So I hesitate to post these pics just because I'm pretty unhappy with the decals...It was my first time using micro sol and micro set and it was frustrating to say the least, just when I had the decals positioned on the micro sol and thought they were set and dry I would go in with the micro set only to have them move and become set crookedly!!!! I cannot express how frustrating this was, but it was my own fault:
A~ I underestimated the possible difficulty of working with the micro set (I figured, hey they're just decals right, how different can it be?)
B~ I tried to fit the job in when I probably just should have waited until I had a clear head and plenty of time
C~ I let my frustration get the better of me, I should have just stopped and taken a breath instead of slogging through



So as a result I lost 2 of the kit decals which I had to remove because they were so bad (as a result the 2 unit markings on the rear are not there), and the double diamond and yellow circle over the right fender are crooked.
These are mistakes I will just have to try to hide at this point, either through placement of the sandbags, additional stowage items or in the weathering process...ugh

On the other hand I am very happy with the effect of the future, it really darkened the green and made the colors much richer in appearance, I still have to do the second coat to seal in the decals, but I have to do some minor touchups (mainly around the star and armor bosses) first.

Enough rambling on and on...here are the pics



you an see above where I went back and highlighted the modulation with a brush, I just used the tamiya acrylics for this part, various mixes...



*sigh* you can see how crooked the deals are in this pic....

So I'm a little unsure of the order to proceed here, should I go ahead with the second coat of future first? Or finish up all the basecoating for the stowage, tools etc and then future? Or option number 3 weather the interior, seal it up, do the sandbags, and then proceed with the basecoat and future??

I'm going to take some time to think about it...

Some great progress lately here! Looks great. Sorry about the decals, I know how it is...

Keep it up!

Cheerio!

I would pat myself on the back if I could get my 1/35 work to come out that cleanly built and painted.....
Well done so far!

Wonderful work!

I too have super detailed some of Tamiya's 1:48 kits. Really tricky with photo etch that small, and I didnt have an etch mate either! It was a nightmare!

This really looks great, and I love the painting. I was also really interested in your preshading. I have never tried preshading before, to be honest I never really saw the point. The work here though certainly gives me food for thought!

Thanks guys!!
@ Stefan, yeah the decals were a pain, but I'm over it now, ready to move on...unfortunately its Thanksgiving week here in the states so I'm off to fulfill familial obligations this week = no bench time!

@Russel, well It was very intimidating to start this project in 1/48, but like anything, you get used to working in the scale you're working in, so it just ends up being a different set of challenges, not really more or less difficult than 1/35, you should give it a try!! 1/48 is a bit less expensive...

@Jon thanks, I was inspired to try the pre-shading by alex's tiger build below, he did a bright yellow over primer red that came out really nice. Its funny about the etch mate, I have one, but I hardly used it for this build, the pieces were too small!!

hopefully I'll have an update in early december, I've decided to go ahead and weather the interior before I do anything else, so keep your eyes on this spot

Hi guys,
Well I'm back, its been a hectic winter (as usual) but I'm finally back to the bench.
Finally got the interior done



I wanted it to be dirty to stick with the aachen theme, this is going to be a dirty beast!

Plus the interior is not going to be too visible so I wanted to make sure that the contrast is pretty high so some of the limited detail is visible...



Having done this I have no desire whatsoever to paint another interior any time soon!! Much respect to you guys who do it well!

Next up I will finally seal up this baby and finish up the hull details (sandbags on the bow) and get into the weathering (finally!!)

thanks for watching!

I feel with you there, I don't like Interiors too much either... Lots of work goes in there that won't be seen on the finished model... nice Job on yours though, although the floors of open topped vehicles were usually OD, not white. But I'm sure you'll come up with a pic proving me wrong... Keep it up!

Cheers
Stef

PS: Sorry I didn't mention the floor earlier...

Nice job overall.

Really a nice job.

Hey, Tskross
That's a very sharp looking build. I've thought about trying my hand at a 1/48 now that my eyesight isn't what it was a few short years ago. I've virtually given up trying to apply photo etch to 1/35. What looks decent to my now lens-covered eyes is starting to look horrific in photos and fiddling with the minuscule parts is frustrating at best. And, with the cost of kits these days, I add insult to injury by ruining an awesome Dragon kit that includes photo etch.
Nice job.
Randy

WOW 1/48 scale huh! Great Job so far.

Thanks guys

@stefan: yup here is that pic:


While the turret interior was indeed OD the m10 was the only open topped TD with part of the visible interior painted white. I have seen some pics as well with the diamond tread plates on the floor painted OD but everything else white, but that was after I started painting so I decided just to stick with what I had instead of starting over, especially since you won't really see much of it anyways

@Randy I hear you, i use a table mounted magnifyer, without it I would have thrown this build away a long time ago!! But even then usually when I se the photos I see things that look pretty terrible up close!! I keep thinking about that Tasca 1/24 panzer coming out!
But i do enjoy 1/48...especially the cost! Can't imagine doing braille scale though, those guys are nuts

Just a quick little update, I sealed the hull and put a coat of clear flat on:



Doesn't look too different I know, but it really did knock down the gloss quite a bit!

