SCAMMEL TRANSPORTER 3

Assembly complete, camo colours applied

I've been having great fun painting up my Airfix Scammel Tank Transporter. The last time I attempted applying camouflage to a model must have been in my teens, so it has proved an interesting test of my airbrushing skills. Starting with the brown shades, applied over the pre-shaded body, a mix of Flat Earth (XF52) and Flat Brown (XF10) was misted over the whole vehicle in light coats. The contrasting shades of brown created areas of high- and low-lights. The same process then followed with Olive Drab (XF62) and Khaki Drab (XF51) for the green 'camo' stripes.

Tamiya paints have been ideal for this work, being easy to work with. I've also made good use of a pair of new airbrushes: an Iwata Revolution BR and a Custom Micron CM-C+. I usually avoid acrylics for such close-up work, as they tend to clog up the ultra-fine nozzles after a few minutes, but Tamiya paints have proved much more forgiving.

I've also been trialling some 'filter' coats. These are heavily diluted mixes of a chosen colour, sprayed over the whole model. In this case, I've applied brown and olive drab filter coats and they have been surprisingly effective, serving to blend everything together. Sprayed after adding the glazing (using Glue 'n' Glaze liquid medium), the filter coats also take away the shiny sheen of the 'windows' without making them look too dirty.

Having read about these various finishing techniques for the past few years in military and aviation modelling magazines, it's been a boon to finally get around to trying them for myself. Indeed, it has given me the impetus and confidence to see about transferring them to railway subjects...