Vindicators #1, #2 and #3 - FINAL!

Phew!  With the final weathering and assembly on tank number two, it's all over.  It's been a good 38 days with a great payoff.

Here's the final look at tank #2:

WOOOOOOO!

Vindicator #2 - Day 17

Day 17 is done and I'm just a hop, skim and a jump away from completion!

Soot and dirt/dust were added in the usual fashion.  I also hit the soot with a quick coat of an acrylic satin varnish to ensure that the lacquer dullcote didn't eat any of it.  I had some issues with that on the last tank.

Vindicator #2 - Day 16

Holy hell is this last tank dragging on!  We're almost at the end, though, so bear with me.

I finally went back and did the headlights that I had forgotten about.  Note:  stuff like this is why I decided to do the tanks one at a time once the base colors were down.

Vindicator #2 - Day 14 and 15

Sorry about the delay there, everyone - a sudden gust of real life... you know what?  I had a really bad wind themed sentence that I was gonna do.  Not anymore!  Let's me, instead, simply say that I got caught up in things and forgot to update.

Day 14 went as planned and I was able to line the tank with the trusty oil paint wash technique.

I think you can tell that I lined these parts.  Cause I totally did.

Vindicator #2 - Day 12 and 13

Sorry about the delay in the ol' posting schedule there, folks.  My progress for say 12 was so minor that I didn't think it even merited it's own post.  Plus I had no idea what to do for a supplemental.  So, again, I didn't bother.  Day 13... on the same hand... was also slow.  But by their powers combined, day 12 and 13 give me something to write about.  Even if it is a very small amount of writing:

Over the course of the last two days I managed to get all the necessary details done that I needed. Not a bad spot to be in.  Just a few quick steps and then I'm done!

Day 14 will open up with a coat of Tamiya Clear to giver everything the gloss coat that makes the oil effects super crazy easy to do.  Some kind of magic and or science I'm told.

Vindicator #2 - Day 11

Progress was again slow for day 11, but still steady.  Which is more than I can say for many, many of my projects that get this close to completion.

So lets jump in!

Two more of the smaller pieces are now done.  On a project like this, I like to complete all these little sub assemblies first so They're not cluttering up my work area.

Vindicator #2 - Day 10

Aaaaand were back!  My Malifaux break took less time than expected (yay!) and now it's on to the last of the three amigos.

Come to think of it, that would have been a good place to mine some tank names.  Lucky Day, Dusty Bottoms and Ned Nederlander?  It could work.

So, day 10 on the last Vindi.  Not as much progress as I would like, but still a goodly amount.  I think I'm approaching a little tank burnout and the fact that I just could not stop watching Community all day was also a major, contributing factor.

Chipping completed - using my 50/50 (approx.) mix of Dark Flesh and Black.  I like it a little red for extra contrast

Vindicator #3 - Day 14 + FINAL!

Day 14 opens up with the dull coat being dry to a point where I could handle the parts without mussing things up.  So it was on to the finishing touches before final assembly.

Some final chipping with some silver paint a dab of gloss varnish on the orange lenses.

Which I then did.

Vindicator #3 - Day 13

I am on the very cusp of having this another finished Vindicator.  THE VERY CUSP!.

Day 13 was a bit slower paced, but productive never the less.  Most of my time being spent on the last of the details.  Day 13 was also a weekend day for me so the progress will be in the step by step form that I like, rather than the quick pics and done approach.

The treads have been washed with Devlen Mud and then some Balck Didi's magic Ink .
I find that for the tank treads, that the badab black just doesn't do the job.

Vindicator #3 - Day 12

My weekend is, typically, a Friday/Saturday kinda thing.  Which means that day 12 was much more dramatic than things had been.  I had time to get all kinds of stuff done and take more pictures.  So this post is a bit closer to a step by step.

Some boltgun metal was airbrushed to the lat remaining large area on the tank and the treads.  Technically, this means that I worked on two tanks today.  

Vindicator #3 - Day 11

Another slow day, I'm afraid.  So slow that I don't even have enough material for an intro.

I made some slow but solid progress on some details.

Vindicator #3 - Day 10

Oh ho!  What's this?  Only one Vindicator for day 10?  Yes, friends.  It's all true.

