Warhammer 40K

 Nowadays my modelling activity is building and painting Warhammer 40K figures. Not too actively. But I'll show some pictures soon. My plan is to revive this blog. Just for fun. 

6 months jump in time

Well, I missed you, my dear blog. Before you think I've quit modelling: no. I was working on the Panzer IV slowly during the recent months but had no urge to post here anything.

I had VERY high expectations of this Tristar kit (and of all Tristar kits, to be exact). My expectations were based on the past experiences on Planetarmor. The wonders what James Tainton, Adam Wilder and the other gurus were creating. Especially Mr. Tainton. His Panzer I models were stunning and the most stunning of all was a Tristar kit. That was the moment where my mind declared: this brand is the "überbrand".
After several weeks of building this Panzer IV... I've changed my mind. The kit itself is really beautiful. And based on my limited source materials it is 100% exact regarding sizes, shapes and parts. But I was annoyed how many parts had ugly flashes, sink marks. The fit is overall OK, but there were parts where grand-canyon-like huge gaps revealed themselves. Those had to be filled somehow. Putty or even stretched sprue was used:

But where my patience was completely lost: the tracks. Individual "working" track. I was first frightened when I saw it on the sprues though only two-point joints, no problem with cutting - I thought.

Later I was shocked on the amount of time needed to clean each track of flashes. And where I started to cry: clicking the links together... First sight: ohh man that is super-easy. But then, when the track was more than 6-7 links long: sssshit that fall apart. And the tiny pins were smoothed down.
I played with it for an hour or two. And then I just felt such an anger that indicated: I have to find some other way to solve it. The kit's tracks gone to the spare parts bin (it will be superb for some additional track to the hull, etc). And I ordered some replacement - I give a try to Miniart's working track. I hope that it will not be a wasted 4.000 HUF...

It took me ages to clean all these tiny parts. All had 4 attachment points, flashes and some of them had to be drilled - I measured and it took ~3 minutes to complete per piece. So with 200 links it took 10 hours overall. JUST THE TRACK. I will do wheeled vehicles only for a longer period from now. Now the build is considered ready and the primer is applied.

I have half a month to complete but now it seems possible - from next week I'm on holiday for two weeks. Plain grey paint will be applied - though I will do some research and maybe it will be a brown-grey camo pattern... and as usually, very minimalistic weathering. We'll see.

Panzer IV - let’s begin...

Hát akkor kezdjük... rengeteg kereke lesz... 

Let’s start. That’s a nice heap of wheels...

I call it done...

A kampány véget ért, a Chaffee (kitolt határidővel, de) készen lett, idei első cél kipipálva! Van még néhány apróság, amit meg akarok rajta csinálni, de ezek jó eséllyel a "soha-nem-fogom-megcsinálni" kategóriába esnek majd. A parancsnok és a vezető (fél)figurákat viszont már csak azért is elkészíteném, hogy kicsit a figurázást is gyakoroljam. Egyéb cuccok (lőszeres dobozok a géppuskához például) még lehet, hogy felpakolásra kerülnek. És egy egészen ideális világban ez is kapna egy jó kis olaszos dioráma-, de legalábbis vignette alapot is. Sohamár, ahogy a holló mondja.
De elégedetten fejeztem be, az a helyzet. A koszolásnál a lepattogzásokat szándékosan teljesen kihagytam, egy vadonat új, frissen frontra érkező járműnél nem láttam okát. Nem sajnáltam viszont a port, mert az olasz földutakon abból van rendesen.

And the campaign is finished, the Chaffee is ready. First goal achieved for 2019! Though there are some minor stuff to be done (with the very high probability of being never done). The commander and driver half-figures are on the desk at the moment - just to practice figure painting. Other stowage stuff might be included - and of course it SHOULD be finished with an Italian-like diorama or at least vignette. But now I'm focusing on the next vehicle and see little chance to do the dio...
Regarding the weathering: there is no scratching intentionally. An almost brand-new vehicle is not compatible with the chipping I think. The dust was replicated with AK's North-Africa Dust wash. I liked it and with several thin layers the accumulated dust deposits could be well simulated. I also tried AK's Dust Deposit product as well but that was way too much to me...

Stowage prepared

Decals and mistakes

Hát a matricák már akkor gyanúsak voltak, amikor még el sem kezdtem felragasztani őket... főleg, ami a motortér fölé kellett - volna. Én mindent megpróbáltam, gigantikus mennyiségű setter és softer került alá és fölé, de mindhiába, a végeredmény ocsmány lett. Íme:

Well, the decals were suspicious even before trying to glue them to place. Especially the one on the rear-upper hull. I tried everything, enormous amount of mark setter and mark softer was applied but finally the result was horrible. 

Úgyhogy maradt a levakargatás, újrafestés, és végül, de nem utolsó sorban, a még mindig csúnya rész gondos elfedése mindenféle pokrócok, ládák és egyebek kupacolásával... Aztán egy kis Vallejo Model Air "Sand" segítségével elő-poroztam az alsó fertályt, és most már tényleg csak a koszolás, meg az apróbb részletek festése van hátra. Talán készen lesz péntek éjjelig... Ha nem, akkor kérek egy pár nap haladékot. Mit veszíthetek?

After scraping and repainting the surface was still very ugly so I decided to use the Ultimate Weapong Against Mistakes: STOWAGE. All types of tarps, boxes and so on... The latest step was to pre-dust the lower parts with Sand color (Vallejo Model Air) and I still have 4 nights to finish the weathering and the painting of small details (lamps, MG, etc...). Worst case: I will ask a few days to finish the campaign. What could I lose after all? 

Chaffee painted

Végre eljutottam odáig, hogy az alapszínt felfújtam a Chaffee-re. Az AK Interactive OD modulation set-et használtam, olyan 75%-ban vagyok elégedett. A festék jó, nem száradt bele a festékszóróba, és a "középső", olive base árnyalatot leszámítva tetszik is. Az olive base azonban annyira elüt a többitől, annyival zöldesebb árnyalat, hogy nem is értettem, az AK ezt hogy gondolja? Sebaj, olive light és olive dark base kombinálással nagyjából megoldottam a helyzetet, és elégedett is vagyok a végeredménnyel. De sajnos nem volt kellőképpen pormentesítve a makett és a helyiség, így elég csúnya por-beragadásokkal kell megküzdenem. Szike, smirgli, bosszankodás...

Finally I've sprayed the color to the Chaffee. I used AK Interactive's OD Modulation Set. I'm 75% pleased with it. The consistency is OK, no clogging (in contrast with Vallejo Model Air) BUT the olive base color was too green compared to the other shades that I had to work it over with the OD dark base and the OD light shade. Unfortunately I did not was the model before painting (I never washed them) and some serious problem with dust particles arose - I have to correct it with sand paper and patience...