Revell Land Rover Series III LWB

I've been looking forward to this model for a long time. Since my other two models are now in the clear-coating/decals/weathering stage - it's time for me to get started on my next model's construction and painting stage. I like to have around two models on the go at once, preferably in different stages of progress. It keeps things fresh for me. With this new model, my plan is to step things up a bit. I want this next batch of models (the ones currently in my stash) to be a level above what I've done so far. More planning ahead, new modelling and painting techniques, and I want to take my time and pay attention to the details more. We'll see how that all goes! 

Glued the engine block together. Then decided to hand paint these smaller parts. My airbrush setup is generally fine, and would probably give me better results. But due to fumes and the loud noise of the fan in the extractor, among other issues, it's rare that I get the chance to use it. Therefore if I sprayed every part of a model, they'd never get finished. So I'm usually content to hand paint the smaller, less noticeable parts, as this can be done almost any time. The problem is that it just doesn't give me as good a finish. I tried this time to carefully thin the paint I was using and to brush it in multiple layers. I'm happy with the result, but there's always the feeling it could be better. Any advice on these issues would be greatly appreciated. How do you guys balance hand painting and airbrushing? [Paint used was Revell 91, Steel Metallic and Revell 302, Black Silk Matt] 

Completed the next step in the manual. I'm really enjoying taking a bit more time with this model, taking a lot more care with my hand painting. I think I'm getting really good results. My accuracy on the tiny details is definitely improving. [Paints used: Revell 99, Aluminium Metallic. Revell 302, Black Silk Matt. Revell 378, Dark Grey Silk Matt. Citadel Leadbelcher (used in place of Revell Silver Metallic)] 

Painted and added some more tiny parts to the engine. Really pleased with my hand painting here. Also pleased with the smallest decal I have so far applied. Just at the top of the new part added to the left of this image. [Paints used: Revell 99, Aluminium Metallic. Revell 302, Black Silk Matt. Revell 378, Dark Grey Silk Matt. Citadel Leadbelcher] 

Next step. Some more tiny detail hand painting and another tiny decal. Again, I'm very happy with the results. [Paints used: Revell 91, Steel Metallic. Revell 99, Aluminium Metallic. Revell 302, Black Silk Matt. Revell 378, Dark Grey Silk Matt. Citadel Leadbelcher] 

Painted and attached the fan and timing belt and the cover they attach to. The engine is nearing completion now. A large variety of paints are being used for such small parts. I hope it's actually noticeable. I do think it makes parts stand out a bit more and I think it adds a subtle amount of extra realism. [Paints used: Revell 91, Steel Metallic. Citadel Leadbelcher. Revell 09, Anthracite Matt. Revell 07, Black Gloss. Revell 371, Light Grey Silk Matt. Revell 302, Black Silk Matt. Revell 378, Dark Grey Silk Matt] 

I painted and attached the gearbox. The gearbox was difficult to sand and tidy up. You can still clearly see certain seam lines. It was also difficult to attach the gearbox to the engine - the fit wasn't perfect. I had to remove small amounts of plastic to get them to fit nicely and then I still used a small amount of super glue to make sure it wasn't coming back off. [Paint used: Revell 99, Aluminium Metallic] 

The engine is complete. I decided to weather the engine now, as once it's inside the vehicle it'll be hard to get to. It's going to be one of the few parts I'm actually going to weather on this vehicle, as I want it to have a nice clean finish to it. I used Mig Dark Wash to pick out the details with a pin wash. I then used small amounts of Mig Rust Wash, Mig Engine Grime, Mig Fuel Stains and Mig Fresh Engine Oil. I tried to be relatively subtle and realistic. I hope I haven't over done the effect. 

So I bought myself a DSLR camera. Mostly for photography as a separate hobby. But it comes in very handy for taking vastly improved photos of my models. I have uploaded multiple photos of every model I have made so far - taken with my new camera. There is a massive improvement in the quality and clarity of the images - and I feel this gives a much closer representation of the actual model. So I'll be taking all my scale model photos with my new camera from now on. I have added a bunch of new photos of the engine from this model as an example of what to expect going forward. 

It's been far too long. Sprayed this piece with Mig White Primer - in preparation for spraying the main colours this piece calls for. It's been a long while since I used my airbrush and it shows. Managed to spill some drops onto the piece and didn't sufficiently clean the piece before spraying - so the finish is far from perfect. But I will probably give it another coat once dry, and hopefully, once all the layers are complete - it won't be too noticeable. It's a good piece to make mistakes on because, in the final model, most of it will be covered by other parts. 

