Komatsu G40 – Jungle Rot

I've mentioned before that I have a soft spot for construction equipment – and giving the opportunity to model two of the latest release from Tamiya I jumped at the chance.  The challenge, of course, would be to present the same model in two, unique finishes.  My plan was simple; show one Komatsu dozer as it would have looked at the time - this example can be seen on an earlier posting —->Komatsu. For the second bulldozer I was inspired by photographs of long forgotten relics sitting in silent testimony to the long ago battles.  These rusting hulks of steel would provide the perfect platform to try some new painting and finishing ideas while achieving the goal of two kits with different finishes. 

I detailed the construction of the small dozer in a prior post.  If interested in seeing I invite you to visit the Komatsu posting below.

It turns out that painting a rusted relic involves quite a lot of planning and forethought – more that I had anticipated.  In my opinion, an important component in this type of finish is the element of randomness that occurs from natural conditions.  In looking at any example of heavily weathered equipment reveal a rainbow of colors and textures. 

I began by giving the entire model an underlying color layer of Tamiya NATO Black to produce my deepest shadows.  Over this I sprayed my rust layer of colors of Tamiya Hull Red, Red Brown, Deck Tan, and Clear Red.  And, although ultimately this layer of color would be painted over, scrubbed, and generally abused during the weathering process I believe that even at this early stage it is important to add visual interest.  From the photos you might notice that the color coverage is not uniform and that there are color variations over the surfaces.  I then protected this layer with a light misting of Johnson’s Future acrylic floor polish.

 

Let’s count the layers…shall we?  Layer three comprised of small dabs of MIG Productions Liquid Mask applied with a Scotch Brite pad to create small, deep “rusty” nicks on the surface.  Layer four is a visit to the beauty shop for a hairspray makeover.  Next I applied the vehicles grey colors using Tamiya IJN Grey mixed with Flat White and Medium Blue.  Again, these colors are applied with varying colors and consistency – layer five. 

The principal behind using the hairspray as an underlying layer is that when water is applied over the surface, certain areas of the hairspray will dissolve and lift off the overlying paint.  A little scrubbing with a stiff brush is all that is needed to promote this effect.  I tried to “enhance” this effect by combining it with the initial liquid masking layer.  From the photos I hope that you see the difference in exposed layers from where the hairspray alone has removed paint layers and those areas where hairspray and liquid mask combined to create different effects. 

At this point I am pleased with the resulting appearance, but there is more to do.  I am planning on using artist’s oils and pigments in the latter stages, but I also want to preserve some of the more vibrant patches I have right now of the vehicles grey colors.  To protect these I once again use MIG Productions Liquid Mask for a quick protective layer.  

From this point forward layer counting becomes very complex as an almost simultaneous use of MIG Productions pigments and 502 Abteilung artist’s oils are used to add visual interest and complexity to the surfaces.  One technique that I tried for the first time to good result was to lightly dab a color of artist’s oils onto the surface – Shadow Brown, German Ochre, Light Rust, Faded German Yellow – and then quickly dab dried pigment colors onto the wet oils.  These ingredients mixed and dried to very convincing patinas.  I also employed my usual approaches to weathering of using artist’s oils to help define certain shapes and contours with thin color applications.  Shadows were defined using pin washes.  In addition to dabbing the pigments onto the wet artist’s oils I also used my usual method of first dissolving them in turpentine and applying them with a small brush to certain areas.  I like this method because it allows for greater control for placing the pigments exactly where intended.  Layers, I ran out of fingers to count on!!

 I am a big believer that even a simple scenic base is an important element in the telling of the story.  For this story I wanted to show the passage of time as the jungle slowly encroaches and overtakes the forgotten dozer.  To begin I made a simple 4”x4” cube to be used for the base platform.  Over this I applied a rough layer of Apoxie Sculpt to make the basic ground contours including pressing the dozer into the putty to make sure that it really set into the scene.  Once the putty had dried I built up the surfaces using Plaster of Paris and then painted the groundwork a base color of Tamiya Flat Earth.  The majority of the vegetation is dried moss found at the local crafts store that I colored submersing in thinned acrylic paint baths of greens and yellows.  Other plant life came from Silfor grass, Woodland Scenes, and few of the Kamizukuri laser cut paper leaves.  Once the model has been placed on the scene I made the last weathering adjustments by adding some the effects of mossy build-up by dabbing a little bit of MIG Productions Allied Green and Gulf War Sand into certain recesses and corners of the dozer.

 

This project will be featured in an upcoming issue of MMiR.

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