Contest crazyness, Jeep's Model







I just finished laying down a primer coat of TAMIYA XF64 Red brown, Hopefully my pictures will start being a little clearer, I am taking "stills" with a 11mega pix Mini DVR camera/recorder, it does weird things sometimes that is why my pics get so fuzzy, There does not seem to be any rhyme or reason for this. I blame it on its little robot brain. Anyway my primer coat was laid in three thin sprays with my Paasche airbrush, I hope the flat color will stop confusing the camera. Brown is a good base for armor, it is close to rust and dirt so it hides well if you miss something. A coat of paint can also help hide building mistakes and point them out, if you notice a blemish then it is really something that you ought to back and fix.

I decided to finish the cab with a roof. Unlike the tractors of today with ROPS and government organizations like OSHA roofs on dozers, if they had one were pretty primitive affairs. I decided that my roof would be made of some scrap bar stock and schedule 40 pipe with a piece of sheet tin bent over top, The wavy and bent nature of .005 styrene was used for this reason. The seat was made out of much thicker .03 sheet and even heavier .06 styrene that was carver up to make a thin pad, I choose dimensions similar to the backseat of my 1946 CJ2a. Early dozers had wide bench seats to allow the operator to slide back and forth across the seat for the best visibility as needed. Running a dozer is not just driving the track, but you also have to constantly watch the corners of the the blade and adjust to keep the grade, With a cable lift this was even tougher. So a wide seat makes sense to me so my model has one. My references where to clear enough to judge what the actual tractor was fitted with.

I decided that my budget just did not justify the expense of aftermarket tracks. I just can't swing it right now. so out came the Tamiya rubber band tracks which were cut down to length and affixed with some cyanacrylate adhesive. I also added some light brackets, draw bar, and lifting rings around the tractor. I also but some wear and tear on the fenders, hood panels. I could almost "hear" the rattle of thin tin panels while bending and tearing hole into these. Pretty cool.

To get back toward finishing, I have not yet decided "when" in this vehicles "life" I want to place the model, My only color reference is a derelict that will soon be scrapped. I could do this, it would be a opportunity to hide some things I am not happy with (there always is) But that is a cop out. Most of my references are from a fairly new machine "working" It is kind of to "tiddy" I am already past that with the "damage" I already put into the panels and roof. My current thought is to put the model somewhere in between these two extremes, It will give me a opportunity to weather it with oil spills, leaks and muck it up some with out doing a extreme exercise in modeling rust. I do not expect that most of these bulldozers had a long service life in their new role. After all they already fought a world war, even shopped and manufactured by Vickers they had to be getting a little long in the tooth mechanically. Especially when you consider how hard on equipment it was to turn with load on the blade, I am not sure that a Sherman drive train was up to that abuse. Typing this out, I am leaning towards a level of finish of a machine that is not quite out of service yet but has had some use on its second life. Thoughts?
 
Sweet! Yeah the idea of it being well used makes sense. Kind of one-foot-near-the-grave but not in it.
 




I broke out the airbrush again and sprayed some Tamiya XF62 Olive Drap over the sherman components, waited awhile and applies RUST ANTIQUING to the model where ever I think rust accumulates on a dover or a sherman tank that has sat awhile. Basically when a dozer is working the friction with materials polish the metal to a high shine, If it sits any length of time this exposed metal will oxidize in short order. The paint quality in Post war England was not that great* Based on this assumption, the paintwork would weather quite rapidly even for heavy equipment, My references support this assumption. I have never tried Antiquing solutions before so, I am really, really hopeful that I did not ruin my model. Normally I get the effect with paint, washes and dry pigment. So I am trying something new.

The antiquing set consist of two bottles of **PolyAcrylate paint which is very heavy with IRON files,Titanium Dioxide, zinc, Which are very heavy metals (it also has some VOCs so you should use this stuff with ventilation) The effect is a very gritty grey primer that is applies with a old brush in patches and wear areas or where water would collect. I took forever to (with difficulty) stir the primary bottle for use, You can just give this a shake, you really need to stir it, and its like half set concrete, Once if has some fluidity again, consider using a piece of bent wire in a drill to give it a good stir!

