Ma.K. 35 Gacha-nen Heindrich. Part 3 (final)

So thingiverse is an awesome resource for things and I thought I'd give printing and painting something a shot just for the hell of it.

This is a model of the moon designed to be a paperweight, the model can be obtained here.



The print out came out pretty good so I though I'd hit it with some under coat which really highlighted every single layer line like it was printed at 1mm layer height instead of the 0.3mm that I used.

So it was back to the drawing board and I googled around and stumbled on some youtube channels using spray on putty for car repairs so I thought I might give it a go on this.

The spray on putty worked really well with about 5 coats applied, the stuff is pretty toxic as can be seen by the styrofoam base I was using to hold the part during painting which melted where the putty hit it.

There were still some lines but was much more acceptable and so it was time to paint again with the gray primer and the result was a lot better.

Using some reference photos in google image search and a couple of different shades of gray the base colours were applied followed by some Tamiya Flat Clear followed by some dry brushing to bring out some highlights on the edges of the craters.

So that was it for now. Not sure the moon thing worked bit of a comedic/comic scaled moon but slightly better then having it just sit on the shelf.

And for a bit of fun messed about with a program on the iPad to remove the background and super impose it on a different one.

This little models are awesome to build and already have some more in the stash ready for some more fun later.

Until the next one.

Ma.K. 35 Gacha-nen Heindrich. Part 2

So more detail work in this part. Since the theme is Rescue and Recovery I tried to make the the snorkle have a bit of a search light look, not sure what it's really meant to be.

Adding a little bit of detail to the arms and make the movable joints look a little more flexible, not sure exactly what I was going for here but thought maybe a rubberised finish would work, so ended up using a gunmetal color and the whole thing will get a Tamiya Matt Clear coat over the top to knock the shiny down.

Time to give the claws a bit of attention and paint some bits in the Chrome Silver to go with the rest of the suit.

Next was time to fit the back of the seat and headreast which I'd painted a few shade of brown to make it look a bit more lived in and warn.

As well as giving the whole thing a nice coating of Tamiya Flat Clear XF-86 and knock that shine off the suit.

Applied some decals next and didn't like how plain the console was so added a bit of colour to it as well as painted the chest piece just below the panel in a gunmetal. It was time for some Black Panel Line to highlight some of the panels and corners and then another light coat of the Flat Clear.

Next step was was to add some chipping effects to give the whole thing a more used and abused "vibe", I did this using some open cell foam from some packaging and just ripped a piece off a larger piece and dabbed the rough end in some gray paint and dried most off on a paperl towel before stippling the foam around the suit specially around the area of greater use that would get bashed around. Could probably do with a bit more but it will do.

After that the glass panels needed to go on, but given that the suit was well used the glass needed to match and not be brand new, so I attacked it with some 6000 grit God Hand sanding sponge and then some 4000, until the desired effect appeared.

That seems to have wrapped up most of it and for some reason I got the idea of mounting it on some sort of base and though maybe a planet surface ended up looking at Thingiverse and found something to play with lets see how that works out in the next post.

Until then..

Ma.K. 35 Gacha-nen Heindrich. Part 1

I was pleasently surprised with these little black balls that I'd seen on the counter at the local hobby shop for a long time and one day finally though I'd give one a try thinking this is going to be 10-15 part kit go together in no time and just end up sitting on the bench as a bit of decoration. But no, there is quite a lot of detail and scope for experimenting and building, these are great value for money in my opinion.

I couldn't wait to get stuck into the kit so ended up puting together a couple of bits before seting this up for the photo. There is a suprising amount of parts trees squeezed in to these.

I decided to take a slightly different approach to the last one and under coat and paint some of the parts on the parts trees.

I decided on a slightly different theme and went for a old used and abused Rescue and Recory suit theme and needed and orange and a bright silver for the high vis parts. I looked at the stocks and didn't really have a nice orange shade to use so I ended up mixing Tamiya Clear Orange X-26 and Tamiya Chrome Silver X-11 together and came out like this.

The orange was probably a little darker then I thought I wanted, but I do love the shade it ended up being so it will do nicely.

Next bit was the bust, never painted anything with somuch detail and so small, so it was a matter of just giving it a go, I just picked some colours that I had and seemd to work ok together and made the best of it.

The eyes were incredibly hard to do and ended up looking a bit wonky when you look at under a close up photo like this in reality it's very hard to notice how wonky it really is so, it will do. To do the eyeballs ended up having to use the pointy end of a toothpick to get something that small.

Ended up using a bit of the Tamiya Black Panel Line to give the clothing and helmet a bit of depth as well as some dry brushing to bring out some highlights, might have under done those.

Next time will have a bit of outside of the suit.

