Skinny_Mike
Well-known member
Hello everyone! I am bringing this build back from the dead! I’ve tried twice now to resurrect it to no avail. Hopefully the third time will be the charm! I spent little bit of time today cleaning up the old posts, got ride of the broken Photobucket pictures and consolidated all the different threads to this one. Just to keep everyone up to speed.
Now, on to the big gun. When I last set this aside, everything was pretty much base coated in Polly S US Desert Storm Sand. I used to love these paints, but I have had nothing but issues trying to get them to spray recently. They are all pretty old, having been out of production for years now so maybe that has something to do with it. Such a shame to, I feel like this is a really good match for the sand color used on modern US AFVs. I wanted to do a bit of a test run with the new AK Real Colors paint, so I did mask off the ID panels and painted those in the CARC Sand color. The color is pretty close, but off enough to add some interest to the build. Here’s an updated photo just to get everyone centered.
First thing I needed to address on this kit was the Anti-Slip panels. If you remember AFV club added some stickers the were supposed to go on the hull to mimic the texture. Here is a shot of how they looked when I originally added them.
These never really looked good, and after primer and paint they look even worse. I decided that I needed to fix these. There have been a few products that have come out in recent years to help replicate the anti-slip coatings that now appear on most modern AFVs. Before I could add anything new, I first needed to get rid of the stickers. Fortunately I was able to pry them up with a hobby knife and peal them back off. They did leave some residue behind, but that wasn’t a concern.
Pealing off the stickers also left the pattern for me to follow. I decided to try the new Anti-Slip texture from Ammo. It comes in a tube and is similar to oil paints with some grit in it. I used the dark brown for this application and put it on the hull in the areas where the stickers had been. Basically you just stipple it on with an old brush, like doing cast texture or similar such applications. I think it turned out pretty well. I also added it to the turret. AFV Club had molded areas that were supposed to be anti-slip on the roof of the turret, but those looked just as bad as the stickers so I stippled the product over those areas as well. I did decide to leave it off the back portion of the turret as that will eventually be covered by stowage. Here is the Anti-Slip paste applied;
And a close up;
Looks pretty good. I think with practice I can get a fair representation of some forms of the texture. Once the Anti-slip paste dried, I repainted the top of the model with the Polly-S paint. It was a huge chore, the paint kept clogging my brush no matter how thin and generally was a ton more work then if I had simply repainted the whole thing. But, its done now. After the paint dried, I mixed up a lighter shade of sand using Ammo paints and I hit all the highlights. After that I sprayed some Alclad Aqua Gloss and moved onto the markings. The plan was to use the kit markings, but they are a freaking mess! The stencils are not readable, like just black lines intended to mimic words. The bumper codes for the hull are printed on what is supposed to be a sand background, except the color is yellow, not sand. This would no do, so I dug around and found some tactical markings from a Dragon M1A2 kit that I have in the stash. These had the benefit of being printed by Cartograph and they behaved exactly as you would expect. I choose to not bother with the stencils.
You’ll need to trust me, the bumper codes are there too. Another coat of Aqua Gloss was put down over the decals in preparation for a wash. Unfortunately I didn’t get the wash done on this kit with all the others, so that will have to be part of the next update.
Thanks for looking in guys! I feel like this assembly line thing is kind of working, I am definitely making progress on a lot of stalled out builds. Stay tuned for more, I just hope its not in another 3 years!
Stay Safe
Mike
Now, on to the big gun. When I last set this aside, everything was pretty much base coated in Polly S US Desert Storm Sand. I used to love these paints, but I have had nothing but issues trying to get them to spray recently. They are all pretty old, having been out of production for years now so maybe that has something to do with it. Such a shame to, I feel like this is a really good match for the sand color used on modern US AFVs. I wanted to do a bit of a test run with the new AK Real Colors paint, so I did mask off the ID panels and painted those in the CARC Sand color. The color is pretty close, but off enough to add some interest to the build. Here’s an updated photo just to get everyone centered.
First thing I needed to address on this kit was the Anti-Slip panels. If you remember AFV club added some stickers the were supposed to go on the hull to mimic the texture. Here is a shot of how they looked when I originally added them.
These never really looked good, and after primer and paint they look even worse. I decided that I needed to fix these. There have been a few products that have come out in recent years to help replicate the anti-slip coatings that now appear on most modern AFVs. Before I could add anything new, I first needed to get rid of the stickers. Fortunately I was able to pry them up with a hobby knife and peal them back off. They did leave some residue behind, but that wasn’t a concern.
Pealing off the stickers also left the pattern for me to follow. I decided to try the new Anti-Slip texture from Ammo. It comes in a tube and is similar to oil paints with some grit in it. I used the dark brown for this application and put it on the hull in the areas where the stickers had been. Basically you just stipple it on with an old brush, like doing cast texture or similar such applications. I think it turned out pretty well. I also added it to the turret. AFV Club had molded areas that were supposed to be anti-slip on the roof of the turret, but those looked just as bad as the stickers so I stippled the product over those areas as well. I did decide to leave it off the back portion of the turret as that will eventually be covered by stowage. Here is the Anti-Slip paste applied;
And a close up;
Looks pretty good. I think with practice I can get a fair representation of some forms of the texture. Once the Anti-slip paste dried, I repainted the top of the model with the Polly-S paint. It was a huge chore, the paint kept clogging my brush no matter how thin and generally was a ton more work then if I had simply repainted the whole thing. But, its done now. After the paint dried, I mixed up a lighter shade of sand using Ammo paints and I hit all the highlights. After that I sprayed some Alclad Aqua Gloss and moved onto the markings. The plan was to use the kit markings, but they are a freaking mess! The stencils are not readable, like just black lines intended to mimic words. The bumper codes for the hull are printed on what is supposed to be a sand background, except the color is yellow, not sand. This would no do, so I dug around and found some tactical markings from a Dragon M1A2 kit that I have in the stash. These had the benefit of being printed by Cartograph and they behaved exactly as you would expect. I choose to not bother with the stencils.
You’ll need to trust me, the bumper codes are there too. Another coat of Aqua Gloss was put down over the decals in preparation for a wash. Unfortunately I didn’t get the wash done on this kit with all the others, so that will have to be part of the next update.
Thanks for looking in guys! I feel like this assembly line thing is kind of working, I am definitely making progress on a lot of stalled out builds. Stay tuned for more, I just hope its not in another 3 years!
Stay Safe
Mike
