Armortek

The first of the washes are added along with "wear removal" of the top coat exposing the dark green underneath, this process is quick in some respects but will take many days of adding and removing paint. I sit and look, do a bit, and so it goes on. The larger panels will have different shading added to give interest/contrast to those vast boring areas, paint chipping is not my favourite pass time but must be done but not over done! Crew entrance/exit wear kind of evolves over time and so it will with this Quad.
Today I will fit the windows and the windscreen wipers and think about unit markings, oh and "dirty wash" the chassis. Phil.

Well I expect that you are all fed up with yet more Quad photos but there's good reason for these as she's finished!
So now starts the limber and then the gun, I have bucket loads of Armorpax upgrades to prep and fix, which means lots more photos and build nonsense to come.

I just cant stop taking photos with the old girl.

Something a little different

The Quads limber under construction with Armorpax detail parts. As the limber will be a short build and its connected to this Quad I felt its not worth starting a new thread dedicated to the limber, I hope that's ok with Armortek.
I can see why some new to Armortek customers would choose the compact kits, its a great way to familiarise your self with the construction methods and techniques before committing to the big kits.
I can see why some builders like to paint/finish all the components in one hit for continuity, ie the Quad Limber and Gun all painted with the same colour mix almost on the same day, but I prefer the slight contrast that you get from independently finishing each piece, this in my opinion adds interest overall as each will be oh so subtly different.

As this Limber will be fully functional ie towed behind the Quad a bit of machining was needed. The Limber tow hitch had no locking mechanism so a simple milling job using my improvised drill press milling machine, and some flat ali stock for the locking lug and some 3mm wire for the handle, instead of an ugly spring to hold the lug in position I have milled the slot to a very close tolerance so the m3 bolt can pinch the lug quite tightly and so hold everything in place, job done.

Getting close to enough detail I think, just a little more to the draw bar, I would like to add the tarp to the front or maybe fill that area with kit , that just leaves the mudflaps and those spongy rubbery pads that hold the draws tight, I have found some very nice light rubber pads on the Net but they are the last things to fit as I aint painting round them every five minuets.

I ended up adding lots more detail but that's it now just top coat, unit and id numbers and weathering then onto the Gun.

Top coat and first washes and weathering, I will include a few simple/basic techniques for the weathering, now I know we all all have our own techniques but these are easy hints for those who may not have done so much .More to follow for the larger more difficult areas later. I wont go into to much detail at this stage.

As we have a considerable amount of interest on the subject heres a few more pics of the various initial stages of shading and the application of the washes.

Great stuff, Phil, good to see techniques in action. It’s possible to avoid damaging the base coat if acrylics are used and the weathering is done with enamels. To be totally safe, I also use an acrylic varnish (Citadel Purity Seal) to protect the Base. I’ve now moved entirely to oils and pigments, which is an alternative with no risk at all to the basecoat.

This assumes you’re trying to protect the basecoat. There seems to be a trend towards “chipping”, particularly of German WW2 stuff, in fashionable modelling circles, using the wife’s hairspray. It’s a perfectly valid technique but I think it’s easily overdone. Simon Manning has pioneered this, I believe, very effectively.

The recent Knowledge Base topic got little response, so it’s encouraging to see your techniques. I’ve held off doing part two.

Thanks for sharing.

Stephen

I want to know more about the wife's hair spray technique it sounds interesting and Simons work is pretty dam good.
I must echo what has been said before that the wheel you have painted is very convincing indeed, I dont have that much patience or time but its good to see the end result......Phil.

Some more weathering photos and the finished limber, now to the 25 pounder.

Hi Phil,

Lovely work mate, I have really enjoyed watching this build and its making me want one.

Paul.

Thanks Paul, before this build I had little interest in any wheeled kits from Armortek but my God you get your monies worth, there's so much scope for extra detailing , now a nice big Matador and a dirty great big Howitzer would be cool sometime, I have a film company expressing an interest in any large scale convincing Allied vehicles so I hope Kian is listening ?
I will start the 25 pounder today and when all is ready I have some video scenarios of the unit firing in the field to produce for my library/archive, cant wait to start that! Cheers Phil.