No More Excuses GB....end date extended

Hey Matt, the Flanker is looking mighty fine!  Nice weathering!

A little more progress with the M4A1.  I did two applications of drybrushing with oils to lighten the basecoat in preparation for the dark oil washes.  Because oil paint dries so slowly I have to wait 2-3 days between coats.  Next up is an acrylic flat coat and then the detail washes.  The drybrushing doesn't stand out so much in these photos....I've got to improve my lighting somehow  Anyway, the highlights are much more contrasty in real life, too contrasty, but the dark washes will tone it down...I hope!

Ernest, I have to say it again, thats FANTASTIC! 

How did you get the nice wood look on the tools?

Roy, Scott, Dupes...thanks again for the kind words.  I hope I don't mess up the washes and final weathering.  I'm still a newbie at some of these techniques!

Roy, the wood simulation is relatively easy.  I learned this technique from many articles in the magazines I've read so credit goes to them:

First I paint the handles an acrylic light tan, in this case Vallejo Model Iraqi Sand (or is it Israeli Sand?).  It doesn't really matter as long as it is a light tan or beige color.  Then I darken the mix a little with some brown color and paint in some dark lines to simulate the wood grain.  Not a lot of contrast, just enough to see a difference in the two tones. 

Once dry I use oil paint to simulate even more wood grain:  I put a dab of Burnt Umber and Raw Umber on a piece of cardboard.  This helps absorb most of the linseed oil.  Then I dab my small brush into both paints so that they mix unevenly on the brush, and then paint over the acrylic light tan, completely covering it with the thick oil paint.  I let this dry about ten minutes and use this time to clean the brush.  Then I draw the clean brush over the wood handles removing some of the oil paint.  Clean the brush again and repeat removing a little more paint at a time.  The key is not to go over the handle with oil paint on the brush....you're just removing the paint with the clean brush, but the paint has dried just enough to cause streaking, blotching and staining!  This adds more subtle wood grain to the handle and darkens it just a little. 

Personally I think the handles are still a little light so I'm going to brush on a light coat of Tamiya Clear Orange towards the end.  This should give the handles some extra color depth and hopefully will look a lot more like varnished wood. 

Ernest, from my time with 113s, jeeps, humvees, 2 1/2 & 5 ton trucks and Bradlys you handles look very much like the real thing.  I have taken notes and will give that a try and some builds I have lined up.

Scott, Good to see you here.  How's your builds going?

wyoroy wrote:

graham, I look forward to posting your pictures

Yeah! I'll try to get them up today, but I have a paper to write today, and today only. I wish we could upload from our own computers... Photobucket is a real pain. Again, I do apologize for being gone so long. Now I have to apologize to Luftwoller and his Regina Aeronautica Gb...

Earnst, Matt, some great looking work guys!   I will definitely keep that tool tip in my to try list too.

Graham, looking forward to some pics too.

As for me, I'm still not out of excuses yet so it'll be a little while before I get to myshelf queens.

Ok, one day late. Sorry about that, the paper took longer than expected... (grrr...) Then dad and I watched a Star Trek, next gen so that tooks a while. Anyways, here are the finished pics of the Vdub! (BTW, I think that the first pic is the best, but it's up to you, Wyoroy.)

And now some detail shots...

And for a little fun... Camera blur!

Thus, that's the Vdub!

Now for the B-17...

Some WIP shots

And there I am at that. Now, I also am gonna start on the Ferrari. This is the box.

Interior...

Now, the body that I placed on the chassis.

Now, here is the hold-up. Looks good, you may say. What's wrong? I'll tell you what... ORANGE PEEL! ARRGH! I have to buy a polishing kit and buff this baby out. But aside from that, it looks fine to me. You'll see the peel in these pics.

There you have it, now it's time to hit the bench!

Graham

Graham - Wow the V-dub turned out fantastic Very Impressive. Your hard work and paitence paid off on this. I have to tell you - The sign is one of my favorite features. Gotta love the bullet holes.. 

What manufacture is the B-17 you are building ?  

Well done looking forward to your next completed project. 

Graham, love the VW  You did an outstanding job there.  One question, where's the driver

BTW, what did you get on the paper?

Graham, awesome work on the Vdub!    Nice action scene but now that Roy has pointed it out it is crying out for a driver. 

Love the Fortress too and as for the orange peel as an aircraft guy that does mostly flat finishes that looks mighty shiney and purty to me! 

Yeah, I know about the driver. I call the dio, "Ghost Rider" (Que Jhonny Cash music) Does anyone know by chance where I could get one? Or who makes them so I can order it? The B-17 is a G model I believe, I'll have to check it. The reason it's glossy is because there's no paint! I'm finishing the prep, and hope to get it in the booth soon. The pics on the Ferrari are pretty bad, but the texture is really obvious to the eye. Any other questions?

Graham - I would post a few choice pics of your V-Dub both over in "Auto" and "Dio's" and casually mention you have not been able to find a driver. I bet someone has something hid away they dont need.

Or check ebay -Tamiya use to have a mechanic and driver years ago. 

Coming down the home stretch guys!  Most of the painting and weathering is done on the M4A1, just a few final touches and this shelf queen will finally be crowned.  Still need to do the oil wash on the right side suspension and fix a couple of weathering booboos.  A little highlighting of the spare tracks and some steel highlighting of the tools, paint the tow cable, MG, headlights, taillights, gloss over the vision port, and then she can get a quick dusting before she hits the shelf.

Lovely Sherman!

I did get a little done this weekend, and in typical fashion, I worked on a couple for this GB and one for another......

First, the Merk2. Tracks are painted and first washes on. I went with the Tamiya road wheels with the exception of the first one, in order to get the reinforced wheel at that station. The Acad rubber tires are a little nasty, with a difficult-to-remove seam between the tire and locating ring on the wheel. There's still putty on the first wheel. I still have to do the ball-and-chain RPG screen at the back of the turret. The last wheel on the left will also have most of the tire removed to get a level sit and show the heavy tire wear so common on these things. I also noticed in the pics that I have some very visible mold seems on the tow hooks and idler adjusters........

I will clean up the front of the hull where the missing fenders show irregularities also. Not sure actually if I'll leave the fenders off, either. I have a Tamiya Merk1 for parts, so I may cut the fenders off it and show them mounted but damaged/raised.

Next, the Trump KV got the tracks painted, since I was doing the Merk's tracks and the paint was mixed....

That was pretty much it, hope to have more in a week or so.

Okay since I procastinated long enough for the procastinator GB I think I would like to jump on board.

Trumpeter 1/144 USS Sea Wolf

Dragon 1/35 Panther A

Hasegawa 1/72 Shinden

Trumpeter 1/35 Type 82 Command Post

Italeri 1/35 Leopard 1A4

Heller 1/400 Duquesne

Joe

This is a well-populated GB. Does that say something about us as a group?

Welcome aboard, LeopardMan!