Hi Gentlemen,
I could find some time recently and completed the basic paintwork on the kit. For this kit I used the AK Real Color NATO set which I bought together in a package deal with a Meng Leo2A7 kit so the Gepard made a good reason to challenge this product line.
My impressions? Well, mixed. I always dilute the paint regardless what the manufacturer declares in the brochures and this job was not exception. It all started with a nightmare because I tried the MENG Acrylic Thinner which is promoted to be useful for most of the paints on the market. Probably this was my fault that the thinner did not work for the RC line paints, since I looked after it on many modeling sites and learnt that the RC lines is special and can be thinned with its own thinner or the Gunze’s Leveling Thinner as the later can thin every modeler paint (someone defined it as “elixir from heavens” and I do agree on 110%).
So after a complete clear-up of the RC paint mixed with MENG’s thinner (resulting a complete disaster) from my 0.20mm Evolution Airbrush, I could perfectly thin the RC paint with the elixir and the paint laid down perfectly. Just look at the photos, it is nice, even, free of any smudge, dots, spots, anything. The first colour was the NATO green with a certain overspray pattern at its edges (I only painted the green zones of the camo scheme). The second was the NATO brown (to my eyes a bit light looking first, but finally it turned out OK) and during this I could manage reasonable narrow soft-edges of the pattern. Finally the NATO black went up which was the most difficult due to late evening painting session (low light conditions on the table) and also the black base color. Also nice and lovely narrow soft-edges. Paint work stopped here to give enough drying time.
Next evening I looked at the result under artificial light and the NATO black looked damned mid grey! I was torn to the ground, shocked and felt abused by AK. So I decided to re-paint the grey on the third day using AK normal acrylic NATO set (which I found randomly in my paint holders and the black paint looked blackish, at least much darker grey than the one painted already onto the model). This decision did not result any better shade because this normal acrylic looked exactly the same shade during airbrushing. I could identify the re-painted areas by the fresh-paint shining effect. Finally I airbrushed some fine layers of MIG Matt Varnish. A side-note: this product really does not need additional thinning, interestingly. And results a perfect finish.
Next 24hr stop in the process - this time for the varnish.
Yesterday and today I and painted various details including the lamps, headlights, the periscopes, towing cables, the smoke grenade launchers’ chains…
…and the two packs on the hull backside. Another side-note: these packs are provided with the kit, made from some vinyl stuff and pretty good looking after the mandatory scrape-off of the molding lines.
One more side-note: it is not a full OOB hence I used aftermarket towing cables (the kit comes with a poor looking thread only) and also the aforementioned chains of the grenade launchers. Both of them add a lot to the final look, highly recommended additions.
So here I am now. The next step will be some filter to homogenize the camo pattern and some good weathering on the running gear. Once that is done, I will insert the wheels and the tracks (both are painted already), so the front parts of the fenders can be glued on as well as the external mirrors (left off intended due to bitter experience with breaking them off on the Ariete C1 kit, due to massive handling during paint work).
Take care!
Tamás
You might check that one out, too.
