Next stage was the weathering. I more or less did what Steve Zaloga did on his sherman .. first a wash on horizontal surfaces to show settled sand and then got to work with pastels and Mig pigments. Built up the dust look, and when I wasn´t happy with certain areas, I sprayed with flat coat to make it dissapear .... I knew this result would come in handy one day. The result can be seen below. Id call this 95% finished now. I´ll go back over some areas to give them a metal look and small things like the lights etc! Comments and critic are welcome.

I´ve decided to use 2 figures from the Dragon GenII Marines. Both were built OOB, but Hornet heads were used instead of the kit 2-part heads. I´ll be adding some small helmet straps and a rifle sling, before paintng. The first image below is proabably how the final pose will be. The groundwork will be shaped so they conform to the base. Comments, tips and/or critic are welcome.

Very nice work with the weathering Frank and the figures look like they'll add a nice touch to the final display.

HI Bill. Thanks for your continued support. Its all your fault for getting me started with this Blog!! Just sorry I dont have your speed
I have sent you a PM. All the best and thanks..

PM received Frank. If I have to be blamed for something these days, I don't think this is a bad one to have laid at my door!

Gday Frank
She has turned out a real beaut, and the figures compliment her nicely! Gives the impression of some close quarters fighting...
Have to say that the timber on your pioneer tools has turned out exceptionally well, with a bit of subtle woodgrain to boot
Great pics
Cheers
Brad

Frank,

Looks great! I really like your tool stowage straps. Very well done!

Good work Frank and the figures will really set it off. I have the Gen 2 Marines kit myself and I will be going the Hornet route also. that said I think your guy with the flamethrower could pull his neck in a touch

Thanks guys for your kind comments. Much appreciated.

The woodgrain is made by first painting a light buff/sand colour, and then when dry, painting over with an oil mix of burnt umber/burnt sienna. This is almost all brushed off again (about 1 hour later) and then scraped off in straight lines with a pointed toothpick, leaving the woodgrain.

These are the first Gen II figures Ive actually built, and I thought they were easier than the usual Dragon figures. Because the details are so fine, theres no re-scribing needed and the clean-up is minimal. I did put some extra energy into making sure the parts fit properly. Some extra cement was used and parts squeezed together, to fill any gaps. Dry-fitting is a must, and maybe some fine sanding to get a better fit, but no putty was used in the construction of these 2 figures.
The heads are attached at this stage with a little blue-tac in the holes drilled to accomodate the neck, so adjusting them wont be a problem.

Excellent build Frank! Wow, nice!!!

Gary

Hi Frank,
A great build. I like it a lot. specially the straps and the paint job.
Looking forward to the figures

Greets Martin

Thanks very much Gary and Martin for your kind comments!
Much appreciated.

Hejsan Frank!!!

Been looking all over for this blog and finally I found it...

It's truly an amzing piece of work and if I'm allowed I will
use your efforts as inspiration for my next Sherrie that
I put together... Little unsure if those belts for the tools
would work in my scale but I will give it a try

Jolly good work!!!

Sven-Åke

What a great blog Frank,
I've followed it closely and used a few of your painting tips with my own sherman so thank you!
It's really looking good in these final stages and I think the Marines will compliment her beautifully. Keep us posted as I think it's going to make one excellent scene!

James

I haven´t had much modelling time lately so progress has been slow. Rather than update with dribs and drabs, I decided to keep the images until the base was almost complete.
First I made some "logs" with wool wrapped around some dowel. I dampened some red tissue and covered the wool with this to give the appearance of logs.



Then I made the base up with 2mm balsa and a wooden picture frame. This was filled with expanded polystyrene as its light and its also easy to cut to get the shape needed. Some barrels and the logs were planted in this. One barrel was made with aluminium foil and damged. Most of the first wave of shermans fell into damaged fuel dumps or crators from the previous navy bombing. Everything was secured with white glue.





Then the groundwork was made up with wall spackel and white glue. The lines is where the tracks will sit.





The tank and figures were placed now, to make sure everything would fit as planned.





Sand was added to give some texture and fixed with white glue. I sprinkled spackel powder over this while wet, as the sand is too rough and out of scale.



This was then primed with a brown colour.





Now the base is ready for painting. Sorry for the quick explanation .. if anybody has any questions, feel free to ask.

The barrels and logs were painted with humbrol enamels and oil paint. The sand was a mix with more spackel powder, yellow acrylic paint, white glue and sandy coloured pastel. This was painted on quite heavily, further removing some of the courseness of the sand. Some pastels and humbrol were dabbed on for colour variation.





The sherman was then set in place, and mix similar to above was used to fix it in place and also blend it in. This allows the tracks to sit "in" the sand.







Next up is to make some palm leaves from aluminium foil and add them to the base with some other small litter pieces. The figures are primed ready for painting. The base will recieve some varnish also.

The scratched logs look amazing! Too bad yours is well hidden under the Sherman. Thanks for the idea. I might try it one of these days.

For the first time Im going to have a name plate on this base. I found a link to this site today and will be using this method.

Making your own nameplates SBS by Pete Herrera on Timlines.
Great SBS and the finished item look great!

Nice following this.

Theres something wrong with the "nameplate"-link-

cheers

Hi Ralph. Thanks for your comments. The logs were a first time for me, and I didnt want them to be too obvious, as I didnt know how they´d turn out ... but still want them to be present. Part of the problem is with a small base as well ... didnt want to overcrowd it. I think when the palm leaves are added in, they´ll look the part.

Tjena Toke. Thanks for your kind comment .... Ive fixed the link ... should be working OK now.

Glad to see this one is still making progress Frank, excellent work on the logs and such, very convincing ground work.

Hello again .... remember me .... yes its been a while since the last post ... mostly due to work commitments, but my camera died as well. Got a new one, and Im learning how to "walk" again. Anyways, these are the last images taken with the old camera.

No its not what you think ... this is a scale palm tree of some description . I used some plastic sprue as the main branch, and cut some etches in it for texture. Each leaf was cut individually from a foil tray. I scored it a the back to give the ridge and made all the trimming with scissors. Then I glued some lead wire into the score mark to work as a positional branch. This is the unpainted version.






Somebody pointed out that the german jerry can was a no-go, so I strategically placed some thrown tarps. Made with tissue and white glue.




I havent taken any new images yet. The base is finished, and only the guy with the flame thrower needs attaching. I have another project ongoing, so I´ll use that for playing with the camera, and when Im happy with the photo quality, I´ll be posting some completed images.

Love the debris mate. The barrels and foil branch look great.

Cheers Dazzad. First time I attempted foilage with foil, and it worked great. Handling needs to be careful, as edges can be rubbed off and the shiny silver comes through again.
Just noticed the sherman-green in those last photos .... its very blue-green. The real colour is nearer those in the ealerier pictures. My camera died shortly after these were taken, and this is another tell-tale sign it wasn´t well .

Great work Frank the debris looks perfect this will look sweet when the figs are done, very nive indeed.

Ron.