Grant CDL Part 5

Then I put in some white artist oils. This is done a little at a time in middle of wide panels to give an effect of varying the toning of the whites.

The oils are blended into the paintwork with a flat nylon brush. This is done in a circular motion on horizontal surfaces and vertically on vertical surfaces to further enhance water rain marks and streaking. I also added little greys, little blues and browns to achieve a variable toning that I liked. This will give the model an overall white look with various hues. Making it more interesting and real.

Then I introduced oils of Raw Umber and Burnt Umber using a sharp cocktail toothpick and streaking them downwards with a dry nylon flat brush. Do not use thinners for this, it will blend in with the whites that are not fully cured to form light brown, what we want is a fading rust streaking and not more blotches of variable tones!

Back of tank with the rust streaking done. Next step is to put in the rust chips with Vallejo German Camou Black and Orange wash of Andrea to accentuate rust build up around some details which I will cover later. Now, its off to Paris for me for work and to ADV Azimuth and Blast Models for some serious shopping with Eunice my wife, and when I am back, we will pick up where we left off for now. End of week 3.

Grant CDL part 4 - Weathering

Next up, we are dealing with weathering the model proper. Here in the picture below, the model was give a coat of Future floor wax to seal in the paintwork and further bitmapped with white and streaked with diluted Russian Green from Vallejo. Green chipping is done with firm sponge and Russian Green.

The process is to alternate between Russian Green and white bitmap till we get what we want, a high contrast. Then the whole model was given a filter of brownish black Tamiya Enamel paint diluted with 50 parts of Tamiya Enamel Thinner to prevent uneven drying by commercial turpentine. The picture below shows the whole thing being united by the filter. One layer of filter.

Then I added the sand filter and raw umber filter using oils with Tamiya enamel thinner.

The whole model after 4 nights of filters as seen below, with one of those filters being water based Vallejo Intermediate Blue with 20 parts water, 1 drop of soap water to make it good wettability on oily surface.

Then I pin washed in the details with Raw Umber and Tamiya enamel thinners.

Grant CDL Part 3

Part three of this article, which has seven parts deals with the basic paint work on the model. The whole tank was painted with a spray of Mr. Surfacer 1000 and left to cure for the night. Then I returned and given it two coats of Tamiya Olive Green diluted 50% with GAIA thinners from Japan. These I got from the Gundam shop in Sunshine Plaza from Grace, its fantastic. Coats very well and smooth. Gone are the days of powdery stuff and rough surfaces.....Tamiya paints can spray very well indeed! Not with their own acrylic thinners though, but with Gunze or GAIA of for commercial model makers, Fujikura thinners, which comes in 40 litre tins and 230 litre drums albeit, at 20% the price! For lower life forms like us, GAIA is a cheaper alternative to the others and it comes in 1 lire containers. Basically, its Fujikura.

The I filled in the white with Tamiya XF series mixed with gloss Gunze white 50:50 and diluted 3 parts paint and 7 parts GAIA thinners.

Then I drybrushed in wet blending method of Vallejo Russian Green. I drybrush it first, then wet blended it with Vallejo thinners mixed with 5 parts water to get an uneven green tint.

I emphasised the edges with dry olive green from Tamiya enamel paint series.

Then I clouded it again with the white mixture, now, its further diluted with 50% GAIA thinners to form a glaze. See the difference between the treated body from the untreated turret? Wet Vallejo Russian Green is diluted 90% with water and streaked downwards to form rain mark wearing with a flat size 5 sable brush.
Then the tank is transparent glazed with the super diluted Tamiya/Gunze white paint to seal in all the tint works and to make it fainted.

Here is another look after the glaze clouding using the airbrush to faint out the high contrast streaks.

Then I streaked the edges with undiluted Russian Green to depict serious washing out of the white wash paints used on these tanks. Circular drybrushing with Olive Green Enamels from Tamiya were given to open areas. Some parts recieved wet sponging of Vallejo Russian Green to form chips. Then I dilute Vallejo white with 80% water and 1 drop of Winsor and Newton acrylic flow enhancer and dribbled the damp brush all over the place to fade out the high contrasts and to give uneven toning to the white airbrushing. This method is described by Miguel Jimenez as "Bitmapping".

Here is the final look after bitmapping the areas with super dilute white glaze. Three coats were needed to achieve the desired effect.
All in 3 nights of 2 hour sessions. Done. Next up is the weathering....here is only the painting!

Project Grant CDL part 2

The fit problems are addressed in this post. Here we can see that the grab handle was replaced with a copper wire, the joint behind it had holes, so does the top plate with the rear armoured plate. The spring housings on every single HVSS assembly has problems. So, I decided to liquid putty the whole thing to add mud to it than to waste the whole night filling them and sanding them the second night! Its gonna be a winter tank, so, mud and straw is part of the story anyway!

The rear armour plates had its edges softened with liquid cement and I used the Olfa knife to draw out the cut lines.
Here you can see the drawn cut lines clearly and also see the bad fit on the fenders as well the the tool boxes that needed some sanding. Overall, it entails less work than the Tiger 1 tracks from AFV where I sanded more than 60 parts a side to remove ejection pin holes! You can see from the picture below that the fit of the fenders are quite off!

