The
Vehicle
The V-100 Armoured
Car by 'Verlinden' (Kit No.360) is the first full 1/35th scale kit
to be released by this company and differs slightly in construction from
a "normal" kit. There are less parts than an injection moulded kit with
the main hull cast in one piece with most of the small details included
in this casting. This and the remaining pieces have an excess resin 'foot',
a legacy of the casting process which has to be removed using a razor
saw, sharp knife with wet and dry paper. their may be the occasional surface
pitting caused by air bubbles trapped in the mould but this is less of
a problem with the resin and casting process used by 'Verlinden' than
with other brands I have seen. If present they can be easily filled and
sanded using conventional plastic filler putty (Tamiya Putty is ideal).
The kit is assembled using Cyanoacrylate, the thick gel variety is better
suited for the larger items such as the axels and wheels while, the smaller
items are attached with the normal liquid type. Again extreme care must
be taken when using this glue, this cannot be emphasised enough.
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| Unpainted Resin parts of V-100 |
Painted vehicle showing items used
for washes |
As with vac-form aircraft
kits there are a lot of extra detail which you must add yourself with
this type of kit, they include head light guards, door and grab handles
and lifting eyes on the turret which are made from thin wire superglued
into pre-drilled holes
The model is then airbrushed a basic olive drab (Humbrol HP5 'US Marine
Corps Green') with the other details brush painted and when dry the decals
are added. The rub on type decals supplied are excellent and require no
additional preparation as with water-slide decals which must be applied
over a gloss finish to hide the carrier film, the rub-ons can be applied
direct to the matt paint, only remember to position the decal exactly
where it is to go as you get no second chances as they are extremely thin
and cannot be moved once removed from the backing sheet. A final coat
of matt varnish is then airbrushed to seal the paintwork and decals for
the weathering to follow. When weathering vehicles or aircraft I prefer
to follow the same path as the real thing, that is, it is first produced
to a showroom finish out of the factory and paintshop and then picks up
dirt plus general wear and tear when used by the new "owners".
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| Assembled & Unpainted V-100 |
Painted & weathered model |
Faded paintwork can
be shown by a light overspray with a lighter colour or by drybrushing
and a black wash is applied to highlight the small details. Again Artist
Oils are used for the wash, this allows the wash to flow more easily around
the detail when applied with a fine brush. Apply the wash only to the
areas to be highlighted and not over the whole model, any excess wash
can be pick up with a cotton bub moistened with a little thinner. Finally
dirt and dust is drybrushed onto the model plus a lighter drybrush to
highlight the raised detail and the extra storage is then added.
This method can be used for any vehicle and also to military aircraft
both WWII and modern, reference to photographs will show that these aircraft
are not always in pristine condition (anyone who has visited a U.S.Navy
Carrier will testify to this) but donot overdo it, a subtle application
of washes and drybrushing is more effective on aircraft, but again there
are exceptions - check those references.
The
Figures
The 'Verlinden' figures
in both metal and resin have excellent detail and are ideally suited
to dioramas. They are firstly given a primer/undercoat which is left
to dry at least 48 hours and then the detailed painting begins.
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| Primed Figures ready for painting |
Flesh tones added using Oils |
The flesh tones are
first painted using artist oils which have a longer drying time than enamels
and allow much better blending of the colours, those used are Burnt Sienna,
Raw Umber, Yellow Ochre, Red, White and Yellow, the first three are mixed
to the required shade depending on the skin tone you want and the highlights
blended with the lighter colours. A 54mm figure viewed from 6" is the
same height as a man standing 12 feet away so only details seen from that
distance should be painted (ie, no whites of their eyes). A lot can be
learned by observing people during your daily lives. the next time you
are in a crowd outdoors note how the light and shadow effect the skin
tones of their faces etc., areas such as the forehead cheeks and nose
are lighter than under the chin and eyes plus the skin creases. With a
little practice your figures will appear much more realistic.
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| Basic Uniform Colours added |
Final drybrushed highlights |
Next the uniforms are
painted using enamel paints with various shades of greens, this is because
the fabric fades with age and rarely do you see "uniforms" of uniform
colours, the darker areas of shadow are also added with a fine brush.
Finally the lighter raised detail and creases are highlighted by careful
drybrushing with a small brush taking care in avoiding the flesh areas.
Painting figures for a diorama are different from painting a single figure,
the diorama figure is part of an overall scene hence the scale distance
considerations mentioned earlier, where as a single figure is viewed on
its own and must have a lot more detail added. |
