Repainted Matchbox Missile Launchers

Just a quick post to start 2014. I finished painting some Matchbox Battle Kings Missile Launchers recently as part of my ongoing airbrush and weathering practise.

I don't have any "before" pictures, so to see what the original vehicle looks like, do a search for "Matchbox Battle Kings Missile Launcher".

I bought these trucks at two different shows in different years. They had already been modified and repainted by the company selling them, and were in different colour schemes. To be honest, the two schemes weren't that far apart, but I was looking for vehicles for airbrush practise so I decided to repaint them.

I should probably have stripped them down, but there are plastic parts inside and I was concerned that they would be destroyed by my normal cleaning methods. In the end I just sprayed them black, which was mostly fine.

The only slight problem I hit is that it looks like the trucks hadn't been fully stripped the first time around, and there are a couple of places where the paint really wants to peel off, which would leave some large chipped areas. There are also a few places where the many layers of paint have softened the underlying details - particularly around the tools and front windscreen of one of the trucks. However, these are mostly planned as simple background pieces, so they shouldn't be handled too much, and the soft detail doesn't completely hide anything.

Three of the axles were bent, so I decided to replace them all with brass tubing. This had the added benefit of letting me paint the vehicles and wheels separately, making things a bit easier. The only other change I made was to epoxy the roofs shut. These opened up on the original model to reveal missiles (removed by the time I bought them), but I plan to use them as simple trucks.

I wanted to practise camouflage with the airbrush, so I laid in a base colour of Tamiya J.A Green. I used Play Doh for masking, but this proved to be a mistake, as the oil in the Play Doh stained the paint on contact (although it did eventually disappear). Part of the problem is that I thought Play Doh was a UK brand name for Silly Putty, but it turns out they're separate things entirely. I have since bought and used Blu-Tack with more success.

I recently picked up an ultrasonic cleaner, with the intention of using it to clean the airbrush (amongst other things). The cleaner caused the other big problem I encountered while airbrushing the trucks.

I sprayed Tamiya NATO Red Brown as the camouflage colour on the first truck without any problems. I had just finished the first pass on the second truck when the airbrush stopped spraying. Air was coming out, but no paint. I checked for a clogged nozzle, but it was clear. As the first coat was on I decided to call it quits and cleaned everything up. The difference between the two trucks can be seen in the picture below (although it's not as obvious in real life).

Later on I had a read through the airbrush manual. One of the possible causes for the problem I encountered was a loose nozzle. Sure enough, when I checked the nozzle, it was very loose. I tightened it, but haven't used that airbrush since, so I'm not sure if that has fixed the problem. I'm fairly sure this was the ultrasonic cleaner's fault, however, as the vibrations could have loosened the nozzle. Definitely something to pay attention to in future.

With the airbrushing finished, I painted the tools on the vehicles, then it was time to weather everything. I applied the AK Interactive "Dark Brown Wash for Green Vehicles" over the whole vehicle, then used their black wash as a pin wash on certain areas. In a small lapse of concentration I knocked the black wash over, spilling about half of it. The big problem is that these are enamel washes, so the entire house reeked of turps for several days. In order to avoid (or at least reduce the likelihood of) future spills I have built the following contraption.

It's just a piece of corrugated card in a tupperware dish, but it should stop me knocking things over. It holds bottles of glue as well, which is handy, as I also knocked one of them over my cutting mat recently.

The rest of the weathering involved me trying to make the vehicles look muddy. I got a bit carried away and they just ended up looking brown, so there are more lessons to be learned in that area.

The wheels were painted and weathered separately, then attached with the new axles. The wheels do turn, although I'm quite happy for them not to.

Pig Iron Heavy Infantry figure next to the truck

Overall, I'm happy enough with the trucks. I learned quite a lot about applying camouflage with an airbrush, which was the main purpose of the exercise. The ultrasonic cleaner does a good job of cleaning the last bits of paint out of the airbrush and I now hopefully have a gadget that will prevent me spilling any more paint or glue on my work area. I still need to work on my weathering, but there will be plenty of opportunities for that in 2014.