R|M|D Photography

Well, my buddy wanted to change up his all tan Taigen Tiger 1. It's my first time trying to do a 3 color camo pattern so we didn't try to specifically follow a specific tiger pattern. He also wanted it fairly heavily battle damaged so we cut out some of the Zemmerit and carved into the plastic a bit.

Anyways, just thought I would share.
Stock













And on to the tan.....boy did it stand out more than expected!




After some brown and black wash and a bit of pigments




And added in some paint to the battle damage and some chipping. My buddy wanted to make sure some iron oxide red was slightly visable in the damage areas and chips here and there to simulate the primer.








Still need to add a lil true rust to some of the damaged and chipped areas. And then paint all the lil tidbits and add what was removed.

Anyways, please don't be too harsh, like I said, this was a first for me! lol

Tanker 10

I always put a little battle damage on my tanks. Your first attempt looks fine in my opinion. If it were mine, I'd give it another brown wash to tone down the light color just a bit. But, if your friend is happy, that's all that really matters.

Max-U52

That looks really good, Ryan. You might want to tone down the metal in the damaged areas, There's something about the heat of impact that darkens the metal. Color photos of actual battle damage are really hard to find. I've always thought a reference thread on that would be a good idea, lots of color photos gathered in one place, ya know?

If you want some tips for future paint jobs you should check out Finescale Modeler Magazine and their website www.finescale.com and if you look hard enough you might even find some of my stuff.

One thing I learned from Finescale is that it's always best to start a camo job by painting the lightest color first. I tried it and they're right, it makes things a lot easier. Dark colors cover light colors better and faster than light colors cover dark. Wish I could take credit for the idea, but that's just one of the things you'll find useful at the fsm site.

Again, good job. If you hadn't told me I would never have guessed it was your first attempt.

R|M|D Photography

Thanks, I will probably do that! It still has quite a bit left to do, I added mud in the lower chassis but need to add some more and on the wheels and front end.

Thanks! Its Gary right? I will check them out. I am really hoping to buy a Jagdpanther here soon and want to do the tri-color stripe pattern on it. Not sure if I should freehand it with the airbrush and get soft lines or if I should mask it and get hard lines. I was also thinking about doing my own Zemmerit on it, but I haven't seen any of them with Zem and the stripe pattern. So much to research! Here is my test piece of Zemmerit on a block of wood with some body putty.

Max-U52

Yeah, it's Gary, and I really think you'll like the FSM site. I've learned a ton of stuff there, like you can mask and still get really great soft edges. I've found several different techniques there for that, one of them even using Silly Putty, believe it or not.

I'm no expert on Zim, but I think part of it is trying to get those crisp edges that the actual paste made. Ausf knows quite a bit about Zim (as well as several other guys here) so maybe he'll chime in and give you some tips.

Have you seen the Jagdpanther I've been working on? It's on the bench right now, the souped up smoker finally made noise for attention so I have to see what it wants.

migmadmarine

As far as I know, near all German camo patterns were soft edged, so airbrush would be best. I work mostly in 1/35th, and free hand unless I need a hard edge, but the silly puddy approach above can work nicely if you want to be more controlled.

Max-U52

That's because tankers are easier to please than the flyboys, who had to have both hard and soft edges in the splinter schemes.

R|M|D Photography

From what I have read so far was German tanks had both. If it was a factory applied camo it was hard edged, if it was field applied it would be either. Soft when they sprayed but also they did brush painted as well at times creating a harder edge.

ausf

The only rule to German camo is that there are more exceptions than rules.

Soft edge, hard edge, disc, ambush, whitewash, mud, chalk, toothpaste (not kidding), you name it.

Colors changed with the solvent and application. Paint was thinned with gas, water, waste oil, slopped on with spray guns, brushes and sometimes mops. I've seen Stug Schurzen that you'd swear was painted by Pablo Picasso himself.

A great reference is a three volume set called 'Panzer Colors'. It's out of print, but you can usually find individual copies online around $10. It's also a good weathering ref too since they cover a wide range vehicles in all sorts of conditions.

Roboticus_Prime

That's awesome! It give the vibe that this tank and crew have been through some ****, and still came out on top!

R|M|D Photography

Well my buddy had me change it up just a bit....I will post photos after I get another wash or two on it, but basicly we added the "dorito" dots to make it more like an ambush pattern. We had talked about doing it before and the more we looked at the camo pattern the more we thought it fit with it.

YHR

Nice job. This is the part of the hobby that has the most artistic flare. You are off to a great start.

hairy46

My Feedback: (1)

Am a airplane guy, but love it, great job!

R|M|D Photography

Well........here she is after a crude "ambush pattern" and another wet wash.





I will probably throw the tracks back on it and get some legit photos tomorrow, its still a bit wet in spots right now.

R|M|D Photography

Got some better photos now, and some detail shots.

Roboticus_Prime

That's a damn hansom tank.

R|M|D Photography

Thanks!

Imex-Erik

VERY impressive. I like that a lot.... Too bad I just came out with the mid Tiger already, I might have stole that one it looks so good

R|M|D Photography

Thanks man, I will be sad to see it go back to my buddy!