Until then.

Chevy Gun Tractor by Italeri - Part 8 (final)

This is it, the last part (close enough).

Doors are mounted, and glued in place, it took me a long time to decide on whether I wanted to set it up to have the doors open with characters around it in a diorama or just the vehicle, in the end I decided just the vehicle would do given this model started out as something for me to learn a bit more a bout building and learn everything about painting and weathering.

Also finally mounted the rear canvas part. still missing the storage boxes in the rear.

Finally added the rear storage boxes, just visible in this pic.

Underneath could probably do with more work but this will do.

After applying a bit more of the pigment I decided to seal it all in with some Tamiya Flat Clear from a spray can and it seems to have come out a little shinier then I wanted to :-(

I should have also masked the windscreen a bit as it looks a bit to foggy now. Live and learn.

I'm going to have to give this another dusting with the airbrush flat clear just to take a little bit of the shine of it but will do that next time I break out the airbrush on the next model.

For now it's done and there were lots of lessons learnt and lots of things I think I could have done better and will hopefully do better next time.

Can't wait to get stuck into the next model.

Until then.

Chevy Gun Tractor by Italeri - Part 7

Round 7 - home stretch (maybe)

Started looking at all the other little bits and pieces that I'd over looked or tried to ignore during the build (probably because they looked to fiddly) and started putting the front bumper and rear hitch together.

While those were drying I went back and had to revisit the canvas bits with some pigments (mostly the AK Sienna, with a tiny bit of the AK North Africa Dust just to break it up) to try and take the shine out of it and lighten it up. I think it's working better.

While I was at it I did a put on a bit more pigment here and there because I could.

Time to get stuck into the doors and bumper, some Tamiya Black Panel Line to bring out some detail I also like using it to give the whole thing a bit more of a lived in look (not sure it's what I should be doing but I like the effect).

Also applied a bit of the chipping effect same as before with a bit of open cell foam picked apart to get a small contact patch and then dabbed in the Tamiya Light Gray and most dabbed on to a paper towel before hitting the panels with it while rotating it to vary the patterns.

So close...

Until next time.

Chevy Gun Tractor by Italeri - Part 6

Model On!

Another step closer wheels are now glued on and it's really starting to come to life.

Did a little bit of chipping effect using a little piece of open cell foam dipped in paint (I picked a Tamiya XF-66 Light Grey) then (mostly) dried on a paper towel and then dabbed onto model in select areas.

It looked a bit funny as I was applying it when wet but once dried it I thought it actually worked pretty well.

A bit more chipping effect underneath where things might rub, might have under done it like the dry brushing but I was afraid of getting to carried away and over doing it.

Since I was going for a North Africa dessert theme I decided the window frames looked a little warm for the area so I decided to cut the frames off the windows to match some of the reference photos I'd seen online.

This ended up being easier then expected, not sure of the story behind how these came to be different whether it was a field modification or factory option :-).

Once the frames were cut I had to refinish off the cut area with paint and left it drying.

Had to try something I'd seen on other models online and try to get the windscreen wiper effect so made up some masking tape masks for the swing of the wipers and then applied a very light dusting of the Tamiya XF-57 Buff paint colour. This is the result, which I'm fairly happy with.

Also at the point the The body became one with the rest of the vehicle. Now I want to rush it and finish :-).

That's about enough for this update getting so close can't wait to get more done on it.

Until next time.

Chevy Gun Tractor by Italeri - Part 5

Continuing on from last time the rust on the exhaust was really bothering me so had to have another go at fixing it and this time I tried a different approach of painting a thin layer of the fixer on the exhaust roughly where I wanted the rust and then dabbing on some of the AK Track Rust pigment and finally it look much better at least to me. Maybe slightly over done but it's taken a few goes, hopefully next time will be better.

Got stuck into the body of the truck with the black panel line and applied the decal which I probably should have done before gluing the hatch down but you live and learn.

More decals on the front clip. Front clip, floor pan and chassis are also now one assembly.

Applying a bit of weathering to the seats plus some AK North Africa Dust and Sienna pigments to the model really like the effect the 2 tones have built up in the corners and the checker plate sections of the chassis.

The canvas section on the roof look a little to shiny for canvas will need to do something to knock those back. Not sure what yet but it's not that impressive to me.

Applied some more dust to the wheel and body as well. And starting to not look like plastic. Except for the canvas pieces :-). They're going to need more work.

Did a little dry brushing and I'm not confident with the technique so erred on the side of caution and not done as much as I probably should have but it has a few highlights that I quite like.

So that will do for another update, have to see what to add next, the decals are looking a little to pristine to be real so they will need something done to them, not sure what yet.

Until next time.