Hi Guys.
Firstly Italeris DUKW, with the tamiya gun mount and hood bows (thanks Roo). The tarps are made with milliput. I will sand this now with rough sandpaper in both directions to add some texture. Didn´t want to play with it too much when it was soft.



Next up is tamiya´s old M3 and M5A1. Bought both for $12. Built them in around 12 hours. OOB, except for plastic sheet to fill in, under the track guards. Added some milliput sandbags for some extra protection.




Next is two sets of figures. DML´s Florian Geyer mounted troops and Tristar´s DAK tank crew. All with hornet heads. The tank crew will be for the bergetiger I built earlier and set in Italy. Would normal DAK uniform colours be worn here? The florian Geyer .. was something different to get over a spell of inactivity.
They are ready for base painting by airbrush, then all will be painted with humbrols and oils.
As usual any critic or comments are more than welcome.

Frank,
Beautiful job on everything! I admire your work. Now, you asked if DAK would be worn in Italy, right? In 1943, yes DAK uniforms would have been the norm. But from late 43 on through, the uniforms would be returned to normal issue (cammo and otherwise.)
Ciao for now
Rob

G'day Frank
The tarps and sandbags are excellent, great work so far, cheers

Frank

The "Master Sandbagger" --- again my compliments on your ability to form sandbags that have the drape/sag/look of the real deal. These added to the M3 and M5 bring the models up to another level. Reminds me of your German dio of a few months back -- great work.

I also got a tip from your pics regarding holding small parts for painting. The little alligator clips holding the weapons is a neat little idea. Thanks.

The Milliput canvas is also well done.

Keep us posted, and thanks for these pics.

Steve
ps: How do you get the realistic little corners on the sandbags--just pull on the putty a bit???

One thing that makes these vehicles is the miliput! I really like the way you used milliput for the tarp. They really look like cloth. And the sandbags looks a lot better than anything I've seen yet.

Thanks very much for your nice comments guys.


There was a thread a few days ago, when somebody asked how to hold figures for painting. This is why I took this picture to show how I do it. Anything solid enough, I drill a hole with a 0.5mm drill bit and pin-vice. Then I shove some 0.7mm piano wire into them to hold. Smaller parts that have one side to be glued, I use a straight pieces of sprue, cemented to them. Its easy to break off the sprue when painted, and clean up with a small chisel knife. Very smalland thin items like the guns and binoculars shown here, I use the aligator clips. Not 100%the best solution as you have to spray twice to coverthe area that is held. I just grab it with another aligator clip, so no handling. As you can see figures are pretty much one piece with the necks drilled out to take hornet heads.


Hopefully this quick sketch explains instead of trying to explain it!

Nice stuff but where is the shermie???

i like the DUKW i like how u put the tamiya mount.
on it do u buy the mount in the duce and a half add on pack.