KV-1 - build log

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Hull parts cut out, sanded and ready for assembly.

Lionel Marco
Have fun!

Kim Branders
I'm inn.

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Thankyou!

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I'm slowly arriving at the point when I have to tackle more serious tasks like assembling photo etched parts and adding some battle damage to the fenders. Need to watch some tutorials before I progress.

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OK, this took me a while longer then I expected but finally I have something new to show. Almost all the pieces are there. I've done all the cut marks, welding seams and some battle damage (bend fenders and stowage boxes, hit marks on the turret). PE part are still to be made.

I'm very happy with the cast iron effect on the gun mount, a bit less with the overall cleanness of the built (need to be more precise with the glue) and I think I've gone overboard with the welding seams. They are just to big. Oh well, let's say this unit was made by a bunch of strait out of school rookies on Monday, while the German forces were closing in on Leningrad😉

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First paining step is complete. Yesterday I've sprayed the black base - Gunze's Mr. Surfacer 1500. This primer gets praise all over the Internet, so naturally I also wanted to try it. I've mixed it roughly 1:1 with the thiner, which was a good solution and allowed for a steady flow. In the future I need to buy Gunze's Leveling Thinner which includes a retarder in the formula for an even smoother coat. I've also learned that an airbrush with a 0.5mm nozzle is not the best solution for priming. You can get much better results with 1.0 airbrushes. This video Youtube Video explains why.

Rui S
Looking good... nice detail in that electric lines😉

Henry Milton
I am going to order some of those clamps you were using. They look to be very functional. I am finishing up a T-34 with the cammo used in early war. Gonna post some shot of that soon. Have Not tackled a KV-1 in some time, now inspired, time to check the stash.

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Thanks Rui!

@Henry. I got them from a standard home depo store. They are very useful but in this case something with a larger gripping area would be better. Looking forward to your T-34. I'm thinking about doing the rare 57mm gun version myself.

Henry Milton
Thanks for the heads up. I will swing by HD and check to see what they have. My T-34 has an interior and I have base coated the cammo. I got frustrated with and put it on the shelf some time back. I took it out recently and realized that it does not look so bad. I have the Wittmann Tiger to finish for a review for AMPs and the 1/700 scale Kearsarge that is a birthday present for my wife,(she served on LHD-3 in the mid 90s) and when they are done I will tackle the T34.

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Well the funny thing about modeling is that we work zoomed in, thus we see and are familiar with all the imperfections of our work. But when you look at it from a normal viewing distance (as a random viewer would) and better yet after some time, you may realize (as you did) that the work is good enough. Seeing your other work I'm sure you'll do fine. Kearsarge is a priority of course. A great present and a great story 🙂

Henry Milton
You hit square when you talk about taking a step back. My 251/17 project falls into that category as well. I went through my stash some time back and pulled out all the stuff I had started but had not finished and kept asking myself what it was that caused me to put them down. I actually have 2 others besides the 251/17 and T-34 that I want to complete before starting anything fresh. Once I get them going again I will post here.

John Thomas
Nice video

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Be sure to check out more videos made by Mr. Budzik.

Quality, eye opening stuff. Especially the one about soldering PE parts.

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Finally, I've manged to do the basic paint job. It's my first attempt at color modulation. While spraying, I had this uneasy feeling that I don't know where I want to go with this (a clear vision of the final effect), but fortunately the final result came out alright (at least to my eye). I'd be happy if someone with more experience could offer some constructive criticism. The paint job was done with Vallejo acrylics (base - Russian Green, highlights = Light Green (occasionally mixed with white), highlights color variation - Lime Green). In the next step I want to mimic the effect of worn paint with steel showing through, so before green I sprayed some areas with metallic steel. Stay tuned 🙂

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The idea to paint metallic steel before green was a partial failure. In some areas (turret especially), when I tried to remove green after dampening the area with thinner or even plain water, it went off all the way to the black base (sometimes even plastic), even though the initial tests on a spare plastic plate shown good results. My guess is that the cote of metallic was too thin (I've managed to pull this off on the fenders where there was considerably more paint) So I switched to a new method.