I just don't want to deal with the hassle and tedium of detailing two large models at the same time.  It's too many parts to dick around with and it's so much stuff to keep in mind that it's likely I forget things (or make rush-based mistakes).  Plus, I'm coming up on an overdue switch back to Special Lady Friend's Malifaux Model from day 3 - lots of schedule considerations with alla that.

So I sat down and chipped up tank number 3 and then moved on to the start of the details.  Progress was a little stunted on day 10 due to sleepyness from lack of sleep and then further sleepyness from the suger-high crash induced by these brownies.  Also minesweeper.

It was helpful to have tank #1 handy to use as a guide to keep the level of chipping consistent.

Vindicator #2 and #3 - Day 9

Not much happened on day 9, but here's the progress anyways.

I sprayed on some white 'circles' for added decal goodness

Vindicator #2 and #3 - Day 8

Right-o, progress is still the name of the game as we run headlong into the beginning of week 2 for the second and third Vindicators.  I got home from work with just enough time to complete the last of the paint layers for the base color.  

Vindicator #2 and #3 - Day 7

Sorry for the late post, but life has been throwing a lot of curve balls these days and between a dental filling, a major shake up at work and my HoP responsibilities, it's been all I can do to distract my self with my hobby - let alone blog about it.   So here's the progress report for day 7, a little late but not forgotten.

In happier news, it turns out that the little base coat experiment from day 6 ended up with a solid result as the process of spraying the actual green base by airbrush was a lot faster.  I'll need another try with the method for science's sake, however, before I'm ready to commit to it. 

full base coat in blur-o-vision

Vindicator #2 and #3 - Day 6

I just realized that I missed a golden ( or is that verdant?) to do a tie in with America's most recent excuse to get black out drunk - St. Patrick's day!  Green tanks and everything.  Oh well, the moment is over and I've got progress to share.

Well... not a lot of progress, but still.

Tank #2 is ready is at a stopping point

Vindicator #2 and #3 - Day 5

Things are still rockin'!  Special shout out to Kartitas for noticing that my pre-shading was a waste of time and then for telling me in a nice way.  The advice was a huge time saver.  I still did a bit. bit not nearly as much and mostly on the parts of the model that would get less paint overall.

Pre-shading the insidey parts around the tracks and the gun barrels.

Vindicator #2 and #3 - Day 4

Nothing ground breaking today.  Though I guess being able to recreate the dozer blade from vindicator #1 a couple more times is pretty neat.

Since I had all this black paint I had thinned down for the hazard stripes, I used the opportunity to take care of one of the little details.  So one less thing to forget about later on when I'm up to my ass in the detailing.

Vindicator #1 - Day 13 and FINAL!

All right everyone - the moment we've all been waiting for is just about here.  Just a few lines of text farther down the page...

Once I got back into town from my trip and got some rest, it was back to the action.

Day 13 is actually more like two days worth of time, but most of it was spent waiting around for my final flat coats to dry.  I also had some problems getting the exact finish I wanted.  I'm always jealous of people who say they've used a dullcoat for years and never had any problem because I have nothing BUT problems.  I almost feel like they must be lying...

I'd been recently using some flat spray from the fine people of Model Master by way of Testors.  It was pretty much perfect until I hit the end of this project.  Then, all of a sudden, I couldn't get it to do anything besides various levels if satin.  I tried other models and still no improvement.  This, literally, happens to me all the time and as much as I'd like to blame fickle humidity, my experience overall doesn't bear this out.

I got it worked out in the end, so no worries there.  And I also go an opportunity to do some testing of a new (to me) product as a part of this whole side track.  It didn't go well.  All I can say is stay the hell away from the Model Master Acryl Clear flat.  Unless you like ruining your paint job.  Thankfully, I always test new top coats on scraps.

Once all that was over with it was on to the final weathering.  I finished all the silver chipping (again, after the flat seal) and then gave the smoke stacks a touch more soot.

Vindicator #1 - Day 12

I was able to shoehorn some more work in on the Vindicator before I had to be at the airport.  All the weathering is done and a after a quick blast of dull coat I was off to Chicago.  Well, that and I wrote and scheduled this post.

A mix of Tamiya Red Brown and Flat black was airbrushed on to give my exhaust areas some soot.  But not on the actual stacks - didn't want to over do it.