lancfan's Airfix 1/76 Chi Ha BLITZ * FINISHED *

[splash]

Great finish sorry I slept through it.

Regards
Splash

[JohnRatzenberger]

very nice, particularly with the paint job !!

Could you, maybe after some rest, discuss your method for painting and weathering rubber tracks ?

[lancfan]

very nice, particularly with the paint job !!

Could you, maybe after some rest, discuss your method for painting and weathering rubber tracks ?

Happy to john, I do this for this scale very simply, having first washed the tracks with the rest of the kit parts to get rid of the mould release agent I start by painting the tracks in enamel (acrylics don't stick) of an appropriate colour for the ground/mud, when dry they can now be fitted to the model when needed. When the model is complete airbrush around the tracks with the same earth/mud/sand colour (this can be acrylic) to represent dust and mud spray and finally when that has dried pick out the parts of the track that lay in contact with the ground in black or dull silver as appropriate. That is all I ever do.

A Matchbox Char B.1bis tank painted in this way.



David.

[Ian]

What a little cutie!

[Gregers]

Sweet. Very nicely done David. Great work.

All the best.

Greg

[Sissel]

Wonderful build! I really like the paint job. Well done.ø

Sissel

[JohnRatzenberger]

Thanks for the explanation. We treat them about the same, with an enamel base.
But I never thought about the base coat being ground color, then picking out track color detail -- that's reverse of me who paints the track then weathers; I shall have to try your approach.

[lancfan]

Thank you everyone for your kind words.

David.

[Justin1980]

Nicely done David, very quick build and beautifully done!

Justin

[lancfan]

Thanks for the explanation. We treat them about the same, with an enamel base.
But I never thought about the base coat being ground color, then picking out track color detail -- that's reverse of me who paints the track then weathers; I shall have to try your approach.

I work on the assumption that everything will take on the colour of the mud and dust and paint the tracks all over in that colour just picking out the parts that will be kept clean by contact with the ground, it has the added advantage of being far simpler to do in that way. I do occasionally work in the opposite way if the subject demands it, my Buffalo for example would be washed clean whenever it crossed a river and I painted those tracks as you normally do for that reason.

David.