Revell 1/35 Leopard 2A6NL

[Mike]

May 19, 2024 3:56:08 GMT -5 handiabled said:

For a "crappy picture" this looks sweet! Great looking camo work on this! I am looking forward to seeing it once you the makings on

The Markings are on it in that picture. They just don't put many on. lol most of them are on the front and back of the tank. Not one single decal is on the turret. 

This morning I played with the oils and sealed them up with a cote of Matte. I'm not worrying about the wheels yet because these effects will be covered in dirt anyways so it would be a waste of resources for now.

I really did just "play" with the oils, using White, Black, and Umber breaking up the tones a bit and playing with some streaking. It's not fantastic, but dirt and dust after a few panel washes will bring it all together later. 

Leopard 2A6NL by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

Leopard 2A6NL by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

Leopard 2A6NL by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

Leopard 2A6NL by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

Leopard 2A6NL by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

Leopard 2A6NL by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

Since this model isn't going into anything special I am reacquainting myself with some of my weathering techniques again. I don't know about you guys but I am a frequent victim of self doubt and being fearful of "ruining" a good build with getting too crazy, especially when it looks good already to my eyes. I do try to keep myself in the range of subtle, but noticeable if absent. I mean, if it's not in a diorama and is just going to stand alone there's not much point to something being completely filthy when it's on a display shelf. Right? I don't know. That's just how I feel most of the time.

So After playing with weathering on this kit I'll probably be more comfortable adding more weathering to my Sherman Diorama.

[handiabled]

I get it with the weathering for sure. When building something if it looks like what you had in your minds eye it's time to call it done. It really is looking fantastic and you are super close to the finish line now

[406 Silverado]

I'm right there with you on the balance between "too crazy" and "enough" on the weathering, especially after I've put as much time into paint work as you've done here bud. This is looking SUPERB so far Mike ol' buddy. Glad you're here brother.

[Mike]

It's a constant fear of mine. I don't know if I'll ever get passed it lol.

In other news, I started in on the little details such as the tail lights and They've gone well enough. The only problem I'm having is with my phone camera. It consistently washes out the images. For instance the tail lights are red and the amber turn signals look yellow in this picture.

Leopard 2A6NL by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

I will have to invest some time in editing these pictures so they actually look like I see them in front of me. The last pictures I posted don't show my oil work very well because it's much better looking in front of me. Wish my Ex hadn't taken my stupid cameras with her.

Anyways, I still need to do a bit of blocking around the "lenses". That will clean them up a bit better.

[Mike]

Okay, I've got the tail lights all done and I finished the front marker (turn signal?) lights as I'm currently letting the driving lights finish up drying. I will admit this has been nerve wracking. Glad I have a very tiny brush, but I really wish my hands were a bit steadier today lol.

Leopard 2A6NL by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

Leopard 2A6NL by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

Still having issues with the tonal values here. This phone cam sucks.

Leopard 2A6NL by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

Leopard 2A6NL by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

They turned out fairly good.

Leopard 2A6NL by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

Leopard 2A6NL by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

Not too shabby for not having any clear red or amber on hand. I guess these mini painting skills are coming in handy lol.

[stikpusher]

Nicely done! A little coat of road dust and grime and they will look just like the real thing.

[Mike]

Thanks, Carlos. They should be convincing enough, you're right. The driving lights turned out better than I'd hoped considering there's no clear lenses.

Leopard 2A6NL by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

My trick appears convincing. Now I need to paint the tools on the deck, spare track links, and the ice cleats. getting close to slapping dirt all over this thing lol.

[406 Silverado]

May 20, 2024 22:06:59 GMT -5 Mike said:

Okay, I've got the tail lights all done and I finished the front marker (turn signal?) lights as I'm currently letting the driving lights finish up drying. I will admit this has been nerve wracking. Glad I have a very tiny brush, but I really wish my hands were a bit steadier today lol.

   You and me both pal......you and me both. Despite your camera issues I can see what you're getting at with the lenses and this is coming along pretty dang snazzy so far Mike. 

[handiabled]

Your paint work looks excellent!

[Tojo72]

Great job on that camo,as well as the detail painting

[Mike]

May 21, 2024 5:26:11 GMT -5 406 Silverado said:

May 20, 2024 22:06:59 GMT -5 Mike said:

Okay, I've got the tail lights all done and I finished the front marker (turn signal?) lights as I'm currently letting the driving lights finish up drying. I will admit this has been nerve wracking. Glad I have a very tiny brush, but I really wish my hands were a bit steadier today lol.

   You and me both pal......you and me both. Despite your camera issues I can see what you're getting at with the lenses and this is coming along pretty dang snazzy so far Mike. 

Thanks, Stang. I'm mostly enjoying myself lol. Thinking out of the box has gotten me the results I'm after so far and I'm starting to rethink the amount of dirt I want on this build. It would be a shame to lose all of that work under some haphazardly slapped on mud effects lol.

