Breaking out the paint brushes

Got to painting the Sand Stalker. I tried to follow roughly a scheme used by the IJA on the Chi-Ha, but it turned out pretty different.

The customary coat of grey primer, after removing the blemishes it showed up.

Vallejo's Camouflage Green was the base colour, with the dark brown being GW Dark Flesh & the yellowy brown being GW Bubonic Brown. I was less than convinced by the Bubonic Brown so I went over it and changed it to GW Karak Stone.

Weathering, my favourite part of painting! I tried out a lot of the techniques from the Object 279 build in January's Military Modelcraft International. First a basic pin-wash using GW Nuln Oil; then paint wear was applied on the browns using a sponge dipped in the base green. Decals from a Revell 1:76 Challenger 1 kit were used, though one fell off from the next step- I really need some decal fixer. Scratches and such sponged & dry-brushed on using a mix of GW Tin Bitz & Dark Flesh, along with a small amount of MiG Light Rust pigment. After that a heavily watered down coat of Vallejo Light Yellow Ochre pigment mixed with MiG Dark Earth pigment was applied, left to dry and then brushed off where appropriate.

There's still a little left to do on this but I'm reasonably pleased with how it's turning out. I was thinking of making a vignette using a 1/76 Nitto SAFS I have left over from the EW Nutrocker and some insulation foam I found down in the basement. Such is the life of the student scale modeller :P

I also thought I'd post some pictures of the painting I got done on the Rook more than a month ago now...

The base colour, a mix of GW Shadow Grey & Camo Green. This was when I was just planning on a red or yellow ID stripe and leaving it at that before weathering, hence the red & yellow paints.

And after changing my mind about the camo scheme- the style of scheme taken from a T-34, but the end result feeling distinctly WW1 or WW2 French. The additional colours were Vallejo Camouflage Green and GW Snakebite Leather. I need some more paints...

Castling

Back home and I've started work again on the Rook, a very nice 1/35 garage kit from Industria Mechanika. I started it briefly during the summer and finished most of the leg assembly. Now I've moved on to the main hull as the rest of the parts which need to be attached to the legs will be attached separately to make painting easier.

My first time working with brass etch and shaping wire, but it's going reasonably well, although the minigun nearly drove me crazy, partially due to not seeing some parts provided which made it easier. My own clumsiness and impatience are causing lots of little breakages unfortunately, but nothing major.

I also made a new crew figure to go in the hatch from spares as the figures provided in the kit are seated.

Hopefully construction at least will be completed by early January, when I go back to Aber, though I intend to start painting before then if all goes well.