Good afternoon from a cool, windy and wet South Lincs.
Pete. Thanks mate, I would get one, there's also a new Thunder Model out this month , its a 60 Version.
Peter......Think Iv'e enjoyed this one about the most. The engine has been the part along with the cab conversion that has done it for me.
Mick..... Believe it or not I actually have started to enjoy them, a strange thing I know. I have to thank my friend Peter Day for this, he's given me the support and help. Even though he will will take no credit.
Jim........ Tried and used both on this, certain parts needed a softer finish and the water based ones were great for that.The cave has thank goodness been the coolest place in the house, two doors with a through draft from the garden made it bareable.
Steve ...... Your welcome mate, seems to take so long with a dio , all the bits that go into it take so long to do.
This week even the heat didn't put me off while in the cave, at times I sat in the shade in the garden and painted !
Changing from reed beds to tractors, painting one section and then back to some thing else.
Starting with the base, the T40 was set in to it's pre cut hole, had to make a few changes on one side , but now ok .
This was the earlier part, since then it has turned into this .
I'm not impressed with the Vallejo mud as I said before, the video on U Tube made out it was so good, hence buying it. You'd have thought by now I would take all adverts with a pinch of salt. It's far to dark, i've tried to lighten it in the mix, no good a-tall. To be fair to Vallejo its no doubt go its benefits, but in the past I have always made my own from cheap wall filler, added some artists acrylic paint and been happy. Thought I would give it a go.
So now the think to do is lighten the finish.I had added some of my mix for Kursk soil, it did lighten it somewhat , but bought the green out more, the thing to do here will be to leave the very dark , as if it's deep mud colour from the bottom. lightening the rest the further away from the tank .
The brown over the green will have a some more work done to it, lightening it as I go.
Other than that it's going the way I had in mind, more reed are needed to the left hand side, the front and the right. Then they will run along the waters edge for the total length. Ive made another 60 plus tuffs so hopefully that will be enough.
Mass production has been used , picking up one section at a time was getting tedious with being so many.
This morning the bulrush heads were finished after two applications of PVA done over the last two days.
Found that AK track brown seemed to work ok .
The tractor tracks have been toned down following Si's imput the other evening.
That drivers door has been off again, trying to get the driver in was fun, what with legs , and controls getting in the way.
Looking at the bench my request for membership of the TIDY Bench Club will be rejected again !
The lower half of the tractor will have to have the mud applied, I think here a thin covering of the mud, followed by several thin sprayed coats of washes made from Vallejo . I want to retain the metal work, don't want it too plastered !
As for the figures, they moving on , Iv'e done several coats of skin tones, and the uniforms. Need to get the faces as good as I can, before placing them on the base.
Ok , that's it , time for a cup of coffee
Please feel free to offer suggestions, comments or anything else you might consider will add to the fun.
Thanks for looking in .
John .