Guys,

BIG update from me, not really to do with the campaign though, in the UK our large modelling retail store ModelZone is closing down and they had a airbrush and compressor set at half price (£55) so I couldn't help myself and now I have a airbrush! So no more paint jobs with brushes!

Bronzey

Congratulations. That is a purchase you will not regret. I own a couple and I love each and every one of them.
What airbrush did you buy?

Robert,

Its a combined set by a company called 'expo tools', im not expecting the best from it but its a move in the right direction I feel.

Bronzey

Ola Alex

I checked it out online and it seems you got quite a decent set there. Compressor with moisturetrap. Pretty neat. Is the airbrush a Single or Dual action airbrush? Now comes the fun time to experiment and getting to know the airbrush. Don't know if you have an old banger laying around? It is fun to revive an old kit that you handpainted with the airbrush.

Robert,
The grave markers should break up that open space. I thought I had a spare tanker figure but can't find it, so I'm making one from bits and pieces from the figures spares box.

I'm really enjoying this.

Robert,

Its a dual airbrush, thought it was a single so even happier now I learnt its not. Yes I have a few bits I could use, my very first model was a 1/35 humvee that could do with some TLC, plus there is two big boxes of toy cars that are my boys and im sure they wouldn't mind me having some fun with a few! liking what you have done so far by the way, coming together well.

Bronzey

@ Alex
I'm glad to hear you are enjoying this. It should be what diorama making is all about. Looking forward to the results of Frankensteining the Tanker.

@ Alex
You scored a real deal there with it even being a Dual action. Very nice. Looking forward to your first AB jobs

I got a little update on my T-20. Added more parts to it. What actually slows the built down is that with every step I try to puzzle out how I can make it in such a way that I can take the subassemblies apart. Paint the interior, Close it up again to spray the exterior.





MEIN GOTT!!! Ze Vehicle fell apart!


Not everything is primed yet... Therefore there is the difference in color. If I get one or two evenings off I probably can get started with airbrushing this weekend. And I can determine how high the fence needs to be and in turn also how big the factory wall is going to be. And I can start working on the figures. Everything revolves around the little T-20

Hi all.

@Alex - Congrats on the airbrush. It really is one of the best purchases for the hobby you can make. Do your lungs a favour and get a decent respirator mask. They're a little harder to find but try to find a wife who doesn't mind a faint smell of lacquer in the house once in a while too.

@Robert - Really enjoying the T-20 build. I'm interested in a few Mirror Models kits and I haven't seen many build logs online.

Here's a little progress on the Tilly. Sorry about the really poor quality of the photos.




I have to paint the details and repaint a few spots on the interior that I'm not happy with. I also need to decide if I want to camouflage the tilt or not. I've seen photos of it camo'd and left in a number of solid colours post '44. I'm leaning towards camo but the solid contrasting colour is growing on me.

I noticed too late on the kit unfortunately. I built it with the rear flap up instead of down. Unfortunately when the flap is up, you can easily see inside that the beam structure supporting the tilt there isn't.



I may take a crack at fixing it, or just note it for my next Tilly.

Can't wait to see more work.

Cheers

Jeff

Hi Everyone,

I have managed to get time to produce my start photo. There are 5 A13 Cruiser tanks, 1 MkV Light Tank, 1 Universal Carrier, a Bedford lorry and a few bods to populate the scene. I will have to scratch build some commanders for the tanks, in the photo I am using as reference all the tanks have commanders and loaders out of their hatches. The scene will be the most complex part of the build as I have to make a corner of an English village in 6mm scale! Here is the photo of what I hope to do...



And here is what I am going to do it with...



All the best,

Paul

@ Jeff
That is a really sharp painted Tilly. Great colors too. That should give you a nice canvas for weathering. Good luck on scratching those bars for the tarp.
And if the T-20 is anything to go by the other releases from Mirror will probably also be top notch kits. I love the build so far

@ Paul G
That is an impressive amount of vehicles you got there. And guessing the size of the telephone I'm pretty sure you can fit them all on the Postcard. Together with the tiny village that is something to look forward to.

hi guys!,

@ jeff
nice paintjob!

@ Robert
This is really a nice kit!

I got a little bit work done on my tilly , because i had to spend some time with my fishing rods... It is now primed en ready for the brown paint.





see ya!

