Until you become skillful at painting action figures, you can stick with using flesh tone for the face and other exposed body parts. With a small fine-tipped brush, such as a 000, coat the face, arms, neck, and other areas with oil-based flesh paint. The paint is available at art supply stores and comes in various sizes of tubes. A small tube will last you a long time.

Let the paint dry. paint the clothes the appropriate color. (You can use ordinary model enamels for the clothes.) If the figure is dressed in battle fatigues, use a drab olive green. Boots can either be black or light and dark green. If you are unsure of the color scheme, look at a soldier’s garb in a magazine or book.

Now go back and provide the details. (Be sure the previous coat of paint has dried completely.) Use tan paint (or a mixture of brown and white) for the eyes and teeth. Don’t use white; it’s too bright and looks unrealistic. After the light color in the eyes has dried, cover most of it (except, say, the bottom and sides), with dark brown or dark tan. Don’t leave the eyes unfilled, or your action figures will look as if they have just seen a ghost!

When you are satisfied with the look of the basic figure, you can let it dry and then add a protective coat of Dullcoat. Position the figure in or next to your model. If you want it to be a permanent part of your model, cement or glue it in place.

Ready-to-Go Airplane

The best way to convey action with an airplane is to show it ready for a mission. If the craft has underwing bombs, attach one bomb and leave the other on the ground, as if it is about to be mounted. Place the ground crew around the plane, perhaps ready to hoist the bomb and attach it to the wing.

Show the pilot in the cockpit or just climbing into the cockpit. If possible, keep the canopy open, to show the pilot and interior of the cockpit.

Provide more than just the driver. Most armored cars, transports, and tanks have several people on board. When adding action figures to tanks, open the commander’s hatch or escape hatch to show the people inside. Your figures should all have different poses.

One favorite action figure is of a soldier peering through a pair of binoculars. That’s a perfect figure for the commander of a tank, as he stands in the hatch on the top of the turret.

The guns and cannons in many military vehicle kits, especially tanks and armored cars, are made of solid molded plastic. What gun or cannon doesn’t have a hole in the barrel? You can provide the hole by carefully drilling out the business end of the gun or cannon. For small caliber guns, use the tip of a hobby knife or hat pin. For larger guns and cannons, use a pin vice and miniature drills. The hole doesn’t need to be more than 1/4 inch deep. If you make a mistake and drill the hole off center or through the barrel, you can readily fix it by filling the hole with putty, sanding it down, and starting again.

If the outside of the guns and cannon is painted in camouflage (which they usually are), paint the inside of the barrel gun metal black or flat black. Use a small-tipped brush, such as a 00 or 000, dip it in the paint bottle, and then wipe off as much paint as possible. (otherwise excess paint settles in the barrel and takes forever to dry.) Stick the brush tip into the barrel. Wipe off any excess around the outside of the barrel.

If you later paint the outside of the barrel (especially with spray paint), stuff the end of the barrel with a piece of damp cloth or cotton that will prevent you from overpainting inside the barrel.

Use whatever painting method is best for you: brush or stencil spray. The pros use an airbrush to apply camouflage paint colors. Most hobby stores have inexpensive air brush kits that you can try. Practice mixing and thinning paint, and then applying it to white cardboard before you try camouflaging you model

After installing the tread, the easiest way to add sag is to use black thread and tie or glue the thread to the inside of the tread. Then wrap it around the axle of the nearest road wheel below. If the thread is attached properly, as close to the body of the track as possible, it should not be very noticeable.

Sometimes the thread can’t be concealed, in which case you need to add small pins or blocks to keep the tracks pressed down, The pins or blocks can be discarded plastic from extra parts or runners, glued to the side of the tank and painted to match the rest of the vehicle. To set the pins, use a small drill to make a hole and insert the pins into the hole. Use cement to keep the pins in place. You can use a pin vise for drilling or a small hand drill. Be sure the hole is the same size as the pin you are using, or the pin will fall out before the cement has time to dry.

