This set of photos shows the major steps I took to get the Jeep painted. The kit was built fairly quickly and I didn't add really anything in the way of extra details or refinements. I even painted over the windshield glass because it is hidden under a tissue cover. The first photo shows the underside of the kit primed with flat black. I chose to spray this color to make it easy for details to be lost in shadow and to make a good contrast to the mud and dust I would add when I weathered the vehicle. The second photo shows the light gray primer on the upper surfaces. I needed a lighter color to enable the olive green to show up properly and the two color prime was an easy way to get the base colors I needed. The third photo shows the overall spray of olive green and I can't give a specific brand or color because I mixed it from a couple of greens and a little red brown. The fourth photo shows the pastel sticks I sanded to make the mud/dust slurry. The powders are mixed in the plastic cup with some water and alcohol and washed on with a soft brush. The alcohol evaporates very rapidly and the powders then tend to stick where you need them. The shoe polish is a good way to age the paint finish before the pastels go on. You can scrub it onto the model with a small stiff bristle brush and it will add shadows around raised details while giving the paint a very slight sheen. It's a similiar effect to washing the model with black or dark brown and is a little more controllable in that it doesn't "run" with the effect of gravity. In the second part of this article, there will be more photos of the finished vignette and I'll comment some more on the small details of each component. All text and images ©Michael Bishop

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