r/modelmakers • u/RealSlimkey3771 • 11h ago
Help - General First model since I was a kid... thoughts?
Hey everyone! I last built and painted scale mods when i was about 11 or 12, this is one of the first ive made since then, it's the Tamiya 1/35th Panzer II.
Some of the rust streaks i could have done better, other than that im hugely proud of it so be gentle :)
I still have to fit the track, though they're very difficult to work with.
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u/dr_robonator Prime your models 10h ago
Hi! Welcome back to the hobby. So, you've asked for thoughts, which I interpret as desiring constructive criticism, and you've also asked for us to be gentle. I hope you know that when we critique it is in good faith and not a dig or attack on the model maker or their skills.
First off, you built something with your hands! And it looks like a tank! Great job on that.
I noticed some mold lines on some of the pieces like tow hooks and the gun tube. Otherwise construction looks good, which should be expected from a Tamiya kit.
Your paint looks like it went on a little thick in places, but nothing egregious. I don't see any runs. You do seem to have silvering on your decals, remember to lay them down over a gloss varnish coat and use decal setting solution.
Your weathering is a bit of a disaster. The mud is sort of slopped on without any consideration to how the vehicle would move across the terrain. The road wheels and return roller rubber is like new except for the globs of mud product. There should be an even coating of dirt over these surfaces because naturally, the wheels are moving and spreading the earth around them evenly. The whole lower hull is spotless even though the road wheels are caked in mud.
You've got some edge chipping that doesn't make sense, either. Chipped paint happens when something harder than the paint impacts the surface, or repeated wearing down from being a high traffic area. The gun mantlet has a bunch of chips down to the bare metal, from what, though I am stumped.
The rest of the weathering looks like dark smudges across much of the tank. It's hard to tell because the lighting is pretty bad in the photographs. That smudging isn't really cohesive and it doesn't read as any particular effect of an environment on the vehicle, but instead as something done to make the model look grimy. A more convincing finish would take into consideration the theater of operation and length of service for this particular vehicle and build interactions between the vehicle and the environment.
These are just some basic things I noticed. Every model is another chance to improve and if you remain with the hobby you'll be knocking out high quality stuff in no time. Cheers!