Sgt.Squarehead Posted March 4, 2018 Share Posted March 4, 2018 Hope things brighten up for you soon fella. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foghorn Leghorn Posted March 7, 2018 Author Share Posted March 7, 2018 And I'm back on the wagon ... but it'll be brief descriptions from now on as time isn't my friend. In order to meet the deadline the dio base will be very simple. A piece of balsa was given a random shape, poyfilla stuck on it and track lines carved in by one of my "Hammer House of Horror" dental probes (seen at the top). What the hell that tool is supposed to do to your teeth, god only knows I then gave the tank a coat of Winsor & Newton matt varnish and it suddenly came to life. And the finish has changed my ideas about weathering, I may keep it to minimum as I'm happy with the finish the way it is. I've not figured out the process of 'grassing up' the dio and sticking the tank to the base, I need to do A before B but I also need to do B before A, so I need to figure out the best route. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaStix Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 That varnish coat really has pulled it all together beautifully! Very nice work. Kind regards, Stix 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spaddad Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 On 1/8/2018 at 2:25 PM, Foghorn Leghorn said: Why the hell can't I just build OOB, I'm as mad as a box of frogs No argument here. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 W&N Matt is something else isn't it.....It scared the bejesus outta me the first time I used it, looked like I'd sprayed my Bf.110 with treacle! But then it started to dry and the magic happened! PS - Wrap your tank loosely (but thoroughly in cling-film to bed it into the base, then remove it, do your ground/paintwork but dont finish off the areas immediately aroundwhere the tank will sit until you are ready to bed it in permanently, maybe give @PlaStix a shout, he has the technique down a treat. PPS - If you want an Italeri band track to make impressions in your groundwork ping me a PM.....They're no use for anything else (ungluable) and I've got half a dozen here somewhere. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foghorn Leghorn Posted March 7, 2018 Author Share Posted March 7, 2018 2 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said: W&N Matt is something else isn't it.....It scared the bejesus outta me the first time I used it, looked like I'd sprayed my Bf.110 with treacle! PS - Wrap your tank loosely (but thoroughly in cling-film to bed it into the base, then remove it, do your ground/paintwork but dont finish off PPS - If you want an Italeri band track to make impressions in your groundwork ping me a PM.....They're no use for anything else (ungluable) Did you spray W&N straight from the bottle? I thin mine about 30-50%. But it's the mattest matt I've come across, almost too matt,so I have some W&N gloss to un-matt it when needed. I've tried the clingfilm thing before but it didn't really work for me. I have a different approach to dio bases than most so all the grass etc (which will be round the edge of the tank tracks) needs to be there when it gets sprayed so it gets a unified appearance. But (for various reasons) I need to weather the tank separately and add it on at the end. Mind you, this is 72nd we're talking about so maybe it doesn't matter as much, I could be overthinking it. Should be ok for tank track impressions, thanx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 3 hours ago, Foghorn Leghorn said: Did you spray W&N straight from the bottle? I thin mine about 30-50%. But it's the mattest matt I've come across, almost too matt,so I have some W&N gloss to un-matt it when needed. Nope I bought an aerosol can.....It looked very thick & viscous at first but it (quite slowly) dried absolutely beautifully, dead flat: 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foghorn Leghorn Posted March 8, 2018 Author Share Posted March 8, 2018 Wow, brave man! I'll never use a can of varnish again, tried it once with a Humbrol mini spraycan and ... it didn't end well. Tasty 110 too 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foghorn Leghorn Posted March 10, 2018 Author Share Posted March 10, 2018 Gardening time "We plough the fields and scatter the good seeds on the land..." Sprayed with khaki Sprayed with greens Drybrushed Dark brown wash Drybrushed again I shall now spend a few days trying to suss out the new car (Civic). There used to be a time when you bought a car and drove it. Simple. Now I've got a 500 page manual to wade through. And you need to be Stephen Hawking just to understand the windscreen wipers and headlight options. And they call it progress... 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 Wow, that base looks great.....Dead simple & effective, but very subtly done! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIG X Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 On 10/03/2018 at 06:56, Foghorn Leghorn said: Gardening time "We plough the fields and scatter the good seeds on the land..." Sprayed with khaki Sprayed with greens Drybrushed Dark brown wash Drybrushed again I shall now spend a few days trying to suss out the new car (Civic). There used to be a time when you bought a car and drove it. Simple. Now I've got a 500 page manual to wade through. And you need to be Stephen Hawking just to understand the windscreen wipers and headlight options. And they call it progress... ...a master class... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dermo245 Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 Looks class Dermot 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foghorn Leghorn Posted March 13, 2018 Author Share Posted March 13, 2018 18 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said: Dead simple Yep, dead simple... spot on. The simpler and quicker, the better AFAIC 18 hours ago, BIG X said: ...a master class... Confession. I kind of screwed up a bit. The dark brown wash is normally is oil paint based (made up to be a thin wash) but I decided to use Mig Dark Wash (as it was to hand) and I thinned it down by about 30%. Mistake. Whatever's in the Mig wash doesn't react the same as an oil wash and it didn't flow that well. Also don't dry brush the grass with lighter shades of greens, take a green and then mix in more and more yellow until you end up with pure yellow. One of these days I'll find something that gives me convinging long grass, in 72nd I can get away with scatter but not in 35th. I've tried various solutions but all I get in unnatural rigid tufts, I suppose 'real' looking long grass is (generally speaking) a bit of a nirvana for a lot of us. Thanks for the comments guys 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 Seriously, that's classy work.....It's all too easy to go over the top with 'extras' and clutter up a scene, when what you want to do is focus attention on the tank. If you find a convincing way of doing long grass (or wheat) please do let me know! