Back in 2018 at the last abortive attempt to get this project going, to make the side slats less perfectly uniform I cut the plastic between them so they would naturally be at slightly uneven layers relative to each other. Unfortunately because I literally just snipped the plastic without removing any material doing this slightly distorted the shape of the sides of the hull, so they no longer neatly click together with the lower hull. I decided to correct this and cut them again but leave small gaps between the slats. Naturally this was less than perfect on a couple of them, so I plan to disguise with rust/damage, and added some earth texture to represent bubbling under the paint when the time to weather it came.
I’m also deeply unhappy with the paint job on the tank. The green and brown had far too much overspray and completely overwhelmed the dark yellow, which also made the weathering barely visible and the whole tone is just too brown/green. I don’t have an airbrush and trying to use spray cans would likely just lead to the same result. I decided to sponge the paint on and tip the balance back in favour of dark yellow.
While doing this it dawned on me that seeing as I wasn’t using cans and having to mask off, I wasn’t beholden to simple lines anymore, and opted to make things a bit more interesting. Ultimately I’m pleased with how its turned out so far. Yes its not as good as if it had been done with an airbrush but it looks good enough to me, and I think will look just grand once all the weathering has been applied.
As the plastic keeps breaking I decided to go for metal tow ropes and buckles, which I was going to use burnishing fluid on to weather. I also purchased C hooks and a fire extinguisher which were originally supposed to be on the tank but were out of stock at the time.
I first tested the burnishing fluid out on the tactical bucket, and the results have been positive, as were the tow ropes.
I installed the C hook on the rear hull and on the top deck. Unfortunately the tools are moulded onto the hull and I couldn’t put the C hook in a historically accurate position. As I would likely screw up trying to remove/reposition the tools, I decided to squeeze the C hook in at less accurate position, but would pass fine to the casual observer.
The basic colours are on and I’ve started shading and drybrushing the zimmerit on both the upper and lower hull.
I’ve also started experimenting with more advanced weathering techniques including enamel washes and powdered pigments, and decided to make the tracks on the front of the hull look a lot more rusted given they’re getting the full brunt of the elements with no chance to wear any of it off.
Overall for a first attempt I’m pretty pleased with how its gone. I’ve done the same to the exhaust pipes and plan to do the same to the track segments on the side of the turret.
The track segments and holder bar are reattached to the hull. The front lower hull is more or less complete outside of minor tweaking.
I’ve still got to paint the C hook and add some shade to recesses and panel lines, but the rear hull plate is mostly done and shows off some of the weathering I’ve added.
I’ve also started weathering the exhaust shrouds, so I can get the top ends looking nice, filthy and rusted.
Overall progress is good. As I need to be able to remove them when needed for maintenance I’ll have to varnish the hull and exhaust stacks/shrouds separately.
