Scale Military Modeller International – August 2019

day to put together, they really do look the
business when on the model. Once all had
set it was then back through the missed-out
steps and the details now ixed in place. I
left a few items of for ease of painting such
as the upper crew hatches, clear light lenses
and the top sight. As a point of note the etch
parts Y7/Y9 can be folded up as on the real
vehicle or left down so as you can add the
decal also part Y5 can be ixed to inner rear
side wall or attached to the year bar armour
and decal applied. Well after itting all the
remainder of the kit together I’d decided that
I would be painting most of the periscopes
for the driver and crew and only leaving the
weapon sights clear. Strangely the one to the
right of the main armament thermal imager?
isn’t clear, but that would be dealt with
during the painting stage. Once everything

was in place, I needed to add a very small

amount of iller to the front hull before

sanding smooth. Looking at the size of the

model it’s a fair piece of plastic the detail, to

me anyway looks superb and the anti-slip

texture has been captured very well indeed.

The inal thing I did was to glue the wing

mirrors to the hull roof as on the real vehicle

they are folded down out of the way and that

was it. Now onto the best bit.

After washing the model in some mild

washing up liquid to remove any dust or

grease, the kit was put aside to dry. Then

I masked of with some tape and masking

luid, the upper sights then began spraying

a coat of black primer onto the kit, all panel

areas were then given a coat of white primer

as well. I’ve started to use this on some

models just to try and get a diferent look.

Whether it works or not I haven’t decided

yet. After the primer had dried, I checked

of any laws on the model, didn’t ind any

so it was on to the next stage. So, the kits

painting instructions has a pretty good

painting guide, so I just based mine on this.

The NATO green I mixed from several shades

of Tamiya greens and then inished of with

a coat of NATO green from the Hataka range.

The brown and black were again mixed

from the Tamiya range and then a very

light over spray of light green misted on

heavily thinned before doing so. Between

all the following stages there was at least

twelve hours drying time before applying

weathering etc. So next was to apply two

thin coats of Humbrol gloss coat acrylic

varnish. This helps with the application of

decals and with the wash that I’d be adding.

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16 SCALE MILITARY MODELLER INTERNATIONAL

Dragging dust wash down

The black and white primer coat drying

Applying the dust wash

Tamiya Buff was sprayed on to represent dust

Camouflage now

applied, and Gloss

varnish layered on

Weathering rear lights

after painting