GazzaS

Open topped vehicles present a few more challenges than the average tank. They always take me a bit more time.

My spirit animal Gnu that.

Yuk, indeed.

Yakity Yak.... Don't talk back!

piccy no work bro.

I have a couple German half tracks with indy links to look forward to. Yours look great.

Good job. Gotta admit, that little area gives me trouble on every PZ IV

Looks great, Peter. A handy tip you gave there by drilling rivet holes a little deeper to hold a wash. Gonna have to try that one.

Great work so far! Love the MC 200. Such a cool looking plane.

Peter... being a former USMC artilleryman... I have a lot of experience here. An artilleryman's day is spent with squatting, stooping, bending, and picking stuff up. Shells, powder charges, tools, and everything else has to be picked up from the ground. Very little work is done off the back of a truck. And there are no shelves or benches to make life easier. It's dirty, demanding, physical work.

Peter, you're the best detail painter I know. So I know you can take what your eye sees and apply it to an object. And that you have a steady hand. Lot's of guys out there never complete anything because they can't satisfy their own demands. So I understand where you're coming from.

Hello friends, At my club's meeting yesterday I got to decide next month's display topic. The usual guy that does it wasn't there. We'd just done "Eastern Front" so I blithely said "Artillery". I know one fella who attends regularly is artillery mad. But I don't have any artillery built. So, I must build a fieldpiece along with a credible base and complete it by August 6th, our next meeting. When I was a boy of 12 I saw my first WWII documentary. On it, I saw and LeFH 18 firing and I knew then that I must model one, one day. Sadly, I never found one kitted until I ran into this AFV Club kit. I started working on it today. I completed most of the gun, breech, and recoil assembly. And the suspension and braking system: As well as some other parts to paint before main assembly. Now... a single gun on a piece of turf wouldn't be too difficult in a month... but it would lack some context. So, I've decided to recruit a crew. I know... Infantry. I won these at the club raffle over a year ago. The only artillerymen I have belong to another kit. So I don't want to strip it. So my plan... my hope... is to work these figures in with homespun ammo and other accoutrements and make a credible scenario... in one month. Wish me luck!

Another club meeting and two more great acquisitions for less than half of retail.

Wow! Great looking afterburner, Kai! Looks like the real thing!

Wow! Impressive build! I can't see anything I'd try to improve.

Thank you, everyone! A couple years ago, one of the figure artists in my club said practice, practice, practice. And honestly I thought to myself: "BS, I'll never be able to make decent figures." But despite my belief, improvement came. The two things that made things happen were a commitment to have at least one figure with every build, and using the various materials i have on hand to find a method that works for me. Grahame M.(the artist I mentioned above) is an all acrylics guy. I tried his method and it didn't work for me. My figures came out lumpy with poor transitions between colors. I've also tried the Nightshift (from youtube) method and that didn't work, either. He is also mostly acrylics. I've used oils (which take an irritating long time to dry thoroughly), aqueous acrylics, enamels, Tamiya acrylics, and lacquers to find my way to where I am now. On these figures I used everything but the oils, replacing them with enamels since they dry faster. To blend the shading on the white uniforms I used a very thinned MRP lacquer pushed through the airbrush. To avoid getting overspray on the already finished faces, I used blutack as a mask. And for the final soiling of the white uniforms I used pigments. Other things that helped me were working on a larger scale figure and buying quality figures. A well-sculpted face is a lot easier to paint than an old Tamiya or Dragon face. Here are a couple of figures (not 1/35) painted by the figure artist Grahame M. I mentioned.

Thank you very much, my friends!

Hello my friends! It's done... You can see it here:

Hi everyone... Seems like it took forever, but it's finally done. Special thanks to those who contributed to the build thread. You know who you are.

Bummer, Dude.

F'ing hell!

Nothing wrong with it. Tastes like cheese.

Have you ever eaten at a Chilis? If you have had their Queso.... then you have had Velveeta. I worked at a Chilis for a short time after my time in the USMC.

Awesome!