I used an artistic woodless pencil (grade 6B) and that proved to be a great method! It gives you a lot of control and precision over the effects and too be honest it mimics bare steel a lot better then my initial idea (Mr.Color Steel is to bright for a tank steel). I like the outcome but still think that I got carried away with it and overdone it. Next time I should pay more attention to the so called 'scale effect' and try too be more conservative with chipping.

I'd also painted the white triangles (aerial high visibility markings - aka 'don't shoot friendlies!') on the turret by hand with masking.

Next I should think of finishing weathering of the hull but I need to figure out the order of the following steps.

Augie
wonderful work 🙂

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I've manage to put some more work into this KV-1. After steel chips and scratches I did some rusting with Vallejo pigments (Light Rust and Brown Iron Oxide) and soft pastels. I was aiming for a lot less rust, but it's hard to precisely apply dry pigments (I was rubbing it with a brush) and also have to admit that I got carried away again 🙂 So, I guess now is the time to apply dirt and mud to the wheels and track.

P.S. Thanks Augie!

Choppa Nutta
like it

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Basic mud is done. Originally I was planing to make the lower hull dusty with touches of dry mud, but instead I went all the way with mud. Oh well, so much for subtlety. Later I will put some pigments on the mud for colour variation.

Wim van der Luijt
Great build! I don't know how i managed to miss this until now

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Thanks for those kind words Wim!

John E
Your weathering is instructive and impressive. Excellent photography too!

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I did some more mud and pigments for color variations. Afterwards I applied a mixture of pigments, gloss cote and odorless turpentine to do the impression of wet mud. Onward to track assembly!

Holger Kranich
Its very nice to follow your progress! Thats a nice tutorial! And you got me hooked, now i want to build a KV-1, too!😄

Gary
This is a great build to use as a referance. Plan to save some of your pics. Gary

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Many thanks for your kind words, especially while this is my first build after many, many years. It keeps me motivated!

Rui S
Also Very well done weathering . Congratulations Porfiry

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@Rui Thankyou!

I've started to paint the tracks. They were initially primed with Vallejo's Track Primer with a few drops of mat black. Next I applied Ammo's Track Wash. As the name suggests, I was expecting diluted paint, but instead Track Wash was just a tad thinner then standard Humbrol enamels so I've diluted it with white spirit and put on the tracks. To my surprise, even after dilution, Track Wash gave me an almost opaque coverage while I was aiming for a pin wash effect (accumulation in corners). This would be a good base for rusty tracks (nice oxidized colour), but I wanted mine to reassemble those on an operational vehicle. After giving it some consideration I've decided to drybrush them with Gunze's Dark Steel, which proved to be a good decision.

I'll probably fiddle with them some more and afterwards apply earth and mud which will surly cover all the affords, but no worries, this was planned as an exercises😉

John Van Kooten
Thanks for sharing your workflow, Porfiry 👍 Great work! Love your weathering!

Concerning the (pin-)washes, I don't know if this might help you but this method works very well for me:
I always dampen the surface area which I am about to give a wash with some white spirit before adding the wash. That way you get very low surface tension. When you touch the surface with your brush loaded with paint (a wash in this case) near where you want the wash to go, it will quickly collect around extrusions and in crevecis/depressions. Work small areas at once because the white spirit will evaporate fairly quickly.
It is important to only dampen the surface though (slighty wet). Don't make it dripping wet. Because if it is too wet the paint will spread everywhere and it will turn out like a filter. The "less is more" rule applies here 🙂

Another advantage of this method is that you have a little bit more time to repair problem areas or redistribute/remove (parts of) the wash.

