Clint,

The dio looks fantastic! Really a great job on the figures. And, I'm very impressed with how you created the palm trees. Bravo!

Looks very nice.  I have the Vallejo DAK set and it seems like every paint manufacturer fumbles the ball with RAL7008.  I found online (yet to try) a Tamiya mix.  4 parts XF-49 Khaki, 4 Parts XF-60 Dark Yellow and 1 part XF-62 Olive Drab.  I am happy with Vallejos RAL8000.

Wow, she turned out friggin' great!!! Esp love those palm trees! 

So I guess you'll have to do another North Africa or Pacific dio after the 110 so you can use the spare tree? 

I'm glad you did your research and mixed up the uniform colors. As you said they were all over the place due to the sun fading and bleaching. 

Great job overall. Love how the figures came out.

Bill: Thank you and I'm sure yours will come out wonderful. Out of the dozen or so Dragon kits I have built this has been the best fitting one so far. After yours is done make sure to upload pictures of it for us.

Bish: Thank you I hope to get my dio building on the same level as yours one day.

Nicely finished Rambo, great job on the build and nice work on the base and figures. She has come out well.

Wow!  That is an incredible job! You have certainly given me something to shoot for!

Bill

More to report. I got the palm trees done they all got painted with rustoleum tropical leaf, went looking for a green color at Menards and this was on a end display with *new* colors and it does look the part. The trunks was made with miliput then carved with a sewing needle. After they dried I brushed the crumbs off of them. They was then painted a mix of Vallejo cork brown and dark brown.

I only ended up using two of the trees but that leaves me one to use later. While I was at it I went a mocked things up

Wanting to busy things up even more inside the fighting compartment I went looking for what Germans would be smoking doing WWII and printed out some cigar box lids on decal paper

Also got some 1/35th maps and painted up a Walther P38 and some binoculars

Shifting to the base i got the palms set to the base and mixed up some scultamold and put a thin layer down followed by pressing the SPG into to make track marks then covered the base with some fine sand color balace. Then to tie everything togeather I used some MIG gulf sand pigment to make the lower hull and tracks all dusty then brushed off the extra after it was dried. The figures was then attached by drilling small holes in the base and using the wire already in their feet to hold them in with some extra thick CA glue. So other than staining the wood on the base she is finally done!

This has been a very fun (also long) build but now I'm kinda sad shes done next I'm going to clean off my entire bench and rearange some things to kick over into building my Bf 110E for the Ace's on the wrong side of history GB. Thanks for taking the time to look in on this long ride all comments and questions are welcome

Clint,

I sincerely hope so!  To date, he has built the Revell 1/1200 Bismarck, Scharnhorst, KGV, Enterprise, the Monogram M-48 A3, the Monogram PzKpfw IV, Tamiya's Leopard 1, Tamiya Stuart, and  the Tamiya original Panther Ausf. A.  I love watching him work; he is so focused when he does one.  He is 7 years old.

Anyway, I am intensely watching your build here!

Bill

Clint,

My model is mostly intact.  My grandson is my special buddy, and he loves my ship and tank models.  I let him play because of his enthusiasm, but I have to do some repair work after his visits!  I have even built some models with him, such as the old Monogram tank kits and early Tamiya ones as well. He loves it!

I just need replacement headlights and several other minor parts that I can probably get from my spares box.

Again, you are doing a great job!

Bill

Great job on an interesting model!  I love your figures as well!  I had started building one of these models about six months ago, but my autistic grandson likes to play with my tank models, found this work in progress, broke a few things off, and lost several parts. I love him very much, and he means well, but I have to find another Bison II kit to start over.  I will try to emulate your outstanding work!

Bill Morrison

The figures look great! And I tend to do a few extra ones so I can play around with them when done- kinda like a movie director will shoot extra scenes and then leave a few on the cutting room floor. 

The palm tree fronds look awesome too! 

I thought I would be done with this build by now but still got a bit to go. Now that it's warm outside and yard work has started agian plus work and going to the race track most Saturday nights, a friend of mine races a VROA modified, not much bench time left at the end of the week. Also my nieces went with me to a concert up at Ft. Wayne last Thursday night to see Bless the fall, Asking Alexandria and Black Veil Brides awsome show. Anyway onto this SPG and crew.

