This has been a long time coming.
After constructing the body for the Gp, work went on hold. Firstly I wanted to make sure that the ply wood body remained stable and secondly, I wasn't sure if the grained texture from the wood was too coarse. Meanwhile work progressed on the Op and now that it is near completion, I have focused my attention back onto the Gp.
Seen here sat on its new formed under frame and wheel set for the photo, work has started on trying to get the van finished before its first exhibition in Sept. There is still loads of work to get this finished however its now a rolling chassis and awaits a general tidy up before any primer is sprayed.
Meanwhile I was feeling the need to do some painting and thus set about weathering a Tamiya Barrel kit I'd managed to pick up going cheap. Not content with the moulded dented barrel, I thought that it needed a bit more abuse and set about creating some rust holes. I'd like to think that this one being stuck round the corner of a shed or yard in amongst the undergrowth forgotten about and clearly lacking any content.
By scraping through the plastic with a scalpel until the plastic is thin to the point its translucent, a gentle poke with the blade from the rear created the pushed out rusted panel look.
Once the damage had been done, assembly is completed in a matter of minutes and a coat of red oxide primer was used to start of the painting process.
Once dry, a mix of brown and reds were mixed randomly on a pallet and stippled into place to create the base rusty colour surface texture. A very light dry brush of Gun Metal Humbrol Metalcote provides a very gentle metallic sheen.
Once dry, Maskol was applied using a dead paintbrush and stippled all over. Again, once dry the top coat paint (Halfords Ford Red) was applied. Once this had dried "tacky" I attacked the paint with parcel tape and used this vigorously remove any Maskol and pull off any remaining wet paint.
Once all dried, a gentle wash of MIG Rust mix and MIG Light Rust powder over small areas to finish. I think a light coat of Europe Dust is required once located to blend into its surroundings.
Total about 2hrs work tops.
The decal sheet shown above is an extract of a larger sheet being produced for the project. The reason for the many numbers is to simply fill the sheet, but also to provide a range of numbers when I get around to building a second...or a third!