The Panzer Ferry gets dirty!

As a young lad I can remember going on a Saturday morning to the local newsagent, who like most at that time. carried a selection of the 'pocket money' Airfix kits, paint and glue. Great sellers and many of my friends did as I did and deposited their weekly pocket money in the newsagents till in exchange for a kit. Getting home, the plans were glanced at, the parts twisted off the sprue and tube glue liberally applied to parts. A few hours later the kit was built. Sunday saw an assortment of Humbrol paints and less then clean or flexible brushes come out and by the end of the day the model was painted and decals applied. To me these were great models built by me and before school on a Monday! The reality was that they were glue and paint bombs! However we all had to start somewhere. 

Move forward more years then I care to recall and my experience and learning over the years means even those pocket money Airfix kits can take me many days or even weeks to complete now. No more twisting parts off the sprue or applying paint with a near tar brush applicator! That young desire to create something quickly has been replaced by a more measured and matured approach of wanting to produce something that is the best I can - within reason and sanity! That takes time and as I work on the Dragon Kit of the Panzer Ferry I realise that as I am now at the weathering stage. I have probably spent about seven or eight hours on that aspect alone. However despite the time I do enjoy it and each time I do it I gain more experience. It is a therapeutic activity in todays sometimes rushed World. It is probably a good job I enjoy it as I will need to repeat the process when I build the other amphibious tank!

Any way back to the kit and having already started to weathered the sides of the pontoon and tank that process has continued all over both models and includes the wheels.

I have used a mixture of paint brush applied washes and very dilute paint airbrushed at a low pressure to build up some weathering. Being amphibious creates issues in how I weather these two models but to some degree I am assuming that water would leave sediment and general dirt so that is what I have gone for and I think it works.

That clean deck has been dirtied and looks more realistic. This is something that I could never had got my young head around all those years ago building those pocket money Airfix kits!

Putting the two models side by side gives an idea of the size of this and there is still another amphibious tank to add!

I was going to paint the deck grey and then use the hairspray technique to weather it but given how good the wood effect has turned out I am going to leave it. The Panzer Ferry was a prototype so this may well have been the case in real life! That is my excuse anyway!

Possibly some more dirt to add but I need to add the tracks and there are some parts that need to go on the deck such as the engine exhausts and stanchions which will add more interest. Then do I raid the WMD HQ kit stash to find something suitable to put on the pontoon? I better steady myself before I go back to that youthful exuberance of wanting to build models in a day!