1/35 Nemrod (Steel Masters) Chasseur de Char, Juin 1940

[Kimmo]

A customer had sent me a bunch of paint and a set of brushes as they had no use for them and I decided the brushes needed a good testing to see what they are all about. They are AK's Premium Kolinsky set and look to be very useful for smaller scales. I was originally going to use a pair of Polish tankers from Scibor, but the casting quality was a major let down and rather than spend hours cleaning them up, I went with a Nemrod figure I had in the stash. Clean up was a comparative breeze, but one never knows with the Nemrod/Steel Masters offerings. Some are perfect, others, not so much. I whipped up a base that is a plaster cast of a Vallejo Scenics product, lovely cobbles, irregular sizes and uneven. Unfortunately my mold didn't capture the drain cover well and I had to make a new one from strip. The base is oversized for a single figure, but I had planned on two, so this will have to do for the moment. I don't plan on gluing him down in any event as I have a something cooking for him down the road.














I couldn't really adjust the white balance, the detail in the plaster would have been totally lost. You can see the sheen from my coats of Future to seal the plaster. Any acrylic floor polish should work, as would varnish. This should be a fun test, lots of detail to pick out, and plenty of shapes and textures to play with.

Kimmo

 

[Nap]

Hi Kimmo

Aren't you a lucky fellow being sent the items , be interesting to hear about the AK brushes

Look forward to seeing how this and the cooking progresses

Happy benchtime

Nap

 

[Kimmo]

Nobody was more surprised and delighted than me when I got my hands on the package Nap. A nice gesture for sure. On to the business at hand...


I got everything primed with a neutral grey, the base needed some filler, might need a touch more. I picked out the stones with various shades of Vallejo surface primer, then roughly dry brushed the concrete. Handy to have so many colours available, primer is cheaper than paint. The figure was base coated with French Tank Crew, Red Leather, Yellow Olive, Cork Brown, Burnt Umber and Basalt Grey.















I used the largest brush in the set #2 for the overalls and #1 for the other details. There will be no reason to use these on the base, with maybe the exception of the drain cover.




The quality is what you would expect with retail at 50 euros for a set of 4 with a rather nice case included in the price. Individually they go up from 11.90 to 13.50, so not the cheapest on the market, but not the most expensive either. The first things I noticed are that the handles are really short, and the business end is really pointy. No belly to speak of, and the bristles are fairly long and the body is thin. As brushes are seriously subjective and personal, these would not be brushes I'd get for myself based on this criteria alone. I like a more substantial body, slightly shorter hairs relative to thickness, and the short handle feels weird to me. I might wrap some tape around the end to see if adding weight at the back makes it feel more balanced. I found that I had to adjust my stroke considerably to get the best out of the brush, and it took a few minutes to adapt to the more wobbly feel of the longer bristles. No reservoir means less paint, which means shorter strokes out of necessity. The good news is that the points hold up extremely well, and the paint goes down very smooth. The #2 equates to a generous 0 for other brands, so they are on the small side. No real issues with quality, just a matter of preference. I'll go through the set as the detail gets finer and see what we end up with.

Kimmo

 

[Nap]

Hi Kimmo

Good update, the variety in base colours will work well as you progress on the groundwork

Good comments ref brushes ..as you rightly say " brushes ..a matter of preference "

Thanks for sharing the info

Look forward to seeing the updates

Happy benchtime

Nap

 

[Kimmo]

Sharing is caring Nap.


I got a good session in and the basic shading is done on the overalls, helmet and leather. I used French Tank Crew Highlight, and a mix of Yellow Olive, Burnt Umber and Black as shadow for the overalls, and Sunny skin tone for the leather. My usual method is to apply an overall dark wash to bring out detail, then clean up with base coat and then start highlighting.

















I added a bit of retarder to help keep the paint from drying up too quickly on the brush. This seems to have helped a bit, but the issue of the brush not carrying enough paint is still there. And due to the lack of body, edging is more difficult with the larger brushes, we'll see if the smaller sizes are easier to work with. I'm beginning to suspect that these types of brushes are better suited to a dry palette where the paint remains in a more liquid state longer. Trying to apply a heavy coat is quite difficult. The brushes do make an excellent liner for getting nice clean fine lines.


Kimmo

 

[Kimmo]

More progress, our chap is almost done and the base has been worked on as well.















One more session should do it to wrap things up.

Kimmo

 

[Nap]

Nice productive sessions there , figures looking good , nice colour and the leatherwork has worked well

Base has come out nicely as well , like the roadwork effects

Thanks for sharing

Happy benchtime

Nap

 

[Kimmo]

Cheers Nap!


Think I'm calling this done. I added a few touches here and there to our chap, and had a bit of fun with the base. I might need to add one more wash to the concrete to cut down on the pinkish hue coming through in the photos, presumably from Pale Sand. It's not noticeable to the naked eye, but the camera is certainly picking it up at this angle.





















I'll take some good photos and get a gallery up.

Kimmo

 

[Kimmo]

Finally got around to taking some good photos, a gallery can be found here.


One final word on the AK brushes. They are undoubtedly of top notch quality, their utility is somewhat in question. The 2 smaller sizes are almost useless for acrylics, and the smaller size of the handle might be off-putting to some. The 2 larger sizes are very usable, and they lay down paint extremely smoothly. As to the price, it is what it is, and you can certainly get equal quality for what they retail for. If you paint 50mm and smaller, they might be something to look at, for anything larger, you'd probably be best served going with a proper shaped and sized brush.


By way of a teaser, a crop and enlargement of the figure to see some of the detail on the lapels. Click for full size.





Thanks to everyone who followed along and commented.


Kimmo

 

[Nap]

Hi Kimmo

Great result , like the crop you did ...he looks a tough tanker !

Thanks for your thoughts about the brushes , might give the larger sizes a whirl

Happy benchtime

Nap

 

[Kimmo]

Cheers Nap!

I think a bit of a brush comparison post might be in order, just picked up some more Rosemarys.

Kimmo

 

[Warren SMITH]

I Blink and your punching out another finished figure... Excellent work..

 

[Kimmo]

Cheers Warren! Although this one was done a while ago, just got round to taking good photos with the other two.

Kimmo