My entry for the TD destroyers campaign is nearly there, some dry rub decals to do, and some small details before it goes in a base. Should be done before the dead line.



Cheers
Henk

Looks very nice,do like the camo,are you going to give it some weathering?

Does look like a nice build so far mate. Is that a sink mark on the back of the left hand schurzen though?

Cheers Karl,

Yes, it will be weathered... I'ts going on ( or rather in ) a base depicting the Russian mud. So most of the bottom half won't be visible, half the skirts will be missing etc. etc. I might be able to get my idea of the StuG fording a small stream (again half submerged) in there somehow.
I'm really getting the hang of my new airbrush now, but I feel I'm going to have to invest in a better compressor soon.. . Better start scoring extra brownie points.. Breakfast in bed for SWMBO tommorow then.. .

Cheers
Henk

Hi Graham,

Ouch, don't you hate people with better eyesight than yourself :-) :-) .
Well spotted, I did miss one or two sink marks. Stil, considering the amount of sink marks the kit contains I think I did reasonably well.. This is one of the £ 9.99 Academy kits where they took the old (ooold) Tamiya molds and just run them as is, including motorisation holes, sinkmarks and some rather overscale dimensions.. :-) . But they are great to play with, some extreme weathering, heavy foilage camouflage, etc. all the things you don't really want to do to a kit that cost you £ 25 plus and festooned with JR barrel, Fruil tracks, Aber update, resin interior etc... You don't want to cover £ 100 + in a thick layer of mud :-) :-) .

Cheers
Henk

Looks good so far! I hope you make the deadline, with a dio base and all!

Looking good Henk. I really like the camo.

Thanks John and Jesper. I did manage to sqeeze some modeling time in last night, and did the decals and most of the preliminairy weathering with the pastels. I'm quite happy with the way the exhaust turned out.



I'm going hunting for a suitable base in a minute, I'm hoping to find something like an old cigar or nick-nack box at the charity shop..

Cheers
Henk

Hi again henk,i think the exhaust turned out very well,its just about the right rusty colour.
by the way theres a piece at the back that has snapped a little just under the jack box,a wee bit of glue should fix it.
take care
cheers karl

I can understand you're quite happy with the exaust. It looks great.

Sweeeeet cammo! Really nice!

What kind of base are you planning?

Martin

Cheers guys, I think I'll tone done the rust color just a touch, as it's just a bit to red/orange for what is a relativly new vehicle on it's way to the front.


Martin ,
I'm hoping to get a small box, like a sigar presentation box or juwelery case, to make a mud dio in which the StuG is sunk to the suspension and struggeling to make progress.

Groeten
Henk

Henk - sorry to point out the sink mark! The whole kit looks fantastic and I like the sound of the dio you're planning.

As for sink marks and so on - I always spot them when I photograph my models; I think they look good to the naked eye, take some pics, and - aagh! How did I miss that?!

Henk, you did great on the Academy kit!

The rust on the exhaust looks realistic but i'm not so sure of the rust on the tracks, it looks 'overdone'. Try to tone the tracks down and we will have a winner!

You've turned a dog of a kit into a very decent composition. The exhaust is quite nice!

I have also found that photographing models brings out all the little errors. You can use pics of primed models to almost "proof" your build.

Danny, cheers and the track has only been given a quick rub with the pastels as I was busy with them. It is part of my weathering technique though, to use many layers of different finishes, a bit like in real life. It leads (sometimes) to that 'lived in' look. No substitute for layers and layers of dirt. In this case you won't see much of the tracks anyway, as the whole thing will be up to the skirts in mud..

Thanks Stuke, I never prime my models, but maybe I'll give it a try.



That's fine Graham, that's why I post here, people will tell you what they see.
BTW, how did you achive that finish on your Ducati?
Enamel or Acrylic? I'm building Tamiya's Plastic Maggot ( aka CX 500 Turbo) and are torn between a flawless shiny finish (as if.. ) or a striped down, mad black rat bike.....The rat bike is soo tempting.. .

Cheers
Henk

The Duke was done with enamels and would you believe a brush! (As opposed to airbrush I mean...) The way it came out was far more down to luck than judgement mind.

I'd be tempted to do the CX500 as a ratbike - can't recall seeing more than one pristine example, and that belonged to one of my teachers at school - we're talking 25 years ago + here. He used to park it inside the school building itself...

Oh yes Henk, definitely do the CX500 as a rat bike! Being a long term Guzzi owner I regard them as another Japanese rip-off of a good idea!! Also in the 80s virtually every dispatch rider had them, so you always saw them very well used!