After giving the white prime layer a light sanding, it didn't feel necessary to provide another coat and I wanted to move forward. So I sprayed a coat of Revell Aqua Light Blue Matt. I'm happy with the finish, although it's lighter than I expected it to be, it's a nice colour. I had some significant issues with my airbrush again, it might soon be time for an upgrade. Although I'm sure most of the problems are with me. Even though I carefully thin the paints I use, for no reason I can see, every now and then the airbrush suddenly stops spraying paint. It continues to spray air, and because of this, the paint tends to start coming out from around the nozzle and from the top of the container which causes a lot of mess and frustration. Then just as randomly as it stops, it starts spraying beautifully again. I don't understand. Makes the whole process very stressful and discouraging.  

I have a bad habit with airbrushing. Once I finish with one colour, that will be my cue to clean the airbrush thoroughly and finish airbrushing for the day. But there's no reason I can't give it a quick clean-out and then move on to the next colour. So this is what I've done today. I sprayed a nice thorough coating of Mig One Shot Black Primer onto this ladder frame. I went for black in this instance because it's going to have metallic paint on top - which if I understand correctly, will help it look more shiny and metallic. I think a gloss primer would be even better, but all I have is this matt one for now. Happy with the finish and that's all the airbrushing I can do for now, as these parts need to dry and I need to move on to the next steps. 

Even though this primer advertises that it can be sprayed straight out of the bottle, I have to thin it down, otherwise, it completely clogs my airbrush. I wonder, with these clogging issues whether it's something I'm doing wrong, or whether I just need a better quality airbrush. Any advice would be very appreciated. 

Painted the next few parts by hand.  

I had a whole thing here about giving up on airbrushing. But upon further thought and research, I think most of my problems with airbrushing come from inexperience and from cheap equipment. I can't expect to have a great time using a very cheap unbranded airbrush, and it does seem to be getting worse over time - which tells me it's probably time to upgrade. I'll give my current airbrush another chance when it's time to spray some of the body panels. If I still have issues, I'll upgrade and see if that makes a difference. I think the right approach is a sensible balance between airbrushing and brush painting - each technique has its place, upsides and downsides - I just need more experience and practice across the board and not expect perfection when I'm still so new to this hobby. The black on this piece was brush painted and I'm pretty happy with the results. But I then brush-painted X-22 on top of the blue/green parts and the results were pretty terrible - even considering I heavily thinned the paint with Tamiya Thinner. I've airbrushed X-22 over it, to try to smooth it out. It's not going to be perfect, but it's better than it was. 

Painted the frame in Aluminium Metallic, and painted the fuel tank in gloss black, with Leadbelcher for the screw in the middle of the tank. 

Glued on the front suspension parts that have been sitting around for months waiting for me to get this far. 

The whole ladder frame setup so far. 

A better view of this part since cleaning up some of the paint. And after brushing then spraying X-22 clear onto the green/blue parts 

This gives you an example of how bad all that has turned out. Even after spraying multiple layers of X-22, the rough brush strokes are still clearly visible. I've purchased a selection of fine grit sanding sponges and also the three Tamiya polishing compounds. I'm going to apply all of this to this section (as well as the rest of the body, which luckily won't have the same errors) and see how it turns out. I'm not expecting it to do much for me and ultimately I'm going to leave it - I could respray the whole thing, but most of this will be hidden and it's a nice lesson for the future. As you can see, I didn't even sand off the Revell logo, so this piece was never going to be perfect 

Painted and attached the exhaust, rear axle and rear suspension. Really happy with the results of the rear suspension, especially with the tiny details of the metallic parts. I went and updated the front suspension too, to match. 

A better view of some of the details. 

It might not look like it, but these front suspension parts took me many hours to paint! 

Attached the engine to the frame, it's slowly starting to come together now. 

I made the mistake of glueing the exhaust to the engine too soon. Once I realised unfortunately it was too late to remove it as I'd used super glue - so I had to use my sprue cutters to snip it off, which had misshapen the part a bit, and squished it. But I don't think it will be too noticeable at the end. 

Some small pieces are painted up. Some nice details. These pieces will be glued to the frame and the radiator needs a tiny decal to be applied. 

I applied the decal to the top of the radiator, which was a bit fiddly. Attached the radiator, radiator hose and the drive shafts to the frame. 

A clearer view of the drive shafts and the top of the radiator. Next, I will apply a weathering phase over the rest of the frame and the attached components. Some rust and oil and general grime, nothing too extreme. 

Some photos of some basic grime weathering on the frame and attached components. I didn't want it to be too extreme, just subtle. The main body of the Rover is going to be nice and shiny and clean, but the undercarriage is always going to have some grime on, no matter how well looked after and I think it just makes it look a little more realistic and interesting. I used Mig rust, oil, fuel, and grime washes with enamel thinners.  