Got the crew all painted but noticed as I started to paint the buttons and small stuff on the guy with his hat off that he has skulls on his collars but none of the others have any SS markings on them. I'm not even sure if any SS was in North Afrika so as I was thinking how to sand them off I noticed something in my research, these SPGs only had a crew of four so problem solved I just wont use him.

I then started working on the palm trees that I want to put in. I printed some leaves off on paper cut them out then glued them to some 22 gauge wire with mod podge. Then went and cut on the lines on the leaves. I want three trees and am doing 30 leaves per tree so 90 total so far I got 45 cut so slow work.

Thanks for looking all comments are welcome.

Nice work there on the figures and the SPG.

Time for a small update starting with the figures. Normally I would paint each figure one at a time from start to finish but since this isn't a set of resin figures and giving the soft faces I'm doing assembly line style building on them. First was the flesh tone that was made using a mix of vallejo colors (Cork Brown, English Uniform, Burnt Cad. Red and Basic Skin Tone) Each face was given three highlights by adding Sunny Skin Tone to the base mix. Then one shadow color was used by adding more Burnt Cad. Red to the base mix. The shadow color on 1/35 and smaller I just use one color but very very thin and build it up deeper into the shadows and less coats closer to the highlights. Then the uniforms was started. DAK uniforms are all over the place from a olive green color to a very sun bleached olive green, a light sand color and even captured English uniforms. So for two of the guys I wanted to show newer olive green uniforms but not too new. So I used a mix of 50/50 German Fieldgrey WWII and Sunny Skin Tone for a base color. Then one highlight adding in more Sunny Skin Tone and one shadow using a 75/25 mix of German Fieldgrey WWII and Sunny Skin Tone.

This mix looks good enough to please me if anyone knows a better mix for any DAK uniforms please let me know for next time. I'll start on the sun bleached ones tomorrow.

Also some more done on the SPG added some spare road wheels that I've seen in photos also made some tarps and drapped them over the road wheels and the rear jerry cans like in the photo I'm going on. Then it was flat coated using Mr. Hobby Mr. Super Clear Matt u/v cut this stuff always goes on supper easy. 

Thats where things sit right now. Thanks for taking the time to look in. All comments and questions are welcomed.

Bish

base looks nice and an interesting set of figures, don't think i have seen those before. Nice way to hold them as well.

 

I've only seen them boxed with a few cyber hobby kits never by them self.

base looks nice and an interesting set of figures, don't think i have seen those before. Nice way to hold them as well.

Nice work on the figures. You've got the right idea there, they're much easier to work with if you have a base so you don't have to keep handling the figure itself. I've put my fingers into way too much wet paint for that! 

Seems like I'm not getting much bench time anymore plus by next weekend I'll have to get out and get the lawn cut I've put that off as long as the wife will allow. Since last time I've started on the base for the SPG, need to go back and clean up the edges some where the glue expanded from the corners onto the wood.

Also started on the figures, they came out of a cyber hobby boxing of a Panzer III. Tons of flash and very soft on detail but it's been a very long time since I painted a figure anyway so this will be skill workout if anything.

Got them stuck onto RX bottles that my Mother-in-Law saves for me the best part about doing it this way is you have something to hold onto while painting plus a dust cover. After a primer coat of Tamiya fine grey in a spraycan I noticed some places that needed more work so over the next few days I'll work on that then start the painting process.

Thanks for looking in! All comments are welcome.

I have but only Alclad Aqua and only in small areas, but i never had any problem with it on Future. I certainly never thought it would be strong enough to soften platic that much. I am going to try Humbrol thinners for washes as that can be used with oil paints, and hopefully it won't be so harsh.

Ye, i think thats the issue. I use white spirits for oil washes and have even had axel arms come away and the plstic seems to have gone soft, almost melted. I have not tried the ready made AK enamel washes on tracks but from what your saying, they might well have the same problem.