Academy M551 Sheridan

[Shar2]

This was built for a GB on Britmodeller. It's the first armoured vehicle I've built for about 25yrs. Really pleased the way it's come out. The kit is the Academy 1/35 M551 "Vietnam" to which I added an Eduard etch set, Legend Productions stores and crew sets.

[dr_gn]

Looks very good. What colour did you use for the bare metal? Looks very convincing.

[Eric Mc]

Looks good to me - not that I know anything about tanks.

[Shar2]

dr_gn said:

Looks very good. What colour did you use for the bare metal? Looks very convincing.

Thanks. Since the original vehicle was made of aluminium I used Alclad II then sprayed the green over the top. It was just a matter of carefully scraping away the green paint whilst it wasn't quite dry, revealing the ali underneath.

[dr_gn]

Shar2 said:

Thanks. Since the original vehicle was made of aluminium I used Alclad II then sprayed the green over the top. It was just a matter of carefully scraping away the green paint whilst it wasn't quite dry, revealing the ali underneath.

Hmmm never tried that, sounds tricky.

I used Citadel Myrthil Silver, but apparently it's too bright, so I got some Citadel Chainmail to try next, which is a bit darker.

[Red Firecracker]

Very nice indeed, Shar.

dr_gn, have you tried the sellotape method of paint chipping?

[dr_gn]

Red Firecracker said:

Very nice indeed, Shar.

dr_gn, have you tried the sellotape method of paint chipping?

Nope.

[Red Firecracker]

Are you aware of the sellotape method.....

Basically, paint the model or areas of model that you wish to chip with your preferred metal colour, allow to dry. Paint model as per usual with the desired top coat livery. As per Shar's chipped, just before it is fully dry, go at it with some selloptape (I prefer Scotch magic tape) and stick on and whip off. Gives quite a random chipping effect.

I used (to be fair, probably over used) the technique on this Hunter, click to biggify;



Apologies for the highjack, Shar!

[dr_gn]

Red Firecracker said:

Are you aware of the sellotape method.....

Basically, paint the model or areas of model that you wish to chip with your preferred metal colour, allow to dry. Paint model as per usual with the desired top coat livery. As per Shar's chipped, just before it is fully dry, go at it with some selloptape (I prefer Scotch magic tape) and stick on and whip off. Gives quite a random chipping effect.

I used (to be fair, probably over used) the technique on this Hunter, click to biggify;



Apologies for the highjack, Shar!

If I put sellotape anywhere near a newly painted model I know exactly how it would end, and it wouldn't be in the same way yours turned out! Looks very good.

I would like to try the Maskol (or Marmite) applied with a sponge over aluminium undercoat method though. Maybe on a Japanese WW2 aircraft.

[Red Firecracker]

Give it a go, nowt to lose. That was just brush painted Tamiya acrylics.

[Shar2]

Red Firecracker said:

Apologies for the highjack, Shar!

No worries. It's quite interesting the way threads go, and I'm always interested in new or different techniques.

[IroningMan]

Nice job, but that kit looks to have issues with its tracks and drive sprockets/idlers - tracks are very hard to get right.

[Shar2]

Yeah the tracks were awful, and that was the best I could do with them after lots of cajoling and swearing. Much prefer Dragons separate link tracks.