Grant CDL Finished Model Pictures

AS PROMISED, NO MORE ARTICLE SEQUENCE, ONLY FINISHED MODEL PICS. YOU CAN CLICK AND DOWNLOAD THEM IN GOOD SIZE.

Scratched and side doors, here we see rain marks, rust washes, scratches, chips, metalised edges and faded white washes.

Stowage, some from the Legend Firefly, some from Italeri and Verlinden, some, I created them myself.

Noticed the light and how its painted over raw plastic. Technique is in my article in the MMI magazine soon.

Scratches and paint chips. The browning is not done by airbrush but with hand painting.

Spluttering Effects. Wet and dry mud and some soot from the exhaust, which is also rust treated if you turn the model upside down to look at the pipes.

Spluttering effects. Winter tank with no mud is not possible. See also oil streaks, scratches, rush washes and metalised edges along with the stowage.

Wet, Dry mud and oil spills.

Grant CDL Part 5

Now, back to work on the model. The white oils are blended into the multi coloured and layered paintwork to fade out the harsh contrasts and to sort of give the paintwork some depth. The in-depth discription will be printed in the up and coming Model Military Magazine....so, buy some, and I will do some demos at ARMIE in the month of August on techniques on tracks and winter camouflages. Unlike others, admission is free.

After blending. I added some pin points of rust coloured oils. I do not use moisten turps brushes, just good sables dry to create lines. However, do let it dry for about 4 days before handling the model. Here you see the 3D tones of the paintwork and the rust etc.

Another close up on how the paint work has taken on a 3D effect. Dept and perception is heightended with lighter colours on top and slowly deepened on its way downwards to emphasis depth. It also has a semi gloss sheen, which is like painted steel. Not matt finish, which is like a white washed wall. It may look nice for Ebay, but not realistic. Can't hold a candle in Europe.

The model then recieved a pinwash to accentuate the details in the rivets. Notice the depth of the paintwork and the chipping on areas on top of the turret showing the olive green paint underneath faintly? I wanted to depict a repainted worn out paint surface.

Thre rear recieved some attention but not too much as I planned to add stowage to the rear portion.

Finally, I added the chips with my Germany triangular Kolinsky number 1 brush that I bought in Azimut in Rue de Turenne, Paris. Channet said that it was good, I bet it was!

Here is the end of part 5. Next session is only the finished model.....for those who want to know more, buy the magazine and do write to Armie for dates for live demonstrations. Chao for now.

Gundam Expo Christmas 2007

The Gundam Expo is a very exciting place. I was priviledged to be sponsored to go there in Hong Kong by the local agent Shing Tai Toys.

The expo is pretty big and there were a lot of bargains to be hunted. So, everyone grab ahhhh! Very cheap, almost 40% off from everything you can see. Some below half price.

We are there to also cover the competition. Which is very intense. However, there were some very good entries, all national champions in their own rights, that went home with only a medal and a good meal plus some presents. It is based on marketing budgets and also market penetrations.

A first time we saw even entry from EU and the USA. The Expo spread over two floors. So I snapped this from on the second floor exhibit.

This is Dominique's entry. Elementary stuff, no fanfare, no weathering, only washings and shading. That is why the lazy fellow did not win anything there in the world championship!

This is a senior entry Champion from China....very good scratchbuilding, but never kena anything. Also can't blame Bandai, since most of Gundam models sold in China are knock offs. Not really a real market for Gundam.

This is a very good entry in the Senior category from the Indonesian Champion. Also, a pity he did only won 3rd prize.

This Tamiya knock offs from Korea won 2nd prize without any Gundam on it!!!!!????? Not very good for a national champ if you ask me for senior category! The Thais were better, but, never kena....puzzles me.

This guy from HONG KONG deserves to the the world champion. The scratch building is enormous. Its a robot driving a bigger robot!

The Junior World Champion, nice story, recycling. Cocky guy, very snobbish ass hole. Enlarge to see. Win already still went around the whole place telling everyone why they didn't win or lost to him. This ten year old is crappy.....I believe his dad made it!

This is the junior world second. In Urban camouflage. Fence is from some Tomy toys. All toy cars from hot wheels.

World Junior 3rd winner. Model was not even painted! Still win....so...disappointed.

Singapore 2006 World CHAMPION....see, this is what good modelling is all about! But polictics man. Shitty, but it sticks.....I hope M-Con will not be another one of those political flicks to try to commercially control the market. There is enough con jobs now in the market, it has made the hobby something of politics rather than a group of enthusiasts enjoying what they do. After 35 years in this circle, its time to bow out and to just stay simple, so that I can retain my sanity and enjoy my hobby, ebay or not, don't need that small money anyway. If one is offended, then one does not fit into the fratenity of the hobbyist, but that of a commercial mercenary in disguise.

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.