Lada

Taking a break from tanks, getting back into painting miniatures. Was a fun project, playing with the color tones on flesh

Yeah, probably. It has all the fading and such, but should have chipped it a bit or maybe added some mud splashes over it.

First 1/35 kit in about 20 years (I did some tanks as a kid when I was maybe 14 or something :D ). After 1/72 armor, this was SO relaxing. Everything was big and easy to paint, so the weathering was a joy. I'm not 100% happy with the mud (mainly the placement), so if anyone has any tips, I'd be all ears. I followed Andy's excelent tutorial(s) on ModelingNews for quite a few of the techniques, which was really helpful: https://www.themodellingnews.com/2015/12/witness-final-wash-up-as-andy-whips-up.html

Decided to come back to miniature painting after a long-ish break of a couple years. Had this guy lying around and half finished from when I originally got the model, so stripped it and started again. First try at a living forest base, not 100% happy with the trees, but to make them better I think I'll need to get more varied foliage next time.

These are amazing. The level of detail and realism is incredible. Especially love the relatively subtle weathering. Chipping often looks like an overdone painting, but here, everything looks like the real thing! Really well done.

Very nice, like the bent fenders and missing fuel tank! The weathering on the tracks is also on point. What did you use for the mud texture?

Love the camo and weathering on it, especially given the scale. Bummer about that gap in the tracks, makes you wish manufacturers paid more attention to these (I had numerous models in 1:72 where it just would not fit..).

Thanks, those are good tips! Especially the bit about making sure you have everything dry-fitted and ready beforehand. Coming from more of a miniature painting background, I kinda struggle with this whole "be patient, get everything ready, before painting" mentality, I often decide to change things after I see how it looks, but with scale models, that's often too late 😕 Something to work on for sure

Good catch, thanks! I painted them separately and this is the result 😕 The plan is to make a small vignete eventually, so for that, I'll have to make sure to harmonize the weathering.

Patriot PAC3 launcher and HEMTT tractor, in 1:72 scale, by Model collect / Aoshima This has been my most ambitious project to date. The complexity of the kit, amount of PE and number of new techniques I had to try definitely pushed my limits (and taught me some lessons). Things I messed up, In no particular order: I attached the supports the wrong way around. I only realized this while adding the PE parts, some of which didn't quite match the instructions. Too late, I decided. This caused more problems downstream, with the fender not fitting and such Broke off the control boxes 2x (!), while using them to hold the model. Of course after doing all the wiring, so messed that up too.. Way overdid final weathering with pigments, leading to something that looked like it's been abandoned in a dust storm.. Felt like chucking the whole thing out the window at that point, especially with all the work invested up to that point. In the end washed it partially off with enamel thinner, but not quite enough. Lesson in being slow and methodial with pigments Painted the initial NATO camo way too dark, using the designated Tamyia colors. This ended up being quite difficult to weather and I'd definitely make it lighter next time to begin with Decided to add all the wiring at the very end, after having painted everything else. Which ended up with a lot of drilling/cutting and super glue everywhere, damaging previous work. Would try and add these earlier in the build stage next time, despite the difficulty with painting this would create On the other hand, I'm quite happy with how the scratchbuilt railing & wiring came out in the end, so will definitely try more of that sort of thing in the future. Couple questions for those more experienced than myself: At what stage would you add wiring to a model like this? What's the best way to achieve believable polished steel on the hydraulics? I tried standard metalics with some clear varnish, but it's just not 100% Is printing your own decals feasible in 1/72 scale like this? Ended up doing some freehands, but it looks quite bad Patriot launcher And some group photos (I really need a bigger backdrop if I end up doing more big vehicles.. ) PS: If you want to see more pictures of the HEMTT tractor, I've posted it a couple days back:

Wow, amazing work on an unusual subject! I love the microscope glass idea, first time seeing that and I'll 100% steal that for a future project Looks 10x more realistic than plastic..

Thanks. My worry was that the windshield looks too clean in the clean section and kinda uniform in the dirty section. But was scared to try and spread it out, as I already had to re-do it once before Thanks! Those cables were actually super easy to make with copper wire. It was one of those things that are not that hard to do, but add a ton of visual interest to an otherwise monocolor model

First post here, I reckon since I moved to the UK, I should start contributing to the local scale modeling forums HEMTT M983A2 tractor by Model collect, with PE set by Tetra models, in 1:72 scale As this was my first modern vehicle model (and first model with tires and windshields), I'd be curious about some feedback, especially on things like: tires weathering - not really 100% with this, went with pigments and by the time I didn't like it, it was too late to go back windshield dust effect - I don't find the final effect particularly realistic looking, but not sure how to do it better. Any tips and feedback appreciated