Finished: Hobby Boss KV-1, 1/48 scale

I finally got around to getting the light tent all set up so I could take photos of all the stuff that's finished but not yet up on the blog.

First out is the KV-1 that I've blogged about earlier (here and here). A simple out of the box build. Nothing major with the kit, apart from those darned decals. I kinda got them where I wanted after a while.

The bolt heads on the applique armour was really nice. I learned a ton on how to do streaking due to them.

The KV-1 was painted solely with the AK Interactive color modulation set for Soviet WW2 armor. As stated earlier, I'm kinda in love with it! :) Weathering was done with AK Interactive wash for Soviet green and of course some MIG pigments in the end.

Kits kits kits!

Quarter kits!

A week ago I was pretty drunk and in front of the computer with some money to burn... Alcohol, web shopping and money to burn is a bad combination! So I ended up shopping a bunch of stuff from quarter-kit.com

No regrets though! The Hobby Boss kits were €8 each (more on that in a sec) so an all tricked out M4A1 (76) W (barrel, crew, photo-etch etc.) ended up just as "expensive" as the Tamiya kit.

The KV-1 with all it's rivets and boxy appearance will be perfect to practice color modulation and stuff on. I will probably build it straight OOB with no modifications, although it apparently has a lot of inaccurate details like staggered roadwheels and such.

Building the KV-1

While building the superstructure of the KV-1 it was clear why they only cost €8... there is flash everywhere. Nothing really fits as it should and there will be gaps to fill! So if you're an inexperienced modeller (like me) I wouldn't recommend it. Especially since Tamiya has a most likely better detailed and easier to build KV-1. But meh... it was only €8.

Now I gotta go cry because I only have super glue to eat for dinner since I burnt all my money on scale models! Ta-ta! ;)

ICM Sdkfz. 222 Part2

Meep meep! Ich bin ein staubiges Auto!

It's pigmenting time!!! My favorite part of modelling! Inhaling small particle dust and sneezing like a mad man.

I'm trying a different approach this time without using any fixer. For the first layers it's just distilled water, some flow-aid and pigments (African Earth, Rubbel Dust & Light Earth [4:1:1] from MIG) applied like a wash to the entire car.

I then use more of a traditional oil painting approach and move the pigments to where I want them with a moist/damp brush until I've removed all the tidemarks and gotten the streaking like I want it. This first application is more of a "getting the dust where I want it".

Picture was taken when considered myself done for today, but not done with the first application of pigments. There are still a lot of areas to touch up.

After that it's some sealing (which will eat up some of the pigments) to tone it down further. After that even more layers of pigments (mostly the underside that will get a slightly darker tone) and perhaps some rust & oil stains.

I guess the rust stains will be kept to a minimum. Unless the Libyan desert was really rainy in 1941. :)


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Work has started on the SAFS as well. I painted up the interior while listening to the latest D6 Generation (the vanilla ice-cover was hilarious). Not much to see/photograph now since I've masked it all off in order to lay on the basecoats on the SAFS itself. Hopefully I have something to show next week.