Here's a WIP. It's a Dragon T34/76 that will be painted as a Ukranian unit, with Preisler tank riders, entering Poland in Summer 1944. I have 6 riders on the tank with blue tack now and I have another 6 I could possibly squeeze on. I think I will only add one or or two more on the port side with another one or two on the rear. Then I'll be painting for a while . . .

Thoughts and constructive criticism are certainly welcome! Thanks for looking.

I forgot to mention, it's 1/72 scale.

nice work!
good tree!

Apple tree?

looks pretty solid to me. Better get a 00000000 brush and a magnifying glass!

Hmmmmm. Whanna know what will look really cool? a knocked out AFV on the side......

just a thought.

Yes, it's an apple tree.

Not sure I have room on this one for another vehicle, and I've not done a knocked out tank before, I'm not ready for that yet!

I put 3 more riders together last night for a total of 9. I just primed the tank blank and am about to shoot with some Tamiya Dark Green.

looking good. How about a few , one or two advanced guard all ready at the apple tree. I thought when Russian tanks moved forward, didn't they send troops forward to scout, look out, recon, attract fire, expose the enemy in the area before they moved forward. Much easy're to loose a few men than armour? Wasn't that always the Russian way? If they had spare armour, didn't they send out "Forced Recon" I think that is what they called it. No way back for the poor sods(Forced Recon) They would send out an advanced unit to pick up the Germans fire, exposing they're positions. Not nice! But when Soviet tankers or troops were told " you comrade are going on a forced recon" deep down the troops knew they were on "a one way ticket" Just a thought, lovely dio, think the ground work is spot on. Cheers for posting Geraint

Thanks. That's not a bad idea. But, the only figures I have that will fit by the apple tree would be seated, and that sort of ruins the urgency of the vignette. I'm not sure what the penalty would be for forced recon to stop for an apple or two-- long enough for the armor to catch up to them . . . . Also, I don't think the apples ought to be ripe yet--as I wanted this to be summer--before the "liberation" which I believe was in August . There may be apples ripe in July, I've no clue, but I always assumed it wasn't until September that one could eat one straight off the tree. Just thinking out loud. In researching the proper tree for Poland, I found some literature on the ancient Silesian (part of Poland) belief that falling asleep beneath an apple tree induced dreams--I think it was even called a "dream tree." I suspect I could put a fellow under there taking a snooze and entitle it "Siberian Nightmare" as I suspect that's where the fellow would find himself.

Looks really good so far!

Maybe if you have some spare parts, you could add a half-buried turret or other German equipment, a body, or have some of the figures by the tree loading up on produce.

I'll be watching this one, Greg

i dunno, i think it looks fine without a wreck, i not quite sure every sq inch of countryside in europe has a broken tank on it,:D
just my tuppence

Ok, I got the tank painted. I had a hard time trying to get an appropriate color green. I thought the tamiya dark green was too grey, the tamiya olive drab was too olive, so I went with a mix of those with some tamiya green and that seemed about right, but ended up too dark. So I added some buff and shot it again, then filtered it with yellow ochre oils, but i still think it's too dark, but it looks "russian" enough for me. It has a few burnt umber washes around details for some weathering. Once I have the figures done, I'll use some chalks and pigments to dust it up and that ought to lighten it a bit more.

So, 9 tiny guys to go . . .

real nice paint job, but it does look way to dark for the scale

Agreed--any ideas on how best to go about lightening it up at this juncture? I could try dry-brushing a lighter shade of the base in the center of each panel or something of that nature? I don't like working with the airbrush once I have the model fixed to the diorama . . .

Of course, the figures are the main focal point, or ought to be, and perhaps a dark tank makes a better back drop--I'm searching for good excuses for "artistic license" so I'm also accepting those in lieu of ideas on how to fix the paint at this point . . .

see how the figs look when they are all done up

OK, I've added another weathering filter with yellow ochre to get a little lighter color variation and to add some lighter, older dusty dirt before I use the chalks and pigments.

I think I was not properly lighting the earlier photos as they tank was coming out even darker than it appears to my eyes. So, I have one figure done and mounted now and have experiemented with lighting. This one I think shows the actual color better:



And this photo shows the additional weathering better. I think this is as light as the underlying paint is going to be unfortunately.

looks good from this end

And here it is finished:

hi Ed,great dio for a small scale! were those figures from dragon?

No, the figures are Prieser.

Ed great little Dio, for an excusse for the slightly dark green. The tank could be wet from a sudden summer rain storm.Maybe a few puddels? Just a thought. I really like it the way it is, the figures look great. Cheers Geraint

Hello Ed, that's a good looking dio you got there ! Nice, clean & not 2 crowded. Grtz Ed