Fred's Breakfast Bar

[Canuck2016]

Since I'm the impatient type, I decided to try painting the wood grain with a brush and artist's oils. I was nervous about wrecking the kit, so I cut out a wing shape from a piece of sheet styrene and experimented on that. The styrene was painted with Tamiya Deck Tan. Once this was dry, two shades of brown artist's oils were brushed over it in an uneven pattern. The broader patterns were done with a lot of thinner and a very wet brush. The finer lines were drybrushed on. Once the oil paint was dry, the whole thing was coated with Tamiya Clear Orange, then sealed with Testor's Dull Cote.

If I could change one thing, I'd make the grainy pattern smaller, as I think it looks out of scale for 1:32. In any case, I'm encouraged enough to keep going with the experiment. Next I plan to coat it with hairspray, followed by a coat of white acrylic, then chipping. If the styrene scrap comes out looking all right, then I'll go ahead with the same approach on the model.

Cheers!

[gnomemeansgnome]

Cool.

[ShaunW]

Your Panzer VII really looks excellent Fred, that is a great piece of armour modelling! The MiG-3 is an interesting choice for your return to aircraft modelling and I really like that wood effect.

[iggie]

Very nice wood effect Fred, and certainly cheaper than 'cheating' (like me! ) with decals! I'll be interested to see how the rest of the experiment works out

[Stamford]

It´s a very convincing wood pattern but as you say a bit large - if you can get that effect a bit tighter it will be superb.

[Canuck2016]

Thank you, all!

Iggie, I've seen the results some people got by using decals, and they're amazing! That's certainly what I'd do if I had the option. Maybe on a future project.

Here's the styrene "wing" after hairspray, paint, and chipping with a stiff damp brush. I think it looks OK, though I don't intend to chip the model as much as this. Again, if I had made the wood grain pattern smaller, I think it would have looked more wood-like through the small chips. As it is, it just looks like an orangey undercoat! Oh well, live & learn!

[iggie]

That looks pretty good for an experiment!

[jssel]

Interesting what you are doing here.

[Canuck2016]

I may have gotten carried away with the stowage on the Panzer VII, as I feel this model has become the equivalent of one of those holiday cocktails jammed with wedges of pineapple and coconut with a swizzle stick and a paper umbrella . Anyhow, I'm calling it finished now.

The stowage basket is made of L-beam styrene and (I think) aluminium mesh. The tool box at the back is a photo-etch piece which I took from a Dragon Elefant. The other odds and ends are a mixture of parts from the original Panzer VII and from the spares box.

Many thanks to PGAS and to my wife for their advice on photographing this while keeping the whole thing in focus. I'm getting better at it! Thank you Paul and Michelle!

[iggie]

Stunning work Fred, that is an awesome piece of modelling and no mistake.

[Migrant]

That is a superb build, the weathering effects are amongst the best I've seen. Bookmarked for future reference...

[ShaunW]

Oh wow that is fantastic Fred, great paint and weathering and the stowage really adds to the piece. Top marks from me!

[Canuck2016]

Good day all!

Thank you very much for the generous comments! Looking back, the Panzer VII was a fun, straightforward kit to build, and it's certainly an unusual-looking vehicle. I already griped about the "working" torsion bar suspension, but this was a minor nuisance, and is probably just a pet peeve of mine. Overall, I enjoyed it very much, and it's got me looking at some of Amusing Hobby's other "what if" subjects.

Have a great weekend!

[skypirate]

That Panzer VII is a knockout!
Very convincing finish!

cheers,

David

[Canuck2016]

Thanks, David! I hope the weather's warmer in Australia than it is in Canada right now!

Good day, all! I wanted to show everyone a product which you may already be familiar with, but which is new to me: Tamiya Paint Retarder. I used to find that my attempts at airbrushing large areas ended up with a pebbly finish. I'm no shark at the science of this, but I tried to correct it by adjusting the amount of thinner, air pressure, distance of the airbrush, etc., and I still couldn't get it to work. Finally I bought this bottle of retarder, and tried adding just a few drops directly to the paint in the cup of the airbrush. I think it works very well, and gives a nice, satiny finish when using flat paint. As I understand it, it slows the drying of the paint, giving it a chance to smooth out before it hardens.

The photo shows the finish on Tamiya's 1:35 Marder. The base coat of green, and the brown and black splotches, all turned out with a nice, smooth, even surface. Success at last!