These have taken a few months to get finished, but I finally completed a couple of Pig Iron SL1 Ironside tanks. Details below
I picked up the Ironside tanks at two different shows (or possibly the same show in two different years). I had been looking for an excuse to paint them, but really didn't want to use brushes. My recent(ish) foray into airbrushing, therefore, seemed like a good opportunity.
The models went together with a minimum of cleaning and filling. One very annoying aspect, however, was that the second tank was missing the driver's hatch, which I didn't realise until I'd got the thing home. Pig Iron do the metal parts separately, but I was reluctant to pay twice, so I ended up making my own from plasticard, which, much to my surprise, worked remarkably well. There were some stowage items supplied with the kit, but I couldn't get them to look anything other than "stuck on", so didn't bother using them.
I primed the models using the airbrush, as I felt that my usual spray can method would have missed a lot of places. It worked well, but this stage alone took me over an hour. I undercoated the models in Tamiya Nato Brown. As I wanted to do a camouflage pattern (using Tamiya Nato Green), I dug out some blu tack (I had recently bought a LOT of blu tack for this very purpose) and spent the evening sticking it over the tank in strips. The general recommendation is to paint light colours first when doing camouflage. However, as green is the primary colour on the tank, this would have meant that I'd have had to apply a lot more blu tack, as well as having to think in inverse terms about which areas I wanted to keep green. I took this approach with the Repainted Matchbox Missile Launchers, but wasn't happy with the results, so I decided to risk the darker colour first this time.
Turrets with blu tack
Tanks with blu tack
It was at this point that I had my first big airbrush issue. I was using my Paasche airbrush with its bottom feed bottle. I painted the turrets without any problem, but when I started on the tank bodies, no paint would come out. The Paasche also has a small side mounted cup, so I poured the paint into that and was able to continue and finish the tanks. Everything looked clear, so the only thing I can think of is that the paint level in the bottle was too low, and it was unable to draw paint up into the airbrush.
Cleaning the side cup provided the next bit of unwanted excitement. I filled the side cup with Vallejo Airbrush Cleaner, which contains small amounts of Ethylene Glycol Monobutyl Ether (an eye irritant). As I was attaching the cup back into the airbrush I accidently hit the trigger. This wouldn't have been an issue, except that the brush was pointing directly at my face. Fortunately I was wearing my reading glasses, and when I checked they showed no sign of liquid having hit them. However, just to be on the safe side, I splashed water into my eyes for a couple of minutes. There haven't been any issues, so it looks like it was just air that I released, giving myself an impromptu glaucoma test.
Once I peeled off the blu tack I was quite pleased with how the camouflage turned out.
The next stage involved adding some markings, requiring a journey back to the land of decals. Decals weren't my first choice, but various attempts at cutting my own stencils were mediocre at best, so I gave in.
I found a Tron 2 font that I liked, downloaded it and used it to print out some identification numbers for the tanks. The decal paper I have is transparent, so the numbers printed out as an outline only. I painted the appropriate areas on the tank with gloss varnish, applied the decals, then very carefully filled them in with white paint. The edges of the decals are quite visible, and despite many washes and attempts to hide them, they have remained so. I do have Microsol products, but they caused problems with homemade decals the last time I used them, so I decided not to risk it this time.
With the decals on, it was time to shade the vehicles. As usual this was a number of enamel washes, mainly from AK Productions, and as usual this just seemed to darken the vehicles, rather than shade them - there's still something I'm missing during this stage.
Rather than mess about with oils and filters, I used the airbrush to re-apply the base coats (freehand), and lightened the colours slightly on the top surfaces. There's not enough light in the area where I airbrush, so these looked a lot lighter than I'd intended when I put them back under decent lights.
The final step was applying mud washes. I think I'm slowly getting there with the washes, but there's still a long way to go, and I seem to be taking very small steps.
Anyway, for those who survived the prattle above, or just skipped down to this point, some pictures of the finished vehicles. They're shown next to a Pig Iron 28mm System Trooper for scale.
Final note. This post is "Adventures in Airbrushing Part IV". Part III was the above mentioned Matchbox Missile launchers, but I missed the prefix off that post. Apropos nothing in particular, I just thought I should mention it, but I'm rather sorry I brought it up now :-)
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