The Modelling News: Painting & Weathering Guide: Krupp Raumer S in th scale from Takom

We have already seen an Inbox Article & Build Guide of the very futuristic looking WWII mine clearer the Raumer S from Takom in 35^th scale. For the big finale, Andy Moore gives a guide on just how he finished, painted & weathered his Raumer to make it look this good. Read on to see how he did it...

Painting & Weathering Guide: Krupp Raumer S WWII German Super Heavy Mine Clearing Vehicle
Manufacturer – Takom
Kit Number #2053
Scale - 1/35
Price - ¥5,200 • $49 • £38 • €41 from Hobbylink Japan

Inbox & build Guide: Takom's Raumer S in 35th scale

Last time out we left Takom's new Raumer fully built up and ready for paint. The only decision to make was what scheme to go for. The ones included with the kit offer some interesting 'what if' options, but I was all set to go with one of the additional schemes I drew up for the build review.

As is so often the case with my builds though, I had a last minute change of mind, and decided to revert to one of the kit options, but I'll be taking it in a slightly different direction.

Amongst the schemes supplied by AMMO for the kit was one in olive drab and wearing US stars. This is a plausible scheme, since US troops captured the single example of the Raumer towards the end of the war. My thinking here is that the US Army would have transported the Raumer to France for evaluation then, once the forces returned to the US, abandoned the vehicle in a French scrap yard where it sat slowly rusting away over the years.

So the plan here is to show a derelict Raumer, slowly succumbing to the elements, and in addition make a simple base for the completed model to sit on.

The get the ball rolling, I decided to beef up some of the textures I'd already added to the model during construction. The original textures were to show the rough pitted surface of armour plate on an operational vehicle. Here I wanted to take that further, and show rust starting to eat away at the metal. This extra texturing was done by stippling Vallejo putty over the surface of the model, adding the strongest effects to areas that would rust faster, such as the thin sheet metal covers over the exhaust pipes.

I also added some small areas of damage here and there, such as adding kinks to some of the wire grab handles, and slicing off some bolt heads and drilling holes to show where bolts had been removed or dropped out over the years.

With the preliminary work done I could get started on the painting. I'm going for a heavily worn and faded paint finish here, and for that I'll be using a lot of hairspray chipping to reveal the rusty armour plate beneath the paint. To begin with I primed the whole model with a mix of AMMO Rust and Black primers to act as a base for the subsequent rust effects. This was left to dry fully for 24 hours before any further work was done.

The next step was to add a slightly lighter rust tone mixed from various Tamiya and Gunze colours. This was clouded over the primer coat, allowing some of the former to show through here and there to add some shading to the finish. As the model was still in sub-assemblies at this time, the painting was done in batches, and I made no attempt to precisely match the paint mix each time, which gave some subtle variation to the rust tones across the model.

The same colours were then mixed up into lighter shades, and used to add more highlighting to the finish. Squares of card were held against the edges of panels to act as quick masks, controlling which areas got the most highlighting.

To further enhance the rust effects and add more contrast to the finish, several shades from a Lifecolor rust set were brushed over some of the smaller details, and thinned to washes and added over select panels.

The final step for the rust was to add a speckled finish which adds more fine detail and results in a far more realistic rusty look. This was done with the Lifecolor paints used previously, thinned slightly, and splattered onto the surface by flicking the bristles of a stiff brush against a cocktail stick.

Once I was happy with the rust effects, I finished off this preliminary paint stage by picking out the weld beads in a dull silver, as the welds won't rust like the surrounding metal. With that done, the paint was sealed with a gloss coat, which will help protect the finish during the hairspray chipping stage. The gloss finish darkens the base coats a little, but it'll get a matt coat at the end to restore the original tone.

The original colour for this 'what if' would have been US olive drab, but using a straight OD here would have looked wrong for a vehicle that's been sitting out in the elements for years. I needed to mix up a faded colour and for that I used a selection of AMMO shades. When green paint fades, it doesn't just get lighter. It can also change hue, becoming more blue or yellow as the different pigments in the paint react and fade differently over time. I mixed up various tones from the AMMO paints and made a small swatch card to act as a reference during painting.

