READY FOR ACTION!

 

 

In a previous post I revealed the Sgt. York that I was reimagining from Tamiya’s immensely flawed, but hugely fun, 1:35 kit. The idea was simple: build the kit and try and imagine what it would have looked like had all of its many issues been ironed out and the M247 had entered service. In so doing, I added some additional detail and then bulked-out the radars and sensors to create something that looked like a reworked machine – an M247E2, if you like. I made no attempt to correct the accuracy of the model (which would have been a major scratchbuilding job!), rather concentrating on the paintwork.

Following my ‘lock-down’ series of builds, this one is fully in keeping with the ‘Verlinden Way’, heavy use of washes and drybrushing being used to accentuate the shape and detail over the surface of the model, everything being painted with Tamiya acrylics and then detailed and weathered with Humbrol enamels and Winsor & Newton oil paints.

Of all of the models that I have built over the last three months, this one is perhaps the most accentuated in terms of finish. With the scheme being so light it was deemed necessary to push the highlights and shadows to produce something that was a little more interesting than a basic desert scheme. Though images of real American armour in this light stone finish reveal a rather monochromatic appearance, I elected to make the finish darker and then up the contrast between the base layer, shadows and highlights. This was done with airbrushed coats of Tamiya acrylics, Dark Earth, Desert Yellow lighted with Wooden Deck Tan and then a final highlight mixed from that mid-tone, but lightened further with Flat White. The initial layers of colour were then smoothed out with several layers of Games Workshop Purity Seal.

The ‘weathering’ –– if that’s what you can call it –– was applied using washes of oil paint and enamels, Raw Umber, Burnt Sienna and then Humbrol Leather, black and Khaki Drill. Highlights, drybrushed on, were added using enamels once again, with oil paints being brought into the mix to help blend everything together. Though I would normally carry this process out with a very light touch, in this case I wanted a more definite finish, so the drybrushed layers were applied a number of times over a period of a few days to ensure that all of the detail was accentuated and could be easily seen. The result of this work is a model that is undoubtedly retro in its look and feel.

Though I used some pigments at the end of the process, I chose to keep their inclusion as limited as possible because I didn’t want to cover over all of the work that I had already put into the finish, and then run the risk of reducing the contrast that seemed so appealing! The model is thus more ‘painted‘ than it is ‘weathered‘ the viewer being left with the chance to fill in the gaps with their imagination to see a model that looks both appealing and hopefully, realistic.

 

This was a lot of fun and now, I finally have this kit built for my collection – I hope that you like seeing it as much as I enjoyed building it! Have a great day! 🙂