I really can’t believe I’m about to spend nearly £900 on a model, but I am… and I’m looking forward to it!

I’ll be documenting my build progress, research and other related activity in this thread, though you’ll have to wait for the actual construction as I’m planning on collecting all the issues before starting! There are a few reasons for this, but mainly I want to know how the whole thing goes together before starting so that I can make any adjustments I want easily while building, rather than have to try and unpick progress.

The first thing I know I’ll want to do is repaint the model, so I’ve grabbed an extra copy of issue 1 to practice on. As those who have bought it will know, the part is cast in a grey-cream colour and comes ’pre-weathered’ with a black wash that has been mechanically scrubbed off. The effect is OK, but not great, and I think I’ll be able to achieve a better result with a combination of techniques and tools, such as washes, filters, panel shading, dry brushing, etc. Before I will start the paint tests I want to remove the black wash and start with a clean piece. It looks like isopropyl alcohol (IPA) will do the job, so I’ll try washing the piece in a sonic bath and see, literally, how it scrubs up!

Cheers,
Ian