Here we see that the gaps are filled in with putty and later sanded. I also carved chunks of plastic off the fender and smoothened them with steel wool and liquid putty them to form dents. I also drilled out two holes on one fender and counter sunk them, smoothen the part later with the same procedure with wool and putty to get bullet holes in them.

Here is a picture showing the work needed to fill up the gap in the top plate. Even the turret ring armour plate had a gap that needed a plastic card. This one, however, I cannot sand, so I push in a small piece of plasticard halfway, melt it with liquid cement and then push in slowly and flush it with liquid putty. Even the main gun mantlet joint needed attention.

The tracks needed serious attention too. Even though I bought a Fruil track for this model, I felt that its a waste to put it on since I decided to use those fenders. However, when I had fender fit problems earlier on a dry fit run, I had to fit on the fenders before putting in the tracks for easy assembly reworking. The heat and stub method as suggested in the instructions is really not working well on this model as the track needed to be slided in lengthwise then joined. For fear of damaging plastic wheels and other parts with the soldering iron, I decided to use steel wires to punture the track and hold it together by twisting it and cutting it short. This area can then be turned upwards and hidden on the top of the drive wheel assembly hidden from view by the fenders.

Here we see the wire hidden from view even when we view the model from the bottom. Satisfied.

See also the dented fenders which I discribed earlier. End of week 2.

Project Grant CDL

Project began when I was visiting ADV Azimuth in Paris. I was introduced to their wide range of in house resin conversions. I bought a Russian paratrooper tank that sits 3, small size, about 1.5" long model with individual tracks taken from an old Russian kit. ADV Azimuth makes good conversion kits out of badly molded ones as a background of odds and ends. This is a good thing, so options are wide open with modelers and can allow us the luxury never before made. They are also very specialised in special subjects like this Grant Tank, which was top secret weapon before the Shermans were widely deployed. It has a large search light focused in a thin channel of light in front and it dazzles any enemy tanks like today's direct energy weapons. With its long range gun, it can outrange the Panzers 1 to 3 at that time. Its called Canal Defense Light. This turret lighthouse was deployed on obsolete Grant and Mathildas.

The basic kit I used for the project is the cheapo old Tamiya kit as the Academy one had too many parts, even though their prices are not too far off given our super profiteering local distribution chain.

However, the kit is showing its age, I have some fit problems, even though, as a whole, its still a Tamiya, not some eastern European variety, however, compared to modern Tamiya and Dragon/Trumpeter standards, its showing its past its prime.

There are no assembly problems till we get to the point of assembling the two hulls together. For the above pic, I wanted to depict the rough cast steel front, so I massaged in the usual Tamiya putty and liquid cement mixture to form the texture. I call this henceforth, liquid putty. Here the gap about 2mm wide is discovered and filled in with a 2mm plasticard from Tamiya and puttied.

From this angle taken from the rear, you can see clearly the plastic card used to fill up the gap the front glacis had with the gun manlet assembly. The front glacis was also slightly warped and needed to be pressed in place, CA glued and acelerated with a CA acelerator spray then reinforced by melting the two parts together with liquid cement. The mess was later touched up with more liquid putty.

I also used liquid putty to roughen exhaust areas that are prone to flaking and serious rusting. Here I even puttied the rear pipes, which to my dismay later, was the discovery that these are totally hidden from view when we assemble to top hull to the bottom!

The resin part that came with the kit, the barrel was molded as part of the mantlet. This has no detail on it. So I cut it off and replaced it with the kit part with had the fitting of dust mantlet cover anchors. However, the kit part was long and had to be shortened. The stub which I will explain later, is hand shaven with a sharp new Olfa blade. The front of the barrel was also bored out.

The turret was moulded as one gaint piece of resin with minor parts like grab handles molded as separate parts. These I replaced with copper wires bent with Tamiya pliers. The bottom had a round stub and was also too large for the hole in the top hull from the original turret. I decided earlier on, with my lightning quick mind, on the method to bore a larger diameter on the top hull. I constructed the circle on it, having difficulties centering it, and after two hours, abandoned it as fast as I have concieved it with the preference of cutting the stub down with a pair of side cutters! It was done in 20 minutes, a fraction of how long it took for me to construct the circle on the hull! With only 2 hours every night when I am not working late for my hobby, and only 8 hours a week, the luxury of wasting 2 hours is a pain!

The turret, with its gun sawn off needed a fix. In order to make the fit strong, I curved the barrel of the kit part to reduce part of its diameter, as depicted in the picture above, so that we will eventually have a larger surface area applied with glue to make sure that it will securely fasten to the turret. Next, I bore the mantlet area with a drill to facilitate the fixture. I chose a small 1.5mm dia drill. This is to ensure a tight fit. I trim the plastic down slowly till it squeaks on its way in. Twisting it out, I wet it with CA and squeaked the thing back it with force before it dries up! Daunting task! Phew. The recesses were filled in naturally by the superfluous CA. Then the part was sanded and liquid puttied to smoothen out everything.

