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!