Part 3
Part 3
by Terry Ashley

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.
Resin parts of V-100 Painted V-100
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".
V-100 V-100
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.

Primed Figures Flesh tones
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.
Primed Figures Flesh tones
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.
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