Simply amazing all around--the scratched vehicles, the buildings, the groundwork...

I'm going to go burn all my tools and become a hermit....

Yes! It's coming around nicely!! Darker covering for the roof, but apart from that it's really getting there!!

The rough road will bring some dark colour into the palette! Fine!!

Can't wait to see that "monster" completed!!!

And Nick, what about the dump truck???

Important issues!!

Grand show Sir!! You've done very well so far!

Now don't you spoil it!!

Cheers!

Romain

I love the colors on the buildings!!! Really nice and it sets off your scribing work very well. Excellent job bubba,
J

Mark - no! Don't do it!! Haha - thanks for checking in how can you order models and stuff if you're a hermit!

Mike, Jerry, and....Romain!

Thanks guys - the color has been pretty interesting - I did it wrong the first couple of attempts - I could not get rid of a yellow tint!!! It was not looking right - which, brings me to Mr Romain - eagle eyed Romain....yes! You're right - I didn't think you'd "notice" the roof!! yes - I saw it too - the roof material is a white foam material that I cleverly:

Skipped the camo grey coat...no big deal right? Just the dust over the primer - and voila: a weird color - so, I added the camo grey, then added more dust...uhhhh, yeah, almost....crap! Ok - now, I need to add another coat of dust, because, it's too dark!!

No more paint!!!! I'm going to add a roof to the top of the second two story bldg, to the right of the tower...so, I'll get back to painting when the roof us on.

Then back to weathering. In real life, the color is a bit lighter, and it looks closer to pictures of the real thing. Maybe I'll take it outside for a pic or two this weekend -

Take care guys, and thanks for checking it out
Cheers
Nick

As today is bright sunny day....outside the model and I went:







It turns out, the painting, repainting, patching and so on was worth it - I think the colors are pretty close to the real thing. I might add a final wash of Lifecolor dust2 - I use it on almost everything. It is really more of a warm, off-white than a light brown - and this might need some more white....









While there is a particular "sameness" about the buildings seen in Afghanistan, there are many variations by region - I honestly don't know enough about the country or the architecture to say which is which, but I did feel ok with subtle accents shown here.

The tower building has a couple of wood frame, pitched roofs, while the shorter building gets the more common flat roof. The sloping roof area opened the opportunity for rough hewn rafters and other framing members, which cast nice shadows and some variety. The wood sash on the windows is nice too -.

As the buildings are comparatively simple structures, the variation in texture and few bits and pieces of wood seem to be enough to keep it interesting!!

OK - thanks for checking it out!

Have a great weekend

Nick

Looks great in the sunlight Nick!

—mike

You are a very talented photographer Sir!

Well done m8!! Looks fine!!!

Cheers

Romain

Roller pads are on their way to Nick. I managed to get then all cast & in the mail Saturday after getting them from Shapeways on Wed. I automatically loose a day to the mold making, as the RTV needs 24 hours to cure. on the plus side a 45 min cycle time with the resin helps!!!

Great news then!!!

Can't wait to see them in the flesh!!

Cheers

Romain

Looks even better in the light of day!! Nice.
J

Excellent outside pics, makes this set up look super realistic. Colors are spot in from here!

Cheers, Ski.

To quote that Bud Light commercial entitled "The Swears Jar," ****in' awesome.

The buildings alone knocked me over, not to mention the scratch-built vehicles.

Gentlemen,

brace yourselves for great news!! Matt's pads are "en place"...!!!!!!

Nick will post pictures soon!!!!!!

Cheers

Romain

Yep, I'm sure he will..... Not that I've seen a sneak peek or anything.... LOL

I have..!!!!!!

They look great!!!

Cheers

Romain

Mike, Jerry, Ski, Bill, Romain and Matt - thanks for checking in! This has been a bit of a weird last week or so, I've been fooling around with the site, started building the MATV, and then, last night, Matt's roller "pads" arrived!

Yes -- today, we're on to the Matt show!!

