Painting

[Adrian Harris]

I'm starting to get my ducks in a row regarding the build and wonder what people have done in regards to painting.

Steve appears to have painted as he went along, whereas Chris appears to have built "Leisel" before painting.

So far, I've etch primed where the fasteners will be going on the first couple of sections, and oxide primed where two pieces of bodywork overlap.

Once I get the fasteners in, I will etch primer over them and then oxide prime the larger pieces as they go together.

What is vexing me at present is how and when to paint the inside, which I will be doing with white enamel cans. I can paint the various panels before construction, but that will leave the fasteners bare metal. I would prefer to paint them white as well, so that they blend into the background but the number of apertures in the hull frames makes me wonder whether overspray is going to be a nightmare, unless I mask everything each time I need to spray a new area.

I'm wondering whether it would be easier to decant some paint into a jar and brush paint the fasteners etc to give these areas their final seal of paint. I'll be using low strength Loctite on everything, to make sure nothing can shake loose.

Adrian.

[mark lawson]

Everyone has their own opinion on this subject personally I prefer to build first paint last, overspray can be a problem I would prime the entire model then paint the inside white leave the white for a few days especially in this weather then mask closed all openings that I want to remain white then paint the outside, again I personally remove all electrics before painting then reinstall them after.

[Chris Hall]

Adrian -

Flattered as I am that you're using Liesel as a guide, I wouldn't regard it as anything like gospel. I was young and excited in those days , it was my first ever build, and I just wanted to crack on with it. I'm approaching Flaming Fire II in a much more considered way.

I'm tending to build lots of sub-assemblies, before bolting them all together. Each sub-assembly is then getting etched and primed. I'm personally not worried about the points where two plates meet, or bolt heads, as the joins, nuts and bolts then get covered with more undercoat and paint (and I've also threadlocked them as well) so I'm hoping it's airtight.

With regard to painting the inside, I did that on Liesel after Stage 10, but with the track runs from Stage 11 bolted on. The only exceptions to this might be the cab assembly (where you'll be painting upside down and blind, so it's best to paint separately and then just touch-up the joins) and the rear roof EK0121 (ditto, plus it's best left off until you put the motors in). Overspray / paint will undoubtedly occur, but it will be inside the track runs and then hidden by the outer frame and armour plates so shouldn't be that noticeable. Oh - and I brush-painted the inside.

A minor issue is how to display the Armortek number. Mine are inside the cab, otherwise they'll be inside the track run and thus invisible. I tried various methods to highlight it, such as filling with chinagraph pencil, but it didn't work so eventually I covered it with an oblong of masking tape, painted over, pealed off the tape and then sealed it with matt varnish. It's therefore visible if you want to see it.

I acknowledge greater wisdom and experience on this subject from others, though !

Hope this helps,

Chris

[Daniel Scholefield]

Had to check how I painted mine, although it was dictated more by my desire to build everything rather than a proper plan.

Everything I could see at this point got etch primed, then the track runs I hand painted red-oxide primer whilst everything else got the standard Halfords Grey. I then sprayed the innards gloss white as even with my slap dash approach overspray was not much of an issue.

The exterior was done once everything was together...then again a few months later when I realised the first shade was too pale. I was too lazy to remove the tracks the second time around but plenty of masking (Tamiya tape is awesome) made that not an issue.

[Adrian Harris]

Thanks all. Looks like I'm heading in the right direction.

I was going to try and etch prime the inner frames today but it was too cold for the primer to dry properly, so I'll have to think of some way to do it indoors once I have the current job wrapped up. Waiting for warm weather looks like bust until next year

Adrian.

[Steve Stuart]

I etch primed and then red oxide primed over everything or as much as possible before assembly. The interior of the tank was sprayed white before the roof went on. With as much blanked off to prevent the spray going into the space between the frames.
Aside from the Cab, the main roof is made easily removable, as well as the rear section, under the spud box, I adapted the bolting pattern to make it relatively simple to do so.
This is important for mounting the motors and other components at a later point in the build, as well as remedial work in the future!
Steve

[Oliver Brüninghaus]

I followed Steve's way. Every single part was etch primed and then red oxid primed. After that the parts were assembled and some build groups get their top paint.
The inner sides and the cab got the white paint before assembling the outer fames with the bottom and the cab. I choosed a yellowish „off white“ not titanium white, because for me it shows more the 100 years of age.

Oliver

Bottom Plate with Rear Panel

[Phil Woollard]

As regards to paint finishing and weathering in my humble opinion, try using very subtle different shades of the same colour on different panels and plates, it gives the model depth and the feeling of shade even in artificial light conditions regards Phil

[Oliver Brüninghaus]

I forgot to mention that for WWI tanks the red oxide primer isn’t the best solution, because in this era rust prevention usually had a gray hue. In my build I realized that a little too late after priming a lot of parts and I was too lazy to start this work again.

For the "buntfarben" camo I used spray cans with a rigid and very opaque paint usually used for cars e.g. I was afraid that the usual model paints were too thin and not tough enough to withstand the operation of a one-to-six model tank. Otherwise I thought that this would be a fine workaround not to use my tiny airbrush for this large model. Looking to all the wonderful models here in the forum which prove the opposite, my way looks a little bit strange.

Nevertheless, to get some modulation in the different colours, I used three slightly different hues and worked wet in wet. Two hands and three rattle cans means to juggle with one can in the air
Thats different to the generally recommendations but I hope to apply the weathering on top of this basic colouring.


Oliver

[Adrian Harris]

> Two hands and three rattle cans means to juggle with one can in the air

Now that's something I'd pay to see

A demonstration at the next Open Day perhaps

The Mark IV at Bovington certainly seems to have red oxide primer in some of the more difficult to reach parts but, as with all museum exhibits, who knows when and where the paint was applied.

Adrian