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Modelling Tips & Tricks

Introduction

Here are some simple modelling tips, that perhaps can help or inspire someone out there, who is into modelling 1:72-76 scale AFV:s, not the most common of scale and subjects, I admit that, but one with many benefits. (One is space: you don't need a warehouse to store your collection. Another is that most of the time you don't have to bother with individual track links, a thing that some find a blessing, but I find a chore. A third is cost: you can get almost all kits that are issued - are there are more and more coming -, but without having to morgage your house.) For a Master Modellers view on this scale, click here!

Making the Pastels stick

Pastels or piment powder are very good for weathering your model. I can't believe that I ever modelled without them. Using paint for weathering often results in something that looks like, well, paint. Pastels or pigment powder gives a much more realistic look. There is only one snag. They tend to drop off. If you want to make the pastels stick, simply start by applying Enamel Thinner (I use Humbrols) and then, while the Thinner is still wet, apply the pastels/powder. And with this method you can make real build-ups, looking almost like mud.

Also remember that you can STREAK pastels/pigments very nicely: just take a moisteured brush and draw it over the area. Be careful, though: it's easy to over-do the effect, and it's very hard to correct it...

Glue for Polyethylene

Apart from the recent Emhar Americans and HaT German Artillery and Heavy Weapons, which can be glued with polystyrene cement, plastic soldiers have traditionally been made from polyethylene, which has always been considered unbondable. Loctite's "All Plastics" claim you can overcome that, and it seems to be the case.

The pack contains a tube of superglue and a sort of magic marker containing the primer. The method is to wipe the primer pen over both the surfaces to be glued (the instructions urge you not to handle the actual areas) and allow it to dry for 30 seconds. The primer is invisible, so you have to be as thorough as possible and hope for the best. Then apply the superglue to one of the surfaces and press the two together. They recommend leaving the item for an hour before handling.

I've tried it on the Emhar FK96 and the results are remarkable. The weakest spot is where the trail meets the shield, and this now seems to be as strong as any polystyrene joint. The spade likewise has bonded firmly to the trail and the barrel to the axle. Haven't tested them to destruction but the finished gun is certainly robust enough for everyday handling.

I'll try it on some figure conversions. This could mean the end of pins and pliers, but time will tell how long the tubes of stuff last. Further report to follow.

I got mine from a DIY superstore for Ł4.74 - under 7 euros. (Probably about the same in dollars)

(Contributed by James H, and previously posted on the Landships Forum.)

Scale Conversion of Plans

Often you are left standing with a plan that is just the right subject but unfortunately the wrong scale. Now, thank God for photo copiers, because they make this much less of a problem that it once was. It is simply a question of enlarging or reducing, the ratios being as follows:

From 1/35 to 1/72: reduce to 48.6%
From 1/35 to 1/76: reduce to 46%
From 1/48 to 1/72: reduce to 66.7%
From 1/48 to 1/76: reduce to 63%

If your copier can't go lower than 50%, then take the square root of the reduction you want, and use that number as a percentage reduction TWICE, then you will have the needed reduction.

Making Handles

One of the most obvious improvements you can make on a smallscale AFV model, is to replace the kit hatches - which invariably will be moulded as solid things - with new ones from copper wire. The trick there is to attach the handle just by one pin, which is left over-long, and make the other to the desired length from the hull. Then you only have to drill one hole, and there is no need for measuring: you just pop it in.

Help with Tracks

Let's face it, building Tanks is not that difficult, compared to, say, building and rigging WW1 Doubledecker Aircraft. But one of the trickier parts on those Tanks is often the Tracks and Track Assembly. Here are som simple things you can do.

Building the Track Assembly
Sometimes you want to attach a whole track assembly in one piece, and it can be a bit tricky to get them level with each other - especially if you use fast glue. The best thing to do then, is to prop up the track-less chassis with plastic strips, to form a sort of primitive jig, so that it comes at the proper height and attitude, and then attach the track assemblies.
Connecting tracks
The flexible tracks that come in the smallscale AFV kits nowadays are better than the old, Airfix type - thank God -, but they still can be something of a bother. If push comes to shove, try either to stich them together with sewing thread, or use staples, from a stapling machine.
Painting tracks
I start by painting the whole track Rust colour. After that has dried, dry brush the track heavily with a metal colour, say Gun Metal. After that has dried, give the track a black wash, to enhace the deep. Finally, give the track a very light dry brush with silver, to pick out individual details, and simulate recent wear.
Getting them Dirty
A simple way to get your tracks dity, is first to make a batch of dry, 1:72 scale earth. (I usually use a mix of Woodland Scenics Turf no 42 "Earth", grounded earth-tone Pastels and a pinch of static grass.) Then dab white glue onto the parts of the tracks that you want to make a mess with. (Perhaps to hide part of a copper staple...) then press the Earth mix against it. And thats it.

Making Smallscale Lenses

If you try to portray Lenses on headlight by painting them silver, then they just look, well, like silver paint. The best is to slowly drill out the light - if at all possible - paint the inside white, and then put a drop of White glue in there. When it dries the glue becomes semi-opaque, and will look the thing.

Weathering with the Salt Technique

This specal weathering technique has been developed by Dave Showell.