Rather than paint the whole model in one go, I worked on small sections at a time, starting with the base of the hull. After a couple of layers of hairspray, this area was sprayed with a darker shade of green compared to the upper hull, as it would be less exposed to rain and sun, and therefore less faded. After the paint had dried for about 10 minutes, I started to chip it, concentrating mainly on the edges. Again, this area wouldn't be as heavily chipped and worn as the more exposed upper areas.

The extra texturing I'd added earlier helped here, as the paint chipped away from the raised textures, leaving a realistic worn appearance.

On the upper hull I used a paler green tone, again working on small areas at a time. I intentionally kept the paint quite patchy, leaving some areas of the rust base colour uncovered. For the most part I kept the denser build-ups of paint to the lower edges, around panels and in corners. Basically all those nooks and crannies where the paint would be less likely to wear away.

The wheels were treated in the same way, but I chipped the paint more on the lower half of the wheels, since this is where rain, snow and sun would have the most effect. After the chipping was done, the wheel pads were repainted in a dark rust colour to cover any over-spray from the green coat.

The coupling units also received the chipping treatment, and were then given some grimy weathering with various AMMO enamel washes. I wanted to get some old encrusted oil and dirt around the centre pivot, and to do that I ground up some black and brown pastels and mixed the pigment with the same enamel washes. Several layers of this mix were built up around the pivot points.

There aren't many decals to add, just the stars and code numbers at each end. I did consider cutting a mask to spray the stars, as that would have allowed me to chip them to match the rest of the paint finish, but I'd have still needed to add the code decals, so it was easier to just use the supplied markings for everything. I did cut parts of the decals away first, where they would go over a chipped area, then painted some finer chips over them by hand after the decals were dry.

Time to start on the weathering now, and it's this stage that will hopefully sell the idea of a long abandoned vehicle. To begin with, I mixed a dirty green-brown shade from oil paints and applied it over the whole body, acting as both a filter to tint the underlying colours, and a pin wash to accentuate the details.

After that, I continued to apply green, brown and rust oils, both neat and thinned into washes across the model to add further shading and streaking. This stage helped soften the effects of the paint chipping, and also toned down the very stark white decals.

Any vehicle left out in the elements for a long period of time will start to accumulate vegetation, particularly moss on its surface. To replicate this, I mixed some sap green oil paint with mossy coloured pigments and thinned it with enamel thinner, applying it around details as a pin wash.

Although the previous stage helped add that mossy look to the model, I felt it needed to be more prominent. The same mossy pigments I'd used before were applied dry to selected areas of the model, then fixed in place with enamel thinner. Once dry they added a more realistic texture to the moss.

As a final step I added some grass tufts around the open section on the top of the hull, where dirt and debris would accumulate, and grass and weeds begin to grow over time. Some dirt coloured pigments were also added around the tufts, and fixed with enamel thinner.

The wheels got a similar treatment, with bits of scatter material pushed between the armoured pads.

The Groundwork
With the Raumer finished, I wanted to make a simple base for it to sit on. I didn't want anything elaborate here, just something simple to help set the scene. I started with a piece of thin MDF, onto which I marked the position of the Raumer's wheels.

The MDF was covered with a thin layer of DAS Pronto clay, leaving open areas where the wheels would sit. Once the clay was dry it was given a rough coat of green paint, then the edges of the base were trimmed with strips of balsa.

The whole surface (apart from the areas for the wheels) was then coated with PVA and covered with static grass. This was simply scattered over the glue, and allowed to sit as it fell. When the glue had dried, the base was turned upside down and tapped to shake off any loose grass. A few dried grasses and flowers from the garden were then added to the base, and to finish off the base the balsa trim was stained grey with an acrylic wash.

So, with the Raumer placed on the base, the build was finished. I've built quite a few Takom kits now, but this has been one of my favourites. It's a simple kit with relatively few parts, but it still builds into an imposing and detailed model.

The subject won't be to everybody's taste, and probably the way I've chosen to finish it won't be either, but being essentially a 'what if' vehicle, the options are fairly open ended as to how you could finish you own Raumer. I personally hope that Takom continues to release more unusual subjects like this, along side the more mainstream kits they make.

a walk around of this massive hulk of a rusted out machine as it may well have looked...