diabolic-mind

anyone have a good method for making armor looked damaged? for example: bullet holes, blast damage, etc? id like to add the appearance of heavy combat to my tank and was wondering how to add such things. for bullet holes and such would i simply drill holes and roughen up the edges or what? thanks in advance

danlrc

I'm no expert at all, but here's what I found on my first build, a King Tiger. I tried a heat gun witha narrow nozzle (the kind used to heat shrink insulation tubing on electronics wiring). Set it on low heat and slowly warmed the plastic until it could be bent/deformed with a tool. BUT - the point of just getting soft enough to shape is very close to the point where the whole section of plastic starts to warp and deform on its own. Not good! I practiced on scrap sheet styrene until I got bold enough to try it on the model parts.
Also tried a thin pointed tip on a soldering pencil to poke holes and make the deformed "melted metal" fromhigh impact ammo. Could't get a good look and it was really easy to mess up. (Again - practiced on sprue material and scrap styrene).
Ended up with the heat gun/pointed wooden stick approach. See pics.

Also cut out and stripped some zimmerit - like it was broken loose - and painted the area gray (or maybe primer color or base color would have been better???).

I'm thinking that shaping witha Dremel grinding tool and then building back texture with putty and carving might be the safest, most controllable approach. I think I'll check out some static model armor sites and see what's there.
Good question - I wonder about the best approach too.

diabolic-mind

that sounds like a pretty straight forward approach to it. ill do some practive runs on some similar plastics today to see what results i can get. thanks for the info!

pattoncommander

Depends what tank you are using. Generally, a tank with heavy armor will take some good, solid hits and show a dent or on edges, possibly a chunk taken out. Use a burr or larger drill bit to make a slight dent in the bow or turret sides..touch up with a very little "steel" paint, as a hit will take out the paint. For MG damage on sheet metal as stowage boxes or track guards use a very small drill for an occasional hit...bullets go in straight, so if the sheet metal is angled, angle the hole a bit. Again, dip a bit of steel in the hole and on stowage boxes, the paint will chip around the hole. Here's a shot of a Pz IV with some serious combat damage.

NOW, if you are considering your M-41...I'd leave it alone...The M-41 only had one inch of armor in the turret and 1 1/2 inch in the bow. The US never used the M-1 in combat and the only ones seen with battle damage have been hit with bigger stuff in Vietnam and they are in bad shape. The Bulldog was designed as a recon vehicle with armor to protect from small arms and schrapnel. M-41s upgraded by Bernadini for Brazil and Argentina are a totally different tank.

pattoncommander

Same tank with MG damage to the rear stowage box.

ObsessiveTanker

My Kingtiger was also weathered/damaged with a heat gun. It really works well. You could also get a can of black spray paint and place a coffee filter over the nosel, when you spray it the paint will come out in a 'blast' effect. practice before hand

Ern

PattonCommander... great job [as always] with the Pz IV... damage looks very realistic and not overkill. Diabolic ~ if you are looking for realistic damage do some research and try to replicate damage from the gazillion pics on the 'net [sm=thumbs_up.gif]

diabolic-mind

patton, that pz iv looks incredible. how long did you spend on making it look like that. it really looks like it took a world of hurt on! excellent job! and yes i was thinking of adding damage to my m41

torpedochief

Diabolic,


Some homework for you. If you have a construction sight near you, take a look at the dozers and other big bits of equipment. You'll see how things are bent, burned, broken, and otherwise messed up.

The key to damage is scale. If you plan a bullet or shell hole, thin the plastic on the inside. "Holes," are really not holes. A hole is made by removing material. In most battle damage the material is not removed but pushed aside or ripped to form an opening. Even pierced armor still has the molten remnants around the opening.

So don't drill holes, make battle related openings. Example: You want to damage up the rear storage bin on a TIGER 1. Pick your spot, then on the inside thin the plastic to a scale thickness (Guesstimate) Then punch the front side with something the size and shape of the shell or bullet that did the damage.

Also remember that bullets and shells fly from everywhere. Glancing hits are common. Not all bullets penetrate.

Just some things to think about and Ii hope they give you some ideas.

Don

Ern

I just went to Google Images and searched Tank Battle Damage... check out some of the results:

http://www.google.com/images?um=1&hl...=&oq=&gs_rfai=

diabolic-mind

awesome info guys. im going to start with some practice runs on some scraps of plastic and work my way over to the tank. i will be sure to post pics of my results when its all said and done

pattoncommander

The battle damage only took about a half hour....and regarding the M-41, really, you should leave it with maybe a couple MG or schrapnel holes in the turret bustle box or sponsons. With the very light armor of the M-41, anything that would have caused a dent or chunk as in the Pz IV would have destroyed the tank. You could mount a searchlight over the main gun and show that with shattered glass and shot up housing, as that was common. S Vietnamese used the M-41s and kicked some butt with them, but a few were lost, mostly to land mines.

diabolic-mind

i like the search light idea patton, anny idea where i could get a good scale one to use? and possibly one that could be made to work! i like the idea of having a search light on it. ive decided not to have a tank commander on my tank as i have the volume control knob inside the TC hatch now. i also misplaced the TC's gun so it too is missing from the tank.

pattoncommander

Battle damage...M-46 hit by artillery and 85mm. Inside turret view af an AP hit.

pattoncommander

I have tried to send two more photos...they loaded OK but they are not here [sm=confused.gif]

pattoncommander

try sending again..

pattoncommander

last one,, the crew did not make it.

pattoncommander

Pick up a copy of Squadron Signal #29 M41 Walker Bulldog in action.

Imnotanace

Have not done this yet but try using a soldering iron with a point to simulate the melted hole from a direct hit

Ron

diabolic-mind

i got an old beat to hell soldering iron i might give a try with. i used to use it some time ago for what i call "pwelding" which was to weld plastics together. might do the trick perfectly because thats all i used it for and the tip is pretty mis-shaped. ill give it a test run on scrap platic and see wht it looks like

Ern

Ha! This one looks like most of my RC tanks right now! I didn't know I was doing such a good job of duplicating a particular tank! :-)

Rebellion13

Just don't overdo it like this