Dragon Tiger I Late 3-in-1

[deafpanzer]

Superb work on the tracks & wheels!! Look like you are on track to finish this before 2014... looking great my friend!

[Deleted]

Some more mighty Fine detailing on those tracks Bill .

[macmcconnell.]

Now that's a fine lookin cat, I love the the gentle tones this really is well done.
You have plans for a crew and dio?

Mac

[beast]

Very late arrival my friend but went through the whole blog from start to where you are now. Superb work, very precise, crisp and clean. Really like the almost new look to your Tiger as you see so many that have been severely battered! Top drawer stuff!

[Hinksy]

Dec 16, 2013 6:07:58 GMT -5 beast said:

Very late arrival my friend but went through the whole blog from start to where you are now. Superb work, very precise, crisp and clean. Really like the almost new look to your Tiger as you see so many that have been severely battered! Top drawer stuff!

Ditto Beast - I couldn't have said it better myself! Nice Tribal Tattoo work in your Avatar btw matey - you gotta love Tribal

I don't know if you have been on Bill's own little site which shows all his work (bpmodels - the link is in his signature I think) but he's got some excellent blogs in there that cover a lot of popular kits and these blogs have come to my rescue time and again!

Anyway, SUPERB work Bill. Can't be faulted! The cammo is excellent and obviously hasn't been hidden under the washes and filters which is not an easy thing to do.

What's up next pal? I'd really like to see you build a knocked out tank or a real mud/rust bucket!

Yet again - excellent work from my favourite modeller

Thanks Bill,

Ben

[bullardino]

Excellent job, Bill. I truly love your water+pigment technique. I used it on the Sherman II and it's easy to use and to control.

[ceresvesta.]

Finetastic work on the pigments Bill! Overall weathering is spot on.
Phil

[beast]

Dec 16, 2013 6:47:09 GMT -5 Hinksy said:

Dec 16, 2013 6:07:58 GMT -5 beast said:

Very late arrival my friend but went through the whole blog from start to where you are now. Superb work, very precise, crisp and clean. Really like the almost new look to your Tiger as you see so many that have been severely battered! Top drawer stuff!

Ditto Beast - I couldn't have said it better myself! Nice Tribal Tattoo work in your Avatar btw matey - you gotta love Tribal

I don't know if you have been on Bill's own little site which shows all his work (bpmodels - the link is in his signature I think) but he's got some excellent blogs in there that cover a lot of popular kits and these blogs have come to my rescue time and again!

Anyway, SUPERB work Bill. Can't be faulted! The cammo is excellent and obviously hasn't been hidden under the washes and filters which is not an easy thing to do.

What's up next pal? I'd really like to see you build a knocked out tank or a real mud/rust bucket!

Yet again - excellent work from my favourite modeller

Thanks Bill,

Ben

Thanks Ben! Not much space left for more ink lol!
I've bookmarked Bill's site, wow! So much info there for a guy like me, thanks for sharing Bill, we owe you awe!

[Deleted]

tremendous work Bill she's really looking stunning

[wbill76]

Thanks Joe!

Tobi, the added-soap trick is one I picked up somewhere else several years ago and it works great...basic chemistry 101-type stuff in terms of breaking the surface tension, it essentially turns water into the perfect carrier for the pigment without worrying about it interacting with any of the other underlying applications. It also allows the pigment to behave at a very fine level, the Dark Mud in particular becomes almost like a stain in combination with the flat coat as it 'grabs' onto the 'tooth' that the flat coat provides. The water also partially fixes the pigment (different pigments behave slightly different I've found though). I also know about the 'invisible' trick with an additional flat coat, found that out myself the hard way once when I had the bright idea of applying a flat coat as a final step only to see all the pigment work disappear! (For all those who don't know, all flat coats are is a fine talcum-powder like suspension in a lacquer carrier...it's those fine particles that produce the flat result by scattering light after the carrier dries/evaporates and if you apply it over pigments, the lacquer carrier essentially binds the fine particles along with the pigments...so voila! vanishing pigments...! ).

Andy, yep have to get this one done in 2013 so I can be ready to deliver my end of the CB-Challenge bargain!

Carl, thanks buddy! Fortunately I don't have to worry about cat dumplings with this method...

Mac, no crew or dio plans, the display space I have in my wall cabinets doesn't allow for that unfortunately so I typically don't do bases. Figures aren't something that I've ever gotten interested in personally (although I admire the work others do for sure in this arena), so I tend to not include them in my builds...but you never know what the future might bring!

Stuart, Thanks! It's true that you often see Tigers beaten up a good bit, nothing wrong with that IMHO as they often saw some hard fighting/service. In this case my Tiger is sporting features that were introduced in June '44 production and is in a Normandy scheme/markings for the July/August timeframe so wouldn't have had much of a chance to get too battered in the process. Glad you like the BP Models site and hope it's helpful to you, it's something I refer back to often myself when I can't remember how or when I did something on a particular build!

Ben, always the trick to keep the layers complimentary to each other and not let them be too powerful/overwhelming in the process, especially in the early stages. As for what's next, I may build my Battlestar Galactica as a short little filler while I wait to see if CB can finish his build in time for the New Year...then I'll be starting on a 1/32 Trumpeter Bf 109F-4/Trop as my end of that particular challenge/bargain. Yes, you saw that correctly, a wingy!

Luigi, I'm glad the technique has been helpful for you, so many different ways to apply it and use it...I'm constantly tinkering and exploring with it myself...sometimes those efforts work out, sometimes not, but you never know until you try!

