I have redone the mud by stripping it off of the side skirts, repainting the skirts and made new mud. I added the front mud flap made from tissue based on some photos I have. Also removed the rear mdu flaps. I am alot happier with the mud now, though it is not where I initially envisioned (especially after seeing Mike Lands excellent work on the Leo A5 recently). this has been a great learning experience though.

the first pic is a reminder of what the mud was and the rest are as it is now. A few other things to do then hopefully done now, depending on everyones feedback. Thanks again to those who have helped and for any advice comments now.

Sean

nice work!
i knew a brownish mud would look beter!
i love the texture!
Frank

Very nice Leo.
Bulivyf

Looks 500% better, just the thing for any armour model and the mud shield is especially realistic. Guess all the extra effort was worth the time that you spent. Hope to see more of your builds in the future?

John

Hi

Agree with everyones comments re the improvement in the texture of the mud.

The one comment I have would be to muddy the upper horizontal surfaces, esp around the drivers hatch and the turret roof. Given the apparent muddy conditions the vehicle is operating in, the crew certainly would have carried it with them. Not that it should look like the lower surfaces but there should be a lot of "dried" mud.

HTH

Tom

Much, much better Sean! Would it be possible to do the same thing on the rear hull? It doesn't look as "caked" as the sides did but it would look better if it matched the sides now. Regardless, IMHO this is still a very well done Leo, the camo scheme and colors look really good. Thank you once again for the compliments on my 2A5, they are much appreciated!

Best,
Mike

Thanks to everyone. I am a lot happier with it indeed. Just wish I had started out this way, but the next project will be much better for it.

John, I post pictures of my work as fast as I can build them. Unfortunatley, between work, wife, newborn (July) baby and dog, that isn't very fast I do have other work in the feature gallery. Currently I am trying to decide on my next project.

Logan, I agree. I will probably add a touch of dark colored pigment to simulate that, as I don't won't to bring the texture gel that high up.

Mike, I agree about the back. I may add a flap in the back to cover it upas the refernce I have shows this too. Unfortunatley, the canvass mud flap in the back doesn't cover as much so I may have to use a bit of creative freedom here. I started to remove the old mud from the back, front and wheels, but this would have caused alot of breakage in the back as well as the tracks (they indi links and are already breaking). At this point covering up may be the better/easier option. As far as the heavy mud on the wheels, well the tank going through a wheat field may help cover that up a bit.

Sean

Wow, major improvement on an already well done kit. It looks much more realistic. The tip about mud on the hull top is right. We used to track all sorts of mud and dirt on top. It does depend on the crew though. Some were slobs and had muddy interiors as well, others would wear overshoes and take them off before going inside. Most M60 pictures show overshoes in the infantry rail.

Tom