¹⁄35

The Diary of a Winter Diorama

 02/15/04: I did not like the shiny, silvery look of the MM Steel as a base coat on the tow cables, so I decided to change that to Humbrol 92 Matt. Iron Grey.  To my eye this looks more appropriate for the base color of the cables.  I painted the tools and the MG with Humbrol gunmetal using the modified Baker technique and then polished them.  Using MMP pigment Dark Earth (Mud), I mixed the pigments with water and applied to the tracks as well as the figures' boots and coat tails.

 02/16/04:  To make the air recognition flag, I brush painted MM primer grey onto a piece of aluminum foil.  I allowed this to dry for 30 minutes and applied the Archer transfer.  The flag went onto the primed aluminum foil without any problems.   All that remained was to trim the completed flag and decide on its placement on the Tiger.  I next attempted to "assemble" the tracks using the hot screwdriver method.   Neither track worked as they popped loose when I tried to place them over the Tiger's road wheels.   I then used super-glue to connect them and that held the tracks together for the placement on the road wheels.  However, in the process I popped off one of the drive wheels, a rear mudguard and one of the side fenders.   I also lost a good deal of paint off the tracks.  I glued the drive wheel back onto the tank so that it would have plenty of time to cure before attempting to place the tracks on the tank again.   I then spent the rest of the evening working on the tow cables.   I successively applied thinned coats of craft acrylic paint: yellow ochre, burnt umber and black.  I did several coats of each of these, then did a single coat of thinned burnt sienna, and finally applied another coat of the thinned brown and black paints.   I also applied some of the thinned yellow ochre, brown and black paints to the wooden parts on the various pioneer tools on the Tiger.

02/17/04:  I placed the tracks onto the Tiger and repaired the parts that had come off on the 16th.  I then super-glued the tracks down onto the road wheels in an effort to imitate the sag found in German tracks.  Trimmed the air identification flag and wrinkled it a bit more.   For the mud I prepared a mix of sand, water, white glue, static grass and MMP Dark Earth (mud) pigment.   I mixed this up until it was a thick, wet pasty consistency.   I then proceeded to smear it randomly onto the road wheels, the mudguards, fenders, the lower hull and the rear of the tank with a cheap brush.

 02/18/04: Initially, I painted areas of the tracks where large amounts of the paint had come off during the installation of the tracks onto the tank.   I used a mix of Burnt Sienna, bit of Black and Nutmeg Brown (craft paints) to get a good reddish brown color.   I clipped the headphone wires on the tank commander and repainted them a reddish brown.  I inserted the tank commander into the turret and glued him into place.  Lightly weathered the air recognition flag with the track paint.   Using needlework floss I had purchased from Michaels, first dipped it into the brown paint mix and then into a white glue and water mix I hung the log onto the side of the tank.  Determined that the log was too big for the model.  This was confirmed when I posted in progress pictures on Armorama.com.   Cut out the foam board and glued it to the base, which I had previously stained and sealed with polyurethane.