It has been quite a while since I last worked on my Sd. Kfz. 9 Famo Half Track from Tamiya.
And I think it is getting time to get working again on the project and finish it to continue with a clean slate and begin working on the Italeri Jagdpanther With Winter Crew I got in my stash.
And I can’t wait to try out the new things I have learned by reading a book about military model making.
This is the current state of the project:
I hope you can see that the paint job is not that great, irregular spraying pattern and the gloss coats on front and rear to put on the decals to just finish the paint job.
But recently I thought, might it be possible to get paint remover, put it in my airbrush. Get the bad paint job off and just start all over again with the painting? Would that be possible?
I’m really wanting to get this project finished and get to a new one, since I have learned so much new things by reading the book of Shepperd Paine about military modeling.
And I’m wanting to try these new things out, but this old project just bothers me because it is so long standing in the display cabinet unfinished that I just want to finish it and move on.
I appreciate any help you are able to give me.
I don’t see it that bad, if you want it grey it should be enough to load your airbrush and retouch where needed -get an uniform layer of grey, specially the parts still in plastic. And then go for the weathering
Spraying paint remover through your airbrush will not lay it on thick enough to do anything. Might as well soak it but why do that. Spray multiple very light coats of a lighter grey if this is Panzer Grey and just lighten and moderate your existing paint job. Don’t over think and over complicate things. Use what you have a base and concentrate a lighter shade on the higher areas and use the existing darker color as your ‘shadows’.
Okay, in that case I will inspect my paint job and just get everything painted properly. In any case, I will try to do as good as I can. I have read the book that was recommended here. And understand now that the paint job doesn’t have to be perfect. And that it’s good and natural to have it like this.
Thanks for replying and I get to work on it as soon as I can.
Greetings from Rotterdam. The FAMO is only half painted in terms of base layer to my eye. Use the dark grey you have on there as your pre-shading, use the same shade to finish off the parts you haven’t got paint on yet. Its not that thick as it is. Spray the fenders white or very light blue and the top of the bonnet, along the sides, exposed areas. Put a layer of nice matt finish Dunkelgrau over the whole thing and you should be sorted - it’ll look great.
Then a satin varnish layer and get into it with a nice dark wash, get in all the wheels and crevices. Tamiya Panel Liner if you have it but always after a satin layer!
Then you want a veeeeeeeery slightly lighter more thinned shade of your base Dunkelgrau and spray on some very subtle highlights with it. Go one shade lighter again and brush paint the last highlights. It’ll look amazing. Don’t use white to lighten the Dunkelgrau, it looks better with a light blue to lighten it if you have it, failing that, Buff or Deck Tan works nicely as it lightens it but makes it warmer. Dont use too much.
Oh and see if you can remove the clear parts from the windscreen when you take it off for painting. Much easier than brush painting with the clear parts still in.
Thank you. It is a lot of information you are giving me. And I will see what I can do with your information. Remember, there is still a lot of missing knowledge and skill. And I still need to learn and practice a lot. But I will see what I can do.
I’ve been following your posts on here and it seems like you are a bit too aware of your own lack of experience. Try not to worry about it so much. We all have to start somewhere and at this stage in your journey the important thing is to enjoy learning different techniques but mainly to just enjoy the build and what you manage to produce. There are a lot of people here who can provide you with some suggestions as to what to do so you’re in the right place.
As for the above suggestions - its no big deal really. Just basic pre and post shading and highlighting. This FAMO model has some lovely exposed areas and curves that will really show off any changes in the base layer shades. Some models don’t need it so much but this one will really be improved by it.
Thank you for your comment. I’m looking forward to trying and experimenting. I will try to think much less what could be going wrong. And just see what comes out of my workings on my projects. And be openminded about the results.
The biggest habit you need to develop, and I still work on it, is not trying to lay down a thick coat of paint in your first pass. Lots and lots of light coats for coverage is what you want to perfect. You’re goal shouldn’t be a one pass coat when you airbrush. Even if you are doing a primer lots of little thin coats.
I certainly recommend the You Tube channel “Airbrush Asylum”, now he does more artistic type airbrushing but the basic techniques he teaches I think will serve you well. You’ll see he is all about gradual build up of colors, light touches etc. He demonstrates many times what varying your airbrush distance from your kit will do. Please take a bit of time and watch him. Even if English isn’t your first language you’ll pick up from watching his movements. Kind of like for me w some of the Ammo Mig clips, they are in Spanish but your eyes are just as good as your ears.
I have read your replies, but unfortunately I’m having a cold now. So I need to first rest and just relax until I’m healed fully.
Please don’t think that I’m telling this as an excuse to don’t do this things.
I’m telling the truth.
As soon as I’m better I will get working on this.
I think how I move the airbrush is just as important. I’m watching Wheeler Dealers on Discovery+ and they are doing a lot of painting cars. And what I noticed was that they are for my terms moving their spray gun fairly slowly. Not very fast as I was thinking that I must needed to do.
Multiple layers is what I also noticed on Wheeler Dealers.
But, the most difficult for me is seeing the paint flow and where I actually hit the surface of the model.
Maybe use bigger nozxle and needle for painting large parts of the model or if I just need to paint one color?
Thank you for replying and I will today check out the channel you recommended.
No - i wasnt advocating blue paint for the base layer, if you read what I said, I suggested it for the preshading to add highlights. As long as it is covered up it is fine i reckon. Dunkelgrau over the top.
Edit - reading it back, to be fair, it was confusing. Apologies.
Thank you all for commenting so far.
I’m making progress on reading the book Scale Modeling Handbook Nr. 6 Modeling Tanks and Military Vehicles.
And it already gave me some ideas on how to continue on the project.
However, I have still a long way to go until I finish my read.
I came across things and techniques I didn’t even know of before.
Regardless of this, I think I still will need help to guide me in the right direction.
For example with washes and other effects on my Famo Halftrack.
But for now, I just wanted to let you know.
I’m not sitting back and relax, I’m still working on things in the background.
It’s looking good, I would agree, don’t strip it, that is likely to make a mess. Chalk it up to a learning and try to finish this as best as can. I found the nicest way to get scale effect for panzer gray is to lighten with buff or something similar. I recently painted this flak panzer 1 using AK real colors schwarzgrau mixed with a home brew elfenbein. You want a dark grey, but lightened enough that washes with a dark grey will stand out. I hope to weather this bad boy on the weekend. In my biased opinion, this is what base Dunkelgrau should look like
I have Tamiya Deck Tan and Buff, what could I do with that?
Currently, I’m reading the book Scouts Out I bought a while ago on recommendation from someone here on the forums.
Originally for study of half tracks.
But there is a lot of other interesting stuff in that book that gave me a lot of other modeling subjects to try and work with the new techniques.
Which I picked and picking up of another book I read on my computer, like the washes I mentioned in a comment.
Thanks again for commenting, you are a really nice supporter of my scale modeling hobby and you are helping me a lot of times to improve.
Your model by the way looks really good really clean. Are you going to weather it? Could you show that later on as well? Would really like to have longer and deeper conversations in private chat, if you want to as well of course. Don’t do things you don’t want or feel uncomfortable with.
