Valentine Mk VI Canadian Built (1:35, MiniArt)

[pikos]

Valentine Mk VI Canadian Built - 1:35 (MiniArt)





Here is the build of a Canadian Tank, the Valentine Mk VI. This build will represent a training unit in Borden Camp, Ontario Canada in 1942. Borden Camp is a training facility of the Canadian Forces and thus this build is dedicated to Major - General F.F. Worthington, the father of the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps. Worthington is buried in Worthington Park which is located in Borden Camp.







1,420 Valentines were built in Canada. Of them, only 30 remained in the Canadian Army and most of the rest were sent to Soviet Union. All the 30 Valentines of the Canadian Army were used for training and this build is the T15975, one of the 30 Valentines that stayed in the country.


Here are the contents of the kit just before the start of the build. It's wonderful in my eyes, the transformation of 605 plastic parts that lie down on my desk to something totally different, totally yours
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[JayCub]

Nice intro and great photography, im looking forward to this build.. looks like your ready to go

[Rodney]

That's a lot off little parts Cant wait to see it all come together

[HWGuderian23]

Wow! Seems to be complicated. Good luck with the kit

[spruecutter]

Glad to be building this with you

[pikos]

I.

The build starts with the lower hull and the wheels. Contrary to most modellers, I prefer to glue the wheels and trucks on the model prior to painting. It's a decision based on habit, as I never tried the other way. Maybe next time...




This kit provides the trucks piece by piece. According to the MiniArt guide, 98 pieces should be glued to make one truck. I had to use 102 for the one and 101 (really don't know why) for the other. That's to represent the effect of gravity, the trucks are supposed to be heavy and I wanted not to make them as a straight line. The process is shown here:



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That's the result:









Note that the interior of the tank is built (driver's seat etc). I decided to make the tank with closed hatches but hadn't decide it by the time I built it. So, see it now and then be silent forever.

[pikos]

Nice intro and great photography, im looking forward to this build.. looks like your ready to go

Thanks a lot. The question is, when the tank will be ready to go

That's a lot off little parts Cant wait to see it all come together

"Little" is...little to describe some of them

Wow! Seems to be complicated. Good luck with the kit

Thanks. It is complicated for my level. Wait till I start working the PE parts. Nightmare....

Glad to be building this with you

Same here! (I am delaying on purpose to copy your moves my friend, be on guard!)

[spruecutter]

Glad to be building this with you

Same here! (I am delaying on purpose to copy your moves my friend, be on guard!)

Ah! but now you are ahead of me

[pikos]

II.


Next I worked with the upper hull. The kit provided photo-eched parts which was a "first time" for me. I admit that these parts bring more realism to the tank but also made my days difficult. I am not happy with the results I achieved, I must improve if I want to use them in another build.







The rest of the upper hull was easy to build. Very nice pieces with a lot of detail.













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Glued with blue tack, the tank looked like this





















But, as always, there were fitting isues. Which were dealt with dissolved putty and an old brush.









Here you can see the result













And that completes the "building" chapter. The painting process will begin next, I will try to show you as better as I can the steps. But before I leave you for now I'd like to show you something. As shown in the photo of the kit, the model comes with 5 figures. I wouldn't use them on this build since they are russians but nevertheless, built one of them to see him with the tank. The results are disappointing. The figure is huge compared to the tank and is obvious that these two don't match. I tried to use the figure with another 1/35 tank I work now, a russian KV-1.
By the way, the dimensions of the two tanks are: Valentine L5,41/ W2,62/H2,27 KV-1 L5,80/W4,20/H2,32.
The conclusions are yours to make...











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See you soon.

[JayCub]

considering your new to PE it's a wonderful job and it does slow you down a bit but the end result is worthy of your talents, so roll on the paint work as i fancy getting my hands on a valentine now.

Tom

[schweinhund227]

my gun goes Pew pew....

LOL


Nice kit thou ! what a puny little tank !

Excellent comparison

thanks for sharing your progress on this.

[spruecutter]

Looks great built up Well done with the PE parts too.

[conradschmid99]

looking good
the valentine is such a small tank!

[Rob]

Great built, looking forward to the paint job. The comparison with the figure and KV1 was eye opening!

[pikos]

III.


Painting process began with priming. As you will see, the whole project is painted and weathered with AK products. So, I primed the tank with an AK black primer.












After drying, I started working the inside of the turret. There's the machine gun and the radio to paint but before that I had to take care of the outer side of the turret masking it.














The inside was painted but forgot to take a photo of it done, so I will show it to you when the whole project finishes.



