GazzaS

Thank you Peter.

Thank you, Martin! Can't claim to be the originator of the plastic wrap idea... I know I saw it on a modelling video somewhere... but I watch so many, I can't remember who.

Thank you, Fellas! And speaking of the scene.... Today I laid down the air drying clay over the foam base. It's 16cmX16cm... though not perfectly square. I mixed a little PVA into the clay to make it more malleable and adhere to the base better. Once I got the shaping done, I used a wet finger to smooth out the details a little. Then, I laid a sheet of plastic wrap over the clay and positioned everything, mashing the clay in where appropriate. Then I lifted the clay off and added a lot of random footprints. Then I removed everything from the base. The Air-dry clay cannot be hurried. I've learned by experience that an afternoon in the sun will dry it out... then crack it to pieces. Here are some pics... Thank you for looking!

Not my dogs... but great pics.

Thank you, Peter! Thank you, Rob! Photos of tarp usage are pretty hard to find. I even perused photos of German supply columns.... Even tarps there are limited to actually covering trucks and wagons... the wagons... It boggles the mind to see the wagons.

Hello Friends... Welcome to the Reader's Digest special font. (Inspired by P.P) Anyway... figure painting today has taught me a new respect for sculptors. My 'sculpting' was pretty laughable. And it became even more apparent once I started detail painting. But... with only a month for the entire project, I decided to live with any errors. So... today I started today with face painting and blending. I did all five faces and then started blending black into boots, gloves, and the AMMO. Then I used the remainder of the black, mixed in some white and worked on the tarpaulin some more with a light gray. After blending in boots and gloves, I used darkened Tamiya Feldgrau to fill in all of the lowlights of the field gray parts. Then, after blending in the lowlights of feldgrau, I did the highlights and lowlights of the two white camoflage jackets. And then ran out of time. In the morning I'll add the field gray highlights and then clear coat everything. Then a few washes where required, and the figs will be done. Here are some pics...

I like it, Martin!

Thank you, fellas!

This kind of thing happened on our farm when I was a teenager. I saw the plane make a circle over our property which was heavily wooded with maples. It's engine definitely sounded like it was struggling for fuel. The teacher and student pilot decided that the best place to land was in our back 40 acres which at the time was planted with waist high corn. One wheel sunk into the soft soil and the plane flipped over. Nobody was hurt, thankfully. A couple days later they took the plane out disassembled on a flatbed trailer.

Almost four years on one model! Unacceptable. I love all of the detail and shit... it's as impressive as hell. But I'm looking to get out of a build in a month or two. And I can't even do that if I'm trying to keep up with reading JohnB's posts.

Looks good, Kevin.

Don't feel bad. I woke up at 5 this morning to let the dogs.out. Walked out with them and Kaiser only peed. Went back for a little more ZZZZ. 45 minutes later I woke up to find Kaiser had shit in the kitchen. At my wits end with this one.

Thanks Rob! Where there is a will, there is a way. Thank you, Peter. I found another way to make less. And with that... another update. Big hands and fine details mean slow going. IN the end, for the shells I decided to cheat with a tarp. But not some whimpy-ass tarp that looks like a colored bed sheet. My USMC experience teaches that military tarps are thick, oil soaked canvas. I used loose-leaf paper impregnated with CA to cover a portion of the shells. Like modern shells, the shell of the day had stencils on them. Fortunately I found a set of old decals with really tiny print on them. I still have to paint the rotating bands on these shells. A few lumps of snow on the part of the canvas which hasn't been folded back will break up the details. POWDER. Again... the decal sheet was very useful. I never throw away old decals unless they become yellowed. They don;t say what they are supposed to say... and hopefully nobody will be able to tell once weathered. The crates aren't very nice. I was struggling for a way to make them. They are 4.5mm high and wide. But I didn't have any way to make them look 'factory'. Each one is a little out of square in some way or another. Even the plastic one showing it's three charges isn't truly square. Each one has a canvas strap at each end to make lifting easier. Anyway... hope to get to some more figure painting tomorrow. Thank you for looking!

Nice, Rob!

Thin decals are always the best. Looks great, John!

Ppl that complain about scale obviously don't want to build the model very much. It's one thing when what you want is in a ridiculously tiny scale. But a small difference like that... meaningless. Really...

Very fine painting, John.

Glad to see you back at it, Sascha.

I always love your detail shots. Such a pleasure to look at. Between your painting and photography skills you've really nailed the ability to present well, consistently.

Thank you, Peter. Although I did have some stuff for molding resin, I don't even have a pressure cooker. The resin has probably gone off. I tried to use the stuff I had, and it worked for some large things like large propeller hubs... but there were always bubbles. Pointy things were always failures. The resin had a very short work time. I reckon by the time I got it into the pressure cooker, it would be almost solid. But I can see where it would be handy.

Hello friends... Once I got the day's chores done, I turned to turning shells. I stick an end of a piece of sprue into my Dremel, and spin it against my razor saw stripping away plastic. Once I get the shape down, then I hit it with coarse and fine sand paper until it's smooth enough... still turning in the Dremel. Then I pull it out, snip it down to 15mm in length re-insert it back into the Dremel and shape and sand the bottom end. I'd finished 8 and realizing the enormity of the task... I'd like to have at least 30.... I realized I'd better paint some figures so that the acrylics have time to cure. There are 15 separate articles of Field Gray clothing. I didn't want them to blend into each other too much, so I used 7 different shades of the color. I also painted some of the details as well. Here is where we are now. You can see the turned shells and the rifle stack which has also received it's base coat of wood colors. Happy modelling!

Thank you, Peter. My lungs still aren't very happy in cool, dry air. Or so the sudden fits of coughing tell me. And here I thought I was just about clear of the woods.

Thank you!