Monday, November 4, 2013

Leopard in the Wild

Possibly the 'centre piece' of the recent trove of stuff received from Brian and Glenn was a German Leopard I MBT, pretty much painted up and ready to go.  Brian suggested I give the ink treatment, but I thought before that, I'd do the brown a much paler shade of tan-yellow, and outline the green with a different (darker) green.  The pic below shows the Leopard after those two tasks were done.
 But the think needed something more. I thought.  First an identifying number.  As I have decided my Imagi-Nation of Tchagai is Urdu-speaking, it seemed to me numerals along those lines were called for.  The numbers will be pretty much randomly selected, rather than some serial system.  This tank is #248.
 The tracks came next.  So far unpainted, I thought a red 'rust' treatment, yellowish dust/dried mud dry-brushed overall, and then a slosh of Nuln Oil overall would be the caper.  
 The tracks were very loose as well, and one threatening to break.   So first I glued them to the bottom of the road wheels, and attempted to 'drape' them between the sprockets and return wheels.  The process was a very qualified success, only barely solving the looseness problem.  The draping came out sort of OK, but no better than that.

A little touch up with the rear lights - not very accurate in close up, but looks OK from a distance.  
And then weathering.  In the pictures, the weathering (dry-brushed desert yellow) looks a bit heavier than it does at a normal viewing distance.  But I reckon I might go a bit easier on subsequent vehicles.

Finally, an incoming rocket's eye view the Leopard, inked and weathered.  
 In an earlier trove was this ROCO Chieftain.  Being smaller in scale, I thought it could represent a kind of 'Chieftain Junior' - perhaps a Mark of Vickers Main Battle Tank built for the international market.  It doesn't look quite like any of the actual marks exported, but not so very different, neither.  I thought of calling it a  Vickers MBT Mk 5.   (A.k.a. Susan.  Nah, I'm kidding).
 Having looked once more at the paint work, I have decided I will make only minor modifications.  Most of the decals, roman characters and arabic numerals will go.  But that floral motif, seen on the off-side front mudguard, looks so good, I will keep it.   So far, then, I have done only the ink (Nuln Oil) outlining.  

 That treatment picks out the top detail quite nicely...

Acknowledgement:
Welcome to Chuck - from The Land of Chuck - Follower #96;and robbie3rodiss, follower #97.  Check out 18th Century Studios ...

14 comments:

  1. Thanks Don. It looks as though it has been around the houses anyhow...

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  2. Very nice! I look forward to seeing them on the tabletop. Once school finishes on the 10/12 we should organize a small meeting engagement

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  3. Great work indeed.
    I do hope we shall be treated to pictures of that small meeting engagement...

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    1. If and when it happens, you betcha!! For a bit of a foretaste - if you haven't seen it already, I refer you to my archive: May 2012, concerning a border incident at Oasis Hakeem.

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    1. Thanks, Rodger! Still a long way to go, but you know what Confucius said about the beginning every journey, eh? You leave the oven on...

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  5. Looking great! And lovely pictures too...

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    1. It was nice warm sunny day, methought I'd stage some outdoor shots... :-)

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  6. The Leopard looks pleasingly disreputable! The ROCO Chieftain is a difficult model to love. I think you're on to something by calling it a Vickers export tank.

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  7. There is something of the jeans out at the knees, half-smoked fag hanging attached to the lower lip, hair draped over one eye, lounging down-at-heel around street corners about that Leopard, now that you mention it... The ROCO model I do wonder about. From images I've seen, the thing looks a bit like some of the really early marks, which seemed to lack that more well-known characteristic shape of turret front. But as it is a smaller scale, some kind of compromise was called for. Now all I have to do is find a couple more of these things (Leopards, too). :-)

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  8. Top notch work on the Leo 1. I do like the rounded turret better than the later boxy ones.

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    1. Thanks, Paul. She's a mean looking machine, all right.

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