Greetings fellow enthusiast. If, perchance, you have been following my threads on building the Master Box Mk1 in the modelling section you will know that the first off the production line - 'Female' A17 'OH, I SAY !!!' has been primed in grey and is about to be camouflaged. Study of photographs of each side suggests to me that they where done by different crewmen and it got me thinking......
For us, painting a 1:72 (or any smaller scale) is a relatively painless exercise. Tank in one hand, brush/airbrush in the other and away we go. But consider, if you will, painting a canvas that is 26ft long, 8ft high (times 2) plus the front and the 'sticky out bits' and you've never done it before and the 'master' you are copying from is, maybe, at the end or in front of a line of tanks - their crews all doing as you are!! Further more, you are a tank crewman and not an artist and you have been presented with several buckets of different colour paint and a couple of brushes. Well, firstly, I would ask the skipper for some help and have another crewman (Bert) do the other side.
So we start, at the front of course - a relatively small canvas - front horn to front of gun sponsons. It is warm, we have just had breakfast and enthusiasm is running high - I am lucky because I can see my side of the example tank but Bert has taken a piece of paper and sketched the 'other side' of the example, rather than keep running too and fro. I take my time copying the design and the results are quite crisp and neat, Bert is doing likewise but his work is not the same as mine. We finish in time for a mid morning cuppa. With renewed vigour we both start on the sponsons and gun shields - of course the cammo is applied to the guns in the position they were left, it is a fiddly job and it is getting a bit boring!
Lunch is served and Bert and I discuss the work we have done, we decide that the fiddly camouflage we applied to the front sections is a bit too challenging and so, with the daunting size of the rear sections decide to expand our work a little - after all we want to be finished before the evening meal - and there is a briefing afterwards. So we continue out painting with rather broader strokes and a little less attention to the details of the example tank - a bit of free lance interpretation, if you will. The skipper is happy, so we are too. I take a peak at Bert's work. Hmmmm, I think I am the better painter - but I'll not be volunteering to do any more, after all our tank will be covered in dust and mud within the week. Fortunately, the driver found a spare brush and has been clambering over the front of our tank doing the cammo, he says it is in his best interest for 'the Boche' not to be able to see him and the skipper coming!!
So dear reader, that is a scenario of human nature - perhaps. But looking at the camouflage of 'OH, I SAY !!!' it is not far from the truth, certainly the style of cammo on each side is different and it does appear as though the quality of presentation reduces as the 'painter(s)' worked rearwards? Your interpretation may well differ. So I plan to use: the base grey, desert 'pink', indian red and some strokes of green. What goes where is a bit more of a challenge, clearly the lighter colour is easy but the grey and red not so - I have decided that the lighter of the 2 'darks' is grey and that the slightly incongruous strips shall be green.
Desert pink - tanks were described as being painted in a colour of the setting sun, a vivid pink a baby pink even. I was inclined towards the 'yellow ochre' but plumped for the 'pink'
Burt umber is not so dissimilar to the old Humbrol GWR loco frame red and, as I have a tin of that so shall I use it.
Green - as yet undecided: Light Brunswick green? perhaps.
Of course there will be over spraying of dust and application of mud to tone down things.
Black separation lines also appear between some of the 'colours. The colours will be scaled down a little so they are not so brash.
Below you can compare the cammo scheme on either side of 'OH, I SAY !!!'
-- Edited by TeeELL on Thursday 6th of March 2014 03:53:37 PM
-- Edited by TeeELL on Thursday 6th of March 2014 03:57:38 PM
The camouflage is progressing - these shots show the pattern and colours I elected to use, the cab sides have had some light 'Burnt Umber' added since these photos were taken. In addition I have superimposed the name and number on the sides as I will be creating those decals next week and need to know where to print those background colours (I don't have a printer that does white so have to use white decal sheet). Please note that the differing positioning of the name has been copied from photos of the real thing, although I will do a final check before committing to printing.
I have to do the black lines but there is definitely a discrepancy between the cammo on one side and the other. It rather reinforces my thoughts outlined in my first post that, perhaps, half the crew did one side and half did the other. The green swathes I shall add are based upon the markings visible on one side of 'OH, I SAY !!!' and for the sake of symmetry I will add them to the other side. Fortunately they do not pass through the name, otherwise I'd have a proper t'do sorting that out.
Hope what you see is OK, no cammo on the roof, inside rear horns or steering tail - just mud and a bit more mud.
__________________
Regards TeeELL
Growing old is compulsory, growing up is optional.
I think that the right hand side HMLS needs to be slightly re positioned such that it aligns between the 2 rivets and is central to 'OH, I SAY' without the !!! As per the other side. I shall view the film clip again. This modelling lark is continuous learning!
__________________
Regards TeeELL
Growing old is compulsory, growing up is optional.
