While removing the molded on sideskirts, I had an "accident" which I had to repair with putty and styrene. The armour texture came out nice and heavy and the .30 comes from the spares box as well as the green rods.
The M2 will be mounted on an improvised mount above the gunners periscope. As these were partly field conversions and thus non-standard I "guesstimated" the shape of the mount from photo-references.
The left fender also has another field-mod taken from reference pictures: and additional stowage"basket", that I felt was anice place for extra 3D-printed .30 ammo cans.
Basic colours have been added using a mix of AK Real Colour Olive Drab No.3 darkened with Tamiya JGSDF Green. I airbrushed on three highlight layers in addition to the basecoat.
Some details were also painted and a brushpainted layer of punctual highlights gives a really strong contrast to many of the more delicate details. The next step will be a gloss varnish to prepare for decal-application.
Decals were applied over a gloss varnish (Mr Hobby), but did no really adhere properly, leaving airbubbles. As I had no setting solution at hand, I applied a coat of cheap gloss varnish over and reapplied the decals onto it. This did improve adhesion a bit and I was able to mitigate most silvering. They were also treated with a softener to conform to the surface texture were necessary.
As expected, the airbrushed highlights got toned down, thus I have to bring them back with oils later on
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19 September 2024, 03:08 -
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Building the Trumpeter M46 Patton went from a quick OOB build to a little more detailing when I found pictures of the tanks with not only a rearranged .50-mount, but also an additional .30-caliber on top. Thus I went for some modifications on the rather nice, but partially inaccurate kit. While working on the armour texture and headlight covers, I noticed two "extra" periscopes on the front hull, that were present on the M26 Pershing, but not this vehicle, so I sanded them down. Some §D-printed stowage and tarps from Milliput completed the upgrading process. Now I can start painting and hope the suspension and tracks will fit in the end...
