Now I finally remembered to take some pics of my longest build ever. I got the Academy kit for myself for Christmas a couple of years ago. I almost got the building done when something interesting showed up and I put this back to the box. There it stayed for a year until early this year I found my desk empty, so I dug up the mostly-done model and finished it. I tried some new techniques with it, I did mud splashes with a toothbrush loaded with paint. I tried painting on scratches and did some rain/mud runs on the .50 gun shield. The runs came out a little heavy, but look even more awfull on the pics. The scratches came out a little better, but less would probably be better, especially on the mg shields.
But here are the pics:





How does it look?
Comments & critique welcome, as always.


Edit: sorry for those troublesome thumbnails. I tried imageshack for the first time and I didn't know they work like this. I thought they links work directly.

Nice woork on that M-113.I am using the smae kit for the M-132 A1 flamethrower,as part of the Burn Baby Burn campaign.
Are you using the individual links?
Aren't those sinkholes in them FUN?
I am going to tryout Imageshack too,I like the thumbnail idea in your post.

(++) (++)

Hi Eetu!

Your M113 looks very good, well done! I especially like how you did the mud, looks convincing The only thing that might be done better are those scratches. I think that it should be smaller, therefore more of them, but that is just my 2 cents worth. Overall I think it came out really nice.

Cheers,

Pedro

Oh yes, they truly a joy to fill... :-)
And I filled the sinkholed on all the links, even though I used the side armour plates... (actually I planned not to use the side skirts, but the track lenghts I made came out a little too short, so I used the armour plates to hide that.

Good job!

BTW: You should try www.photobucket.com, it's free, bigger pictures, and the same process.

wow it looks great! What did you use for the mud! Stunning!

I already got an account there, I just tried this one. Bigger picturs? They're thumbnails, click on them to see the full pictures! (I noticed that when I had already posted) Imageshack accepts file sizes up to 1024 kilobytes, that's not the problem.



That's normal acrylic paint. I used an old toothbrush to apply it. Just point it at the model and flick the bristles with your fingers and a splash of "mud" goes on your model. (remember to use disposable gloves, unless you want your fingertips colored)

Eetu,
A fine looking job! On the scratches, maybe you could do a "touch up" paint as they might have done in the field.
You might also be able to take a brush lightly moistened with thinner and work on your rain streaks on the gun shields.
Joe

A good idea. I could use a little different shade of OD, to create variety.
What thinner should I use with those rain streaks? They're made with acrylics. And varnished over, if I don't remember incorrectly. Perhaps I should touch up them too.

I got the same Academy kit too.. Nice looking M113 Eetu. Great job on the mud.

great pics, especially like the m-60 and tc gun shields


reb

Eetu,
Well, with there being a varnish over the color, I'm not sure it would work. You might want to paint over the shields first and redo the streaking.
Whenever I did the streaking, I used mineral spirits. As I said before, jusy slightly moisten the brush and go slow. It usually takes time for the mineral spirits to have an effect on the paint.
If you use acrylics, you might be able to wait until the paint is almost dry or has just dried and use the same thinner as used for the paint and go slowly and gently.
I generally use enamels or laquers, so the mineral spirits takes time to cause the streaking.
I would suggest that you use an old "junker" or some scrap plastic before actually working on the model to see how things are going to work.
Best of luck.
Joe

Thats brilliant work! Have you got any more photos to share out? Im currently hoping to start on my Tamiya M113 and would love to see other peoples creation to get some ideas.