Phil and Pete, thank you both gents, much appreciated!

[reserve]

I really must try your track method one of these times the finished look is awesome, as is the rest of this build. As usual. Bill-1000, Entropy-0.


Regards,
Mark

[wbill76]

Dec 16, 2013 16:40:07 GMT -5 reserve said:

I really must try your track method one of these times the finished look is awesome, as is the rest of this build. As usual. Bill-1000, Entropy-0.


Regards,
Mark

Thanks Mark! Always good when you can triumph over certain laws of the universe...just don't tell Dicky.

[armorguy]

Great SBS mate, it's nice to see how other guys work with pigments, very useful stuff !

[Deano]

Great results here Bill , she really is looking the business now

Deano

[modelfreak72]

What else can I say sir, but a marvelous piece of craftsmanship!

[wbill76]

Thanks AG! I always try to avoid the 'and then a miracle occurred!' approach to the blogs, if nothing else it can show someone what NOT to do!

Deano, always a pleasure to have the Braille King stop by, thank you kindly your grace!

MF, nice to see you stop in as well! Hope things aren't keeping you too busy this holiday season and you get some benchtime in!

[Deleted]

Brilliant work on this Tiggy,Mr P....and as some of the others said,nice to see an Axis piece more accurately portrayed than some I've seen.Dirty,but reasonably well maintained.To my way of thinking,the crews given the honour of using these machines,would have kept them as up to scratch as possible. The way I am at the moment,I may have to conceed,so that you don't have to build the wingy,but as Dicky has mentioned in Mine and OJ's thread,it looks like I'll have to resort to the Hairy brush to do the rest of the painting.

[wbill76]

Thanks CB! My personal view is that every vehicle had a 'life'...some longer or shorter, some met very violent ends, others soldiered on far longer than anyone would expect, etc. That provides a broad range of opportunities to the model builder to depict a vehicle anywhere along that spectrum and still be within the world of 'plausibility'. Under normal conditions the crews depended on these machines to keep them alive and crews were responsible for their own regular maintenance to keep it running where possible. I just got done reading Armored Thunderbolt by Zaloga and it was fascinating to read the statistics on just how many Axis vehicles from Sept '44 onward were 'lost' due to mechanical failure/breakdown and not due to enemy action...a combination of lack of spare parts, mechanical unreliability in some of the vehicle designs, and increasingly rushed/poor quality of work due to use of slave labor were all cited as factors. Fascinating stuff! I'm already locked in on the wingy, so you're not off the hook quite so easy!

Dicky, thank you sir! Nice to see you've survived your dual with Andy...don't let up on him or that Chally will be heading North for the summer!

[modelfreak72]

Bill I've been at the bench quite a bit as of late, and with the decal fest on Big E's airwing done Christmas shopping and helping the wife bake( she broke her wrist two weeks ago) have been a great change of pace. But I'm also suffering from Lack of glue and paintitiss! So have been marathon building and painting! And it is all stuff with VERY FEW DECALS!! LOL!!

[wbill76]

I can imagine you might need a break after dealing with that airwing! Hope your wife's wrist heals quickly, sounds like you're multi-tasking, just be sure not to mix up the glue with the baking and you'll be fine...styrene-cookies probably won't go over too well.

[robbo]

Looking very nice mate. Do you seal the pigments in with anything or just leave them like this. I've found that putting a flat coat on top of pigments makes the pigments disappear

[wbill76]

Dec 18, 2013 15:06:57 GMT -5 robbo said:

Looking very nice mate. Do you seal the pigments in with anything or just leave them like this. I've found that putting a flat coat on top of pigments makes the pigments disappear

I've had the same experience Ian quite by accident and since then avoid using any kind of sealant on the pigments after application. The 'tooth' on the Model Master Lusterless Flat is pretty good and will hold the pigments fairly well. Pigments applied wet also are more durable after they've dried I've found but it varies depending on the pigment and how heavy the application. HTH!

[wing_nut]

As fine a piece of work as I would have expected from Der Plunkwerks. Very nice indeed.

[wbill76]

Thanks Marc! Glad to see you've escaped the clutches of your Creature temporarily to pay a visit.

[wbill76]

Managed to get the finishing touches in on the Tiger and get it across the finish line. First things first though, the remaining details included some additional pigment treatment for the running gear and fenders. I applied some dry Mig Light Dust pigments to further blend in the previous efforts and tone down the reddish effects a bit as well as tie things back in with the rest of the vehicle.



Using the same pigments and approach, I also added some dust tones to the spare tracks on the turret and the hull tools/equipment.



The turret was added back to the hull for the final time to allow the antenna to be added. Once that was installed, it was no longer possible to remove the turret due to the clearance issues with rotating the turret to the other side to line up the tab/notches in the hull...so that's why this was saved to the very end. An RB Models brass antenna filled the role here and was detailed with MM non-buffing Metalizer Gunmetal.



After a few minor tweaks here and there, it was off to the photo booth for the walk-arounds.

[Leon]

Bill,congrats on fantastic finish.The Tiger is looking aces all around.

[Tojo72]

Another great job Bill

[fightnjoe]

stunning finish bill.



joe

[pantherf..-Email Not Valid]

Looks sweet Bill!




Jeff

[bbd468]

Fine Tiger brother Bill! Great build, paint and weathering.....what more can a man ask for in a Tiger.