Canadian LAV III Afghanistan - Update April 22, 2014

PAINTED!!!

Base coat is on, and threw a few accessories on for color.

It took about an hour to paint, standing in the sunshine of the shed door, to make sure every nook and cranny was covered.

Painting the primer flat black was genius, thanks Chris. The coverage was just the right dark shade.
I had left some panels the primer grey, and those popped out lighter, perfect for a bit of modulation.

Next steps would be to paint on the markings (not much, just fist sized black maple leafs - I have a stencil for that). Then to place the light lenses, front and back - Clear, Orange and Red.

Then I can move on to the weathering.. gloss coat the entire thing, and go with the filters, washes and mud/dust.

It is not turning out too bad. I thought this would be  monumental undertaking, and it has, but pacing myself and concentrating on 1 piece at a time has worked out well for me. You know, east the Elephant 1 bite at a time..

Some progress shots..

Canadian LAV III Afghanistan - Update April 13, 2014

PRIMED!!

For me, Sunday April 13 was the first day of Spring.
It was the first day of the year that it was warm enough to go to the shed and spray Enamel and Lacquer paint! I can spray acrylic in the house using alcohol and the smell goes away quick, but I have been banished before for spraying Enamel and Lacquer in the house! I have a paint booth, but it doesn't help with Enamel or Lacquer.

Finished off the last few parts, and primed with my standard Model Master Grey Primer.

I will let this stand for a week to gas out, and by next weekend be ready to do the base coat.

Based on some advice from Chris I will start with flat black (I use Tamiya XF paints). I will then use XF67 NATO Green overall, but I will need to lighten it with either Dark Yellow or Medium Grey,because of the black pre-shading. This would represent the base coat, there is no camouflage pattern for this one.

I was wondering why Chris recommended Black instead of going straight to NATO green, but I think it will help with the modulation of the nooks and crannies. I just won't pay much attention to those areas with the NATO Green, and they will give a much better shadow appearance.

After that I will lighten the NATO Green gradually and hit the upper panels in whole, lighten again and go after smaller panels, and finally lighten again and hit the raised details.

That is the plan anyway....

The individual parts to be glued/placed later, ready for priming. Yes, that is a resin Coleman Cooler there in the middle. It will be painted either red/white or blue/white with International Distress Orange on the cover to act as aircraft recognition, and be placed in the rear turret basket.

Also primed two aircraft I have worked on since Dec.

More shots to come as the painting starts in earnest!!