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foghorn Leghorn Posted March 17, 2018 Author Share Posted March 17, 2018 When I was painting the dio, I also gave the Sherman a very light dust coat of khaki (I dont normally weather with an airbrush), more to tone down the yellow decal at the front than anything else. After that, I felt the tank needed another coat of W&N matt varnish. I'd had 'paint flow' problems with the previous coat (I thinned it with water, which is what i normally use) so this time I used UMP thinners and it sprayed on much better. I have a feeling that part of the previous problem was down to temperature as we were in the middle of the cold snap. I'd planned to go to town on the weathering (using pastels and pigments) but because it would disappear under varnish, I decided to stick the tank to the base (so I wouldn't have to touch the model again) and then add the weathering, thus avoiding the need to seal it. I was going to paint the edge of the base black but I quite liked the texture of the balsa (a kind of cracked earth effect) so I painted it khaki and gave it a Mig dark wash. I added the towing pintle, hull MG and 50cal (fitting the 50cal ammo box was fiddly) but left off the extra track links for the hull, then glued the tank to the base. At this point my master plan changed because I was relatively happy with the finish. I wanted to tweak it but I've been there before and stuffed it up by tinkering too much, so I added some dust pigment to the bottom of the tank and left it alone. I'm a perfectionist (not a good thing for a modeller) but I've found a partial cure, I now add a deliberate mistake to my models. The theory is: because I've added mistakes, I can never get it perfect, no matter how much I tinker with it, it sounds odd, but it works for me. This time it's the aerial and its mount, it pinged off during construction and it'll be an awkard little bogger to replace. So I wont bother. The Heller kit is a little gem, in fact it's the most detailed 72 armour kit I've ever come across. Yep, it's fiddly and the instructions aren't the best but it's 'almost' converted me to 72nd armour. As others have said, I really wish Heller had expanded their Sherman range to more than just the M4A2. Many thanks for the comments guys and gals and special thanks @SleeperService (who recommended the kit) and to @Sgt.Squarehead (for his sterling mod work in this GB). (Edited 21/03/18. Moved to new image hoster as my original image hoster has gone down) 6 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SleeperService Posted March 17, 2018 Share Posted March 17, 2018 I'm glad you enjoyed it. I'm also in awe at the superb job you've made of it. Beautiful work. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted March 17, 2018 Share Posted March 17, 2018 Absolutely superb! It's been a great thread to follow, thoroughly enjoyable and between us we've ironed (or should that be calipered) out the only major kink in the construction of the new Heller kits. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozzy Posted March 17, 2018 Share Posted March 17, 2018 Nice job foghorn. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaStix Posted March 17, 2018 Share Posted March 17, 2018 Very well done! Looks excellent and especially so because it's only 1/72! Kind regards, Stix 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hewy Posted March 17, 2018 Share Posted March 17, 2018 A little beauty Nice job on that base too 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spaddad Posted March 29, 2018 Share Posted March 29, 2018 orsum 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badder Posted March 31, 2018 Share Posted March 31, 2018 On 17/03/2018 at 8:54 AM, Foghorn Leghorn said: After that, I felt the tank needed another coat of W&N matt varnish. I'd had 'paint flow' problems with the previous coat (I thinned it with water, which is what i normally use) so this time I used UMP thinners and it sprayed on much better. I have a feeling that part of the previous problem was down to temperature as we were in the middle of the cold snap. I use the same varnishes, the matt being especially superb. I'm not sure if it's my airbrush (one of the orginal Azteks) or issues with the varnish itself, but I too sometimes have flow problems when using the airbrush. On 'problem days' I will dilute it with water and that solves the problem. I CAN say it's not a problem caused by 'cold' temperatures as I spray indoors, always in the warm and it still happens. It COULD be a mixing issue. It says to shake the jar 'gently' but it defintely seems to be 'thicker' on some days. Maybe it can be shaken more vigorously to make it flow better. I suspect the 'shake gently' is for brush painting anyway. With regards to your Sherman and base, FANTASTIC! Rearguards, Badder 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foghorn Leghorn Posted April 1, 2018 Author Share Posted April 1, 2018 11 hours ago, Badder said: I use the same varnishes, the matt being especially superb. It COULD be a mixing issue. It says to shake the jar 'gently' but it defintely seems to be 'thicker' on some days. Maybe it can be shaken more vigorously to make it flow better. I suspect the 'shake gently' is for brush painting anyway. Yeah, it may or may not have been down to temp, at the time it was the only explanation I could come up with. Even then it wasn't that cold as I spray indoors too. I've thinned with water before and it was fine. Maybe it was just a modelling gremlin day but as the UMP worked with it I'll probably stick with it for now Thanks for the kind comments Badder... and to everyone else Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now