Hi Mike,

Beautiful work, the figures are excellent, gem of a build.

Cheers

Al

VERY GOOD PAINTING WORK

@ John: Aw... yer makin' me blush, John! Thanks for the props, though.

@ Jerry: That's what I like about the oils - very easy to blend.

Glad you like the driver's tat. It was a total experiment - I've never tried to paint one before. I thought it came out pretty good, and now I wish I had put it on the RTO's left arm where it would be easier to see. Anyways, I'll keep the technique in my kit bag for sometime again in the future.

@ Keith: Thanks, my friend. I hope it looks as good in person at our meeting next week!

@ Alan: Cheers! I'm glad you're still checking in here.

@ Augusto: Thank you, sir! I appreciate the complements.

I've glued the driver and radio operator in permanently, now, as well as permanently attaching the upper front hull and finishing the final few pre-finishing construction tasks.

The No. 19 radio is also installed now, with all of its cables attached. I'm happy that it and the radio operator all fit together according to plans. I glued the RTO's body on to his seat and allowed that to dry. The seat was still not glued into the carrier, though, just dry fit in position.

I then did the final forming and bending of the cables as well as trimming them to their final lengths. I did this with the radio dry fitted in its rack.

I put the RTO body with the attached seat in the carrier and then fished the radio in under his right arm and on top of his right thigh. Once the radio and figure were fit correctly, I attached the wires to the radio face, pushed it down onto its rack and glued it in.

A couple of minor wiggles got the figure into its final position. Next, I attached the headset and microphone wiring to the figure's head and right arm (microphone) and attached the arm and head. After a couple of adjustments, I glued the figure into its location and left it and the radio to dry overnight.

Today, I made the final connection of the headset wiring harness to the gray control box on the wall. I needed to make a couple of touch-ups with the paint, and then gave the glue spots on the figure and radio mounts a shot of Testors Dull Coat.







Here are a couple of pictures of the radio to show the details on its face and the final wiring.





Finally, while I had him sitting there, I took one more of the driver glued in his permanent position with the hull front glued on.



I had a little more time, so I finished up the upper hull front construction details, mostly the headlights. These are pretty neat, and Riich does a good job of replicating the prototype's little coil spring "shock isolators." These are very delicate, though, and clean-up was a bit tedious. I added the wiring to the headlights and horn from fine twisted copper wire, annealed with my soldering torch. The armored wiring conduit covers on the upper hull were drilled out to accept the wiring before I assembled it.







You can see the excess wiring sticking out of the headlight faces. I'll trim that away after the headlights dry and before I add the lenses. It's just easier when possible to make these kinds of details a little large for ease of handling, glue them in place, then trim to size later.

So, that's all for this up-date.

One more picture, though of the RTO and driver.



This is the fun part of the build, seeing the figures and vehicle coming to life. I can imagine the scene in my head: The carrier's driving downhill along a precipitous slope with a sharp curve ahead and the radio operator wants to lean forward and slap the driver's head: "Hey! Two hands on the steering wheel, moron!"

Happy modeling!

I luv it Mike.. A small retaining wall would look nice and add some Italian style interest

Keith.

Mike,

Where's the arm hair? You've got most everything else.


Seriously, this "Out-of-the-Box" build is OUTSTANDING! I really like the idea of the drop off, since this could add some vertical content to your scene and really make it interesting.

Excellent.. What else to say!!

outstanding mike can't wait to see this next week one think in the head on shot is it me or is the right track a bit off ????
dave

@ Keith: I hope to be able to add a lot of the flavor of the southern Italian terrain with the base. We'll see how it comes out, tho...

@ Jeff: The terrain where the 4PLDG operated in Sep '43 was very hilly and mountainous with a dry, Mediterranean climate and lots of exposed limestone. I'm going to attempt to do a short section of roadway on a hillside cut with stone retaining walls on both sides.

@ Richard: Thank you, sir!

@ Dave: I'm not sure, amigo... It could be the camera angle, but then again, the tracks are still loose and the wheels movable, so it could be a couple of small things out of whack.

So, a little up-date.

I've added the markings and finished the exterior camouflage.

