Land Vehicles Evaluation Criteria

Basic Construction:

• Burrs, mold marks, filler and pusher marks originating from the mold, registration marks (as in Monogram and some Revell kits) and similar mold-related errors must be eliminated. If the model is produced with a motor, the extra holes made for this purpose have to be closed/filled.
• Attention must be paid to the loss of joint marks that do not exist in the real vehicle, especially in the barrel, wheels and extra equipment mounted outside the body.
• General line errors must be eliminated.
• Gaps originating from the upper and lower body joints must be eliminated. The inside of the model must be prevented from being seen.
• Especially in armored vehicles, gaps or overlapping in the joints of the tracks must be prevented.
• Details such as machine guns, main guns, exhausts and air intakes must be drilled and opened.
• The cylindrical forms of the barrels must be preserved during leveling.
• Wheel and track marks must face the same direction.

Alignment:

• Road wheels and/or track carrier wheels must be at equal distance from the lower chassis centerline.
• The carrier wheels must sit on the pallet.
• When viewed from the front, the pallets must be parallel to each other in the vertical plane, and in wheeled vehicles, if the real vehicle has a camber angle, this must be reflected symmetrically on the model.
• All wheels and/or pallets must sit on the ground.
• The parts of the vehicle must be aligned with each other.
• When viewed from above, the barrels must be parallel to the turret center axis.
• Unless modified to depict a damaged situation, the elements that are symmetrical on the real vehicle (lamps, fenders, etc.) must be reflected on the model in the same way.

Details:

• Parts that are thick and/or out of scale given by the kit must be thinned or changed.
• The weld marks on the real vehicle must be reflected on the model as much as possible.
• Extra parts that are known to be on the real vehicle but are not on the model must be added to the model in scale as much as possible.
• Small details such as rivets, screws, nuts, etc. must be added to the vehicle as much as possible.
• Extra details such as chains, fuel tanks, rolled-up tarpaulins, etc. adding them to the model in accordance with the reality, making and adding appropriate connection parts (hook, rope etc.) while making these additions. The fact that fuel cans are not glued to the body with model adhesive in the real vehicle should not be ignored.
• The detail sets used (metal, PE, resin etc.) should be applied to the model properly. In particular, PEs should be shaped in accordance with the surface of the model.
• The printed parts adjacent to the model (shovel, hammer etc.) should be cut, separated from the body and replaced. The grills printed on the body should also be subjected to the same process.
• In palletized devices, pallets can be made saggy at an appropriate rate based on the documents.
• If they are not available in the model, window wipers should be added to appropriate places.
• Headlights and stop lamps should not be left as blocks, they should be made in accordance with the original by hollowing out the insides and covering them with transparent glass.
• Electrical cables of elements such as lamps and smoke emitters should be added.
• Air valves should be added to the vehicle tires.
• Vehicle instrument panels should be detailed and their windows should be added.
• Gas and brake pedals should be added to open-wheeled vehicles. If it is not available on the model, the inner parts of the wheels should be detailed according to the documents.
• The handles and door handles printed on the body should be made realistically with materials such as thin wire.
• The bottom of the model should be given the same care as the top and should be aged by painting at the same rate as the top.

Painting and Finishing:

• The surface of the model should not bear traces of the construction phase after painting (e.g. glue, sandpaper, fingerprints, etc.).
• The finish of the model should be smooth. If the irregularities found on the real vehicle used as a basis are reflected in the model, they should be supported with documents. If Zimmerit and non-slip surfaces were made, these should also be documented.
• There should be no brush marks, fluffing, or brush hair in the paint,
• There should be no orange peel effect, cracking or dusting (in places such as wing roots, right-angled connections, etc.) in the paint,
• There should be no differences in brightness caused by incorrect application of the varnish layer.
• Paint transitions should be realistic, there should be no blurring caused by masking errors. Paint transitions should be made to scale in accordance with the documents, without allowing spitting caused by overspray. In case of reflection of atmospheric effects (aging, wear etc.), scale should be taken into consideration, documented real vehicle should be taken as reference (region of use, conditions etc.) and these effects should maintain the integrity of the model in general (such as not putting an excessively aged cockpit on a factory exterior paint). If the vehicle being modeled has a special condition, this should be supported with documents.

Wet/Dry Decal Application:

• Decals must be aligned properly (if the modeled vehicle has a special situation in these types of markings, it must be documented, thus proving that the modeler did not make a mistake and that the current special situation is reflected exactly). There must be no silvering and/or air bubbles in the decals. The carrier film of the decal must not be visible, therefore it must look as if it was painted.

Colors:

• The colors of the paints, even from the same company and produced in the same way, may have slight color differences from batch to batch. Different usage areas affect the paint in different ways. All paints fade due to both atmospheric conditions and sunlight. In addition, the distance you look at also affects your perception of the tone of the paint. Poor application and maintenance cause color problems in real aircraft. Therefore, except for major errors (painting the Red Arrows aircraft in green color, etc.), acceptable color differences do not affect the model’s conformity to reality. However, if there are serious differences in the color of the model compared to the color it should be, they should be documented.