And another one done! This time it’s the Dustbuster, conceptualized by Miguel Lopez, 3D modeled by Nate Clowar and produced by Industria Mechanika. This kit is beautifully, near flawlessly in fact, cast with 60+ parts, Driver, and photoetch!

Get Your Dustbuster Kit Here* »

*Discounted price until 3.18.2013 while supplies last!

Been working on this off and on the past week… mostly off though. Luckily though, the techniques I use for the dusting, mud and weathering are fairly simple. I started off with a filter then some discoloration with oils. (see my Millenium Falcon video tutorials for details)  That gives the paint a nice aged look.

Next I sprayed a thin mist of AK-Interactive’s “Earth Effects” over all of the parts, focusing on where dust and dirt would accumulate. Over this I sprayed the “Africa Dust Effects” which is a lighter dustier tone. I then used a odorless turpenoid dampened “deer-foot” shaped brush and stippled (dabbed repeatedly) the surface to mottle and blend the dust layers. I prefer this to using pigment powders to do the general dustings as you don’t have to worry so much about fingerprints later.

Next I mixed up some pigments to match the groundwork with some plaster, Earth and Africa Dust Effects and a little of AK’s Odorless Mineral Spirits with an old brush. I used air-only from my airbrush to spatter this thin muddy mixture onto the underside and sides of the Dustbuster chassis.

Finally over the weathering I rubbed some “Steel” pigments (powdered graphite/pencil “lead”)  on my fingers and onto some of the worn raised edges.

The last thing I need to do with the tires is brush on some thinned pigments onto the tread-edges that would contact the ground. Fairly quick and simple step.

Just for reference, here’s a 1/35 scale figure, a real 1/35 trumpeter AFV wheel, a 1/35 German wheel, and the massive Dustbuster wheel which is also 1/35 scale.

Also worked on the base. I filled the box with dense pink insulation foam, then layered on a mix of plaster and railroad grits. I waited for it to start setting up and started sponging it for added texture. The large rocks are plaster from some WS rock molds I have. I don’t have a pic, but over this I painted it a base sandy-dirt color, then using the same mud/pigment mixture as above for the spattering, I applied it with a stiff brush. The wires are to make the Dustbuster attach to the base on only it’s two rear tires to give the impression that it’s jumping.

Well, here they are…  my two build-ups of Ian McQue’s Remora. The red one will be shipped off to Ian in a few days where he’ll do the final rigging and the blue will most happily collect dust in my display case. Overall these were a LOT of fun, not only painting/finishing, but building the master as well and producing the kit through Industria Mechanika.

You can preorder the Remora’s next edition at Industria Mechanika.

Here’s 40-something images for you to browse. Enjoy!

First up: You can preorder the 2nd Edition of this Remora kit now at Industria Mechanika!

Finally I have a chance to continue with the progress posts. First up was the rusty streaks. For these I used the AK-Interactive rust streaks, light rust and their white spirits. I also used a small flat brush and my airbrush. I misted on a VERY light coat of the Rust Streaks, then Light Rust Wash onto the hull sides and let dry a few minutes. Then I took a brush dampened with thinner and streaked the enamel product um and down creating the rust streaks. This stuff works great! Below is a few examples and a before/after.

You can simply paint streaks on with a thin brush, then blend them in with the thinner and flat brush, but the airbrush method gives you a heavier effect.

For the engines… What I did was paint them in dark gray, then hairspray, then a lighter gray-khaki color. Then I chipped the hell out of it with a toothbrush and water revealing the dark gray. Then I rubbed it with my finger in some of the AK-Interactive steel powder (graphite will work too). Then I did something similar to the discoloration technique, but with thicker globs of black and blue and worked that in. It removes and spreads around some of the steel powder giving it all a nice faint metal look. Then I drybrushed some gold, metallic blue, then metallic purple around the nose cones.

I used some of the optional dot-plate from the PE fret to make a rounded engine cover. I also used some of the leftover wire on the engines to greeblie it up.

Lastly for this update, here’s a few shots of the Red Remora with some cargo and the rigging of the crane done. Currently I’m in the process of adding bird poop and other rigging and will show those off with the final images.

Adding some chain and a bead to the end of the crane/hook helps weigh down the cable, keeping it straight.

I finally finished doing all of the paint and chipping on the two Remora build-ups. For the most part, it was all the same hairspray steps described in the last update. You can see on the blue ship, the ‘Lillian G’, that I added an extra boom to the mast that I had scratchbuilt to make it a little different.

After the paint was done I clearcoated and began decaling using the supplied decals. They worked really nicely and provide a LOT of ship names. As you can see Ian’s is the ‘Remora’ and mine is the name of the favorite boat my dad worked on before he retired from working on river tow-boats, the ‘Lillian G’.After decaling I airbrushed on a satin coat of Future and added a dark-brown, the rust filter to all the parts.

Been a very busy modeler since the last update. The nature of the paint-work, inspiration, and following Ian’s painting is making painting and chipping one part at a time a necessity for my own sanity. It’s very enjoyable and I love the challenge of interpreting Ian’s painting into realistic paint and chips on a physical model. I’m also working on my own color scheme version inspired by Ian’s other paintings so let’s break down how I’ve done everything so far.

