Here’s one I’ve been working off an on with for the past month: The Frame Arms GouRai kit by Kotobukiya. The kit is 1/100 scale but a little larger than a typical 1/144 Gundam kit. Regardless of the size, the detailing is great and the frame was a breeze to work with and makes it really posable. (even though there’s only one pose in the pics)

I decided to forgo my usual 1/100 scale mecha clean look for a more weathered AFV feel. I modeled this just like I would a tank with washes and oil discoloration. The only change was in the chipping where I used a blade to scratch the light paint off showing the dark gray primer, and I didn’t use pigments as this would be handled more than a tank. Instead I weathered and muddied it up with acrylics and oils.

I applied the pigments the other day and made a new base so this build is done! The other base was not wide enough so a new one was required… the 38t(x) has a leg-span of about 6″ and the old base was done on a 4″ box. Doh! The figure is from the Dragon DAK set and is nicely molded. I painted it with oils.

Like I said earlier this latest of my walking tanks was painted up for the box-art and should be available some time this month from Mig Productions. Tow flavors will be available…. one with a turret and one without in case you want to use a different one. The casting was amazing and not much clean-up was needed at all. Not sure of the final price yet, but probably comparable to my KV-2X and Hovertank designs.

Enough yakking… pics!

I skipped over a few steps with the photography, but I can describe them here. When I left off it was time for additional modulation, but this time with oils. Using 502 Abteilung oil paint I highlighted and darkened areas to give them more depth. The colors I used for this were Buff, Light Mud, Dark Mud and Starship Filth. I basically just hand-painted and blended the colors into the surface to lighten and darken it. I added some very faint rust-colored areas in a discoloration technique as well then set it in a hotbox for a few days to dry.

The “hotbox” is just an old paint of speaker-boxes made from wood with one side open enough to put a lightbulb in and raise the temp to speed up oil paint’s dry time. I have a 1/35 DAK fig in it now drying to go with this vignette.

After the modulation/discoloration had dried I wen back and added darker and more defined rust areas with the 502 oil’s Dark Rust and Shadow Brown colors. Then I used thinned Shadow Brown to do light pin washes on the rivets and panel lines. Then once more into the hotbox for some drying. After that it was all hit with a flat coat of FFA. Next up is pre-dusting with the airbrush and then pigment dusting.

I also started on a small display base for this build just for my own uses as I doubt it’ll make it to the box art. I started with a leftover wood box lid from a jewelery box who’s “box” had been used elsewhere for another dio… maybe the “Taco”. Anyway, I then built up some 3/16″ basswood walls and stained it. After the stain dried I sawed off some edges to create a few levels then filled the box with green floral foam for bulk. Plaster rocks were added then it was all filled in with a gravel, ballast, tallus, sand, white glue, and Celluclay mixture. This was worked in with a wet stiff brush and then more tallus/ballast was added to simulate rockfall fixed with white glue.

I wanted to simulate a Moroccan desert scene so with the help of some reference started choosing colors to paint the groundwork. After the Celluclay dried, I hand-brushed on several coats of cheap tan/chocolate mixed acrylics with a very slight hint of red based on my refs. I added several coats until all the rocks and groundwork was a uniform color. Next I darkened the base color with a darker tan/chocolate/red mix. Once that dried I applied a wash of Mig Productions “Dark Wash and let it dry as well. When dry I drybrushed the whole base with light tan to make the rocks pop more. Once done the whole thing was dusted with African Earth, Gulf War Sand, and Dry Mud pigments and doused with Pigment Fixer.

Plants are bundles of dark shaded jute fiber, drybrushed with white glue and dipped in earth colored fine turf.

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)

Next up was highlights and shadows. The wash does a lot to bring out the details, but a little extra work will really make them pop. First I used Mig Productions “Wash” to deepen some of the recesses and bring out some details that the first discoloration wash did not. I used their Neutral color and a very thin brush and applied it around some of the deeper areas, panel lines and things I wanted to pop more.

After that dried I used a little white oil paint and highlighted some of the raided panels and details by applying very thin coats to those areas. I used some various oils and cleaned-up my rusted panels as well. After some pigments those should look really nice.

And that’ll be the final step. Pigments will be applied for scorch marks, engine burn, etc. Migs new Fantasy line has some great colors to really bring the engine nozzels to life and their new metalics (coper, silver, steel) should look great rubbed on some of the conduit and guns. I also need to give the R5 unit a little discoloration as he’s so far just been painted and decaled. I do want him to look relatively clean compared to the Y-Wing though for some contrast.