I'm building this carrier as an un-photographed vehicle of B Squadron, 4th Canadian Reconnaissance Regiment (Princess Louise's IV Dragoon Guards), 1st Canadian Infantry Division as it might have appeared in September, 1943 in southern Italy. I'm basing my carrier's markings on a photograph of a C Squadron, 4PLDG carrier on page 157, "The Royal Canadian Armoured Corps," by Marteinson and McNorgan.

(Barry Beldam also has a color plate of this C Squadron carrier on his Armoured Acorn website.)

For the camouflage, I'm using several references, and my carrier is a bit of a composite. My intention is to depict a carrier that had been issued and placed in service while the CAN 1 ID was in the UK with the theater directed "Mud" colored-paint cammo applied in Sicily over the original dark green G3 (as the disruptor color) and markings. To replicate this, I've hand-brushed the mud-color over the green after I applied the markings, carefully painting around the markings, as necessary to follow the official cammo pattern.

The theater regulation called for black, but also allowed the use of the dark green as the disruptor color.

I've only applied the mud to the exterior, although the pattern did specify pattern painting the interior, as well. I've used the clearly documented shortage of paint and the lack of time that the Canadian 1st Infantry Division had to prepare its vehicles. (The Can. 5th Armoured BDE, on the other hand, was given time and materials in the UK to camouflage and waterproof their tanks.)

At any rate, I believe that what I have here is within the limits of the theater camouflage orders for this time period and the markings are as correct as my references go.









The markings are a mix of the Riich kit (formation signs and modified census numbers), Bronco decals left over from their Staghound Mk 1 (AOS/unit signs and B squadron white square), Verlinden Dry Transfers, sheet #348 (red-white-red recognition flashes), and Woodland Scenics dry transfers DT-507 RR Gothic White (tactical numbers and "HQ").

All of the Verlinden and Woodland Scenics dry transfers were applied to clear water-slide decal paper and applied as water-slide. All of the other decals were normal water-slide.

My first step was to airbrush the black background areas for the squadron sign and the tactical numbers. These areas were then reverse-masked, I airbrushed the exterior dark green G3 using the same mixes and methods as explained for the interior painting. I then removed the reverse masks leaving the black background squares for the later markings.

Next I hand-brushed white on the exterior starter crank fixture (center front lower hull) and the tactical number on the black out headlight.

I sprayed Future floor wax straight from the bottle on all of the decal locations and allowed this to dry for about 4 hours. All of the markings were then applied, as mentioned, as normal water-slide. I then set the carrier aside for the markings and Future to dry overnight.

The next day, I sprayed another layer of Future over all of the markings to seal them and blend the edges of the decal film. This was allowed to dry for 24 hours.

After drying, the glossy areas were shot with Testors Dull Coat reduced for airbrushing 1:1 with ordinary lacquer thinners. I let the Dull Coat dry for about 2 hours and then hand-brushed on the camouflage mud-color.

The mud-color was mixed using Mike Starmer's Vallejo formula of 70.988 Khaki with white. I used a 3:1 khaki:white ratio to lighten up the camouflage for scale lighting.

I applied three very thin coats of the mud-color, allowing each coat to dry before applying the next.

Next up will be to disassemble the tracks and drive sprockets and begin the weathering of the lower hull and tracks.

Happy modeling!

Coming along nicely Sort of like watching a neice or nephew growing up.
J

I’m truly speechless! Out standing work Mike!

I was a bit busy yesterday so I didn't get chance to log in and see this update...

Really first class Mike and impressive to say the least....

Thank's for sharing the decal solutions (pain in my rear)...

See you this evening at the meeeting.

Keith.

@ Jerry: LOL! From my perspective, more like a problem child!

@ John: Thank you! BTW: I got a chance to see your parkerizing article in the latest "Scale Model Addict." Very nice!

@ Keith: Hey, we had a very nice crowd at the meeting last night! We're gonna have to get some more chairs!

I've taken a little break from painting on the carrier and done the basic construction on the base.

The contours and major elevations were created using a "layer cake" technique and sheets of Styrofoam. I glue these together with a hot glue gun which makes the work go very fast. Most of the edges of the layers are visible as black lines on the terrain module.

