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"THE
SANDS OF TIME"
Ma.K
AFS Mk.1
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I decided to take the day off, and have some mindless fun, and
thought I would try to build the Ma.K kit that I ordered from
Hobby-Link. (This is the first of
these I have ever built, so if I am guilty of
some kind of "Ma.K
heresy", I apologize in advance.) So far it was a quick and
fun project.
The basic concept is a rusty Ma.K, suit with a broken/shattered
glass visor, that over time has
become partially buried (or unburied) in the shifting desert sands.
The skeletal left arm reaching out in a plea for help or possibly
a warning. The holes around the figure will all be filled in and
sand piled/blown against the suit
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The figure was primered with Gunze
Mr. Resin Primer, then received a base coat of
Vallejo Acrylics (2/3 Germ. SS Camo Black-Brown, to 1/3 Hull Red).
The reason for this color is to establish the base color of
sun burnt steel. Long exposed steel in desert climates will tend
to develop a dark black-blue-red-brown surface patina. Shorter
term exposed areas, or old surface areas that have been scratched,
pitted by sand, etc, will have a lighter series of
rust colors (of course there are
variations of this also depending
on the type of metal, and the
environment)
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| Next the pieces were given a heavy
filter of Windsor Newton
"Prussian Blue" (artists oil paint), this was followed
by an overall burnishing/application of
MIG "Gun Metal" pigment (this was applied using one of
those Tamiya foam brush thingies)...this was followed by a brush
applied light dusting of Bragdon's
rust pigments. The rust pigments were then mostly wiped away or
also burnished into the surface. More texture and discoloration is
still to come.
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It seems though that I have had a bit
of a setback.
I was working on adding some initial "positive
chips/mapping" (this was not the final color...which will be
more of a yellow/green)....which
was then given a thin wash of burnt
umber artists oils....when the problem began....
On these pieces you can see where the application of
the wash caused the rivets and the edges of
the shoulder plates to wear off. This happened big time
on the main body section and helmet ......the only things I can
figure it was due to, either the use of
straight turpentine instead of the
weaker odorless thinner; the Vallejo base color did not bond well
enough/properly to the Mr Resin Primer, the paint had not cured
long enough before I started working over it, or I did too many
steps in succession too quickly without a proper curing/drying
period in between.
I probably could have touched up the areas, or hidden them in the
next color step....but the whole time
while working on this, I also was noticing that some of
the puttied seam lines were slightly telescoping
through....probably accentuated by the surface sheen......so today
I soaked the parts in 90% Isopropyl alcohol, and stripped of
all the color.
Will start over tomorrow, but will take a slightly different, and
easier/quicker approach this time
around. I may also use either Tamiya or Floquil (oil based) paint
for the base colors instead of the
Vallejo.
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| This time
around I took a different approach to the painting. First a
base/prime coat of Floquil (oil
based) was applied (9-parts "Roof Brown", 1.5-parts
"Engine Black", 1-part "Caboose Red"). Over
this was applied a shading/highlighting with a 50/50 mix of
Panzer Aces #343"Shadows Flesh" & Model Color #136
"Leather". After a day of
drying, Ground coarse salt was applied, then a fogging/highlight of
straight "Shadows Flesh"; some of
the salt was then lightly blown or brushed off, and a fogging of
Life-Color "Rust- Light Shadow" applied. All the
acrylics were shot on the "dry" side, so as to give a
slight surface texture. (the white flecks, stain lines, and white
around the armpit is some salt residue that will be removed.)
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| For some reason I went against all my
better judgment, and sealed the rust base colors with a matte
sealer....and it did exactly what I hate about sealers...it took
away all definition and individuality of
the various rust tones, and "blended' them into one same
sheen/finish.
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| ....on the bright side, the sealer
really saved my ass, because I had a complete brain-fart, and
sprayed on the paint without adding the hairspray
first.....luckily, because of the
sealer, I was able to use the Tamiya X-20A thinner and a stiff
brush to scrub off the color coat....which actually IMO yielded a
really interesting and cool finish and pitted looking surface [I
will definitely work with this effect on another project].....
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| Some varied color tones were added
using Tamiya and Games-Workshop paints.
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| Then it was on to the first round of
chipping. The blue and green base layer was chipped first, then
the orange-rose color was masked, sprayed with hairspray and
color, and chipped.
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| Today it was
"mapping"/discoloring the paint chips. This shows the
areas of mapping in the rose
colored areas of the shoulder
plate, and beginning on the helmet. Mapping was done using thinned
Vallejo acrylics applied with a 0/18 brush. The rose colored areas
were done in a random mix of pink
and white, while the green areas were done in a mix of
pale blue and yellow.
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Today the rusting started.....
This was done using a combination of
Windsor Newton artists oils, MIG rust pigments, and some Windsor
Newton Guache & water colors. (The underside of
the arm received no rusting, as it will not be seen in the final
setting)
I also played around with some "watercolor mapping"
for lack of a better word.....by
using water colors I was able to apply some interesting
transparent mapping to some of the
chips.....its almost more like "filter mapping"...it's
pretty subtle (because I used fairly thinned color) and doesn't
really show in the images...but is visible on the model.
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MATERIALS |
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