The Kit Works

In this post I will discuss my most recent weathering experiment: Watercolors I'm always looking for new and inexpensive ways to weather my armor models, and when I remembered that I had some cheap ($5) watercolors from Target lying around in a closet, I knew that I had to try them. I mostly used the black and brown colors, but I also used some red (more on this later).  Above is a some accidental weathering on the weld lines of the hull of my work-in-progress, the 2s1 Gvozdika by Trumpeter. I started here with putting some water on a paintbrush and swilling the brush around in the brown color section. During this process I learned that to achieve nice clean lines that stayed close to the weld detail, only a little bit of paint is wanted on the very tip of the brush. The brown was used as a base color and painted over the weld lines and onto the surrounding area. This was followed by the black, which was used as more of a highlight, ideally being just on the weld line

Hello, and welcome to another project showcase! In today's post I will cover a diorama I call "SAS Jeep in Italy." Its not the catchiest name out there, I know, yet that does not take away from the fact that this is my favorite diorama to date. Let me give you the backstory: two SAS men have been assigned a top-secret patrol through the mountains of the Italy, intending to find the location of a crucial command-post. However, while climbing a mountain pass, there is an explosion behind them, and while scanning the sky, they see a German fighter lining up for a strafing run. The assistant driver grabs his Lee-Enfield, and gets ready to jump from the jeep.  The kit jeep is from Tamiya . . . sort of. The jeep itself was actually made by Italeri, as you have probably guessed from the box lid, but the detail parts and two of the figures were from Tamiya. I am not going to go into much detail on the construction of the jeep, however I will say that co

One of my more recent projects has been a Soviet Ba-10 from the Second World War. This particular vehicle is not based on any actual Ba-10, though in the backstory I have invented for it, it is being used by Pro-Soviet partisans behind German lines, on this day supporting a raid on a railroad junction, hence the large crowbar on the fuel tank.  The kit itself is by Zvezda, my first from them. The construction turned out to be more difficult than I had imagined, largely due to mediocre part-alignment, and a rather different system of applying the armor plates on the front and sides of the engine cover, semi-circular studs and corresponding indents being used instead of holes and pegs. Overall the instructions were pretty good, though they were slightly confusing at times.  The model was brush painted with Model Master Russian Armor Green. One door and the turret were painted with the Armor Green thinned with yellow, to represent a large repair and replacement that o

Hello, Welcome to The Kit Works, a blog documenting the construction and quality of various kits, models, and dioramas. Models of the vehicles and equipment of various nations and time periods will be the chief content, yet countless other unrelated subjects and things will undoubtedly appear. Most kits will be related in some way or another to the First and Second World Wars, such as this Gloster Gladiator. (Yes I know its in the Irish Air Force Colors) Or this helmet. But there will also be the occasional appearance of other things, like these reenactors firing a cannon. Or this Saab Viggen. (I did not take this one) Updates will occur every-other weekend as time and project speed/availability allows.  Thank you for reading, The Kit Works.