[Mike]

May 21, 2024 9:12:49 GMT -5 handiabled said:

Your paint work looks excellent!

WEll I don't know about excellent, but they're certainly passable lol. Thanks!

[Mike]

May 21, 2024 10:22:33 GMT -5 Tojo72 said:

Great job on that camo,as well as the detail painting

Thanks, Tojo! I followed the instructions as best as I could, but because I was using my chinese air brush the lines didn't come out as tight as I wanted them to. The camo did turn out pretty good regardless and I thank you for taking notice. Detail painting is coming out better than anticipated so far. My goal is to make it all as convincing as my skill level will allow.

[Mike]

I made a serious amateur mistake when adding some pin washes yesterday and I am still thinking how to best rectify my mistake.

See, I wasn't thinking clearly and I added acrylic washes to a matte acrylic surface. My impatience has presented me a problem I now have to fix as best I can and I may have to do a bit of repainting and add another layer of gloss to work from.

I'll let you guys know how I solve this issue after I figure out the best way to fix it without making things worse.

[handiabled]

May 22, 2024 20:08:46 GMT -5 Mike said:

I made a serious amateur mistake when adding some pin washes yesterday and I am still thinking how to best rectify my mistake.

See, I wasn't thinking clearly and I added acrylic washes to a matte acrylic surface. My impatience has presented me a problem I now have to fix as best I can and I may have to do a bit of repainting and add another layer of gloss to work from.

I'll let you guys know how I solve this issue after I figure out the best way to fix it without making things worse.

Did it end up spreading and make it appear more grimy than you wanted?

[Mike]

May 23, 2024 2:21:49 GMT -5 handiabled said:

May 22, 2024 20:08:46 GMT -5 Mike said:

I made a serious amateur mistake when adding some pin washes yesterday and I am still thinking how to best rectify my mistake.

See, I wasn't thinking clearly and I added acrylic washes to a matte acrylic surface. My impatience has presented me a problem I now have to fix as best I can and I may have to do a bit of repainting and add another layer of gloss to work from.

I'll let you guys know how I solve this issue after I figure out the best way to fix it without making things worse.

Did it end up spreading and make it appear more grimy than you wanted?

If that were simply the case I'd just work with it. The problem is that when you use any kind of acrylic wash over a matte acrylic layer is acts more like a stain and puddles don't diffuse into the colors underneath. They just become bad stains with sharp edges and it looks awful. Now the entire process didn't turn out like that, thank God, but I went pretty bold in a few areas when I was trying to finish it up more quickly at the end and left me with some really glaring areas of titanic failure. 

I tried to remove some of the stain in a somewhat hidden area which led me to trying stronger and stronger solutions up to pure alcohol which of course just ate directly through every layer of paint I applied and I stopped immediately before I went down to the primer. That left me with the conclusion that I'd made a critical error not adding another layer of gloss before applying my pin washes. If I had not, in my exuberance to push this build farther forward, skipped another gloss layer I'd have had little or no issues. 

So I've taken a couple days to brain storm a fix for this and I'm still not sure if I want to try some blending with the air brush or go over the entire thing with a hairy stick and just slowly fix all of the errors methodically. I may even have to do both at this point, but one thing I know is going to be required on my part is patience or it will look like an ameteur hack job.

What I hope I can achieve from this mistake is a victory in the appearance of a grimy finish which should hide some of the original errors in the paintwork no one caught but me. But we are always our own worst critics, so who's to say.

Anyways, The lesson, once again, is don't skip steps and I need to remember that. Most of the time short cuts don't work.

Once I decide on a course of action I'll get back to posting some progress. I might even post some pictures of the mess I've made before I begin to fix it so you can see what I'm so frustrated with. But seeing as my enthusiasm has once again been dropped off of a cliff, I can't guarantee that.

[handiabled]

Gotcha. I've always used enamels so this issue is a bit foreign to me. I hope you can figure out a fairly easy solution

[rbaer]

Mike, I've done the same thing, had my wash eat into clear, always frustrating. On the bright side, all the pics I've seen of Leos in the field show them pretty nasty looking. I had to cover up some gaffes on the -A4 I did a couple of years ago, from the Hobby Boss kit, using strategically applied accumulated dirt. Nobody but me knows....

[Mike]

Jun 13, 2024 10:27:33 GMT -5 rbaer said:

Mike, I've done the same thing, had my wash eat into clear, always frustrating. On the bright side, all the pics I've seen of Leos in the field show them pretty nasty looking. I had to cover up some gaffes on the -A4 I did a couple of years ago, from the Hobby Boss kit, using strategically applied accumulated dirt. Nobody but me knows....

I was just thinking about this yesterday and now that read your remark I think this is probably the way forward with this build. Thank you for mentioning it. You've given me a bit of confidence in moving forward on this build.

I always appreciate criticism. I may not always follow it lol, but it's never taken negatively. So thank you.

[Tojo72]

Nice job on picking out those details