Hi everyone,
A short one this week since I am off for a pre-summer holiday. Since I work in the hospitality industry, summer is off limits as far as holidays are concerned.
Well, I have continued with the Merkava diorama, but due to my tight schedule I ended up taking shitty pictures. So I apologize in advance.
The first picture shows the tank undercoated - first with black, then with white on top. The picture, as I have mentioned above is not very clear, since they were taken near sunlight - but I did not notice at the time
The next step was the basic colour - in this case IDF Sand. The parts in white were already much lighter than those which were black. This technique offers a good first colour gradient.
The next several steps were the highlights and shading, also done with an airbrush, as well as a lot of masking. The effects are not very clear in the picture below due to the over-saturation from the daylight.
I stopped there with the tank, as the next several steps will be done with my trusty paint brush. Since I still had the airbrush out I did some work on the base.
After putting the scene together, I filled in the gaps with putty and a fine g
avel & sand solution mixed with PVA glue to blend the parts together. At this stage, I did not fix in the smaller building, as it would have caused difficulties in airbrushing later on. I had left the thing to dry overnight.
The next step was to prime it in black and add some basic colours to the scene. Unfortunately the camera moved without me noticing. I was in such a hurry that I did not even bother to check the picture!! Sorry about this, but by the time I found out, this stage had gone!
The last step before getting into the scene with the paint brush, was to add some detailing and shades with the airbrush. My first step was to paint up the rubble. Then I masked off the rubble areas and airbrushed in the road. The next step was adding masks in order to paint in the zebra crossing and road line. This was definitely the fun part.
When the lines were done, I added highlights to the road. After which, I blended the road and rubble areas together with several layers of dusting - everything done by airbrush for now.
The last step was to work on the tall building. Living in a Mediterranean island, I know how taxing the sun can be on buildings, so I wanted a blanched look. Hence the several layers o highlights. I will tone this done with some washes later on.
That is all for this week. Next week I want to show some more of my 10mm High Elf Army I have finished painting up.
Until then farewell and good health.
NR
