Moving right along with this project, the next order of business was to add all the fender details. All of the pioneer tools were detailed off the vehicle with their metal portions painted with Metalizer Non-buffing Gunmetal and dry brushed with Steel. Their wood portions were painted a light tan "wood" color I have mixed up followed by a light wash of thinned enamel Leather. Once the wash had dried, the wood portions were lightly treated with artist pastel Burnt Umber to complete their look. I added PE clamp handles where appropriate using handles from a generic Griffon PE clamp set. The wire cutters had their Bakelite handles painted with Italian Dark Brown and regular enamel Gunmetal used for the rubber end caps. I also installed the smoke grenades in the launchers, leaving a couple empty for a little variety. The muffler/exhausts were also detailed using the same metalizer Gunmetal base coat followed by successive washes of thinned enamel Rust until I had the desired look. I also installed the turret periscopes and posed the driver's visors in the open position to give it a "crewed" feel. Last but not least, the spare tire was installed to the rear hull as well.
The last remaining major construction detail was the installation of the 8 wheels.
The entire vehicle was then sealed with a coat of Future applied by air brush. After the coat had dried, the decals were added using Solvaset to insure they snugged down tight to the surface. Then a 2nd coat of Future was applied to seal the decals and protect them from the weathering process.
The first step in the weathering was the overall application of a wash of Raw Umber.
This was followed by the application of dot filters using Flat White, Raw Sienna, Panzer Olivgrun, and the 50-50 Light Gray/Dunkelgelb base coat mix. I worked in small sections at a time and blended the dots together with a square tipped blender brush lightly dampened with thinner.
Since the road wheels are so prominent a feature, I decided to do something a little different with them. Instead of weathering them with just pigments, I decided to use a thinned wash of Raw Sienna to prep them for the pigment weathering.
Then a pin wash of Burnt Umber was applied to all the panel lines and raised detail. Excess wash was removed using a clean brush and thinner where needed.
All that's left is to apply pigments to the lower hull and wheels and then install the radio antennas. This one's almost to the finish line.
