BTR-80A Hungarian ISAF

Initial assembly of the hull has been completed. Some filling and sanding was required but nothing grounbreaking. I added various handles using copper wire 

Some further assembly has been done. I finished many of the hull details and started with the rather complex turret. I think making those copper-wire-handles might pay out in the form of some nice looking details later... 

Some further progress: I built an extra stowage bin I had seen on some reference pictures. Now, I am only missing the suspension parts and some final turret details 

Assembly is done. Now onto painting 

 

Building this was - apart from some suspension-fiddling - a rather pleasant experience 

Some basepaint has been applied with different green shades 

On the top I tried to bring in some distressed paint by irregulary spraying the highlight-colour on bigger panels 

Decals are on and some details have been basecoated. 

I also added some smaller highlights using a brush. Now, It will get a nice coat of varnish to proceed to some airbrush pre-dusting 

Sprayed some light earth Tamiya paints over chipping varnish as a sort of pre-dusting 

The lower hull was also heavily pre-weathered using the same method. This darker dust layers will serve as a foundation to be enhanced with some lighter dust weathering simulating more recent dust and debris 

Then, I wore it down using a soft brush moistenend in tap water to replicate some packed patches of older dirt worn into the surface 

Some oil paints have been applied to change colour on some elements and to enhance the pre-dusting 

Now, the next steps will be a pin-wash and some chipping. As I have a good foundation for the weathering effect I am after, I can then use some final enamel effects and/or pigments to tie everything together 

I added a brown wash to darken some shadows and panel-lines. I had to red-apply some oils after that to bring back some lighter colours... 

Also, I added a light dust enamel-paint to reproduce more intense and recent dust-accumulations. 

Chipping has also been done using dark brown acrylic paint. I tried to be smewhat restrained here, which apparently was a good decision 🙂
Now, it´s onto some final effects like painting periscopes, adding some rust and exhaust-stains etc. 

Had an issue with some wheel-alignment, which means I have to pose the vehicle on some terrain... Here you see some tinkering with a piece of styrofoam 

Used my new hot-wire cutter to make a chunk of foam with some more or less straight edges as a base 

The vehicle itself is practically finished. I have yet to do some work on the diorama terrain and decide wether to put a ditch in front of the vehicle and a small hill or a wall/ fence behind it 

Basic construction of the base: it is made from a foam base covered with air drying clay to match the vehicle´s wheels. Texture will be refined with acrylic pastes. 

Textures have been applied to the base 

I wanted to experiment and coated the sides with some concrete-texture instead of framing them with balsa... I´m curious how it will look in the end or if I´ll have to sand it down  

Some painting on the base: Tamiya paints for the basic earth tones and AK acrylics for details as such as individual stones etc.
I also smoothed out the texture on the sides as I was not entirely happy with it. It then got painted using some black craft-store paint 

The build is finished and I have a little base to go with it 👍