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M48 - Loaded For Bear!

Accessories/Base
To spiff up the kit a little I added some scratch built items. These items included tent rolls, bedrolls and the cargo box on the rear deck.

The rolls were made from Kleenex that was soaked in white glue/water and them rolled into the shape of a bedroll. Once rolled up I tied the ends with thread to make them hold their shape while they dried. After drying the rolls were painted Khaki. I then added strips of 3M-post-it-note painted flat brown to simulate leather straps. The rolls were then give a wash of burnt umber oils to bring out the detail.

The storage box is just something that popped into my head so I gave it a shot. It's made of sheet styrene that was cut to size and sanded after gluing to polish it off. The box was then painted various shades of flat brown and khaki to give the appearance of wood. To simulate individual boards in the box I scribed lines using an x-acto knife and gave it an oil wash. The wash really brings out the scribed lines and makes it look realistic. The box was tied to the rear deck via lifting rings on either fender. I used a gold colored thread to simulate rope and tied the knots using a needle.

I also constructed the tow cable from a small length of electrical wire cut to fit. The right side of the tow cable assembly is tied to the spare track mount to give the sense of a broken mounting bracket.