Thanks, ya'll! I truly do appreciate all the kind words.
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MartianGundamModeler, the mantlet is the armored piece where the gun(s) are mounted in the turret on some armored vehicles. The mantlet cover is a piece of flexible material that covers the mantlet, to keep out dust and water. Check out various pix of AFVs; you're bound to see plenty of 'em!
In all the pix of BMP-3s that I saw, the mantlet covers seemed to be made of a heavily rubberized material, rather than canvas or any kind of cloth. The folds were quite thick and rounded, and the texture was smooth.
At first, I tried making a cover using the ol' tissue paper and Elmer's glue method, but the folds were way to "sharp."
Then, I tried Tamiya's 2 part Epoxy Putty, but my sculpting skills are highly undeveloped, and I could not achieve a convincing look.
Tamiya recommends wearing latex gloves (like a surgeon's) when working with the putty, which I did. During one final futile attempt at making the cover with putty, it struck me that the glove material itself would make a perfect cover! I experimented a bit, and came to the conclusion that that was indeed the case. I just cut a rough square from a glove, slapped it onto the mantlet with CA glue, trimmed and tucked and wrinkled it a bit, then poked the necessary gun and searchlight armature holes in it. I was worried that enamel paint may eat the latex, so I brushed on a few coats of Tamiya acrylic German Gray to protect it.
It all worked out fine! A bit more wrinkly would have been nice, but looking at ref pix, it really seems to be a pretty thick, smooth affair.
The Erics: Thanks!
And yes, T-Day draws nearer still!
Can ya'll give me any feedback on the colors I used? The impression I get from seeing modern Russian vehicles is a very drab, dusty, monotone look over the entire vehicle. Trax, wheels, everything, all kind of melded into one light, dusty color, which I tried to do with the Buff. I used four different shades of Dark Green, from straight to very light, in an attempt to add some variation to the all-green scheme.
Even though, to me, armor vehicles tend to be one overall dusty, drab color, constructive criticism (always welcomed!) from my respected modeling senseis conerning this and other models I've done have focused on this point: my models seem too "drab" or "plain." But that's exactly what I'm going for: drab and plain! Which is how I see the actual vehicles.
I'd love to hear everybody's opinions on this subject!
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