Here’s the final images of the BergeLuther.

Progress continues on the BergeLuther. I’ve applied the oil discoloration using the 502 Abteilung oils paints. This time I used the colors German Gray Highlight + Faded Navy Blue, Light Rust, Dark Mud and UN Faded White. These were dabbed on as usual then blended in with clean odorless turpenoid. Before this I attached a fuel barrel/mount, tools and extinguisher to the main body. The rust of the barrel mount was done with a rusty base coat followed up by sponging on lighter and darker rust tones. More pics below…

I also began work on the Mig Productions Burned Out Modern Car kit which arrived a few days ago. After cleaning the resin and constructing the wire seats using the supplied jig and a soldering iron, cleaning up the kit and painting has been a fun and relatively quick process. I used an SBS at the Mig forum by vsuarez666 seen here. It was a great tool for getting great results quickly. I’ve still a bit to go on it, but here’s where I’m at so far.

After priming the kit with self-etching primer I followed up with a coat of flat black spraypaint. Over that I sprayed a dark overall rust tone using the black base as shadows to show through, followed up by two lighter rust coats mottled on with my airbrush.

Over this base coat I used cheapie acrylics and stippled on yellow, brown, gray, blue and red with a damp sponge. This adds more color and variety to the rust and will add more depth in the next steps.

Over this stippled coat I sprayed a flat layer of FFA to seal the base coats. I let that cure overnight and the next day I sprayed the kit down with hairspray and generously sprinkled kosher and table salt over it.

After the hairspray dried I sprayed on some neutral gray, white, then a light mint color for that “classic” car feel.

I removed the salt by rubbing and with water and a brush removing some of the hairspray layer as well to re-expose the rust. Rubbing the salt off took some of the base coat with it resulting in some dark spots, but those actually add to the overall rustiness and look great IMO.

Then I took some rust-colored oils, some dark brown and some ocher and blended them into the surface to enhance the color. I then took some white and Faded German Gray which is a very light bluish color and enhanced the leftover paint spots of the vehicle.

Once this layer of oils dry I plan to go back with some grays and whites and dirty the car up as it’ll be sitting in a pile of building debris.

And speaking of debris, here’s the start of my base for the Berge. The Berge will be plowing some debris off a road and into an open crater. There will be corrugated steel, barrels, building rubble, the car, a fridge, chair and vacuum, girders, pipes, bricks and more.  The base is foam and thin plywood for now, but all that will be covered. The exterior in basswood and the foam in Bondo, Celluclay, and a Sculpey road surface (made, but not pictured)

Since my last post I’ve pained additional details such as caution stripes and the rubber feet parts and applied more chipping effects. First I went through and used a butter color to create false chip highlights next to some of the paint chips as well as scrapes that didn’t go through to the metal. This same color was sponged on for more of the effect on random places… wherever it looked good. Unfortunately the color looks too white to me now, but a few filters of yellow or German Ocher will fix that. After the light yellow I went back and added yellow back to some of the larger chipped areas. This is known as “negative chips” IIRC. Works well and helps when I’ve removed too much paint with the hairspray technique.

Lastly I added finer chips using two methods. First I flicked spots of dark gray Vallejo paint onto the model to make fine little chips. A little goes a loooooong way so don’t overdo it. Then I sponged on Dark Rust and Dark Gray Vallejo to create more worn areas of rust where there would be more wear and tear. Feet, shovel, lower legs/shovel arm, etc… Then I clear-coated and added a few decals followed by a satin coat to prepare for the weathering steps.

I included a few more of my reference pics I’m using to depict a well-worn construction mecha. Here’s all the pics!

I’ve been pretty bust with the commissions and such so I need a mental health build badly! I had the BegreLuther resin kit cleaned of mold release and ready to go for months now so I figured it’d be an interesting and fun build. I started off by cutting and cleaning up the gates and mold lines. That went quickly as they were mostly placed well or non-existent. The kit was cast VERY nicely!There was not much clean-up at all on the main body.

The potentially hard part was the legs which come in halves to incorporate the joint movement, however it was fairly simple. I used regular liquid super glue along the edges before joining the parts and that not only glued them together, but acted as a gap/seam filler as well. All I needed was a little Tamiya putty here and there and the legs went together very nicely.

I read a lot of feedback from modelers on my KV-X2 kit and one of the comments that enlightened me the most was concerning the pistons and hydraulic lines. Since the BergeLuther has quite a few visible pistons I wanted to add the various pipes and hoses one would see on normal construction equipment hydraulics. Very small brass rod and tube was used to create the piping and later I’ll add black wire for the tubing. Luckily there are plenty of reference images available online for this.

Once construction was (easily) completed, I moved on to painting. First I primed the parts with dark gray Duplicolor primer. Once cured everything received a coat of a dark warm gray. That was mixed using Tamiya Acrylics Nato Brown, German Gray and Black.

Next I sprayed some Neutral Gray on parts of the shovel as this will help with the large rusty bare metalness later and light mottled random sprays of a rust mix over everything.

This is then followed up with a light thinned coat of Future to seal it all up before applying the hairspray.

Next I’ve sprayed all the parts with hairspray and sprinkled crushed kosher salt over the wet hairspray for additional chipping.

I forgot to photograph a few steps, but after the hairspray I sprayed the entire kit first with a very light gray as a base to brighten the yellow, then as seen below a nice construction yellow mix.

Then I let the yellow cure for an hour or so then begin the chipping. This is done by wetting the surface which loosens the hairspray and salt, Then with a soft brush and sharp plastic bits scrapes, chips and whatnot can be made. A great side effect of the hairspray over my rusty base (not sure if this happens to others) is that it mottles the base colors making a great realistic worn look. Note the differences of the inside of the shovel between the above pics and the pic below.

Next up is painting other colors then a clearcoat and decals.

So I don’t usually gush about the latest releases on my blog, but I received something in the mail today that is definitely noteworthy. Last week I saw images from Wonderfest thanks to Lin.K at scale120.com who posted them up on his blog. The Dust releases (by Paolo Parente) really caught my eye and for once I could order something from WF with ease! I especially loved the Axis BergeLuther which is a construction variant of the Axis Luther.

Today I recieved it and of course opened the box right up. Holy crap! Not onl were the resin parts in the most beautiful packaging I ever saw, but the parts are made like an injection plastic kit. Guide-pegs, thin casting, etc… best of all the casting seems flawless. I also love the gray resin as it’s much easier on the eyes to work with than the white or cream colored stuff.

This kit definitely gets an A+ from me for initial impression and packaging. I’ll certainly be building it sooner than later! You can order it from the Dust Game website.