When building a military vehicle model, you have three general choices:

Make it look brand-new, ready for the general’s inspection.

Make it look as if it’s currently in combat.

Make it look as if it’s through with combat, and now is home in the junk yard or museum.

Making the model look new is an easy job: just paint the pieces as usual and add a little "wear and tear" detail. But since most of us are used to seeing military vehicles in action, or the physical effects of action on tanks and other vehicles, this approach does little to convey realism.

A tank that’s seen all the combat it can take may have broken tank treads, or it may be missing critical components, such as its cannon and guns. It may have parts fully rusted or torn off. Duplicating this type of condition can be difficult, so it’s best to wait until you gain more experience.

Tanks in combat may appear only slightly damaged or almost completely inoperative. A condition midway between these two is a good balance. The model looks real, but he technique for adding action detail is not terribly difficult.

Turn the Wheels

If the model permits it, turn the front wheels as if the car itself is in a turn. Not all model kits allow this without modification to the front axle or body parts.

Open the Hood and Trunk

No one drives with the hood or trunk open, but it shows that the model is more than a plastic shell with wheels. Most model kits are designed so that you can open the hood and trunk at will, so be sure you don’t cement it closed.

If the model comes with engine parts, carefully construct it and mount it in the engine compartment. If you have done a good job, show off your hard work and keep the lid open. Or you can open the trunk. Use a piece of charcoal-colored felt (or use gray felt lightly painted with black) as the "carpet" that lines the inside of the trunk.

Add Action Figures

Cars are mostly done in 1/24 scale, which is a standard size for human action figures. If the car kit comes with a driver, consider painting the figure and placing him or her in the driver’s seat.

Even if the kit doesn’t come with figures, you can purchase them separately at most hobby stores. They are available in a variety of poses and "costumes." The figures don’t come painted; that’s up to you. We’ll show you how to paint action figures later in this chapter.

Some examples: You could add an action figure of someone leaning over and looking into the engine compartment, perhaps trying to fix something. Or how about showing the figure changing the tire. Salvage a similar size tire from another model and use it as a "spare," which you can display propped up against your model. Use the technique covered in "Adding Detail" to flatten plastic and rubber tires. Flatten it excessively to show a "blow out."

Don’t Forget Detail

Small, not-so-obvious details can also provide a sense of action. Unless you want the car to be "showroom perfect," add soot at the exhaust. Lighten the tires to show wear. Mar the paint lightly along the sides to show the effect of doors from other cars chipping at the finish.

If the kit doesn’t come with a license plate decal, purchase a few at the hobby store. Pick your favorite state and apply the license plates to the front and rear of the car. If the automobile is European, and you want to make it appear as if the car is driven in Europe, use one of the European plates that are available. Some guidelines: Porsches are German, Lamborghinis are Italian, and Rolls Royces are English. Many cars in Europe are driven through other European countries, and have a separate plate for each one. Add the additional plates near the trunk and bumper.

For far-out effects, break a headlight or taillight, or add rust or mud to the bottom edge of the car chassis. Thick mud can be created by mixing flour and white glue. Apply it with a toothpick to the bottom of the car. When the mixture is dry, paint it dark brown. (Be sure to use Dullcote or Glosscote spray on the entire model; the coating will help protect the mud detail.)

Avoid overdoing the unusual effects. Too much detail can make a model look unrealistic. Only when you are an experienced model maker should you attempt such effects as bashed fender and other serious accidents.

Action shows a model in a way similar to the way the prototype might look in real life. The action may be conveyed by the addition of a human figure riding in a jeep, an airplane canopy in the open-and-ready position, a broken-down tank, or a crew loading bombs under the wings of an F8F-2 "Bearcat." You add the sense of action as you build and finish the model, providing the details with paint, decals, and other techniques as you have learned in previous chapters.

In this chapter, you’ll learn how to apply some of your new experience in creating models that--in a sense--have a life of their own. You can use just one of these techniques or combine them all, as you see fit. Some action is best described in a realistic setting. Information about how to produce action settings and other displays is in the displaying your models section..