Küster & Friedrich at 99%

Well most of the dirt is on...
I used a couple of sludge washes with some spatter effects in between.
The spatters were done by loading a brush with thinned oil paint, holding it near the model and hitting it with little bursts from the airbrush.

The dirt gets thicker towards the lower parts of the models. I wanted to simulate the dirt accumulation of a mission that included a long trek across swampy and sandy terrain.

It needs some final touches; some pigments here and there, oil stains (basically high gloss accents around the engines and gas caps and a thin layer of sand/dust).

I think these will just get a simple base, nothing too elaborate.

Thanks for looking.

Martijn

K&F the Washing has Begun

Ok goop wash time!
I've done this a couple of times before, but always kept the end result quite tidy. This time I want to go as dirty as I can push myself... It's a mental thing (fear of ruining the thing I guess), and I'm not sure if I'll get to level of layered gunky dirt that guys like Klav often get to, but damn it, I'm going to try.

So the goop wash, different people do it in different ways, but here as some process shots and an explanation of how I do it.

Wat you need is:
The model
Oil paints (this first of many layers will be a mix of lamp black and burnt umber)
Odorless Terpenoid (not really odorless)
Cotton buds (lot's of them)
Kitchen roll.
Big brush for application
And a good beer... I'm using an Punk IPA by Brew Dog. Red wine has been also recommended, but I prefer beer for this.

So you mix the paints and the terpenoid and slather it all over the model (make sure a good coat of varnish is applied and dry to protect pains and decals). I'm doing the Kuster first and do the engine/legs and the turret separately. It's just easier, less chance of breaking stuff off... which is a constant threat for me.

With the model covered in goop, sit back and enjoy a sip of your beer.
And another one.
Wait for about 10 to 15 minutes give the paint a chance to get a bit of a grip on the model.
Then take your cotton buds and start cleaning all the excess gunk off again.
This takes a while. If the paint dries in to far you could wet the buds with terpenoid, but be careful you don't want to clean it all off.

The half way mark look like this...

And below is the point I decided to call it 'clean' enough... or dirty enough.

It's not really very visible on these picture so I put the still Friedrich next to the Kuster for comparison.

Like I said this will be the first of many layers. The legs and lower body will get more dirty than the top of the turret but I'll do at least one more all over wash. A greenish one.

Anyway that's it for now.

Thanks for looking.

Cheers,
Martijn

Kuster and Friedrich Decals and Chipping

It's been a while but the build has come along nicely in the meantime.

In the painting department I still had to add the white banding. And well.. I didn't.
After trying to decide how to do the banding for about 2 weeks I opted for no banding at all. I still like the white accent, that's quite characteristic for the Ma.K universe, so they still needed something... Plus I wanted them to be similar on both kits. So went for the single hip joint cover. Which also made a nice spot for the number.

Then all the decals went on. Nothing really special there, apart from that I opted to not put on any personalized graphics that come with most decal sheets. Decals went on using MicroSet and MicroSol.

After the decals were on and safely protected by a couple of layers of clear coat I added some chipping effects.

I tried to do them, like I've done them before, by just taking a knife and steal wool to the paint, but the clear coat I'm (still) using is just not hard enough (it's Vallejo... don't use it. It's crap) and I ended up going right to the plastic every time I tried to scratch the paint. However carefully I tried to do it.

Anyway I painted them on. Not as natural looking as some techniques but good enough. As I've mention a couple time before, I plan of getting these guys dirty as hell in washes and weathering.

The way I did was the bog standard way I guess. Paint a scratch with pain a shade light that the top coat, then for deeper scratches put a dark (color of the base coat) mark inside that... for the really deep scratches I added bit of gun metal. Simple but effective (enough).

Have a look!

Küster & Friedrich base paints

Well the base paint's done.... just about.

The camo pattern changed a little, made it bit more robust (read: easier to paint)
the yellow is a mixture of Tamiya Lemon Yellow and Desert Yellow
The greenish khaki is Tamiya Khaki with a little Nato Black.
The darker accents is the reverse of the latter: Nato Black with a little Khaki

As I didn't want to premix the colours in advance, knowing I wouldn't make enough (or too much; I'm Dutch... I'm cheap) and I wanted to have these two to have the same colours I decided to go all artist painter on them and just mix the colours on the pallet and constantly paint different parts of both models.
This way I would kind of even out the inconsistencies in tone... or make it evenly inconsistent, if that makes sense.

Besides I'm planning on giving these some heavy duty goop washes so no-one will ever know in the end.

I'm still trying to decide where the banding is going to go.

Cheers,
Martijn

Küster & Friedrich pre-shaded

So I put some more paint on these things. Pre-shading.
A Tamiya german-grey and black mix.

Still un decided about the exact colour scheme but it will have a greenish dark yellow as I've already committed to that on the driver's helmet... ha
I did a little test and some photoshopping... still not sure.
Anyway have a look

thanks
Martijn

Added fire power added

I've finished the extra canon for the Küster and I'm actually quite happy with it. It's hugging the body of he Kuster a bit closer now and I've added a thick hose to it (going from the base to the control box)...

Anyway here are some pics...

Now it's all ready for 'almost final' assembly and than paint (I'm going to leave both Küster and Friedrich partly disassembled for ease of paint).

Added fire power

So as I mentioned before, I've been trying to equip the Kuster with some heavy weaponry...

It took me a lot of time and attempts to scratch this thing together and I'm not too sure.

I like the design. It's nice and bulky looking (heavy weaponry), but maybe not on the Kuster.
Maybe if it would ride a bit lower. Be a bit lower on hull, I but haven't had nerve to take the dremel to the base yet (I will probably wreck the whole thing).

Here's a dry-fit...

Friedrich more modding

I've started thinking of the Friedrich as kind of a forward recon (like Kiowa and Apache Helicopters work together, Friedrich and Küster could do the same)... anyway, I thought the suit needed some kind of radar unit.
So I scratched one.

Here are some pics.
This is where I hit the "it will look ok after paint" moment for the first time. Usually happens a couple of times with every build for me... "will fix it in paint" followed by "will fix it with weathering" then "will fix it in washes and pigments".  ;D

I'm thinking a more bulbous radar unit would be more in line with the Ma.K. style, but then it will get very tall. It's all SG-d tight now anyway (still needs some detailing at the base where the unit goes into the suit)
Have a look; let me know what you think.

Friedrich mod

So I've been buidling the Friedrich (as part of the Küster & Friedrich set by Wave)... if I can still call it that.

I've been making some... well I hesitate to call them improvements, but changes anyway.

While building this guy I felt like I wanted more room to paint... Kind of a stupid reason maybe, but I thought it might be cool to close the side windows and make the front hatch out of steel. Added a little handle (on the right side so it's easy to reach on the 'hand' side of the suit). and an extra camera on the top (I've been assuming the thing in his chest is a set of optics too)... connecting these to his visor I figured he didn't need no stinking windows (Am I taking this too serioulsy?).

Anyway I used green stuff, vallejo putty and a lot of sandpaper to fill in the windows after I glued then in of course.

It's now ready to paint the inside.

Still thinking about whether to put on the curved bars that usually go there (like on the ketzer) but since it doesnt' have those windows... it doesn't really need them anymore... 

What do you guys think? Did I just ruin a perfectly good Friedrich, or full steam ahead (not like there's any going back on this)?  

Comments are more than welcome.