KV-2 1/35 (stalins tower of ouch )

[leander]

fellow modellers!

here's my 1/35 trumpeter kv-2. I'm really looking forward to painting and weathering, but first I have to solve some problems concerning gaps marked with red color. do I need to fill them? and if so, does diluted filler work? thanks and lets hope I can post some updates soon

[TheTroyster]

I am glad you are pointing this out as I plan on building Trumpeter's KV1 starting next month - so Ill be curious to see how you fix this, just in case I encounter the same issue.

[RonBurgundy]

I have this Kv2 currently under work and encountered the same problem. Dindnt fix it yet though. I was planning to use Mr. Surfacer to cover this gaps- Maybe someone more experienced can give us some advice on this?

[leander]

I came to the conclusion that the gaps need to be filled. but since there are 2 armor plates welded together, you need to rescribe a litte bit. and you also have to take care of the welding seams. hope I can post an update soon

[OliveDrab]

Thinned putty would work, but those gaps look a little difficult to access for application of the putty. It might be a good opportunity to use fine stretched sprue. Glue the stretched sprue into the gap, coat with more glue to soften the sprue, then add weld "texture" to the softened plastic with a toothpick or other similar tool. I'll be honest, I have not used the sprue method yet, as the thinned putty was all that was needed for my latest builds.

[TommyKillander]

Great job with the build!

I'm building the Zvevda kit for this tank at the moment.

I would approch this by using dissolved putty (or Mr. Surfacer 500) to hide the seams and to buildup a fake welding seam on top of the existing one. To make it look realistic I would probably use thin strips of masking tape to make an hard edge on both sides of the weld. You need to stipple the putty with a brush to get that rough surface.

Good luck with the rest of your build, it will be awesome when its painted !


Tommy

[Smiffy]

Great looking build so far, though I don't envy you for having to fill those seams right next to the welds.

[leander]

[leander]

hey folks!

it's been a while since the last update on this one. so I didn't care too much about the weld seams and just tried to fill the gaps as careful as possible. if you don't concentrate on the issue it doesn't look toooo bad.
right after solving that, I ran into the next problem: the individual tracks gave me nightmares. but more due to my incapability
so I primed the model using vallejo russian green primer and did some highlighting on the whole tank using tamiya acrylics. at first I thought that I had overdone it, but when I covered the whole tank in tamiya clear, the color variation almost disappeared :/
at the same time, I made a huge mistake when sealing the decals. I used too much pressure on my airbrush, so there was too much xf clear coming out producing ugly paint noses and way too thick coverage. it's not really good to see on the pictures, but it just looks awful.
is there any way to carefully remove or at least make the clear coat thinner?
thanks a lot and I hope to show more progress soon

[TommyKillander]

Hi leander!

The gloss coat will make the colours go darker and blend together a little bit.

It looks perfectly fine on the photos, so I don't think it's too bad. The model may look a little bit wierd after you have put on the glosscoat, but as long at the weathering doesn't collect in unwanted places it's not a problem. The bumps and uneven coats of gloss will not be that obvious when you put on the matte coat.

Hope this help - the KV2 looks awesome, good job!


Tommy

[leander]

hi Tommy!

thanks a lot! next time I will increase the highlighting dramatically since it blends in so much. I didn't even apply filters or washes and it already almost disappeared lesson learned.

well...the right sight of the turret ain't so bad. but on the left side, there really is a huge bump of gloss coat. I was thinking of carefully sanding it away but I'm a little bit afraid it will make things even worse :/

thanks again and I hope I can show some updates soon!

cheers!
leander

[chalkyw]

It took me a while to get my head around the effect of the gloss coat but as Tommy said, a bit of weathering and a matt coat will start to bring the effects underneath back again. I'm guessing its something to do with refraction of light as things always look darker when they're wet.

[leander]

It took me a while to get my head around the effect of the gloss coat but as Tommy said, a bit of weathering and a matt coat will start to bring the effects underneath back again. I'm guessing its something to do with refraction of light as things always look darker when they're wet.

wow, now I'm REALLY curious about further painting/weathering stages