“A snake in the bocage” - 1/35 vignette

[Muchmirth]

Hi all,

This build will be a nice simple, straightforward base/vignette for a jagdpanzer iv l48 which I’m building. Title was taken from something a us tanker said in a book by Peter Caddick Adams, snow and steel. He said his time in Normandy was spent fearing the big game but every once in a while an viper would slither across the terrain and nip at your ankles (referring to the stugs and jagdpanzers low profile).

  So I started with some insulation foam  measuring 29cm x 30cm. I marked out the rough plan in marker and glued it to some old chip board of the same dimensions. The board gives it strength and weight and stops any warping; 

Then used a hand saw, Stanley blade, surform and chisel to carve out the below, basic road with banks and fields with furrows (furrows are the wrong way around as wanted the tank to go against the grain and so moved them the other way later):

I then coated it with my famous homemade mud solution, it’s family recipe that’s been handed down the generations! Top secret and will be carried with me until the day I die. ( nothing revolutionary here just quick dry polyfiller, paint, gesso, sand, grit and mud from the garden) it does the job and will be painted further later on:

 

As you can see I’ve laid out a plan for this which will involve three types of fence: stone, barb and wooden: just to add a little variety also because I don’t want to entirely cover up the tank which will be in the middle.

   Below is the unglued 0.5mm oak veneer I bought to use on the sides. Theirs a bit of a trend for this at the moment (thanks to uncle nightshift in part). A lot of modellers paint it black to make the sides plain but I like the wood grain so have painted it with boiled linseed oil and a thin wash of burnt Siena oil paint to brighter, protect and bring out the grain further. 

I’ll cut this to side levels and stick on with wood glue. Then it’ll be a matter of shoring it up with the ground level.
   Anyway, that’s all for now.

Paul. 

[voozet]

21 minutes ago, Muchmirth said:

Below is the unglued 0.5mm oak veneer I bought to use on the sides.

An interesting idea and a new one for me, because I rather avoid watching tutorials made by pros, so as not to get frustrated. Now I know how to use the supplies I bought years ago, when I thought it was a nice material for making wooden plats, doors and fences. It was'nt

[Cadman]

Following with due attention and interest ... 

Cheers

[Muchmirth]

On 26/05/2023 at 16:04, voozet said:

An interesting idea and a new one for me, because I rather avoid watching tutorials made by pros, so as not to get frustrated. Now I know how to use the supplies I bought years ago, when I thought it was a nice material for making wooden plats, doors and fences. It was'nt

Funny you should say that because I was hoping to make doors and boxes etc … but now I know that it’ll save me the bother.