He and I were able to email ideas and info back and forth, then, send some of his high tech cadd 3d printing dimensions, and some of my, low tech as built dimensions, and voila:

more than 280 nuggets!, uhh, err, I mean "pads"! I needed 280, but Matt sent over a few extras - thanks!



the pic above tells the story, lots and lots of nicely cast little "pads" - which, I had the fun time of cutting off the sprue...yeah, good times! - I did one wheel at a time to not go nuts - still, that's 70 of these per wheel...I suppose a bit like cutting track links....





and there they are!!! only 3 hours of awesome fun!

and, now four wheels waiting for paint and weather!!







There you have it! I didn't test the wheels up front - I shot these running out the door to work this AM - and didn't want to rush and break something in the process!!!

thanks for having a look!

cheers
Nick

Yeah!!!! Well worth waiting IMHO!!

Great job Matt and Nick!! Congrats Sirs!!!!

A giant step...oh no, that one is taken!!

Quite a big step forward to success!!!

Cheers

Romain

Whoo-hoo!!! ... I love it!

BTW: Just minutes ago, I stabbed the hell out of my finger ... must have been thinking of you! LOL!

—mike

I am actually so impressed that I don't know what to say.
J

Hi guys -

Romain, thanks! I'm going hold off fooling around with paint until this weekend, and not do a rush job - this has come together pretty well, and I don't want to blow it now!

Mike - ouch!! Seems to be inheirent in our favorite hobby! That and drilling little holes into fingertips with those #76 drill bits!!! At least a few times per build!!

Hi Jerry - a loss of words... Thanks! I know, that you know your way around a build! I just hope you can hold your words when I finally get around to the figures!!

Thanks again Matt for the parts - I think they'll look even better with paint, weather and pigments

Cheers
Nick

They look even better than I was hoping they would... We can be glad for that small accident, that made us look at increasing the size!!!!

I can;t wait to see the rest of progression of this!

Nick,

Very impressive and amazing work! The scratch work is forst class.

I will no go hide my meager attempts at modelling...
Inspiring!

Stefan

Wow!!!

I really must be way too busy, how could I have missed this for so long???

Absolutely, undeniably, incredibly, stupendous work good sir Nick!!!

Took me over an hour to get through the 3 pages here... Just kept going back and forth looking again and again at the stuff you've done so far.

Definitely following more closely now, can't wait for the next update, even if fits a rush on the way to work one!

Beauty way to go hoser!

Dave

I'd expect an update this morning!! Nick sent me a couple preview pics last night after I crashed for the evening.

Hello fellow model builders -

Stefan - thanks for dropping by!

Dave - glad to hear form you hosehead! I guess you must be getting back to bowling season up there in the great white north!

Matt - it is coming together!

I'm making headway on the roller! Sorry about the not-good photos - more on the way out the door to work images! please take a look:











Clearly there is a long way to go, but it's shaping up.

Generally fairly normal painting, except, I can report that I've now experienced the odd Vallejo primer, AK base color not sticking phenomenon? - which is weird - as I use the two together ALL of the time with great results -

hmm....after a bad first coat of the primer, I just let it dry then repainted, same happened with the AK, in the same place on the model - in one place tho, the paint really didn't want to stick - weird....I'm guessing there must have been something on the surface of the styrene...

Anyway, it's behind me now - you can see, so far, only the first steps of weathering, but the wheels are fairly close to being called done. The whole thing needs dirt etc - still a while to go - I am pleased with the roller wheels - in fact, really cant believe they worked!

Ironically I guess now, I didn't want to screw up the painting, so I waited until the weekend to do it...and, while waiting, I decided to get moving on the MATV -

This started with the intent of being a pretty straight forward build, but, nah...forget that! I decided to go for it and use as much of the etch pieces from the sprues as possible - nothing left on the sprue (which if you haven't tried before, is easier said than done!!!)!!! using a combo of the kit etch and eduard exterior and interior...., and while I was at it: make the steering work, wire coil springs, add hoses etc, fab up a tow bar, add a special gunners turret (I know, not used on this vehicle but, I really wanted to build it!)....lots of slow model building!!!

check it out:







and there you have it....

I'll get on painting the roller and getting the MATV done

thanks for checking it out!

Cheers

Nick