Finishing the Tamiya Universal Carrier Mk.II: Pt V

After finishing the Jerry Cans and other accessories, I wanted to make the "lived in" feel to my model even more obvious so I went foraging through all of the extra parts given for this kit and decided to add one of the extra helmets. The only problem with this was that the inner part was far too small to be accurate a this scale so I took my Dremel tool to the inside and made it far deeper. I then took a piece of paper, cut it into a circle and glued strips of tin foil onto it to make helmet liner and straps. I painted the liner Tan and the outside of the helmet Forest Fern. I then added it into the driving compartment along with some ammo boxes.

Finishing the Tamiya Universal Carrier Mk.II: Pt IV

After completing the Enfield rifles, I then went on to work on the Bren Guns. I painted the three of them with metallic black as a base coat, and then added a normal black wash to bring out the fantastic details on the guns. I then added Burnt Umber to the end and the handles. After that I painted all of the accessories, and when I say all, I mean ALL of the accessories, like backpacks, ammo pouches, Jerry Cans, Ration boxes, everything that a real wartime vehicle should have. The monotonous task didn't take too long when I used an assembly line idea, and painted one side of one Jerry can, Storage Box, or whatever, then cut off another and did the same. When I had finished all of them on one side, the first side would be dry and I could paint the others.

Finishing the Tamiya Universal Carrier Mk.II: Pt III

The kit comes with two Lee Enfeild bolt action rifles, and both are supposed to sit neatly in the rifle rack in the middle of the vehicle, but I decided, since I chose mine to look like an operational vehicle, I decided to add a strap to one and place it in a corner of the Carrier. I took a normal sheet of Tin Foil and cut small, thin strips out of it, and attached it to the places on the rifle where they went on the real gun. I then painted the rifle Burnt Umber and the strap in Tan. The effect was extremely satisfying.

Finishing the Tamiya Universal Carrier Mk.II: Pt II

After finishing painting the wheels, I found all of the parts that require cushions ( seats, back rests, etc.) To do this I started out with a coat of Burnt Umber and and created texture by "poking" ( the only word that I could think of to describe the hand motion...) the brush on the wet paint. I waited for it to dry, and then dry brushed on Roan Red and Country Maple paints. This gave a nice finish to the seats, giving them the perfect look of the real vehicle.

Next I painted the tools on the back of the carrier. The handles received a base coat of Roan Red and the metal parts storm cloud grey. While these were drying I applied a coat of Cashmere and Forest Fern to the fabric parts above. When the tools were dry, I painted the wood Country Maple and the metal a metalic black.

Finishing the Tamiya Universal Carrier Mk. II: Part I

Well, I thought it was about time for another review [Being as the last one finished on April 5.... :P ] and luckily, I'm just about finished Tamiya's British Universal Carrier Mk II - Forced Recon( http://www.tamiyausa.com/product/item.php?product-id=35249 for more details) so I decided that I should explain how I worked on finishing the Carrier.

I started off by painting it Deco-Art's Americana Light Avocado paint. ( For a full line of Deco-Art Paints go to http://www.decoart.com/) I chose this color after many failed attempts to make my own shade, but this one was just about perfect. I painted the carrier in two parts; the main hull and then the front guard area. After painting the these I applyed black Deco-Art paint to the wheels. (For future reference; all paint that I use is Deco-Art, so I won't be stating the brand from now on.) I was exceptionally pleased with the result, because it really made the color of the vehicle appear darker.

Tip of the Week

Don't let large tasks like zimmerit or individual track links intimidate you, they only take time but aren't that hard. Before I started on my Tiger's zimmerit, I was very intimidated, but it isn't overly hard; It just takes a lot of time. (Zimmerit's almost done... pics soon hopefully....)