PAINTING BEGINS T55 ENIGMA

[mcevoyi]

HI ALL

first i would like to say thank you for all the comments ... !

i hope that the next few steps begin to realy bring the tank together
and thought it ws time to experement with the paint ..abit ...

i started by adding a new undercoat of simonize redbrown .. a fab paint that i have used with great results for most of my armour ... eveything gets a blast of that paint ...it thakes a good 24 hours to dry to a hard tuff surface !
i then followed that with a loose shadows on the nooks and crannies all over the tank ...with humbrol matt 33 black not worrieing too much about overspary ...as this will help to add depth to the top coats of final colour



the black was left to dry for 1 hour .....and then followed by my first attemp with the hairspry / salt methord of paint chipping .... a can of hairspry was .. stolen from the misses ... who was at woork today !! yippie !
and was lightly sprayed on th the surface of the tank in patches .. and a pinck of fine sea salt was then sprinkelled on to the hairspray ... i repeated this al over the tanks .. makeing sure not to over do it ... as i have a plan ! i would like to get different colour chips all over the tank ..



i then grabed the misses hairdryer ... as she was at work i could use it and not get grumbelled at ! ... i used it to help dry out the hairspray / salt .. it took a bit long than i thought ....almost 40 mins ....
and then i set about adding a second ' base' coat of humbrol mat 155 french olive drab .... i applyed in a very light looses covering .. as the hope is to apply another layer os hairspry / salt as the t-55 was supplyed to Iraq in russian green ... and the reworking of the tanks in the iraq is where they were painted sand colour ... its interesting to note that any mods to the tanks done by the iraqi's .. were painted in redbrown.. and then a top coat of san paint applyed ... that will be fun ? to do when i paint up the t-55 .... i hope the undercolours will have an affect on the top coats ... maybe changeing the hew of the final colours ? ...





anyway ... enought said for now ... except i hope to get a bit more done tomorow .... best layed plans of mice n men ?

[forgebear]

looks absolutely wicked ian i so like this one weldone mate dave

[Von kraftwerk]

So you went with the 155 od then,great stuff your doing,I like the way you've given it the bottom up approach I did wonder what primer would be on the Iraqi add ons,I've never done this myself but some modeller spray the hairspray into the lid and apply by brush as a mask then over spray and remove the hairspray with soapy water and stiff brush,so I'm very interested in your method,have you studied Bovington example?stupid question I suppose

[mcevoyi]

thaks dave ....
you would not beleve that amount of time and energy i have put in to researceing ' how to do ' the paint job...
in the end i just did it may way ..so far ..... the more i think about doing the paint .. the less i actualy do ...
i thought if a sad down .. and chatted to the tank .. it would tel me how to paint it .... or do i just need help ???

[mcevoyi]

the bovy enigma

is about 45 mins away .

and have looed at a lot ... i even have .. paint chips.. from it and one or two other examples of iraqi armour
no two colours are the same .. one is very .. dark in one case .. its almost humbrol 93 ...but the enigma is realy realy close to humbrol 148 but if you wipe the dirt and crap off ....which surprised me ... as i could have sworn its much lighter ...

but if i take in to considderation the fade effect of paint ..and scale ..... then i will have to make the colour lighter if i use 148
but again.. i will look at it as i go along .....

[Von kraftwerk]

what???you just went in there armed with a can of mr sheen and a duster?hats off to you!why did'nt I think of that

[mcevoyi]

lol

lets say if i turn up in the museum libeary then dave f knows that mine white with 2 with out even asking
and i usualy have an idea of the colours of a tank ..always take time to make up colour plates useing white plastic card . undercoated with redbrown. and top colour applyed .. that way i sometimes match the colour .. or adapt a colour plate i have as one i have seen a colour i can match if ... its a strange ability i have ...

[Von kraftwerk]

I know what you mean,I'm fussy about colour.but there is usually a few variations of what is acceptable,and a lot that looks wrong,age or even colour spec changes,like what is German dark yellow RAL 7028,quite a bit of difference from one to another I found over years of study,since looking at your work,I'm going to try the bottom up way of painting,I might even try patches of steel and rust mask spray oxide mask pre shade base coat mask camo seal wash and post shade,you've inspired me

[mcevoyi]

you know

i have seen so many good models scrapped by bad paint jobs because the builder not thought about how to paint the model

h

[Andy in Cheltenham]

Blimey, thumbs up!