The "salt" technique is a way of simulating chipping and heavy wear on white washed or repainted tanks (it is unlikely that factory painted tanks would have this type of problem - winter or desert cammo is the most likely use).

Step 1: Paint the vehicle the base colour. Leave it overnight for the paint to dry completely.

Step 2: Prepare a small bowl of luke warm water with a small drop of dish soap (the stuff you would use to wash dishes in the sink) and a small bowl of ordinary table salt. If you don't use the dish soap the water will "bead" on the tank and make the work more difficult.

Step 3: After carefully chosing the areas which you think would most likely be subject to wear or chipping, use a paint brush to dab water on certain areas of the tank (for example, along the edge of the turret). You don't need a lot of water - just enough to make the surface wet. Then sprinkle the table salt over the wet area. The salt will stick to the wet spots, the rest can be blown off. In areas where you want a lot of wear effect (like the rear deck of a tank) you pile on the salt. While it is generally not a good idea to re-apply the water over the salt (it tends to desolve) you can build up the salt if you let it dry for a bit of time. Once the water has dried, the salt will be stuck in place - you can use an old brush or tooth pick to remove it from any spot where you don't want wear effects. For example, around the engine access hatch on the rear I removed some of the salt so that only the area around the hatch would look chipped.

Step 4: Once the salt is good and dry you can apply the secondary colour over the salt. As far as I know, you can only do this with an airbush - I have not tried brushing paint over salt. Make certain you do a couple of coats of paint from different directions. Otherwise you can leave "shadows" on the paint that make it look less like chipping. Leave the second coat of paint to dry for a couple of hours.

Step 5: Use an old "fine" brush to gently scrub away the salt. For the most part it comes off really easily, leaving the green underneath showing. Watch out if you've already applied fine details like etched brass grab handles - they will fly off with the salt! In some cases you can use an ordinary toothpick to scrape off the salt in tight corners. Also, where the salt had really stuck to the paint, you can use the end of a sharp jewellers file to remove it.

Step 6: Finally, use a bit of drybrushing in the base colour to join together some of the chips.

Step 7: Use a wash of thinner with just a bit of black enamel paint to highlight some of the features of the tank. You have to be careful when doing this with a winter cammo scheme - too much and you'll make the white paint look too stark or, alternately, make it all look grey. A last step could be some highlighting with a bit of rust, which would show up against the white paint.

Making Smallscale Rivets

Rivets are the nemesis of all smallscale AFV modellers. You just have to have them, as they are such a prominent part of the original vehicle. Some kits lack them all together, sometimes they get lost when you sand the vehicle, and often when you do some scratch-building or conversion work, you will need them. But how? There are several methods around, and a modeller is recommended to try around, to see which one will suit him or her the best. Anyway, here are the methods that I think are the best:

1. You can use White Glue, which is placed in small dimples, by using a toothpick: when it dries, you will have, well yes, a small dimple. Not a perfect rivet, but it's better than nothing.

2. You can do it the hard way, which is also the best if the number of rivets are relatively small. And that is to carefully slice rivets from an old kit, one by one, and then pick them up with a knife edge or moist brush, and glue them back down on your other kit, using either liquid glue or gloss varnish.

3. There is also a new and incredibly ingenious method developed by Ian Saddler and Keith Forsyth - using the innards of Water Filters! -, that I not tried myself yet, but it could work in our small scale as well. Anyway you just have to check it out! (Try also this link!)

4. There is also the so called raft method. You lay several thin pieces of thin, heat stretched plastic sprue on double-side tape, side by side like a raft. You then uses a straight razor to slice off sections, just like cutting sausages.

5. Darren Thompson recommends that instead of using a punch and die set, you can just use a plastic type pencil eraser as a punc and use some thin metal sheet (lead foil or aluminium drink cans work best). Place the foil on an eraser and punch away, but be careful not to follow through too far, else you'll bury all your rivets in the eraser. The bonus with this method is that the rivets are actually domed as they're made. Also, if your punch doesn't go down small enough, you can use any size drill bit, inverted in a pin vice.

6. A very good method has been invented by Pedro Andrada: First mark the position of all the rivets using a pencil. Then make a hole with a small drill (say, 0.120mm), with the help of a ruler. In this way, all the rivets will be properly aligned. Then put in each hole a piece of stretched plastic, fixing it with extra thin liquid cement. Cut all the rivets using a small scissor. And finally, file down the rivets with sandpaper, using a piece of plasticard for reference (to get a proper and uniform height).

7. Yet another samrt method has been devised by Bill Powers, and now I'm quoting his posting on the Braille Scale Discussion Group: "I make small rivet heads using a disposable hypodermic needle. The rivets are 15 thousand in diameter...still large for scale, but usable. I cut the pointy end square and beveled the outside. Then I bought a small diameter drill pit to fit inside the needle. The bit has to be long enough to reach through the needle. I made a knob on the working end of the bit. Use the smooth end inside the needle. Remove the drill bit from the needle while making discs. Place the hypodermic beveled end on some five or ten thousand plastic and tap gently. Repeat about five times max. Then insert the drill bit and gently push out the plastic discs. Works but the pieces are so small I do all this over black paper to make locating them easier. Use the sharp pointy end of a #11 to pick up the disc and place on the model.

And here are some tips on books on the Great War: