The Kncka is an original design from a garage kit maker that goes by Junk Tank Rock. Same as the Taco Beetle in the Gallery. These resin models are sold only at the Japanese Wonder Festival. Dr. Tak was fortunate enough to pick one of these up for me a couple of year ago and I had been itching to build it but could never get it started. The original model is intented to be a 1/35 scale one man walking tank but even with stretching things in the realm of scifi, I could never understand how a guy was suppose to fit in the thing at that scale. I decided to change it to 1/48 scale and everything fell into place.
Assembly on this little guy was pretty straightforward. I turned the crew hatch into the engine deck and made the vision port section into a hatch by grinding out the area with a Dremel and grafting on a part from a Tamiya PzII. The gear is all various 1/48 stuff I've collected since the last 1/48 project. Assembly was a breeze and painting was straight forward so I never took much in the way of in progress images.
I used the HS technique over a dark base of black and brown. I went back over the legs to lighten them up so I lost some of the chipping on the legs. All ID bands and stars are masked and I used the HS technique for the worn paint. All airbrushed paints are Tamiya. The slogan (More Coffee) and unit markings are all hand painted with Vallejo. All gear is hand painted in situ with Vallejo except the fuel drum.
The figures are cobbled together from a couple of different Tamiya 1/48 figure sets. These figures are grosely undersized for 1/48 but I guess it doen't really matter since the model could be any scale and the figures help you understand the size. Figures are painted with Vallejo Acrylics.
The groundwork is built up from drywall plaster and wall tile adhesive - use what you have - mixed with fine dirt and sculpted to shape. When dry, I went over this with a mixture or acrylic gel, sand, dirt and pigments to get a nice dark wet mud color. In the recesses I painted in a lighter orange brown color and went over these with multiple coats of clear gloss acrylic. The snow is built up with cler acrylic mixed with micro balloons topped off with a mixture of white glue and Woodland Scenics Snow.