In the photos, the engine data plate and the vignette title plate are mocked up using rectangles of black construction paper. Right now, I'm planning on having these engraved in silver on black, so the black plates will create very strong visual elements. This being the case, I've mocked them up on this test of the composition to make sure they're going to work for me. Having done this mock up now, I'll certainly make the vignette name plate smaller than shown here since its size is too strong visually. But, you have to try these sorts of things out to see.

Usually, I paint the edges of the terrain with a dark, charcoal gray, but because I have the engine compartment cover displayed separately, I don't want to surround it with more black than the underlying data plate. So, for this build I'm considering using a faux stone texture paint on the edges of the terrain "module." Hopefully a lighter color used for this won't overpower the modeled elements and will still remain somewhat neutral. Also, a lighter color won't compete with the black engraved plates and allow them to stand out from the background.











(I know the white on white photos don't show up too well... sorry about that.)

My plan for constructing the terrain is to apply plaster to the edges and get them smooth. I'll then add plaster to the retaining walls and engrave the stone joints on them. I'll follow this with plaster for the ground contours and exposed stone. I'll then texture the roadway. I'll use Celluclay for the few exposed earth areas, paint and apply the foliage (mostly dry grasses and cactus).

Still, lot's more work to do on finishing and painting the carrier, too, but this is where I'm at now.

Happy modeling!

Thanks Mike!

Now that I’ve had a chance to gather my thoughts, I really dig the effort you went into gathering the markings from all the various sources.

Not only is this an outstanding model, but the base looks like it’s well under way to be a masterpiece in it’s self!

Mike, it was nice to see so many show up Wednesday evening, even with the cold temps.

I like your idea of texturing the outside of your Styrofoam terrain module... I think I may have seen something like this on one of our contestants 'Vignette's' at our Sumter show! and it looked quite effective..

Looking forward to seeing more as you move on..

Keith.

Nice groundwork design for sure. Ah yes...good old plaster.
J

I'm deep down in my build. I love every part of it. I got a little "kit bashing" to do on mine. I don't know if it will be as good as yours. But still, it is an awesome build. Keep up the good work. And keep us posted.

Cheers,
Tom

@ John: Thanks, again, and good luck with your Scale Model Addict articles. I'll be looking forward to seeing more from you in the future!

@Keith: Definitely a good meeting, and I'm looking forward to the December Christmas bash!

@ Jerry: Thanks for the tips on plaster carving on your "Aber zack, zack Junge!" dio. It was fun and something that I'll be using again in the future. I think sometimes that half the battle is simply knowing that something can be done.

@ Tom: I appreciate you still checking in on this build, Tom. You'll have to start a build blog on your carrier and post up some pics. I've seen several of these Riich carriers started and partially built in reviews, but I haven't seen any finished so far. We may be the only ones!

"Damn it, Jim! I'm a model-builder, not a stone mason!"*

Well, after a few days of plaster carving, you can see my results below. I was actually surprised that it was fairly easy to do, and with practice, I actually got into a little rhythm and learned a lot.

I used two different kinds of plaster. Ordinary hardware store DAP brand and Woodland Scenics "Mold-a-Scene" plaster. I've been using both for my bases for a number of years and had containers of both on-hand. The "Mold-a-Scene" plaster has some sort of aggregate pre-mixed in it that creates a rough texture, and that's what I used on the exposed rock and culvert. For all the rest, I used the DAP plaster.

I did fairly small areas based on the working time of the plaster. This meant mixing up a lot of small batches, but after a while, this got to be very routine.

For the carving, I used a round toothpick, a #28 dental pick, and an X-acto knife. Nothing special or exotic. I generally roughed in the stone pattern with the toothpick, as the plaster set, I refined it with the dental pick, and as the plaster was getting harder, I used the X-acto knife.

For any areas where I was applying fresh plaster over already set plaster, I used a small spray bottle to pre-wet the old plaster. I applied water until it stopped soaking in, and then spread the new plaster.

Anyways, here're the results-













So, everything you see in these photos is just plaster over the earlier shown Styrofoam (except for the plastic pipe culvert).

I had some idea that I would cast the stone wall cap in place, but as I tried to figure out how to make the forms, it was just too time consuming. So, plan B - I made a simple open mold and cast the cap stones using it. I simply trowled the plaster in the mold, scraped the top off, and when the plaster started to set, used a straight edge and knife to cut the individual stones. Because the cap stones were so thin, I allowed these to set for a couple of hours before de-molding. I cleaned them up with a sanding block and glued them to the tops of the stone walls with Walther's "Goo" (a contact cement).