Build-up for Ian McQue:

After I did the base rust colors shown in the last update, I sprayed the entire hull in hairspray and let it air-dry. When dry I first sprayed on a thin base of white to make the next red mix pop. After I immediately sprayed a mixture of Tamiya Red, White, and Earth to get the faded old red color. Then I staded it streaking up and down focusing on the underside with a dark warm gray color. Tamiya Acrylics works best for the hairspray technique. Do not use enamels, lacquers or Vallejo for this.

I let the paint cure for only about 10-15 minutes then began chipping away at the red using a stiff brush and a needle to smaller scratches. Heavier chipping was added around the entryways and edges.

I removed much of the paint from the deck, but will paint the deck in grays and rusts later after masking the sidewalls.

After the chipping was complete I gave the hull a thin coat of Future Floor Acrylic to seal the red and chips. I waited about 6 hours then sprayed on a more hairspray then a random coat of minty blues and whites focusing on the rear and front of the ship based on Ian’s Remora painting.

I chipped away at the “mint” coat revealing the reds and rusts beneath. I love this multi-layered approach to painting chips as it adds a lot of depth and visual interest.

Afterwards I gave the hull another thin coat of Future to seal the blues. While that was curing I started on the fins. Using the box art as reference I did the same hairspray steps as above using custom mixes of Tamiya acrylics and tape to get the desired look.

I asked Ian what the fins on the opposite side looked like as I assumed they weren’t mirrored and he sent me a quick render. Using that ref I did what you see below. Next I’ll start on the deck and wheelhouse painting.

Build-up for FichtenFoo:

Meanwhile I was working on my personal Remora build-up. I started off with a layer of hairspray then painted the deck and inner walls in Nato Black oversprayed with Khaki to highlight it.

On the outside I sprayed custom mixes of cool blue-green grays. I then chipped this quite heavily using a toothbrush. I gave the hull a thin coat of Future and let it cure overnight.

The next day I applied more hairspray, then more custom mixes. First some Tamiya “Sky”, then over that lightened Tamiya White + Blue, then straight blue for panel edging using some post-its to define the edges.

I masked the blue and painted the orange front by first laying down some white, then the orange. Afterwards I removed the tape and began chipping the blues and oranges. You can see towards the front of the blue where the grays from the first coat start to show through on the chips.

When I was done with the blues and oranges, I wanted to add some random yellow chips to the rear. I tore off some wide Tamiya tape with rough edges and masked the areas I wanted yellow. Then I used my airbrush to put down some of the AK-Interactive chipping fluid. It works just like hairspray, but can be airbrushed making it great for spot-work like this.

I sprayed the white, then yellow and removed the masking. Then I took a wet toothbrush and chipped away most of the yellow. The end result gives that mottled colorful feel that you see in Ian McQue’s paintings.

That’s if so far. Watch for more on the next update!

I’m not sure where I left off in the progress report, but this has been done for well over a month. About time to take some pics! This is just the robot for now. The rest of the diorama will be completed at a later date. Since this Chubu was found rusting on an old farm, I decided to do that as a wallpaper. Enjoy!

Plugging right along. I got a nice big box of samples from AK-Interactive last week and started putting them to the test on this build. For this progress report I’ll focus on their streaking products, but I’ve tried some of their others since these pics were taken and REALLY like them so far.

Since the last update I’ve focused on the rust chips. I had started doing a few streaks with oil paint, then the next day the box from AK arrived with samples of just about everything as well as their Washes, Fading and Oils DVD which after watching, I learned how to use these products and just how easy they are to use to get very nice results quickly. I decided to give the bottle of “Rust Streaks” a try first. Basically, you shake up the thinned enamel mixture, paint your streaks on with a thin brush, wait a few minutes, then “stump” (blend/blur) them with a brush dampened with “White Spirits”. And that’s it. After that dried (I gave it a few hours) I went back and added more streaks with the “Streaking Grime” mixture. Same method and same simple good results. I really recommend the products, but also the DVD as it was very helpful.

My only problem is one that has more to do with the kit than the AK products. The Chubu is all curves… and not only curves, but curves at an angle. Since I want to depict a machine that’s been sitting in a farmers field for quite a while, the streaks had to follow these contours. That’s a little more difficult than the flat sides of most tanks and AFVs. However I quickly figured out a simple method of determining the angle streaks should flow. Just use an eye-dropper and water and let gravity be your guide. Nothing simpler than that!

I had to take my chipped areas one step further however due to the large scale. The chips looked decent enough, but were missing something. I discovered on accident that some “rust bleed” around the chips makes all the difference. It looks as if the chips are rusting and the resulting rust is creeping beneath the chips into the surrounding paint. I was applying some rust-toned oil paint to some of the larger chips and over-thinned a few resulting in the bleed. After that I just refined the method a tad. Just paint the chips with slightly thin rusty oils (I used the 502 A. Dark Rust) then using a thinner-dampened brush, feather the rust paint around the chip.

Now I’m onto the pigment dust and fuel/oil grime and stains phase. Pics on that in a few days.