MENG 1/35 GCT 155mm Auf1 '' During the IFOR mission ''

Good day to you guys. Hope you all having a nice sunny, summer days. Weather here in London is crap though.

Anyway,I just finished another Kit. It's the GCT 155mm AUF1 from MENG. I'm not going to put in here how is the kit as a lot of review has already covered that when it came out. However, if you are building this, glue the infernal suspension (unless you want to put this on a diorama) and invest in another track set ( either metal tracks or other plastic offering).

The kit was built mostly out of box apart from the Metal Barrel from RB Models, a scratch build wooden box and a tarp made from putty. 

For colour, I bought some AMMO paint to test it out. The paint has a similar smell to the Das Modelling Clay so I presumed it is made from Cellulose ( hopefully not fibres). The paints are good but I don't think it is for me. I can't seem to paint fine line with it and I just can't get the consistency right. It's already pre-thinned and kinda hard to control. It gives a very smooth and nice finish though, a very lovely finish. It's the spraying and control that I had trouble with. 

The interior is painted using Tamiya light blue and Vallejo ModelColour White. Tamiya light blue has a very strong blue tone ModelColour white was use to bring it down. The chipping inside and outside are done with AMMO chipping colour. The AMMO Chipping, however, was a delight to use. I think it's much better than what we have always used; Vallejo Model Colour Panzer Series German Cam. Black Brown. 

Since I knew this was going to be a hard edge, I bought the pre made masks from J's model works. They are not perfect as the pattern are somewhat wrong but they do the job pretty well. Since I am not a rivet counter, I am happy with them. 

Wanting to show a used up vehicle, I opted to use the IFOR decals from the kit and put on the '' Mont Igman 1995 '' decals to depict a vehicle used in the IFOR mission. As such, I decided to go heavy on the chippings, mud and dusts and throw some busy stowage on the little rack at the back. 

Well, that's about as much I can sum up about the build. 

I'm actually not that  satisfied with what I did but I ran out of fuel while weathering this and I just wanted to call it done. I'm glad that it is at least a little bit presentable.

It's time for the photos - 

(If you think some are small, just click on them ) 

The running gears -

The scopes - 

The interior - 

The exhaust -

The on board tools -

The Stowage on board -

The machine gun -

The fuel stains on the engine deck -

And as usual, my show case photos from various angles -

And as usual from me, the Gary Wintin Shot  -

Well, that's all I can say about this. As you all know, my patience is my bane so the usual hiccups are met but nothing I can complain. I as much the kit is nice, the plastic are really soft. Most of the smaller pieces are very fragile. The most annoying thing was the track. That was such a let down. The track alone made me so angry with the kit that it messed up my good vibe and I forgot to put on rear lights. Too many a time the tracks came off and pisses me off to no end which resulted in a very sloppy job on the Machine gun ( too pissed off to do a good job on the MG) and insufficient weathering on the tracks it self. I am so not happy about that.

I couldn't keep building if not for my supporting friends and comrades. Thank you guys for always supporting me. Thank you dear readers for your patronage as well.

Until Next time.

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W.I.P - R.O.K.A K9 Thunder SPH - Part 4

Right... and update is long over due on this gal .... let's do this ...

With everything glued on, it's time to start painting this gal..

I had to put on the base colour, which is dark green but having no other brand apart from revell Aqua, I thinned that with Ultimate Modelling Product fantastic thinner and spray it like so - 

Revell Aqua is just like Vallejo, dry too fast inside the nozzle ( for me that is ) and somewhat a pain to put on but UMP thinner just made it go on as smooth as a baby's bottom... Really surprised and happy with the results.
After that, I followed up with MR. Hobby Aqueous Wood Brown -

I decided to use Nato Black instead of Black. I love Nato Black. It has a very nice muted,flat greyish black tone and just lovely.

Followed that up with Tamiya Wodden Deck Tan . I wanted to put on just flat Tan and bought Flat Tan ( labelled as Tan Earth on the bottle ) but that colour looks very much like a friend Salmon pink so I just opted for the Wooden Deck Tan. I wanted to use Deck Tan but my Deck Tan ran out.

Followed that up with decals and pin wash -

With all the pin wash, it toned down the bright colour combinations and looking like this for now - 

Now, come to weathering this gal up. I decided to go for a very wet situation. I saw some videos of these gals doing exercise in a very rainy weather so I thought '' hey, rain .. wet vehicle.. wet mud..'' so I went ahead and start preparing for adding wet mud.

First, I decided to mix a lighter, dried shade of mud with pigment, thinner and plaster.

I left them dry for half a day and started working on the wed mud layers.
This time, I put in only a small bit of plaster, more pigments and thinned Vallejo Gloss Acrylic Resin heavy gel and mix them all into a slightly thinned paste and put it on top of the previous layer of mud.

It's not all dried yet so I can't tell how wet/glossy it is so I'm gonna let it dry and see if I need to put more. 

I did sprinkle some dry pigment and fix them with pigment fixer for added texture.

After that, I turned my attention on the track. This is the first time I have ever got so lazy painting track so all I did was bombard them with pigment, washes and acrylic resin to show the similar effect as the running gears.

Well that's it for now... IT's slowly coming along and I'm enjoying every bit of it. 

Coming up next will be the crew and the wet effects on the top ( which I am dreading ) .. Should I buy some Wet effect fluid from AK or Ammo ? or should I just use Acrylic resin/ Gloss varnish ?? I don't know.... any input? 

Until the next update.

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