The tracks were painted by airbrush with a primer coat of Flat Black laid down first to protect the bare plastic from the "hotter" lacquer based Non-buffing Metalizer Gunmetal main coat. The tracks were then heavily dry brushed with Steel and given a wash of enamel Raw Umber. Once the wash had dried, the tracks were installed along with the idlers on both sides. For the idler's contact surface, I gave it the same treatment as the tracks without the primer coat of Flat Black. The idler mount itself is still positionable since I haven't yet locked that down even though the idler itself is now glued to the mount.
The spare track run for the front hull as well as the added-armor tracks were also painted and installed. They were basecoated with the non-buffing Metalizer Gunmetal and lightly dry brushed with Steel before given a wash of enamel Raw Umber followed by a wash of enamel Rust. Once those had dried, I dry brushed some additional enamel Burnt Umber to deepen their look and tone before gluing them into position. There are a couple of points that are still a little too reddish for my taste, I'll add some artist pastels to them later on in the weathering stage to tone them down a bit more.
Those were the last details to add before proceeding to the markings, so the entire vehicle was given a sealing coat of Future applied by airbrush and allowed to dry overnight...mostly because I ran out of time yesterday than anything else.
The kit-supplied decals needed some work/modifications to be usable since the turret numbers are provided as one continuous detail with a large clear section between the middle 1 and the 4...and there's no way you could actually install it that way without some trimming and cutting. Using a pair of scissors, I carefully trimmed out all three numbers for each turret side set and also modified the rear turret bin number by removing the 4 and trimming down it's clear section to allow for a more contiguous look there. The kit-supplied crosses were also replaced since they were the white-outline only variety and the reference pic of #114 clearly shows a black-center-white-outline style of cross. The replacements came courtesy of some spares from a previous Tristar build that were the right size.
All of the decals were treated with Walther's Solvaset with the turret side numbers requiring multiple careful doses to get them to lie down and conform to the very complex turret side surfaces. Once the markings were dry, I applied a 2nd coat of Future to seal them in and protect them from the later weathering steps.
The weathering will have to wait until next weekend however as my extended Christmas/holiday vacation comes to a close today and it's back to the grindstone tomorrow!
