I'm really about to give up on Tamiya decals. This time, I used hot water, applied generous amounts of Micro Set, pressed the decals on and they still silver like crazy. Tamiya is the only brand I'm having that much trouble applying decals. As a last resort, i punctured the decals with a needle and soaked them with Mr. Leveling thinner. This really is not for the faint of heart! Still, some silvering appeared later on, so this will have to be covered up by weathering.
I assembled the running gear (poly caps are a blessing, don't understand why this is not a standard for all manufacturers!) The tracks went together easily with superglue
Chipping is completed as well. I read that OD was a quite durable, quality paint, so I kept scuffs to a minimum. Most of the tanks did not get that old, either...
The direct vision block were painted in a medium gray, followed by a black wash. I then added Clear green for the armor block effect. No clear parts provided by the kit, unfortunately.
First stage of Weathering includes a basic dust layer and some dryed mud. This was done using gouache paint, which became kind of my standard procedure.
I gradually reduced to amount towards the top of the tank. On reference images, you can often see that the running gear is completely caked, but the turret stays some kind of clean. This is especially true for slower WW2 vehicles.
Now the fun part starts 🙂 It started with a base coat of XF-1 (mixed around 50:50 with X-22 Gloss). To my mind, I think that Tamiya paints spray much nicer by using a little bit of gloss varnish, and Mr. Leveling Thinner really does the trick.
After that, XF-62 followed with two stages of highlights using XF-60 Dunkelgelb. I try to avoid pure white, as it makes the greens look dull and boring.
