, and lemme tell you, that tank'll be filthy afterwards!

 

[airhead]

I'm mixed. You've got wheel bearings that are bleeding red grease. Not uncommon.
But not a bit of dirt/grease or wear on the rest of the tank.
No path where any of the crew enter or exit (muddy boots leave a trail.)
No paint chips on handholds, etc.
No heat scorching on the gun barrels. (And electric gatling guns get hot...)

If it just came from the paint shop, it shouldn't be bleeding grease.

Otherwise, I like it. The cammo pattern is very interesting. Would love to see the rest of the army in that pattern.
I do like the mud/grime on the underbody. Wrong cammo for that planet..

***
Weathering armor is something that some of the military guys take to the extreme. There are books on the subject. If you can find some pics of real armor out in the field, you'll see they don't stay pristine very long. It is an art to make minis look like they are in the field. Too much is ugly and not enough is odd as well.

 

[adam dup]

Cheers guys I have some oil paints but they are not water thinnable and I haven't gotten around to getting any white spirit or anything!

Yeah the grease stands out a lot more than anything else! There is some salt weathering on the tank but just very slight as last time I did it I overdid it!
Yeah I'm very happy with how the mud turned out. I figure in a winter setting at a forward staging area or whatever there would be lots of vehicles moving around churning the snow into the ground and creating mud. Plus I really wanted to try the technique out

I have gone back to the model and washed around the rivets. Deciding now to whether to drybrush metal over it or run a graphite pencil over the tops. Because of the small amount of salt weathering I'll add a couple of extra chips/scrapes.

Most of the sharp edges already have a dirty pigment smeared lightly on them as well as graphite over that very lightly to simulate metal showing through. Just looked at the pictures and realised they were taken before that!

Now the gatling gun. I started to smear some soot pigment onto it for scorch marks but didn't like the look so drybrushed over it. Whats a good way to do the scorch marks?

FInally how do I see just the registered votes on a mini?

Cheers

 

[BPI]

Hi Adam, to see the registered only score you need to pay up & become a premium member of CMON (it's really very cheap though).

6.2/5.7 at the mo

Cheers, B.