Then I went on to texture the whole turret with liquid putty. I left the Besa machine gun out till the model is near completion for the fear of it breaking en route. Here you see the joint with the gun filled out with CA and liquid putty and sanded.

End of week 1 of work.

Mercedes Museum Stuttgart

If you wonder what this is, you are in good company! This is a MERCEDES BENZ car.....Far out eh? More of these in this place I visited for the second time.

The entrance of the new relocated Museum. The older one is just across the road under the flyover of the left of this picture. This is the home of the internal combustion engine that gave us the industrial revolution after the steam engine, enrich the Arabs and cause climate change that will ultimately wipe out the whole world! Burning life that existed 65 million years ago brings vengeance from those that died then, to claim back this world, now at an accelerated pace. Each civilization lasted thousands of years, only the ICT modern world will last less than 20 decades!

No matter, a motorhead couldn't care less anyway

The home of the silver arrow, the one that Kimi Raikkonen drives with ease above, and the original which was sanded down to bare metal to meet the weight requirement, therefore, the acronym, Silver Arrow!

The wall of the old rich and the young at heart, about almost 100 years ago! The one in front, the red and long one, do you believe that it was a sports car coupe for 2 people in its heyday?

The old dames with the candle light head lamps in solid polished brass! At 20 km/h, it was slower than a horse carriage then, but without the pee and the pooh though! No name nor does it wander off with the daisies.

True grit, former Mille Miglar drivers are of a different breed. They wore gloves that ripped their hands a part, bleed a bucket of blood and sweat in each race, have a car that has a mind of its own, put all that together coupled with little suspension, thin tires and no power steering at 200km/h with a 16 cylinder engine inches from your feet, what have you got? Balls of steel!

This is the original love affair, the lovely and still the most sought after Merc of them all, the 300 SEL Gullwing. Even the King of Thailand has one!And the Race Gullwing, albeit, in the usual suspect, Silver colour, made famous by Fangio and the Auto Union 16.

This is a single seat Le Mans type of racer with the aero back, an inspiration to Batmobile designers in the 50s. Not the direct exhaust at the side! No doors, just hatches and losts of arm power needed to pilot this car.

The most celebrated 280 SEL with the highest mileage one can drive it before it breaks apart....1.6 million kilometers!

Is this a Lamborghini or Lotus...nope, its got a three pointed steering wheel stuck to the front of it, it must be a Merc. They make exciting models at one time in history you know! An orange one too!

The fathers of Global Climate change, Diesel, Benz and Daimler. They wouldn't have imagined their impact on the world, nor the progress of the Arabs as a result of their work, neither the millions that would die more efficiently killed due to their work of genius. Evil has never been on the minds of great engineers and inventors like them, only applicators who had sinister intents.

The early days of automotive life on the fast lane. The Car is set to change humanity and the world forever.

The simple working prototype of the internal combustion engine.

Race car of years gone by, but nothing much has changed though, we still love large pipes protruding out from the engine bay, small aerodynamic mirrors, small windscreens, wind in the hair, bugs on face and in mouth, and people cursing enroute!

More of Paris than meets tourists eyes

Have you seen the original Paris Stocks Exchange? This dome was the original exchange for the Paris Bourse. Still active today, just in front of a very old World Expo days market place made of the same wrought iron construction as the Eiffel Tower. Below is the twilight time in winter, about 4pm when this photo was taken at about 9 deg C. Windy day too. Suffering shark attacks from every cavity in the dressing....still must brave on to take good pictures.

When I had the only night out the second night, it was raining, but I did not fly 12 hours to be kept in my Grand Boulevard room...so, walked to Rue Rivoli, enroute, took a nice picture of the presidential palace. Slow shutter speed, so I lean hard my EOS onto a lamp post and too this 1/15 sec shot. Wet, wet, everywhere, even the camera was wet, had to hair dryer it back in my room.

Crossing the bridge over Rivoli, behind me is the Notre Dame and the building has my favourite coffee joint, I drink coffee here everytime I go to Paris, now, my 16th trip. Trick is, stand at the counter or bar, it cost 1.90 Euros, if you sit inside, it costs 2.60 and if you sit outside, it cost even more insanity for the albeit same cuppa....really no need to find out.

The old Parisian iron market. It has long been closed, but the structure is retained and is now a public park with lots of water fountains and of course bird droppings and inconsiderate dog pooh! Big Dalmatian and Great Dane variety is not rare here, on pile could weigh in easily more than a pound.

I take a lot of pictures of the Notre Dame, a work of architectural excellence even though it was build by hand, stones hewned from the mountains are brought to bear with artists working out the intricate details. Even though it has little resemblem to God, much of what is on it is mythology and satanic symbols, however, it still looked great from the stand point of man's creativity, not from God's stand point though.

For this shot, I ran across the bridge since the sun was heading up onto the eastern side. I like the low angle shadows of the early morning sun and the dark foreground shade. This shot is one of my fave.