I started the interior of the Dragon Wagon this weekend. I am anxious to get the cabin interior complete so I can mask it and move onto the exterior. I want to portray a really beat-up work horse of a vehicle like most of the recovery equipment was. It will be on a muddy base with either the Sherman ARV on the back or a damaged M4A1 (76) with a dozer blade or Cullin prong on it. I am still trying to decide which- as the ARV Mark 1 is a British vehicle I will probably go with the M4A1. I picked up the new Dragon offering of the M4A1 (76) this weekend and it looks pretty good OOTB.
I started adding some chips and scratches here and there on the interior. I still have a lot of weathering to do inside. Lots of mud and dirt will be placed on the floor- tracked in from the operator's boots and clothing. Also- the DW's has a constant loss oil drip system to keep the rive chains lubricated- so things got pretty messy real fast. I figure the cabins got pretty filthy since most vehicles get stuck in mud- and that is where the crew had to climb around to get things hooked up!
The subsequent filters, washes and powders will tone down the chips a great deal- they will look much better then. I like to "over-state" the initial weathering to make sure it is still visible after all of the subsequent effects are added.
Here is the Sherman ARV mark 1 base coated with Tamiya Olive Drab and then pot shaded with a few passes of the same with ever increasing proportions of thinner and Vallejo Dark Yellow and Ochre. I like using green as a base coat as adding yellow really sets it off in the post shading phases. I may go back over the model with a darkened version of the base coat to re-emphasize some of the deeper shadows. I have not decided quite yet.
For some reason the contrast between the light and dark shades was lost this time in the pics. It is a little greater in person. I am going to adjust the white balance and take another round of pics to see if I can get a truer representation of the actual look of the post-shading. All is turning out well. Now I have a ton of that stowage to paint!
I added some Tamiya Earth to the lower extremities of the tank on Sunday in preparation for the up-coming weathering process. This will get some powders and washes over the lower end- nothing to drastic. I like the look of this kit so far- it is very interesting with all of the stowage-
Now if I can do a decent paint job all will be OK-
All comments welcome-
James
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