This was crazy simple and is definitely another technique that I'll use again.

I still have a little hand sanding on the sides to remove a few trowel marks. I'll then paint the bottom (black craft acrylic paint) and sides (still considering the faux stone spray paint...).

After that, I'll pre-paint what I have done now, and then add a few areas of Celluclay and loose rocks and stones. As mentioned earlier, the vegetation will mostly be dry grasses and cactus.

Happy modeling!

* Apologies to Gene Roddenberry and "Star Trek"!

Very nice layout of the base and thanks for your insights into your techniques. Much appreciated.

Go ahead with this spectecular build!
Good luck and success!
Michael

Ah, once again your artistic and creative side comes to the fore Mike. Nicely done sir... Choose you catctus wisely, lest a smart @$$ judge whip out his audubon plant book for accuracy reasons...

Looking forward to seeing this at a later date (meeting)..

Keep the updates coming.

Keith.

You have done well grass hopper!!
You mastered the plaster stuff right quick but what makes it nice to see is the planning and design of your base,which is superb. You have created a boatload of interest just using various angles and positions and elevations in the base work. The stonework looks logical as well so maybe you were paying attention during engineer cross-training?
J

The best Bren Carrier build I ever saw. The crew is very convincing. Its a shame that most of the engine and interiour is hiden. Im looking forward to the next pictures.

@ Michael: Thanks for checking in. Hope you continue to find the build interesting.

@ Keith: Oh great... now I need a bookshelf full of horticultural references!

@ Jerry: All I can remember from my engineer cross-training is that "P" stands for "Plenty"!

@ Naseby: Hopefully the engine and interior will show well enough in person, although they're both a bit difficult to photograph. Thanks for checking-in, too. Stay tuned...

So, over the last few days, I've painted the terrain module and added the vegetation. I've also finished the decorative plaque and will be ready now to mount the terrain to the plaque at any convenient time.

For painting the terrain, I used a series of stains or washes made up from various inexpensive craft acrylic paints. These are the ones that you can find by the great-whopping big rack-fulls in most big craft stores. I find that these are a good value and are easy to work with. They also come in a huge number of colors, and I've been able to easily find matches for most of the model colors that I use for weathering.

I thin these craft paints out with ordinary tap water and add a few drops of acrylic flow enhancer. The first few coats are very thin and soak right into the plaster acting like stains rather than paint. However, after the first coats dry, subsequent coats can be manipulated like any other acrylic wash. I layered the various colors over each other allowing the natural white of the plaster to create the highlights through the colors.

I used Celluclay tinted with the same types of craft paints for the various areas of soil and earth between the exposed rock and stone. Over some of the Celluclay, I added a little bit of sand and some small stones, but I kept this to a minimum since I already had lots of exposed rock and stone. These texture materials were glued in place with Woodland Scenics Scenic Cement.

Once the Celluclay was fairly dry, I added the vegetation starting with a mix of Woodland Scenics "Burnt Grass" and "Dry Grass" fine texture ground foams. I daubed straight white glue (PVA) onto the earth areas and sprinkled the ground foam onto that. I turned the terrain up-side down and allowed the excess to fall away onto newspaper to recover it.

On top of the fine ground foam, I added a mix of Noch and Woodland Scenics static grass. This was mixed to achieve a semi-dry grass look with some green but mostly brown static grass. I used tweezers to put the static grass only on the ground foam / earth areas and fixed it in place with Woodland Scenics Scenic Cement applied with an eyedropper (medicine dropper).

While this was still wet, I stuck down clumps of various long grasses from Fredericus Rex (Green Line), Noch, and Mini-Nature. I added a few long bits of grass from some old Hudson & Allen long grass (dyed fur) material. The prickly pear cactus came from Pegasus Hobbies.

I also used various artist dry pigments mixed up to match the soil and rock tones that I wanted. These pigments were applied at different times depending on how I felt things looked at the moment.

The alternating white-black cap stones were painted with more craft paints. These were based on various references of black-white safety markings painted on roadways for the blackout (and presumably because it just made seeing the edges of the roadway easier both day and night).