Next step I will be adding the sandbag armor and a few more small details and after that on to the weathering!!

Getting closer....

Thanks for watching

I knew that would happen... That's what happens when you post away from the references in the office...

Now for the weathering?

Cheers
Stef

Nice little M10, effective paint job too. Hope the weathering goes well.

They did have them in OD green also the floor but by the time of moving around from all the mud and dirt I bet pretty well covered up anyway.

Planes is the thing to watch for on a white interior.
Not ground troops.

Looking better here nice dang use of PE.

OK got the sandbags done this morning, I'm pretty happy with the result,



again the original image:


It isn't too clear so I used some artistic license here, but if you look carefully you can see some kind of fabric draped down that looks like it is fastened to the armor bosses at the top of the star and some of the sandbags look torn, so I took that idea in mind while sculpting them



OK finally, I'm just going to put a quick basecoat on them and then get on with the weathering!!

I'll be following Pat Johnston's method as closely as possible, if your not familiar with his work in 1/48th then you should be!! You can check out his work at track48

Well I've been working on painting all the stowage items prior to weathering and as you can imagine it is taking a while, but in the meantime I got a little package from track48 yesterday and I have a little update that I can share...

First off the .50cal I was thinking I'd go without but I wanted to order a couple of other items (for my next, as yet unannounced project ) so I threw in this hauler detail set just for the heck of it...



...and I'm glad I did, its a great little detail set. I am very happy with the quality and engineering of the Hauler PE sets I've used, my only gripe is that the instructions are not very clear and sometimes require a bit of extra research...

I also picked up these guys:





They are from dartmoor miniatures and the sculpting seems very good, especially the postures. Its been a looooong time since I've worked with white metal....but I will be using it again very soon so this will be good practice. Compared to resin the details are a bit soft, but it is still much better than styrene.

I replaced the head of the guy with the jerry can with a gasoline resin head and gave him a steel pot (I can't imagine TD crews would really go without, being so exposed) from Tamiyas figure set I also added the chin strap hanging down that I made with scraps of PE fret. The other guy is straight from the box (I can see that I need to fix his arm with the grease gun to sit closer to his torso) Of course they still need to be filled and cleaned up a bit...

Next up will be the finished basecoat and then FINALLY onto weathering!! (really I mean it this time!) : D

OK got most of the stowage painted



But I'm not sure about the tarp on the back...Just a regular dark green tarp to keep the rain off the crew's stuff or a bright air recognition panel?



I'm leaning towards a green just to keep the color palette subdued reflecting the weather and particular brutality of the battle for Aachen but I'm not sure if it needs the pop of color...




Any thoughts?

What great progress so far looks superb ,

I would stick to a OD tarp in this instance

Thanks for posting great work

Regards,

Jerry

Great stowage! I would go for a little color on the tarp myself.

One nitpick: the tanker's helmets were made of pressed fiber and then painted OD, not leather as your brown seems to suggest.

Cheers!
Sstefan

ahh cool, thanks Stefan, I will change ASAP (It needs a little cleanup anyways!)
Finished up all the base colors this morning, now on to the fun part!

Well I'm getting into the home stretch here...
First thing I did was give the whole vehicle an oil wash of burnt umber mixed with ultramarine blue....(sorry for the crappy pic)



This was followed by some oil streaks, I used 4 colors, 'dust', 'faded OD', Burnt Umber, and finally Dark Blue



Then I did some fading with pigments, I used my own mix of about 75% light grey, 15% OD, and 10% raw umber followed by the chipping, done exclusively with Black oil paint and a combination of brush and sponge....







OK OK I don't want to give too much away!! I expect by the next post the vehicle will be totally done. I have also started work on the figures, and am going to make a simple base as well...

All comments and critiques welcome!

Absolutely incredible! Awesome work. How do you do the oil streaks? I like the effect.

Hi Thomas,
Its the 'oil dot' method. I'm following another 1/48 modeller's technique in weathering this one. Pat Johnston is really a master he has a thread going here (if the pictures are gone, you can download the threads with the pics here)

Ok fellas,
bear with me, its all about the details at this point
I'd say its about 99% done, most of the rest of the work will wait until its affixed to its base...



I'm sorry the pics aren't quite up to snuff, I'm having issues with the focus on my camera, something is blurring it but I can't figure out where...



Got almost all the details done, just have to do the lights, finish the weathering on the handling points (mostly the barrel) and there are a couple more details that I will add such as ready ammo etc



The blackdog stowage was a joy to paint...now I see there appears to be a red splotch on the tanker's helmet...add it to the list of things to fix!!



I wanted to convey the sense of wet and dry dirt and material on the vehicle, to capture the atmosphere seen in the original pic...I hope I've come close! I used a mix of tamiya gloss black, future and alcohol (thanks Pat Johnston!) not only to convey fuel spills and lubricant, but also a bit thinned to portray wet streaks on certain parts of the vehicle. I didn't want to take it too far though, so I hope its enough...



And finally a shot of it on the base in progress... I am trying to figure out how to add an element of height to the little vignette, but I don't really want to use the stereotypical light or telephone pole....any ideas?

OK gotta get some sleep
cheers