Tankbuilder
Active member
Hello there fellow modellers.
A while back in the What's on the bench today thread I posted some images of a series of Tamiya M3 lees and Grants I'm working on. These were all started years ago and I decided to get them finished.
As in a number of my builds I use what I think is a simple and inexpensive technique to change something. Some of these techniques were born of necessity years ago when model detailing stuff was not very common up here.
One of the tings i had to do with a number of parts on these Tamiya Lees and Grants was to add casting texture to the turrets and transmission covers. My method came about after seeing how spilled liquid cement crazes styrene.
The Tamiya Lee and Grant turrets are smooth with no casting texture at all. So is the transmission cover.
Here's an unmodified Tamiya Lee turret. You can see how smooth it is. I needed to add casting texture to it.
You can do this outside or in any well ventilated area.
Here is what I use to texture it. I use liquid cement. In this case it's Tamiya thin but any thin liquid cement will work. I used Testor's to great effect before. I use a cheap dollar store very stiff nylon bristle brush.
The first thing I do is wet everything I want the cast texture to be on, with the liquid cement.
Next I again lightly wet the area to be textured and then start stippling it with vertical stabs of the stiff nylon bristle brush. The stiffer the bristles and the harder you stab the deeper the cast texture looks.
By repeating the wetting and stippling you can achieve a very heavy cast texture. U.S.A. tank casting wasn't as rough as some other nations. I always make my cast texture a bit heavier than I want the final painted model to look. That's to allow for the paint.
Here's the textured turret without any paint.
Here's a textured and painted turret on my M3A4 Lee.
So there you have it people. An easy inexpensive way to create cast texture on parts. Btw, this technique also works very well for creating rust texture on items such as muffler pipes.
I hope this is of use to you.
Comments are appreciated and welcomed.
Cheers from Peter
A while back in the What's on the bench today thread I posted some images of a series of Tamiya M3 lees and Grants I'm working on. These were all started years ago and I decided to get them finished.
As in a number of my builds I use what I think is a simple and inexpensive technique to change something. Some of these techniques were born of necessity years ago when model detailing stuff was not very common up here.
One of the tings i had to do with a number of parts on these Tamiya Lees and Grants was to add casting texture to the turrets and transmission covers. My method came about after seeing how spilled liquid cement crazes styrene.
The Tamiya Lee and Grant turrets are smooth with no casting texture at all. So is the transmission cover.
Here's an unmodified Tamiya Lee turret. You can see how smooth it is. I needed to add casting texture to it.
You can do this outside or in any well ventilated area.
Here is what I use to texture it. I use liquid cement. In this case it's Tamiya thin but any thin liquid cement will work. I used Testor's to great effect before. I use a cheap dollar store very stiff nylon bristle brush.
The first thing I do is wet everything I want the cast texture to be on, with the liquid cement.
Next I again lightly wet the area to be textured and then start stippling it with vertical stabs of the stiff nylon bristle brush. The stiffer the bristles and the harder you stab the deeper the cast texture looks.
By repeating the wetting and stippling you can achieve a very heavy cast texture. U.S.A. tank casting wasn't as rough as some other nations. I always make my cast texture a bit heavier than I want the final painted model to look. That's to allow for the paint.
Here's the textured turret without any paint.
Here's a textured and painted turret on my M3A4 Lee.
So there you have it people. An easy inexpensive way to create cast texture on parts. Btw, this technique also works very well for creating rust texture on items such as muffler pipes.
I hope this is of use to you.
Comments are appreciated and welcomed.
Cheers from Peter