Guys,

For those that dont know, I had a big set back with my fork lift truck, after falling asleep at my bench, knocking off my fork lift, then knocking off my airbrush compressor ontop of it and smashing it to bits. So 2nd truck is back where I was only not hapy with the paint job, enjoy! Oh I have built and primed the EOD soldier





Bronzey

@ Alex - I've never heard of anyone working so hard they passed out at their table before. I salute your commitment.
Hopefully the compressor is still working. I think the truck looks pretty great. I think the weathering will really set it off.

Cheers

Jeff

Bronzey,
Sorry about the lift incident.

I'm having to rethink my Soviet tanker. The parts I was going to use looked funky when they were put together. Let's just say he looked like he had wide child-bearing hips. Anyway, I've got an alternative figure in the works. I'm going with him wearing infantry trousers and tunic, but with a tanker's helmet to denote him as a tanker. The legs are going to make for a better pose in my opinion and it's goign to change up the German troops moving in.

@ Peter
Nice progress you got going there. Everything looks cleanly built. Looking forward to the paint.

@ Alex Bronze
That indeed is commitment. Pitty to hear about the accident. Hope aside from that single casualty all is well.
I also think the Forklift isnt bad. When you start weathering it will come to life right up.

@ Bluestab
That is pretty much the reason why I started trying to sculpt my own figures. Often frankensteining a figure works very well but there are those occasions where it just looks a bit odd. Looking forward to your solution.

My build is 90% finished and primed and ready for paint






For everybody interested in the complete progress overview you can check out the builtlog
T-20 Komsomoletz Mod37 builtlog

Thank you for all the comments guys, I guess I am my own worst critic, I know the wife moans at me for always asking if my work looks good, will do a update sharing my reference pictures soon so you guys know what she should look like. Loving what I am seeing from you lot, some really nice work coming along!

Bronzey

Robert,
What is hurting me on this one is my general lack of Soviet figures. I've started building more Soviet subjects but I usually buy them as I need them. As such, my parts inventory is far more limited. Most of my figures are WW2 German, which were mostly bought back in the 90s.

For figures I've never had much luck with sculpting. I tend to get the proportions wrong and I don't do well with certain details.

Love the tractor Robert!

I've been getting some serious work done in this beautiful weather these past few days.

Nearly complete.

Crew Member.

Starting the Magic tracks, I must say these tiny tracks are actually alot easier to put together than the massive links on a kingtiger because they weigh nothing and then they don't fall apart nearly as quickly.

Left side complete


I've been thinking though and I'm not happy with the scale of the bridge I was going to make and want to save the idea for a bigger diorama at some point. But I'm sure somethign equally as cool will come to me for the Postcard.

I’ve had over a dozen ideas for this campaign, and decided it was time to start on a couple of them. I consider the Whippet tank – especially the crew quarters – as a great piece of cubist sculpture. In an effort to isolate it, I chopped an Emhar 1:35 Whippet in half.



I needed to shorten the chassis by 1.5 mm to meet the 15 mm size criteria, which means that I won’t be able to rotate it at all on whatever base I end up with. I may still separate the cab from the rear chassis, and reattach the latter to the front. I didn’t fit the gas tank armor, as I’m pondering installing mesh material in the opening. I want to elevate the cab, and am considering an armed “recon/observation” tank, with a railinged viewing platform on the cab roof, and another on the rear deck. An open question is access, and whether it should also be armored; i.e. protected enclosed stairs vs. external ladder.

I also toyed with an armed recovery tank, and am still interested in that, but decided I would want to do it in a different situation where I didn’t need to mount the crane boom almost vertically, or shorten the tank, to meet the rules.



The British did build some recovery versions of WW1 tanks; I was able to do a free download of a book called, “Breakdown – A History of Recovery Vehicles in the British Army”. On the Landships Forum I found a photo of a Mk 4 supply tank converted with a large fixed A-frame fitted to the front and a winch on top in the rear.



The Germans developed a plan for building a recovery vehicle on their A7V chassis, but it was never brought to fruition.



My second project is one of several possibilities that started with the thought of how to achieve maximum possible height. The primary structure for this is part of a 1:87 bridge crane; here is a proto photo showing one similar to that modeled.



The scene will be at a large coal facility in the Ruhr, with arrival by barge and some trans-loading to rail for delivery to smaller local factories and other destinations. The majority of the coal is used to fire the massive nearby plants. It was difficult to select a section that would fit in the proscribed area, so I ended up with what are known as the pier legs, and a very short segment of the bridge truss. I’ve installed the trolley rails, and am planning on building the operator’s cab and trolley-bucket system used to grab the coal from the ship’s holds, and deposit it on the pile or into a waiting railroad car. This is what I have so far, with the two small pieces in front the power trucks that are used to move the bridge crane on rails along the pier, so it can access each of the holds. I’ll likely use hidden dowels in the power trucks to keep everything upright; the proto also has a pair of shear legs to support it – which I don’t have space for.



