My first tank

[billybookcase]

I found a Sherman Calliope for a tenner so I thought I'd give it a go.

And I also fancied a go at a diorama, so I left off the calliope.

Weathering was real rust in parts, and the mud is household filler mixed with soil.

Scratch built the hedge breaker and amended a miniart german tank crew adding my own helmets.

The soldiers are Dragon.

The house is polystyrene takeaway carton and the roof plasticard cut in strips for each row of tiles.

Probably not strictly accurate in parts but I'm quite pleased with my first attempt.

It is based on a photo I found on the net.

Cheers

BB

[jimbuna]

That's nice.

[Paul A H]

Nice work! I keep meaning to do a diorama in 1:72.

[tiking]

Great work Paul. Your figures are way better than mine.

[T-Tango]

Very nice dio.

[Mikey58]

That is a lovely dio!Love the building,really well done and great figure painting at this scale!Nice tank build,good rust and mud.I think in view of the amount of mud around the tracks and wheels that you could add some mud/dust/general dirt on the hull,it looks a little too clean to me.Also the road looks a bit too clean,could do with a heavier dirt covering-but that could just be the picture,cameras do lie when it comes to pictures of models!

Mike

[billybookcase]

That is a lovely dio!Love the building,really well done and great figure painting at this scale!Nice tank build,good rust and mud.I think in view of the amount of mud around the tracks and wheels that you could add some mud/dust/general dirt on the hull,it looks a little too clean to me.Also the road looks a bit too clean,could do with a heavier dirt covering-but that could just be the picture,cameras do lie when it comes to pictures of models!

Mike

Thanks mike.

I thought there should be more mud on it myself, but as it was my first go i didn't want to go over the top.

The road in the picture I took it from was fairly clean, my thinking was that the tank had been through some hedges gathering mud before entering the village.

But I learned a lot from this and some new techniques as well.

One thing i found was that I thought the humbrol "rust" paint looked quite realistic, until I made my own rust from wire wool soaked in water.

I think I'll definitely make some more tanks, it was good fun.

Cheers

BB

[Mikey58]

BB,

I like the idea if the real rust,how did you put the rusty wire wool onto the model?

Mike

[billybookcase]

BB,

I like the idea if the real rust,how did you put the rusty wire wool onto the model?

Mike

Hi Mike,

I put some wire wool in a yoghurt pot with a bit of water, and one with water and vinegar, leave it until it goes rusty (a couple of days to a week or 2).

If you let the water evaporate a bit you get a thicker rust.

Just paint it on to areas where you'd expect rust to be (I put it where welds would be, which in my experience is where it gathers, don't know if this applies to tanks but I would guess so)

, when the water in the "paint" that you've put on the model dries up you're left with the rust, which can be dabbed off with a cotton bud if it has spread to much.

If your pot of rust dries up you can just top it up with a drop of water to get some more.

Hope this makes sense.

Cheers

BB

[Mikey58]

BB,

Thanks for that,great idea,I'll give that a go next time I need rust.

Mike

[oldhouse]

Hi BB

very nice looking dio !!!!!

Peter

[billybookcase]

Hi BB

very nice looking dio !!!!!

Peter

Thank you Peter.

BB

[BasicModelling]

Nice work... I like the combination of the soldiers and the tank..

[Deon]

Nice one BB I particularly like the rusted look to the tracks.