This piece just keeps getting better... Your civilians are a nice touch... Folks trying to return to some level of normalcy after their homeland being occupied always makes for interesting scenes... Where did you get 'em?
Thank you Hammer for taking the time to give me feed back! The farmer and his wife are resin figures... don't know what brand. They are walking away after leaving the soldiers baskets of fresh vegtables and fruit. There's is still a loaf of bread in the woman's basket. I was thinking of substituting it with a German hand grenade she could have stolen while leaving the soldier's food. I'm still thinking about that one. It would be really hard to spot but I'm sure whoever does see will get a laugh,
There are a couple things that I'm curious about/noticed though, and they're really not all that big a deal, just a typical "Hammer-nit" that folks have come to know and hate...
Number 1 & 1A: Are those scratch-built or from a kit? The "wood" paint is exceptional and I'd like to add your technique to my stable of "How-tos" if they're scratched, provided you don't mind me giving it a whirl... Wood-painting has always just eluded me if it isn't really wood, and I'd prefer to use styrene if I can get away with it.
Both the ladder and work table are from a kit and are styrene. I began by painting them flat tan (Tamiya). Once that was dry, I used a heavy red brown wash made with artist oil paints in a small glass jar.
The paint only suspends in its solvent temporarily and will settle to the bottom of the jar after a while. If I want a light wash... I won't shake the bottle and just use it off the top. If I want a heavier mix... as in this case, I mix it well! I dab it on and let it dry for a while.
Once it starts to dry, I go over it with a clean stiff bristle brush, adding "curves" where they seem to go. I'll let it dry a bit more and go over it with the stiff bristles again until it looks "right" to me. Once it's where I want it, I'll seal it with flat dry lacquer. After the lacquer dries, I make knots and slightly discolored areas with a bit of light black wash that I made just like the red brown I mentioned before. I have that type of wash in blue and green as well.
Number 2: Kind of the same thing as the tank tracks... Adding some of the nearby ground color up onto the tires & wheels would help the vehicle "tie-in" to the groundwork ( I do the same thing to the lower parts of boots & shoes as well). No need to paint though... I'd just mix up some pastels of the "local dirt-color" and brush it on 'em... Just enough to, like I said, tie it to the groundwork...
Thanks for this great tip! I'll add it this weekend and you should see it in my next update photos. Thanks!!!
Three (not pictured): Just a little technical detail about the Kubelwagen and you can take it or leave it... The license plate is Luftwaffe (WL XXXXX) and the driver appears to be Heer... If it's an Army (Heer) Kubelwagen, the license would have the "WH" designator (WH xxxxx= Wehrmacht-Heer & WL xxxxx= Wehrmacht Luftwaffe. SS xxxxx is self-explainatory)... That's not to say that, since it is a field paint-shop, the driver might be doing a "Radar O'Reilly" and about to have the vehicle "reassigned", lol...
Good catch! I think I just used the wrong decal! Let me check the decal sheet and if the other decal is available, I'll change it. If not... I'm just going to muddy the current one a bit more! =)
Gonna echo Indy and say that the grass-work is just flat some of the finest I've ever seen, and also say the tree is outstanding.... Is that a scratch-built one? If so, I'd love to read a tute on your tree-making, provided you ever feel like it...
That tree began as a resin trunk, that I wrapped with strands of electrical wire (peeled extension chord) that I later wrapped in toilet paper and white glue. I spread the limb wires until I reached the height I wanted and until I thought it looked like a tree.
The foliage is the foam rubber type sold by one of the major manufactures (sorry... don't remember which one). I glued it into the tree in different size patches and using different tones. I used my airbrush to darken some of the ones closest to the branches. There were still electrical wires to be seen so I sprayed them with aerosol glue and sprinkled a fine herbs mix available in any supermarket for about a buck.
I kept stepping back and looking at the tree, squinting my eyes and adding and subtracting until I thought it looked right. "Only God can make a tree"... absolutely right! I've had to fuss with this one during the entire construction of dio. It falls apart, sags, tilts and does pretty much anything it pleases. I just go through the whole process again! =( Now, it's pretty stable so I guess it's ok.
I added a few tree trunks by the camp fire to make the tree more credible and also added a few 1/35 leaves on the tile roof of the shack, mixed in with a little more of the fine herbs mixture I bought at the supermarket.
The grass is again from a major supplier. However, it looked completely flat when I first installed it. I got it to look more natural by cutting it to different heights with small scissors. In some parts I got rid of most it., so it could fade away into the dirt. Some for or five different colors were air brushed on; darker on the bottom, lighter on the top.
The dirt has been extremely difficult. That calls for many colors and textures. I also used an airbrush to get the colors to blend in. I took a few artistic liberties too. If you look carefully, the tank thread marks on the ground aren't sunken... they are elevated over the ground. Why? Because it think it shows up the effect better and if you check, not one person has commented about it, either here or the guys that have seen it live. =) It's sort of like an old dirt road that has sunken in the middle and it looks like the wheel paths are raised.
I'm awfully sorry I can't be of more help. I started on military subjects about 8 months back and while I make an effort to use the techniques I read about on magazines and have seen on the Web, I usually end up just working on things until they feel "right".