I’ve seen two photos of it done unsuccessfully, but I may try to show the trolley-bucket dumping into a railcar on a track along one side of the legs. It’s really difficult to convincingly freeze motion on a model - particularly a load of aggregates in freefall.

The military component will be an 88 gun and crew on the opposite side of the pier leg from the railway siding. There isn’t much available in 1:87, and if I wasn’t planning on using a HO gondola with a load of coal, I could easily get away with 1:76 or 1:72 - and likely could anyway if I really wanted to. However, there is almost nothing in these scales available for German WW2 railways – with the exception of armored trains.

hello,
full of beautiful project here. here is my entry, but still no clue on the scene.
steph

Hi Robert, this is a great idea for a campaign. It is kind of like writing a short story: you need to include just enough to tell the story without all of the background on the characters or the setting. I like it! I have not participated in any campaigns since joining the boards here and would like to make this my first. It is not too late for me to sign up is it? I have no idea what topic I could tackle, but will pop down to the local hobby store on the weekend for some inspiration.

Cheers,
Jason

@ Alex Bronze
LOL So I'm not the only one who always proudly shows his wife some of his latest work despite knowing she has absolutely no clue what she is looking at.

@ Alex Bluestab
Even with figure availability you will often not find exactly what you are looking for or the interaction between the figures is just not right. For that main reason I have learned to sculpt my own figures. And believe me I struggled a lot on my first sculpts. But with every sculpt I got better and better. Proportions, details and such is a matter of practice.

@ Tristan
Thanks for the compliments on my tractor.
You are progressing very well on that Flakpanzer. Very clean built and that will look very good when painted up.
Love that figure as well perfect for the time these vehicles were deployed in Russia.

@ Charles
2 projects that will be something to follow. The Whippet dio sounds very interesting looking forward how that will progress. And that 1:87 dio will also look impressive with that big Gantry crane leg.
Thanks by the way for that drawing of the German WW1 recovery vehicle on A7V chassis never knew about that. You learn something new every day.

@ Steph
Great choice. That Miniart Bantam Jeep is a very nice kit you still have a lot of time to think up an idea for the base mate.

@ Jason
First of all you still can join mate. The Challenge is still a long way away from it's deadline so if you want to join then I will welcome you to the Postcard Challenge.
You got it bang on the head. As long as I have been building diorama I have followed a rule that I picked up at some time and never left my head. It could very well be from Shep Paine or Verlinden but at the time I heard that little rule I know I had not had access to their books and I did not actually know who they were and what they exactly did. The rule is: Never use more space then neccesary to tell your story. And that is true. Too much unneccesary detail only distracts from what you want to tell or show.
Looking forward to what you choose and what you decide to fill the postcard with.

As for me I currently only have some boring small paintwork done on the engine and the interior. A few steps left on that and then I can start painting greens. Will shoot some pics of that soon.

With friendly greetz

Robert Blokker

Thanks for getting back to me Robert. I have now enlisted in the campaign and will give some thought towards what I will build over the weekend. Hopefully I can find something interesting in my local hobby store to inspire me.

Speaking of which, for the purposes of this campaign, what is considered to be a vehicle? Will any of the following be acceptable: bicycle, motorcycle, horse, kayak, rowboat/dingy, cart, field kitchen, etc?

@ Jason
Superb the More the merrier. I already welcomed you before but hell I will do it again. Welcome to the postcard Challenge.

As for your question. Some of those things are stretching the term vehicle a bit. Quite a lot of stretching in the case of the horse . Technically the Bicycle, motorcycle and fieldkitchen all are vehicles. The Kayak/Rowboat/Dinghy are in the darkgrey zone at best. Still you can use the floaty things as accessory in the scene that would be perfectly acceptable.

I hope that answers your question and I hope you will find your inspiration in the LHS. I know that used to work for me before every shop around me closed doors.

Robert - Although I agree with the detail part, I don't regarding space. I've never understood "dios" with a vehicle on a minimal landscaped, picture-frame base that is so small that the subject is overhanging the edges of the wood frame. Of course, there is no story being told here, but I find the overly tight arrangement questionable - it kind of negates the whole reason for having a base, and certainly doesn't add anything.

I took the Whippet recovery tank idea to the "What If" campaign, which seems a fitting place for it. Charles