I started by carefully sanding the Light Blue on the floor piece with a 1000-grit sanding sponge. I then applied the Tamiya Coarse Polishing Compound. I was going to go further, with more compounds, but this actually gave me the look I was going for. It cleaned up most of the major issues, and any lumps or bumps left in the paint - we'll chalk up to the fact that it's an old Land Rover!  (The photos don't really show this off well) 

The next step was to attach the finally finished floor piece to the rest of the frame. I had a bit of a joyful time with this. The exhaust pipe has to stick through a hole in the front of the floor piece and then attach to the engine. The hole in the body wasn't really the right size and nothing seemed to want to fit. In the process of trying to make it all fit, I managed to snap off a load of engine pieces which I had to reattach. But with a decent amount of super glue and some widening of the hole I finally managed to make it all fit. The exhaust is far from perfect in it's final location but it's super glued now and it'll have to do! 

Painted up some tiny details on these controls by hand, pretty happy with the results 

And attached them to the interior 

Prepared the seats for painting 

And painted them - by hand. Not the best result, but it's okay 

Attached the front seats to the inteior 

Attached and painted this bar on the back of the seats. As you can see, a pretty poor job, but under normal lighting conditions, it's not really noticeable - let alone when the body and windows are on. 

Made up the frame for the rear seats, which was really fiddly, painted it. Also painted and attached another bar on the back of the rear seats and then joined everything together and stuck it to the floor of the car. 

Forgot to apply the decal in front of the controls and the tiny tiny decal on the gear stick. Currently has the record for the smallest decal I've worked with so far! 

Made up, painted and attached these seats at the rear of the car 

Painted the front bumper and attached 

The next big step now is to spray the body panels. I've decided to cut out and prepare all the pieces I plan on spraying and then spray everything in as few sessions as possible. Everything will start with a white primer. Then most parts will get the Light Blue, while a few pieces will get Gloss White. Then everything will get some X-22 and lastly a select few pieces will then be sanded and polished. Here are the pieces to be sprayed and also the selection of paints to be used (Next photo) 

Sprayed the Ammo Mig White Primer on everything that needed it. After all my complaints about Airbrushing - this was a pleasure to do today. I tried to approach it with a new mindset. I read the instructions on the bottle carefully. Adjusted the PSI and some settings on the airbrush itself. Didn't thin the primer - which in the past I felt the need to do (even though it says not to) and it sprayed beautifully with no clogging or any of the usual issues! These need to dry now for 24 hours before being masked and then most of it being sprayed Light Blue and some parts being sprayed in White. Unfortunately it might now be a few days before I can spray again, which is a shame as I've been on a roll 

Everything Light Blue has been sprayed with multiple fine coats. Next is to reverse some of the masks and spray White where it's needed 

Masked and then sprayed the white where it was needed. Then unmasked. Starting to look the part! 

Another long unplanned hiatus. But finally back. Sprayed all of the body panels and rims with X-22 clear coat. No photos of this at the moment. Painted the details on the interior door cards and attached them to the frame. It meant removing the rear bench seats, as I'd glued them in the wrong place and they were blocking the side panels from going on. I reattached them after, in the correct place. 

I painted a lot of small parts and applied some small decals. Some parts have gone together here to make up the dashboard, I have also since attached the steering wheel to this assembly. It's starting to come together, but most of what's left are many small pieces that require hand painting in many different colours. It might take a while, but ultimately there isn't too much left to go to complete this model. 

Managed to get some more pieces painted and attached today. Hopefully, I'll get some more done later on today too. 

The rearview mirror actually has a tiny decal on it, to make it look more reflective, not sure how well that shows up. 

Lot's more progress tonight. I'm using Microscale Micro Kristal Klear for the glass. Having mixed results from it. I have been applying it with a toothpick, which isn't very accurate. Tried cleaning off excess and it worked to a degree. The finished thing looks okay, but you can definitely see residue around the edges. Again, with this model, I feel I can get away with it more - due to its old and rough-and-tumble nature. But I definitely need more practice for the future. 

First time using rubber tyres on a model, and I think they look great! Look forward to having the main wheels on the model! 

The roof rack was fiddly to put together and even worse to paint, which ended up with multiple patches of paint being left on the roof underneath. Luckily it's white on white, but it is still noticeable. 

I really feel like this model is starting to look good now it's all finally going together. I should hopefully have this model completed tomorrow. Still a good few hours of work left though. 

Finally, it's complete! Nearly a year on the bench for many unfortunate reasons. But it's done. Although I made many mistakes along the way and there are many things I could have done better. I'm really super happy with the results. It's the most complex model I've built by far and in my opinion, it's my best work so far. Lots of photos ahead!