You wait a little while and then top coat this with the second bottle which is the "Antiquing solution" It is really a mixture of Ammonium Chloride and Copper Sulphate, (wear gloves) Once applied I slid the wet model into a Ziplock freezer bag to sit The bag was to concentrate the atmosphere to help speed up the chemical reaction. I now have to wait a little (a day or two) then make a decision on whether or not to re apply the solution. It has been about three hours now and it is starting to rust as I type this out. I wil make further decision based on how this turns out.



(*dad owns a 1969 Series landrover and a1954 Triumph Motor cycle, neither have great paint work, yet more projects to do while I am laid off)

** I am not just poor Architecture Student and a laid off Union truck driver/ Dock worker I am also a pretty experienced Hazardous materials technician, formerly on a International Emergency Response Team,(now defunct) my terminal team and now a Multi-county Municipal Team as a volunteer. As such I tend to see the penalty of not respecting chemicals on fairly frequent basis. I am as guilty of the next guy or spraying with out a respirator or a booth or using things indoors when you shouldn't but since I have been in the HAZMAT field I have learned to be a little more contentious of warnings, and MSDS. (thus endith rant)
 
Cool. Can't wait to see that rust. I have this product but I haven't used it yet. It's been on the shelf over a year. I hope it is still usable.
 
Panther conversion into a bulldozer, Good thing I did not find this image sooner, My panther tank project(s) might have been pushed aside! (I made a pun)



and the Vickors VR180, also made from old tank parts stock (initially) I thought these were need enough to post but I still have not decided whether or not to try applying "peeling" paint around my rust or what color it should be.

Edit: second coat of rust applied and back into the bag it goes till tomorrow!



 
Wow, you really got a jump start on this. I can't want to see the rusting on this one either. It's coming out really nice as it is.
 








I took some shots outside in hopes of better camera performance. My dozer has rusted away over 24 hours now. The effect is striking and it is real rust. My only concern with this technique is it is glossy in finish and not all the Solution was used so it is covered in chemical. I am not sure I want to wash it off, for fear or ruining the rust effect but I don't want to leave Ammonium Chloride and Copper Sulphate on it either. I may dab the excess off with a paper towel and Q tips Then Matt clear it down. Next decision is whether or not to show "peeling" paint the brown paint job blends really well with the rust, just like the prototype does Regardless I need to muddy it up some around the boogies, tracks and blade. Then decided if I want to base it.

I MIG powdered treatment did a LOT to make it look awesome. Then I started to MATTE clear coat it and declare completion.
 
:mad: :( :-X :'( DISASTER Instead of clear I have droplets of OPAQUE white CRAP in speckles all over my model, *&%*&%$&^*(&( I am going to try to fix it now by hiding it under another coat of MIG powders which will hide all that rust treatment that I spent the last DAY and half doing, (^(*^&*(^&*%&, I am going to bin all of my KRYLON clear coats. ................................

Edit, I am taking a break, the rust effect is RUINED, I feel like kicking puppies or punching babies right now. :-X

The clear coat ruined the effects I was after, the weathering powder is WWWWaaaaay to heavy in a attempt to try to hide the damage. If I drank, and I don't, I would be well on my way to drinking my sorrows away now. I think I'll go do something else for the day and maybe start to finish up those Panthers tonight. Please ignore the white opaque crud that I may have missed, @##$#@. :-X







 
Don’t be too hard on yourself Jeep, I'm sure you can bring it back.
It’s hard to tell from the pictures but it still looks good and rusty :)

CC is a bad, bad, man ;) did he punch baby's too ???
 
Yeah, I don't see it being THAT bad. I know your foreground is blurry in the photos. I hope you can correct that so we can really see the model. You'll pull through man...step back and regroup. It's really a fantastic build. You're nailing the theme.

I know how it feels. When i butchered the Red 6 I was really pissed but it ended up fine.
 
I actually think it looks pretty good from what I can see. The pic is a little blurry so I can't see the "white speckles" but it can't be that bad. Can you touch it out with just paint?
 
I set it aside for a day or so, and decided that I will try to fix it, I can't ruin the finish anymore than it is. With that I stripped all the MIG powder off with high pressure compressed air, a soft brass bristle tooth brush and a stiff nylon tooth brush, re primed and and re applies the rusting kit, Starting the whole finish over. I will lose some of the details that I embossed into the hood louvers but it I can recover the rust effect and the proper amount of dust weathering, it might work out. I'll try anyway.
 

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