I have had a couple of issues to deal with in the build which have put me back a bit, hence the delay in an update. The first was self inflicted and shows one of the draw backs of using oil washes over an enamel paint. I failed to do a proper job when adding the future coat and I completely neglected the rear decks. So when I added the oil wash, the whole deck peeled and had to be stripped and completely re painted. That the second time this has happened, so hopefully i'll learn the lesson this time.
If any of you follow Bill Plunk's build's, much of what follows might look familiar. While doing my armour builds over the last few years, I have been trying different approach's to achieve the results I am after. A few builds ago, I settled on using the same approach as Bill, with a few tweaks. I have found that method to be easy to follow and remember and it does bring great results. I have had to refine things a bit, my last couple of armour builds were more heavily weathered than I had planned. So I have now ditched the over all spray of thinned dark yellow to blend the camo in and used a much thinner over all wash, and the end result is looking to be just what I was after.
I won't go into great detail on the stages as Bill has done it before and does it better than me, but I will say that the main differences are that I do one dry brush before the future coat and oils, and I use oil paints instead of enamels for the wash and dot filtering. My pugments are also a bit heavier and I often add some mud, but keep in mind I am building a dio not a stand alone model.
So, what did I actually get done. After the paint and markings were on, I did one dry brush using MiG oils. This was followed by an over all wash of raw umber, and finally I have the right level of thinner to paint ratio to avoid getting a to heavily weathered finished. This was followed by a dot filter and a pin wash.
The tracks also got some attention with a dry brush of Vallejo steel followed by a raw umber oil wash.
I then moved onto adding some pigments. I used MiG pigments mixed with water and a drop of washing up liquid, the excess is later removed with a stiff
The same was done to the lower hull and road wheels.
With this done, I fitted the wheels and tracks, added the side skirts, which had also received an oil wash and dot filtering, and started fitting the tools.
Now I just need to add the last of the tools, finish and fit the exhausts and touch up some of the tool brackets before the final weathering. This will be some more pigments, a little mud and some streaks and dirt using AK effects fluids.
The other issue I had was with the trees. I needed to bulk them out with branches and twigs to attach the foliage to. My first thought was to use sea moss, but it really didn't take to be glued to the branches. I did try drilling holes into the branches, but keeping in mind these are made of metal wire, that didn't work either, which I realised after breaking one of my brand new drill bits. And even if it did, it was going to take an age to do the whole thing.
I was on the verge of leaving the trees and maybe using them for a future build, but then I stumbled across a build on the IPMS Stockholm site. Funnily enough, it was of a Jagdpanther of the 654th, and the guy had used rubberized horse hair, of which I have quite a bit, and then added the foliage to that. So, I gave that a try. He had clearly added his trees to the base after the main assembly and painting but before adding the horse hair, but I wanted to try one out off the base first, just in case I didn't like it. Of course, mine didn't turn out as good as the ones in the pics, funny how that always happens isn't it, but I do like it, though I think I added a bit to much horse hair. Once its fully secure, I will thin it out a bit and tidy it up, as my other half said, it does look a bit straggly.
For the foliage I have used some herbs and woodland scenic fine turf.
Sorry for the cluttered pic, but this was done in the shed to avoid to much mess in the house and avoid moving it around to much.
Then this morning, this and the two bare trees were added to the base. I had to patch up and spray the large tree again. I did think this morning that if I want to use tile grout in future, it might be worth adding the wire frame to the base and then adding the grout, as most of the damage come from handling and moving it around.
I will be adding the celluclay later today, then while that's drying I can touch up the trees and start adding the horse hair and foliage.
I need to try and get a move on with this as I would like to take the completed dio to the next model club meeting, a week on Tues, so I need to pull my finger out this week.