Matrix Games Forums

I'd love to start building kits. Now it's not so much the building of the kit but the painting I really worry about. Can good work be learnt or do you have to have an inbuilt talent?

Also what make kits do you recommend? Paints? Books? Other necessary items?

I'd love to do a WW2 Panzer IV at 1:35 scale.
A WW1 trench diorama
A large scale Lancaster bomber
East Front diorama

I've seen a set by by masterbox that looks like a good start for WW1 scene https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01BU8S8VI/ ... _lig_dp_it

Thanks

Jason

It's been ages since I made a model set. I did make some though, but most of those were 1/72 or thereabout. I did both planes and tanks. The biggest problem as I see it is making the cracks not visible, so that the model comes out looking like it wasn't assembled. I found that there are youtube videos for that. There are those for painting too..

Also, look into airbrush painting . . .

https://airbrush-expert.com/en/

https://acrylgiessen.com/en/master-airbrush-art/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8bApFQC85U

Also, for realistic ground colours, consider drying flower petals to use on your diorama.

Use styrofoam to as a base so you can have something lightweight to build up or dig into to make various terrain features.

I made dozens of models of tanks and planes.

And moulded my own soldiers from lead when I was playing table top wargames in about 1968 - with people from the London Wargames Society:

https://vintagewargaming.blogspot.com/2 ... es-of.html

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I also made balsa wood gliders and loved the smell of the "dope" which looking back makes me an inadvertent druggie - no wonder my mother kept telling me to open the bedroom window - which I closed again as soon as she left.
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We also made conversions of the basic tanks using prints showing the shape to build out of plastic card - e.g. convert a basic Sherman into a DD tank with floats; or a Priest with 105mm or a Kangaroo troop transporter. Panther became Jagdpanther or King Tiger.

The blueprints we used were like these:
https://www.the-blueprints.com/vectordr ... e_tank_ia/

wodin wrote: Thu Mar 09, 2023 10:42 am I'd love to start building kits. Now it's not so much the building of the kit but the painting I really worry about. Can good work be learnt or do you have to have an inbuilt talent?

Also what make kits do you recommend? Paints? Books? Other necessary items?

I've been painting miniatures off and on for 40+ years. I started by building kits such as tanks, aircraft and ships when I was in my teens. That eventually gave way to miniature painting and wargaming.

For someone just starting out, what is important is managing expectations and your budget. There are tons of tutorial videos on YouTube for just about any thing you want to do... from painting miniatures and models, to scratch building terrain.

I think for someone who is just "starting" I think there is quite a large learning curve as sometimes, you don't know what you don't know. If you understand what I am saying.

I would recommend becoming a member of the the Lead Adventure Forum. I've been a member of that forum since 2008 and folks there cover just about every aspect of the hobby that one could imagine. It is literally a fountain of information... an amazing resource.

You can find the forum here: https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php

Painting models is not difficult at all, my friend. The difficulty lies in figuring out what paints you like, and the right thinner-to-paint ratios to achieve what you want to do.

These are some of my Iraqi and Iranian 1/35 builds. About 3/4 of what I build is Iraqi, the rest being other Arab armies, Iranian, and Afghan. I love to paint with lacquers, but I have to be very careful with the fumes, especially as I have respiratory issues from Iraq. I have a spray booth, ventilated through a hole in the floor, two fans on the side, and an open window, and I still use a respirator. All that is worth it as the results from lacquers beat any other paints I've used.

Immediate advice I can give you is to match your primer to your colors.. for sand-camouflaged vehicles, you'll want to prime in brown (which will work well for your panzers). For the dark green on the two Type 69-IIs here, I used black as there was a very dark patina to the paint in the reference photos. Then choose your colors, not necessarily by the bottle's label, but what looks right to your eye. I used RAF colors on the Su-22, for example.

I don't build panzers, but this video shows the same techniques I use, and his other videos are phenomenal -

https://youtu.be/2QFJODKLXSw

Please PM me if you have any questions, and I'm looking forward to your builds!

Matt those look phenomenal! Thanks for sharing.

Thanks Zov. If I can do this, anyone can. Not difficult at all.

If the idea of painting is putting you off, you might consider trying some paper models. No painting required. Here are some WWI tanks for that diorama. I think some of these like the Mark IV or A7V would be fairly easy models to start with.
https://www.fiddlersgreen.net/shop/cate ... Tanks.html

Thought I'd comment about weathering and painting, but I don't know if this will be of any help:

Sooner or later you'll most likely want to weather your creations to make things look more real. I've learned the hard way over the years that when you get the feeling that maybe just a bit more will make things perfect, it's probably time to stop before you overdo it.

Matt's pictures here are an excellent example of restrained and effective weathering, IMHO.