Rusting Metal

Creating convincing rust is an artform, every armour modeller knows how, and there are a plethora of techniques. Oil pinwash creates very convincing old rust that has been rain-streaked down vertical surfaces, and capillary action draws oils in a very visually pleasing way around all three dimensional detail to the same effect. Pigments and ground pastels can be used to generate very convincing rust staining, but these are all 2D colour applications. What about when the rust has actually eaten into and modified a surface?

I recently came upon a quick technique for making rust bubble up on tank exhausts. It’s a combination of methods but takes only a short while.

I first brush on liquid cement, then scatter the wet cement with saved sanding dust – yes, when I sand putty I tap the resulting dust into a container and save it for jobs just like this! The glue locks it in place and when it’s dry I overspray with acrylics in a colour close to that of the finished rust. Then I brush it over with Migs, a red rust shade, then a black for soot and to give it depth.

The result can be surprisingly realistic for minimal effort. It doesn’t always come out perfectly, much depends on the randomness of the powder scatter in the first part, but it’s never less than an interesting and unusual effect. The accompanying photos show the exhaust of an Academy M51 Super Sherman (kit review coming soon) and the muffler of my Academy/Tamiya StuG IV, which is finally taking shape.

Final Review: 1:48 Hasegawa Bf 109 K-4

 

 With the K-4 finally done (okay, maybe there are one or two details I missed – I blush, I forgot the wingtip formation lights, so she’ll be coming out of the display case for a quick spot of red and green…) I can finish my work in progress articles with a roundup of this kit’s qualities. Hasegawa’s kit #09063 (JT63) is quite the gem. It has many unused parts from other variants, different cockpit sidewalls, the droptanks and underwing gunpods of G-series bomber-destroyers, three different tail wheel struts, three different instrument panels. You need to keep a careful eye on the instructions to make sure you select the right parts for the variant you’re building.  

 Marking options are supplied for two aircraft, Yellow 4, “Ingeborg,” of II/JG 3, March 1945, and a second contemporary airframe. Markings include a full suite of stencil data, even including the Werk numbers which may or may not have been carried on the tail of Yellow 4, depending on the sources you consult. I was originally a little put out with the engineering of the cockpit, but from that point onward the model literally fell together. The propeller attachment could have been smarter, trying to accurately align the fuselage halves while trapping an un-glued rotation piece in a channel at the front end was quite impossible for my dexterity and I settled for gluing it in place as a fixed stub, thus creating a non-turning finished prop. Parts alignment was superb for the most part, my only criticism is a tiny fore-and-aft mismatch on fuselage right and left detailing, which is only really visible where the aft fuselage segments are delineated on the underside. The flaps were marred by a long sink mark on the upper surfaces, which was only visible in certain lighting, virtually guaranteeing the parts were mounted before the problem was noticed. Similarly, the leading edge slats can be mounted open or closed, and while the deployed configuration adds visual interest the separate parts come with the usual penalty for assembling them closed: they don’t fit as well into their bays as the slats of the real plane would.  

 But these are minor quibbles, really. The surface detailing is accurate for a K-4, the hatches and access panels are in the right places, the Erla Haube looks convincing, and with a few extra details scratched together (the radiator pitch rods, battery bay hatch and flap ribs which I covered in my first post on this kit) it builds into a visually convincing model. I could have added hydraulic lines from fine wire but I was out of time and application on the project, that’s something for future builds. Another detail which I had meant to use was Quickboost’s exhausts, beautifully cast with open throats and midline weld seams, however they did not provide the locator slot for the glare shields of the late-series 109s, molded as separate kit parts, and I didn’t fancy scratching this detail at so late a stage. The resin AMs ended up in the drawer against a future build.  

 The decals went down actually quite nicely, reacting well with Microscale chemistry, though the spiralschnauze tried to curl up on the paper and was broken into pieces to be applied, and the big open crosses silvered somewhat. The 60 or so decals make a visually ‘busy’ aircraft, even if the real “Ingeborg” may not have carried a full suite of stencils (references and reconstructions do not, as you would expect, always agree.) Promodeller panel wash and MiG pigments created the worn appearance, the carbon stains and dust that denote a service aircraft being hard-flown, and EZ Line provided the radio antenna. Without going to the extent of AM cockpit and wheels, opening the canopy etc, this model makes a sweet display piece that really captures, the gutsy, brutish yet still graceful lines of the ever-more powerful ultimate Messerschmitt 109. I would recommend this kit to anyone with a few builds under his or her belt: while the multi-tone camouflage will be a challenge and the many decals will certainly occupy more than a couple of evenings, the basic soundness of the kit engineering will foster an attractive finished product if approached with care, forethought, and above all, patience. 

Recently Completed: Tamiya Type 74 MBT

 This model was something of a milestone for me as I had previously only worked in enamel paints on armour. For this one I decided to give a full acrylic paintjob a go, especially as the correct shade for JGSDF Green was standard stock in Tamiya’s range. I won the kit on eBay for a bargain price. It’s the original edition, MM-214, from the days of Tamiya’s partnership with MRC for North American distribution, distinct from the current version of the kit which has markings for a winter scheme.

 The Japanese Type 74 was Japan’s second indigenous post-war MBT and incorporated concepts pioneered by the US/German MBT-70, such as independent, fully-adjustable suspension, and the British L-7 rifled 105mm gun used a few years later on the early production M1, plus laser rangefinder, IR night vision systems and multiple other state of the art refinements for the 1969 – 1975 period. In other ways the tank is very traditional, with the ballistic formula and running gear of the T-34 very apparent.  

The model builds a breeze, it more or less falls together, and has some interesting options, including a wading configuration with vertical exhausts and hatch tower, and posable suspension for a diorama depicting the vehicle on either uneven ground or in ‘kneeling’ mode, in which greater depression or elevation angle was obtained by compressing the hydropneumatic suspension system. There is even a tool for creating a symmetrical offset of the suspension arms. Other features include two figures and a variety of markings for service and training units. The only fiddly bit was the small turret basket which used a lot of CA and taxed my patience somewhat. Less fiddly was the necessity to mount the IR searchlight after applying the forward turret decals, which came out looking most realistic. The kit shows its age in some ways, such as an absence of periscopes under the armoured covers of the driver’s hatch, and no amount of stretching or reverse bending would take the fold-kink out of the vinyl tracks.  

As I began, this was my first acrylic basecoat on armour, and I was very pleased with the result, going on to do a standard triple tonal variation, a lightened shade sprayed into the middle of panels and a darkened shade to the edges as post-shading, which came out particularly effectively on the flank hull. I enjoyed the smooth simplicity of oil wash weathering over the base: I pin-washed as usual, but did some streaking and dirt build-up on the lower hull with soft brushes. I had intended to try clearcoats for applying the prominent decals to the turret, but Tamiya’s decals went on perfectly over the flat finish, so I did not extend things to that range of techniques.  

After that I mounted the antennas from .015” spring steel wire, and used MiG pigments to dust the hull, tracks and running gear. In retrospect the dusting job might have been a bit heavy-handed and I’m toying with the idea of wasing it away and starting again, more subtly, but once again this would be an experiment, I would first study the washing characteristic of the pigment on scrap plastic so as not to turn an aesthetic doubt into a disaster.  

I built this model in 2008 and am very happy with the result (okay, a gap opened up between mantlet and turret in the time she’s been standing, and I’ll have to repair that... Who says model vehicles don’t need maintenance?!) So happy, I have adopted this general suite of techniques as my standard armour finishing procedure and may never spray a tank with enamels again, unless the necessary colour is simply unobtainable and unmixable.