Obviously this only works for paints thinned with mineral spirits / thinner. If you use acrylics washes you can kind of mimic this method by replacing the white spirit with water + a little bit(!) of dishwashing soap. The dishwashing soap breaks surface tension. Just plain water does not work. It has too much surface tension and will prevent the paint from properly flowing.
Acrylics are simply not really the greatest tool for washes because they dry too fast. You have to work way too fast, which increases the chances of messing up by magnitudes. Compared to "regular" washes it's just not even worth considering to use them (I have tried it).

Ammo of Mig washes are indeed, as you have noticed, relatively thick mixtures. But they are supposed to be that way. They are meant to be added to the model and then leave enough pigment to be able to blend them into the surrounding area. If you use the method decribed above in combination with some post work (blending) you can get really great results from them.

But like you said, you can definitely still make it work with the earth and mud 🙂 👍

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Some very good tips John. Thanks! That will surly come in handy when I'll be doing washes on the hull. Like you said acrylics are not well suited for washes. In that case I wonder how does Vallejo's line of washes behave? Perhaps they are loaded with retarder. I've got one and maybe will give it a try.

As for surface tension and acrylic paint here's an idea. Traditional B&W photography uses antistatic fluids, to avoid water marks on the drying film. This could probably be also used for acrylic paint (especially airbrushing). Back in the day I used Tentanal's Mirasol. Unfortunately I got rid of my darkroom chemistry, so I can't verify that assumption.

John Van Kooten
You're welcome 👍 I'm glad it helped 🙂

As for the Vallejo acrylics washes, I have bought the entire set and tried them out a couple of times (I really did want to like them) but it just doesn't work for me. I have to work too fast.
With thinner based washes you can let them dry for a bit and then use a damp brush to make streaks and fades, this is not possible with acrylics washes. You can't let the acrylics washes dry for a few minutes and then use water to rework them. Once dry, they are fixed forever. No way to do anything with them anymore once they are dry.
Blending them is also quite hard compared to thinner based washes. So I decided they are just not worth the effort and now they are merely filling up 8 spaces in my paint rack somewhere 😛

But you should definitely try for yourself of course. It could well be that you like them 🙂

What you wrote about the antistatic fluids sounds very interesting! If they don't attack the paint of previous layers, they could turn out to be very useful. I am probably going to give that a go some time! Thanks very much for the tip!! 👍

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Having seen this awesome work by my fellow countrymen planetarmor.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5219&page=18 I decided to rework the mud on the hull, this time using actual gardening soil 🙂

I also assembled the tracks. Trumpeter's "links and lengths" track are fairly easy to do, but still this step needs care and good approach. Mine was to first assemble them without glue almost completely (they snap on quite firmly), model them to look naturally and then use thin CA glue with a spacial nozzle to glue the joints with the help of capillarity effect.

Check photographs for more details.

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The model was sealed with semi-gloss Vallejo varnish for protection and preparation for the next step., which is weathering with oils.

Rui S
Nice mud effect Porfiry. Looking forward for the next photos with the weathering efects

Holger Kranich
Its really looking absolute nice, Porfiry! I like the wet and dry mud work!

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Last step done. I did the oil wash with a mixture of black and green color so the effect wouldn't be to dramatic and applied it only in selected places like rivets, bolts and panel lines. Next I did some rusty and dusty streaks here and there and dot filtering on the front hull plate. I then sealed it all with another layer of semi-gloss varnish for protection. This dulled down the shining bare steel effect, so I took the soft pencil and recovered those areas.

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This project is finished. I'm very happy with how this green brute turned out and I hope more models will fallow (the stack is piling up 😉) I've learned a lot through this year. Enough to know that there is so much more to work on, in ex. the whole art of using oils (which will probably replace all the ready made washes and effects in my toolbox). So thanks to everyone who dropped by. Pictures of the finished model can be seen in a separate gallery KV-1 - gallery | Album by porfiryp (1:35)

Rui S
Hi Porfiry. I'm with you in that method and thinking. Really excellent paint job. Congratulations