113 - Set Back Chimeras: Part 5

With the Liaison Squad happily on their way to Devos IV, I've now got some time to be continuing other projects that I have neglected for the past few months. Looking over my shelves, I see several half started or half finished models, but the ones that are calling out at the moment are the two set back Chimeras.


I haven't posted anything about these since November and that's because I haven't touched them since then! But now, armed with my new airbrush, I feel it's time to get cracking on them. So first here are the links to the previous posts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.

For once I have remembered to take photos after each stage of painting etc. Here are both of them after having their basecoat applied:

Here is the first Chimera. Looking lovely in black.

 And here is the second.


The basecoat is Vallejo's Black Surface Primer. I've used this before with the GW Spraygun, so the first attempts with the airbrush have been a learning curve. I think my main problem has been getting the pressure correct. I've been spraying on about 18psi and that seems to work well, but I did have an issue where I had the pressure set more at more like 8psi which resulted in a few splotches. Not that it matters, as a bit of weathering will help cover up any imperfections if they still show.

Now the basecoat is done, it's time for me to get the base green camo down. Before doing this, I masked off the track sections - no point repainting them. I also masked a few other bits, such as the stowage and gun barrels. I used Vallejo Black Green for this.

Starting to look a bit more like the rest of my tanks.

Next up was to mask off the two tanks. For one, I went with the blu tac random camo pattern. For the other, I'm going to try just using the airbrush to apply the camo pattern. This will be a test of how controlled I can be with it and how fine (ish) a line I can get.

So here is the one Chimera with it's blu tac pattern all neatly in place. I tried to make it as random as I could, but also need to ensure that I don't just end up creating the same pattern on the other Chimera using the airbrush with no masking.

And here is the final result of the blu tacked Chimera. Everything looking good - except for the giant patch of white on the back! And the many small patches where the paint came off!!! Now I'm not sure if this was the blu tac or the paint itself, but something went horribly wrong at some point! This well and truly annoyed me today. Now I get to repaint the top hatch. I was thinking of trying to match the camo, but I may just go for a flag or something to make things easier for myself.

The other bits where the paint has come off will be more of a challenge. I'm hoping that I can touch them up a bit or cover them with damage or something. In the hope of stopping more paint coming off, I've given the tank a coat of matt varnish, we'll see how that works out.

The paint also came off on the track sections which were covered with tape. It was almost like the whole tank was made of resin that hadn't been washed properly. Still confused by this one.

Fortunately, these troubles weren't repeated on the second Chimera. I was quite happy at the lines I was able to create, given that it was my first attempt. What do people think? The dozer blade was my test bed, hence the varying thickness.

There were some problems with the paint coming off on the tape covered areas, but fortunately nothing major. Again, I gave this tank a coat of matt varnish. This will also help with the weathering and transfers, when I get round to it.

Thanks for reading everyone, comments and suggestions (and solutions to the paint balls up) are always appreciated.

Posted by Cadian 127th at 16:13

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Labels: chimera, conversion, set back