Nenad Ilijic

Lovely result Stefan. I like those hand painted markings a lot. Nenad

Nice work. One of my favorite subjects. Built one few months ago, although AFV Club one. I wonder how these two compare. AFV's one was a bit PITA to build. How much turret interior is there? Nenad

Thank you Jack, this is very useful. Maybe I'll try Model Victoria resin kit after all. It looks like it's a good choice as a starter resin kit and it is actually cheaper than Tamiya/Italeri if you take shipping into account. Nenad

Hahaha I was just thinking the same

Nice work Ian. Paintwork is great, and it matches photo very well. Also, interesting choice of camo scheme. I can confirm that 0.15mm H&S Infinity is fantastic for freehanding soft age camo. It works particularly well with highly diluted paints, especially lacquers, like MRP.

@Carius, @Lazy Modeller, @Stef N., @Geo1966, @StuartH, @Bertie Psmith, @FrancisGL, @Buzby061, @vytautas, @moondrome thank you guys. You are very kind. Yeah, this thing is very Warhammer. And it is HUGE! King Tiger huge. Barrel is so long, it's hard to take a photo of the whole tank and keep it in focus It's like a ship main battery on tracks.

Fantastic work. Weathering is really nice. Nenad

Is Model Victoria version worth buying? How is it compared to Italeri/Tamiya kits? Never built resin kit, and after following some resin build threads here in WIP section, I am not sure I am ready for the pain

Beautiful work Jack. Those figures are just stunning. One of the best figure painting jobs I have ever seen. I was looking for this model to complete my NA collection, but it seems almost impossible to find these days. Nenad

Interesting choice of markings. Great job so far.

Hello everyone, Here's something quite different. It is an ARL 44, tank that should rather belong to SF section. It is soo strange looking, I was not sure if it really existed. It does. It was conceived during in Vichy France in 1942, by CDM (Camouflage du Matériel), a secret Vichy army organization trying to produce materiel forbidden by the armistice conditions. After few interruptions, it was finally ready for production in 1949. Even though, it was already obsolete at that point, it was decided to go for a serial production to bolster French National morale. Vehicles were delivered from 1949 to 1951 to the 503e Régiment de Chars de Combat stationed in Mourmelon-le-Grand, replacing 17 former German Panthers. They were serving along the Sherman tanks, and proved quite unreliable. Kit itself is very nice. Not too much details, but fit is perfect. Indy tracks are really easy to assemble (only takes an hour). This was a quick project, it is basically a weekend build (although it took me two weekends ). It is build OOB, the only addition being stowage at the back of the turret. Its painted with Tamiya Acrylics and weathered with pigments. I usually don't use Tamiya paints, but I had some leftovers from a few years ago, so I just mixed something that should look like Vert Armee color. I am not even sure that these tanks were painted in Vert Armee, but that was my guess. Tamiya paints have that very flat texture, so sprayed Mr.Premium Top Coat Semi-Gloss before weathering. Instructions offer two different marking options, and I am quite sure that both of them are fictional. However, there is the third option on decal sheet, that is not mentioned in the instructions, and I found some photos of this particular vehicle. And here's one detail shot of the exhaust system that I find interesting. Even though these tanks were never extensively used, I didn't want to go for a factory fresh finish. The idea was to show the quite new, but dirty vehicle. Used on an exercise for example. Cheers, Nenad

Thank you.

I don't know really. Not sure that I would be able to make a factory fresh finish that looks realistic. The only thing that may help that comes up to my mind is to mist very light coat of dust to bland everything together. You can use stuff like this or light paint. Some use Tamiya Buff although I don't like using paint for this because it is hard to remove it if you are not happy with the result. Nenad

Fantastic model Stefan. Excellent weathering.

They are showing on my phone, but not on the computer (at least in Chrome).

Great work Colin. Don't know how it looked like before fixing, but now it really looks fantastic. Nenad

Nice work Alex and welcome to the forum. Regarding making your models more realistic, the best advice you can get is to just follow some threads in WIP section on this forum. There are so many great modelers here. I learned much much more since I joined the forum than I managed to do for a long time before that on my own. And there are many different styles and techniques, so you can choose whatever suit you best. Regarding this particular model, making factory fresh finish to look realistic is the hardest I would say As Stef mentioned, darker steel for cable would do the trick. Also, tracks are maybe a bit too rusty, especially for a factory fresh finish. I usually use a mix of Tamiya XF-84 and XF-10 (75:25 approximately) to spray the tracks and then drybrush some metallic pigments or silver paint on the areas that are exposed to wear. Other than that, some weathering always helps to make model look real. It's kinda like a cheating You can start with minimal weathering and then as you gather confidence experiment with new techniques. For start you can add some dust for example, and do some color variations with oils. I prefer working with pigments, it allows you to do all kinds of effects. Cheers, Nenad

Wow, what a beautiful model! Weld joints, chalk marks, chain, color variations.... it is mesmerizing. You succeeded in making Maus to be interesting. How did you made chalk marks look this realistic? What would be interesting is to make one photo of this beast near a "regular" tank, just to show how huge it is. Cheers, Nenad

Thank you Bertie.

Beautiful and unusual model. I'm not sure I ever saw this one. I really like the weathering, it is spot on. Nenad

Nice job Bertie. Tarpaulin and rolled canvas are really a highlight of this model. Nenad

Lovely work! It definitely looks like a much larger scale. Never tried smaller scales myself, I guess it requires a lot of patience Cheers, Neand

Impressive work Stuart! Painting and weathering is very convincing. I like these dark, dramatic shots very much, they add to the moody, autumn atmosphere. Cheers, Nenad

Beautiful work Stix! You managed to make it look stunning and super realistic, while being clean, which is one of the greatest modeling achievements I would say Nenad

Thank you very much Stix for your kind words. Nenad