After some thought, I decided not to use the aerosol faux stone texture paints on the sides and just went with my usual finishing method - craft paint over smooth plaster. This is quick and easy, doesn't require any masking (I brush paint it), and allows for easy touch ups when I inevitably get a drop or two of the ground colors running down the sides.











After all the glues and paints had dried, I over sprayed the terrain with Testors Dull Coat and then added a little Future floor wax in the bottom of the culvert pipe to give it a damp look.

The decorative wooden base is a pre-cut plaque from Hobby Lobby. (I actually used the top measurements for the dimensions of the terrain module so that would fit later.) I lightly sanded the plaque and stained it. I allowed the stain to dry over night, then gave it another light sanding followed by light coat of rattle-can gloss clear lacquer. Over the next few days, I sanded and then buffed the plaque with 4x0 steel wool between additional coats of lacquer. This sounds like a lot of work, but I probably didn't spend more than 10 minutes a day on it - all total less than an hour's work.

I applied white glue (PVA) to the bottom of the plaque, and then glued it to a piece of black felt. After allowing the glue to dry, I trimmed the excess felt off with scissors - all done.



When I'm ready, I'll use two-part epoxy mixed directly on the top of the wooden plaque to glue the terrain module to it. A couple of "blobs" of glue is all that's needed.

And, before I close this up-date, here's a final shot of the major components dry-fitted together - the carrier, the terrain module, and the wooden plaque. I'm still using my paper mock-up of the engine data plate, but when finished, it and the title plate will be engraved.



Happy modeling!

Ola Mike

I have been following this built in the background as Allied vehicles are not really my cup of tea... Allthough I have to say that this is a really neat kit and you definately made it even better with all the details and the painting but I have to say I love that base. It is some fantastic work. The only little nitpick I have. And I am aware that is purely a personal thing and that is that the sides of the base which are very well finished distract from the groundwork because it has pretty much the same color. If you paint it black you can really make the scene pop because it is a total opposite of the beautiful bright colors of the road and the mountainside. I have been so rude to have pulled your last picture through Photoshop to show the difference.


Again it is a personal thing and no matter what you decide it is still great work.

@ Robert:

Thanks for your comments and observation.

I appreciate exactly the point you're trying to make.

My normal finishing style is just what you have described. In fact, up above in my post "Thursday, November 14, 2013 - 09:15 AM GMT," I mention that I usually use a dark charcoal gray (almost black) on the sides of my bases.

Here're a couple of examples of some of my other models that show this:



This is a style that I like for the precise reasons that you mention - The black sets off the model by isolating it from the surroundings without competing with it visually.

With this particular base, though, I have been struggling with the appearance of the corner where I'm displaying the engine compartment cover and data plate. My concern was that if I painted that convex (inside) corner in my usual charcoal gray, then the dark green engine compartment cover would be very hard to see, sort of buried down in a literal black hole. If I left that convex corner in the tan color, but then painted the other sides in charcoal gray, I would have a visual inconsistency where some of the cut-off sides are charcoal and some are tan.

This potential inconsistency (two different colors on the cut-out sides) is, at least to me, unacceptable. The viewer thinks (perhaps not even consciously), "Why is this cut-off side this color, but the other sides are a different color?"

So the options were to paint all of the cut-out sides charcoal or paint them all some other color. The tanish color I have right now is a bit of a compromise, and it actually does contrast more with the terrain than it appears to do so in the photos.

I still have the engraved data and title plates to add, and my plan (right now) is to do these engraved in silver on black. This is to emphasize the technical engine data and give the viewer an intuitive clue about what he's looking at. I think that the matching title plate, which will be on the right side (as viewed) will give the large "blank" area on the front of the base some visual interest without over powering the subject, the universal carrier.

At any rate, the side color has been a great internal debate ever since I finalized my composition. Nothing is locked in stone at this time, and I'm still considering the options, but I'm favoring the compromise color (tan).

I do appreciate your observation and thoughts - I've been struggling with the same ideas myself.

Happy modeling,

@ Mike

Good to know we are on the same wavelength. I could not imagine there was not some thought behind the sides of the base in tan. That said I'm looking forward to the engraved plate. That should finish it off nicely.

With friendly greetz

Robert

PS: sent you a PM