Hi,
this is my first vignette with any vehicle in 1:72 scale. The topic of my work in the Char Mitrailleur FT 17 released few month ago by a Polish company First to Fight. They release 1:72 kits related to the Polish Armed Force in September 1939 but also few German vehicles. Anyway, the FT 17 did not change much since 1917 so I decided to put it in the time frames of World War I.

The kit is very simple, consists of about 15 parts. In the basic kit I made few own improvements:
- replaced the handles on the driver hatches
- drilled the exhaust pipe and gun muzzle
- added a hook on the left side (e.g for a line)
- replaced the towing hooks on both sides of the hull
- added few details of the shovel and the pick

I aim to finish the model in a similar cammo to this one:



And here's the current progress in three quick steps.

Looking forward to seeing more; I love the FT17 and the base looks simple but interesting.

Hi Chris,
thanks for your comment. That's what I intend to do: create a cheap and simple base which will be just the background for the vehicle, however creating some kind of climate of situation in which the vehicle is depicted.

This one was no biggie. After few more hours at the workbench it's done for me.

Just one more picture "in progress" with the base colours.



And here's the final effect. Comments and critique welcome.

There are more than 500 views and not a single comment? Is it really so bad or hopeless? It's my first tank in this scale so I was really hoping for some constructive critique or useful feedback.

Sorry, I was drafting up a post but work interrupted. I thought you did a fabulous job overall. I liked the subtle weathering plus the barb wires. What was the process involved in making the groundwork? What materials did you use to achieve that look? I like that it doesn't look like it was painted on but rather natural dried leaves. It looks spot on to me.

Great job on the photography too. The last picture makes it look like it is a larger scale model.

Thanks very much for posting your work.

Is a compliment allowed as well? I really like it. One little nitpick may be that in my opinion, the barbed wire dwarves a bit the already small tank. But on the other hand, it also emphasizes the challenge the tank may have to cross the barrier.

All the colors of the tank and the base fits really well together. Nice small vignette to look at!



Jelger

Many thanks guys for kind comments, much appreciated.

The groundwork is "something" what I really don't know what it is. I suspect some old and eaten by the worms, rotten and later dried wood. I found it in the old electrical box in the basement, it was pouring from the cabels channel. I thought it may be good for the groundwork so I filled some empty jar and here it is. The smallest single pieces look somewhat like the wooden shavings - seen on the tracks for example however I really can't say what it is for sure.

That strange stuff was glued to the base with the simple wood glue, highly diluted with a water and with few drops of Vallejo black and brown acrylic paint. Nothing special.

I used just a bit of highly diluted Vallejo tan or mud brown acrylic sprayed from the distance to imitate the dust on the ground and tank and to unify the general shade and filter for the whole vignette.

The barded wire poles should be about 2m high if you calculate the scale into real size. I was aiming into the 1,8-2m high as I've seen the original poles from WW1 of this size. Of course there were also smaller ones, mixed together with higher ones in few rows. Creating the whole construction would be definitely too big for this vignette so I just simulated a small piece of the whole fence.

Once again thanks for your opinions. If you see anything to improve please don't hesitate to share your point of view.

Looks great, Michal.

To be honest I thought the wires were going to be trees, but I guess barbed wire makes more sense.

Hi Chris,
the barbed wires were thick like forrest so it makes sense as well.