I decided to try the method of colour modulation. It's something I have never tried before but many modellers use it and is very pleasing to the eye once it's done correctly. Colour Modulation is a method of applying colour to the model trying to represent the effect of light and it's volumes from certain angles. As Mig JImenez has described it, is the transition from one colour to another by means of colour shifts. To achieve modulation you have to move from dark colours to lighter ones, choosing where light shines certain parts of the model and where is shade. I chose to use Russian Green for the Valentine and as said before, used the AK paints.

So at first, I sprayed the whole model with dark base








Then, I sprayed with a lighter one, the base. I left some parts darker trying to represent shade.

















After that comes a lighter one, the light base. Again, the goal is to leave some parts shaded and highlight other ones.











Next one was the one called high light. I tried to give the impression that the front of the model is in light and the back in shade. So, I sprayed the front parts and the ones that are elevated. From here on, the results started to worry me. There was big contrast between the colours and seemed very unrealistic. According to Mig Jimenez (and his books 'New F.A.Q.2') that's not to worry you since these contrasts will be eliminated with the weathering. Anyway, at that point I was concerned with the outcome but continued sticking to the "plan".














Last one was shine.











As I already mentioned, colour modulation was (and is) new to me. It's attractive on the books but achieving it is another story. I must admit that I am sure that I will try it again, I am intrigued by it. But, what about now, this one project we talk and read about? What are the results on this particular model? Well, as for me, I am not very pleased. I don't mean to play modest, I honestly say what I see. Right here you must consider that the quality of the photos I upload isn't the best and many colour variation are lost to you. Anyway, I prepared a "comparison" photo to help you see the steps of this process.











That completed the base colour stage. After that I will show you the weathering (where I will again try new -to me- techniques). Thank you for your time. Hope to 'see' you soon but, in any case, have a great time and MERY CHRISTMAS to all of you.

[conradschmid99]

wow
The modulation looks great

[pikos]

IV.


The most interesting and fun part is of course weathering. It consists of many parts and some may be skipped, but the two first are fundamental and are always applied. I am talking about filters and washes. I used the AK products for these two tasks and here is the outcome























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After that, weathering is very "matter of choice". It depends on the modeller to decide what will be applied, what's the desired character that will be produced. Of course, the element of reality should be taken into account, meaning that you should weather a model according to it's history, usage and enviromental specifics. As I wrote on my introduction post, this Valentine is a training unit, based on Canada. That means that it wasn't engaged in war. Nonetheless, I decided to represent a tank pretty much used, not very damaged but one that has participated in many exercises. I see no point in showing you every little step of weathering but I thing is better and more understandable to see the whole thing. I divided it to three parts.


IV.a

Here is the weathering that includes chipping, streaking grime, rust streaks, dusting, track wash and engine oil - fuel stains















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The two parts remaining to be done and shown are mud and a base. Thanks for your time and I hope you enjoy it.

[Paul]

Damn that's some fine work there, excellent weathering skills

[Radzy]

Wow!
Great effects on modulation and weathering! That is really amazing stuff!

Congratulations mate on achieved effects!

Cheers,
Radek

[pikos]

thank you guys, means a lot, really

[chief5437]

Great results. Shows the process nicely, thanks dude!

[Rob]

First class my man, first class!

[pikos]

IV.b


Here is the part that has to do with mud. To produce mud I used some AK products and plaster. I mixed them together and then added gloss varnish. I played with the amounts, more fresh mud requires more gloss, drier mud is less dark and needs more plaster and goes on. After the mixture was ready, I used a big brush to collect some of it and airbrushed with just air so that the mixture would be splashed on the tank.





Didn't take any photos of the process due to lack of time and the difficulty of being two handed. So, be patient, photos will come at the end.




IV.c



Last, a small base. I used a cheap photo frame, removed the glass and filled the hole in the middle with cardborad.

















Then put some putty on it to produce soil. After the putty dried, I spread glue and poured sand and little rocks I collected from the garden. Cheap and easy, nothing beats the natural thing.













After priming the whole base, painted the ground with dark, muddy colours and finally added two winter bushes which bought for the purpose.
















The only thing left was a small sign. A little work on the computer and here it is.

[pikos]

Reveal






























That completes this work. I hope you like the result as I hope you enjoyed the whole process. I am not -by any mean- an expert, I didn't show step by step this construction to guide anyone. I think there are many modellers here more capable and worth studying their work than mine. But I hope this post improves me and maybe moves someone unexperienced to give it a shot. Thanks for your time.

[alextheblue]

Like that a LOT!!!

I know it's not to everyone's taste, but I'm a big fan of colour modulation and you have got it just spot on, very nice job! As you mentioned, the trick is with the weathering and the way you combine all the different techniques is superb!!

Everything from the colour, to the chipping, right down to the base looks fantastic!!