PORTABLE BLOCKHOUSE
Joaquin Garcia Gazquez paints and weathers Tamiya’s 1:35 scale Jagdtiger.
PART TWO - PAINTING AND WEATHERING
Last time Joaquin described the assembly of his Tamiya 1:35 scale Jagdtiger. Today, he picks up with a comprehensive description of painting and weathering.
PAINTING
The objective of my paintwork is to obtain the most realistic finish possible. This happens by studying real Jagdtiger pictures in order to see how dirty they really got in combat.
There is nothing better than a good photo to observe chipping, grease, earth, spots, or anything else that might not have otherwise even entered the imagination.
The first step is to prepare the model for painting. It is necessary to wash it well with a soft paintbrush using a few drops of detergent in a dish of water, waiting for it to dry completely. This way we eliminate oil from the hands during the assembly delivering a perfect basis for painting.
The next step is priming. A good primer coat facilitates the paint process, and it will protect and unify the different assembly components, metal, plastic, putties, etc. In this case I have used Vallejo Acrylic’s Polyurethane Primer.
The following step is the base colour. Continuing with Vallejo, I airbrushed 71.025 Dark Yellow in thin layers covering the model.
I prepared four variants of the basic tone for the highlights:
1. Pale for the horizontal surfaces.
2. Mid Pale, for sloping surfaces.
3. Mid Dark, for vertical surfaces.
4. Dark, for the bottom zones.
CAMOUFLAGE PATTERN
I started by marking the camouflage pattern with a watercolour pencil. The camouflage patches follow the kit instructions.
Children’s “Silly Putty” is used for the colour demarcation. I began with the disruptive green colour.
Later I painted the brown patches using a simple paper mask.
The upper superstructure in the three basic colours.
The same process was applied to the whole vehicle.
The same fading and highlighting principles was followed for the camouflage patches. I prepared three green tones, and another three tones in brown - pale, mid and dark tones for each.