My Plastic Warriors: Wait, what airbrushing?

Well, it's about time I reinvested in airbrushing. Twenty years ago I started airbrushing German tanks. Then...career, marriage, kids and divorce pushed it to the last thing I was going to do in the hobby. But, with the unrelenting march of time, I pulled my model H Paache of the shelf and fired up the bicycle air compressor. My first victim was a 1/72 or HO Atlantic Tiger I had sitting in a box. What do you think?

For those of you unfamiliar with Atlantic. It is the kit in the middle. The one to the left is a 1/72 Tiger from Italeri. The one on the right is a 1/76 Airfix kit.

Not terrible. I need more practice with the airbrush. The paints we cheap acrylics from Hobby Lobby. So, it was a struggle to mix properly and not clog the brush. I have since ordered a set of paints from Vallejo.

I was inspired to use an Atlantic kit because I saw someone post on TMP a wargame scene with this very model and I was impressed.

A little back story... my first tanks (2 in this set) I ever bought was this kit. I purchased it in the early 80s at Frank's Hobby Shop in Orange, California. I can still smell the stale air of the store and see the large scale railroad track suspended above the isles. This little gem was calling my name. I was so excited putting it together while watching Patton on "War is Hell week." I think I was in the 6th grade. Atlantic produced some reasonable tank kits for young lads getting into wargaming. I will post some of my collection in a later post. The T34s, Tigers and Shermans were great fun!

Next up, I tried my hand on this kit. My son built one...sorta, I finished it. I figured it was the prefect test case. The struggle I had was the air pressure. I got a few spit marks. I recently ordered a smaller air compressor for airbrushing. I hope it helps.