Rubicon Models Bedford QLT

Impressed so far. What for me was an unknown brand - the molding is actually really nice and it's going together well. Quite a few options during the building process too. It's nice to be working on a new model, although I really do need to finally get that airbrush back out and paint the ship I'm working on... 

Cab complete 

Front axle and wheels 

Rear Axle and wheels 

Undercarriage complete 

Building is nearing the end now 

All ready to paint now 

I'm choosing to glue the canvas roof on after painting. I wish now I'd painted certain parts before gluing them together, such as the interior and some of the wheels and undercarriage. They are going to be very difficult to paint as they are now. I started doing this on my last two models, not sure why I didn't this time, slightly out of practice I guess. But we live and learn. I'll do my best 

Finally managed to airbrush again. Primed the whole model in Mig Black One Shot Primer 

Sprayed the gun in Revell Black Silk Matt, as I was using it on another project. May do some more details on this with a brush later 

Decided to spray the canvas roof cover in Tamiya Dark Yellow. Again, I was using it for similar material on another project and it seemed appropriate. Not sure how realistic it is, but with this truck, I'm not too concerned 

Painted the whole truck in Tamiya Dark Green. Came out pretty well, although I have been having issues with my airbrush, so I did get some speckling. Not sure if I'm not thinning the paint enough or too much. At some point, I think I might need to treat myself to an airbrush upgrade, as the one I'm using was just a cheap starter airbrush 

The next step for this is to paint the details with a brush. The tires, lights, and so forth 

Managed to finish most of the brush detailing. Really happy with the results 

Especially pleased with the tires, I should have painted them before gluing everything together. But considering, I think I did a good job painting them

Edit: I did end up painting the spare tire. Not sure how I missed that! 

Might paint the window wipers black, maybe some other bits too, I'll have a look at some more photos 

This has been waiting for me to get to the same point on my other model, seen in the background, so I could spray them both at the same time. Finally had a chance to spray today, and so I've gone over this with several thin layers of X-22 Clear. I'll let it dry for around 24 hours and then it'll be time for decals and weathering 

Applied the decals. Wasn't a fun job. I had to find some references online as the model didn't come with decal instructions, and none of the references I found matched exactly what I had available. So this is basically just a fictional decal layout, just chose stuff that looked nice and somewhat realistic.  

These were also the hardest decals I've had to work with so far. They are extremely fragile, and tended to curl up as soon as they were removed from the paper - and then were nearly impossible to uncurl. This is why there is no star on one side of the truck, it curled up and the more I tried to uncurl it, the worse it got. But I still think it looks decent, so I'm happy. Weathering next 

The first stage of weathering. A pin wash and general dark wash with Mig Enamel Dark Wash. It's been quite a while since I've done any weathering, and I feel like I'm out of practice. Also with such tiny details, it was hard to pick them out. But I think models always look better and more realistic after. The next step is a tiny bit of rust and then a light grime layer. 

There are some tiny fibres left from where I used cotton buds. I tried to blow most away, hopefully, I'll get the rest using the airbrush, before I use it to apply the final clear coat. But they're barely noticeable, so I'm not too worried. 

Applied a subtle amount of rust with Mig Light Rust Wash. Then applied a subtle Mig Grime Wash layer. Didn't want to go too far with weathering on this model, wanted to keep it mostly clean. That's the weathering complete now 

The model is complete! Clear coated using XF-86 Flat Clear. For a pretty small and basic model, I'm happy with how it turned out. Shame I'm struggling to get decent photos at the moment. It might be time for a phone upgrade soon!