RFM KV-1

Beginning of the running gear and lower hull. Everything fits really well. Extremely well engineered! 

 

It was quote a long day of track assembly on the KV-1. There are 88 links for each side. Each needs to be cut off the tree, cleaned and then placed. They provide a jig for this which once you figure it out is pretty slick. The pins to join the tracks are on a rail that if you use the jig properly you can insert all at once. This makes the process much quicker. Finished one side plus 70 tracks on the other before my eyes stopped working. Honestly it is a job I don't mind once I figure out how to do it. Just put on a podcast or book and assemble tracks. The one thing I will say is that the plastic pins don't stay in great. I put just a dab of Tamiya Thin at the very end to hold the pins in yet keep everything else flexible. Worked pretty well. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Metal tracks waiting to be burnished.
 

Tracks after burnishing 

 

Now primed black. 

 

Beginning of the PE stuff on the tank. These are for the back deck. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More progress on the KV-1. Mostly assembled now. Need to do some flamecuts and welds (they are tiny on the kit) as well as adding texture to the turret.  

Finished up the new welds, scratched the turret a bit and finished with texturing. A couple more parts to finish assembling then a coat of primer. Will be the first time using Mr Color paints which will be interesting.  

 

 

 

 

First coat of paint on. Using Mr Color 4BO paint. Ummm, those bottles really don't hold much paint, at all! Little too used to Tamiya. I do really like the color. The paint was split into 3 parts. One that was just thinned which will be the highlight color, one that was about 15% white, which is the color that I put on and one that is about 30% white which will be put on after a bunch of chipping fluid. The turret could possibly use another coat of the middle paint but going to go with it as most of it will be covered up anyway. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2nd coat of paint and then some chipping. Tried with hairspray on the road wheels, almost no success. Used AK Heavy Chipping fluid and that did a decent job on the hull and turret. Going to put on the regular 4BO color tomorrow and may chip that as well.  

 

 

More progress. Three different colors on. Started with a medium color, added chipping fluid, put on a lighter color, chipped, added more chipping fluid and added a darker color and chipped. The effect is probably a bit subtle to pickup on photos and probably needs to be more dramatic next time. Fairly happy with it though. Heavy chipping fluid worked far better than the lighter stuff, which didn't do much. Finally a satin finish so I can start with other weathering. 

 

 

 

 

The beginning of oils and pin washes. 

 

 

Decals on. Did some experimenting with inks tonight. Not sure my hands are steady enough to spray them in a good way. Since coming back to modeling it has been interesting to find ways to accomplish what I want to with some physical limitations. My hands are not nearly as steady as they used to be so using oils to render and weather things is going to be the way. My eyes aren't as good so no more 1/72 armor, only 1/35th armor. Lots of new tools and "stuff" available to make things easier and so many good youtubers to help you out. It has been an interesting journey.

Oh and the decals on the RFM kit look like absolute garbage on the decal sheet, just a ton of carrier film. It will not settle down around bigger humps so that part of the film was cut out, but they settled down and look like they were painted on. They are quite impressive actually. 

 

Most of the weathering done, need to add some grime and dirt. Going to try out the new AK Gouaches to add dust and dirt, still need to weather the tank tracks and attach. Getting close. 

 

 

 

New method on the tracks, step by step. I am not 100% sure it is worth the effort but happy with the way the first one turned out. Started with the Gouaches with the lightest tone and getting darker. It is sort of random applied. After all that tried some Tamiya panel highlighter, did nothing other than make it gross. Then did the AK Wash for Tracks and added AK Dark earth pigments. Pretty happy with the result. Will do a streamlined version of this on the other side of the track and will likely copy the method on the second track. All in all, happy with the result. 

 

 

 

 

 

So, finished weathering the tracks tonight, pretty happy with the way they turned out. They are much darker in person that they look in the photos. Also did some weathering of the lower hull. Waiting until this dries to figure out what needs to stay and what needs to go.  

 

 

 

 

Pretty close to being done. Need to take another track out of the left side or adjust the gear to pull up the tension. Also need to add the machine gun and paint the rear tail lite as well as putting the spotlight on the front.  

 

 

 

Final set of photos. Build complete, everything that will happen to the kit is complete. Will do some more pro photos at some point but calling it for today.