My M113A3 is almost finished now. I plan to add some stowage, but not much. Just a couple of Alice packs, some duffle bag etc.. I also need to add antennas. And then I wil apply final weathering with a lot of sand colored pigments.







Pawel

Great job Pawel (as usual ) and inspiring as well...
Did you use Rob's pictures for the front slope add-on armor plates ?

Frenchy

Nice job pawel. I feel like jumping in a cranking her up and taking off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I see all those extra Echalon Decals come in handy!

Yes, they were very useful!




They sure do

Pawel

Looks great. Especially like the camo fade and the old look to the MILES strips.

What lenses did you use?

Paul

You still impress me with the quality of your build and the sense of details. The ramp area is particuliarly excellent as details as concerned.
The look of the Echelon decals is so incredible. I can't wait getting mine for the Abrams.

Congratulations

WOAH!
Ok first of all, great job on the Bucket, this one fantastically painted kit!
but what really got me, was the photography, please tell me, what steps do you take when taking a photo, lighting, background, etc...
cheers mate, well done!

I used 3mm MV lenses. I used clear and black lenses, but had to cover "black" lenses with a couple of layers of Tamiya Smoke paint to give them really black look, as they were too red.




Actually only CIP stencils decals are from recent Echelon M1A1 sheet. All other markings came from Tamiya kit. Tamiya decals have thick film, but with careful application of Solvaset and later coating with Future and matt varnish I managed achieve satisfactory results.




Background is simply a back side of the large cutting matt I use on my workbench. Ligthing is standard desk lamp with regular power saving bulb (not a natural light one). I use Canon EOS Digital Rebel camera with custom white ballance setting, which alows me to compensate for the yellowing effect of the light. The rest is simple photography trick - to achieve very sharp photo you need to achieve large field of depth and to get this you need to close the aperture as much as possible (aperture value settings between 30 and 36). This however means very little light going through lens, so to properly expose a frame, you need to set very long exposure time. Photos above required exposure time of over 10 seconds, and this of course means that stable tripod is required. Last thing to mention is that I set the sharpness setting in a camera to maximum - not recommended for general photography, but great for models.

Pawel

That is looking really impressive - nice one!

One thing, I have never seen before, is the horizontal strips rumming the length of the hull sides. What are they? It's not Velcro is it? Just curious as to their function...Jim

Jim,

Velcro srtips are used to attach MILES gear (http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/miles.htm) to vehicle sides during training.

Pawel

To get something to look like Velcro in 1/35th leaves me very impressed... Jim

Well, my little trick using MIG Acrylic Resin

It was the first model on which I tested this method, so I was not sure how it would look like. Next time I use it I'll take some photos and maybe write a short feature about it.

Pawel

Vondik...great looking M113A3, though I have a question...your miles strips look great, but are you repesenting the glue thats left behind or the strips themselfs? If its the strips they should be painted OD green. Also how did you do the highlighting around the camo pattern? was that just buff or what ever sprayed around the camo?

Only the glue. I noticed that most OIF vehicles had strips removed,with only remains of the glue left.




Yes, exactly - very thinned Tamiya Buff

Pawel

Thanks Pawel for the ideas!

One last thing...what did you use for the Anti laster coating on the optics?

I initially used pieces of thin transparent opalescent confetti painted black on the back side. But it gave me greenish opalescent reflections, not redish one. So I added a layer of airbrushed Tamiya clear red paint. Now the result is still not perfect, but instead of greenish reflections I now get red and gold ones, what looks better.

Pawel

super nice looking 113,very nice job on making the velcro!so you used migs acrylic gel?how did you apply it?do you mind sharing?

A very impressive model as usuak. I am s always most impressed by your paint jobs. In this case your attention to detail is outstanding.

great Bucket

are you going to put it in an OIF dio?

I first put a few thin strips of Tamiya masking tape on the model leaving just the areas, where I wanted Velcro glue effect, uncovered. Then I applied a mixture of MIG resin and a tiny drop of Tamiya acrylic Earth paint (just a little bit of paint, so the mixture is still almost transparent). Next step is a bit tricky. I started tapping the resin mixture with the tip of old stiff brush, but timing is most important here - if you start too early, the resin will self level, but if you start too late you will be removing most of the resin on the brush. But if you choose the right moment you will create a rough surface on the resin. Then I removed masking tape and with a tip of the knife removed small pieces of resin here and there to get chipped effect. This chipping has to be done quickly, as once the resin is completely cured, it will not come off.




One day, maybe... Currently I don't build dios - I hardly have enough display space for models alone.

Pawel