I’m tossing around the idea of displaying a built model full of aftermarket and scratch built items sans paint. I find the idea of showing a model in this state quite interesting. I’m always fascinated by WIP photos showing off ones work. Anyone else ever do this?
6 Likes
It’s your model. Finish it how you want to.
It could be displayed w/it partially painted w/a soldier spray painting it.
5 Likes
Wade Buff @Armor_Buff did this about a year ago. He rebuilt the snots out of an ancient Italeri Panzer IV G and we convinced him that there was so much spectacular build work on it, it would be a shame to cover it in paint.
Go ahead and do it, I think it makes an excellent display.
8 Likes
I did that with my '67 Centurion in '95. The only brass was the scratch built heat shields I put behind the mufflers. the rest was all scratch built.
The next year it was painted and weathered. It did notwin in its category. I had a long drive home so I packed up and left. The following year they saw me and and why I left so early. It had won best armor of show. 
I wasn’t too bad back in the day.
9 Likes
There is another builder Artyom on here that had a on going project with lots of fine details that I don’t believe he is going to paint as you’re suggesting.
His looks great and would be a shame to cover with paint. The one draw back is your build will have to be clean as you don’t have primer or paint to hide issues. I say go for it if you want to build your model like that.
3 Likes
Oldie but goodie started by me back when my beard had no gray in it.
https://groups.google.com/g/rec.models.scale/c/UYbEgxm80sc/m/5Uli_2Fy6i4J
3 Likes
Thanks for the feedback…I think I have a plan coming together.
2 Likes
Its definitely an option,I think all the brass could look cool
2 Likes
Never done it, but thought of it multiple times. I have so many projects that are stalled at the paint stage, as I hate to paint. I’m a glutton for punishment, so they will probably get painted, eventually. I have a couple that I would consider leaving “unfinished” to show off all the work done to them.
2 Likes
Flat clear and weather over the clear.
2 Likes
Some of us make a career out of not painting models. 
An unpainted model placed on display now can be painted in the future if one’s preference changes.
A painted model can be updated and repainted at any time.
Metal parts, especially brass, may tarnish if left unpainted.
No model is finished until the builder kicks the bucket. (Maybe not even then.)
9 Likes
I’m not a huge fan of paint either…it’s better than weathering but not by much. In a perfect world I could build to my hearts content and then magically someone else could finish it for me.
3 Likes
Many model railroaders leave their brass locomotives unpainted. They even do this when they’re factory units and not scratch built. Speaking of which - if you want to see some crazy scratch building, take a look at a brass loco. All this talk of brass on armor is merely cosmetic. I want to see someone build an entire tank out of brass. That would be an impressive unpainted build. Brass is relatively easy to cast, so you could have a road wheel 3D printed and make a mold of it. The rest is not dissimilar to plastic, save for the soldering.
3 Likes
I have not seen one out of brass but there was a few full scratch builds on here made out of 100% turned aluminum or similar metal. It was a few years back and either German or Russian WW2 armor in a large scale. Couldn’t find the posts with a quick search.
3 Likes
I have always wanted to do a 1:25 diorama of a Centurion crew accepting the Canadian Army Trophy as an award, which would of course be a 1:285 Micro Scale Centurion, of which I already have quite a few.
Something like this, but with the whole crew in a line, with the commander perhaps saluting an officer, which I amy be able to convert from the resin officer in the Trumpeter 1:24 P-51 kit.
A bit of a stretch, but I’m thinking I could use one or two of these guys:
4 Likes
Ryan, this one maybe?
scratch-built-soviet-su-12 I thought the SU-12 was incredible. @lars_poster Lars did fantastic work.
4 Likes
Wade, that is one of them that I recall. Looking at his other work the U-19 and T-12 is what first came to mind.
I am just an assemblier, Lars is a model builder.
3 Likes
Some years ago, our model club included a category in our annual show for “Naked Models” just to encourage unpainted-unfinished entries. We had envisioned the possibility of entries that were ready to be painted and giving the modeler an option of putting the model on display-exhibition (and then presumably going on to paint it later, even possibly entering it again the following year finished…).
Unfortunately, even after considerable pre-show promotion, we only got a single entry in the new category. After doing the squeeze-juice analysis, we dropped it from our next show.
I still think it’s a valid idea (public display of unfinished models to emphasize the totality of the work and effort involved in creating them), but, alas, it would seem that hardly anyone else thinks it’s a good idea.
5 Likes
Mike, to counter that, one year at Armorcon we had “Naked Models” as our theme. The logo for the show was a tastefully nude Vargas girl with the “Naked Models” imprint surrounding her. You should have seen how many hotel guests came into the show just to see the naked models and left thoroughly disappointed. We had the same intent as your club, and we wound up with 15 entries in the Theme category - a very good showing. It was a hugely popular table with the public, with all the brass, resin, and Evergreen gleaming off the models. It was a big success.
4 Likes
Gets them every time!
3 Likes