OK: we will call the Tamiya M-8 Greyhound a wrap. I'll do a proper build log for the armor section, but let me tell you briefly what I was trying to do. I'm thinking of maybe February 1945 somewhere close to the Rhine. There were nasty winters during WWII and lots of snow over much of the front - as pictures from the Bulge should make clear. But France has tons of water (rain, snow, streams, marshes - you name it), extremely fertile soil and I'm guessing that when the thaw began that there would have been a lot of mud. You also would probably seen the first bits of new foliage when there was still some snow present. (On May 1 in Minnesota last year there was a cold snap and late snow. A week later the snow was gone and the leaves were blooming - nature in overdrive. Anyone who lives with winters will know what I'm getting at.) US AFVs, like everyone's, were given a coat of whitewash when the snow was there. Looks like it was a field modification - I've seen films of crewmen slopping the stuff on with a big brush. That tells me that the stuff was water based - might even have been applied as often as needed. I'm also guessing that the whitewash would have worn off and unevenly. With sleet and rain that would have created a lot of streaking. My Minnesota car gets very dirty very fast during the thaw and it never leaves paved roads. The M8, although a 6X6, was too heavy to be a good off-roader. Recon units preferred the jeeps for cross country stuff. But Greyhounds would still have often left the roads and found the mud. Also, in 1945 France there would have been hundreds of miles of unpaved roads. I think in the best of conditions AFVs at the front were very untidy - one in the thaw would have been covered with dirt and mud - and you can bet the crew didn't wipe off their boots when getting in and out. I was a little uncertain about the chains on the wheels (courtesy of Verlinden). As I found out the hard way, chains on pavement at highway speed can come off very quickly. But I'd guess it was rare for a M-8 to move over 20mph. (I once talked with one of Patton's tankers at the Bulge and he said that if you were in a combat zone you moved forward in "baby steps." I bet.) Also, if an army moved 40 miles in a day in WWII it was really moving. Between the slow down of the allied advance in September 44 and the dramatic breakout after the Rhine crossings in March 45 fighting was hard and movement slow. As noted earlier in the thread, I wanted the wheels with chains because it was a perfect excuse to dispense with the wheel guards which made the thing look like an old Mercury or Hudson. Also suggests the mud and dirt found in great abundance on both ends of the ETO. The kit comes with a pretty accurate rendition of the very simple interior in the M-8, so I left the hatches open. The interior is dirty too.
Should note that I used a new product: MIG European Wet Mud - Fine Texture. It is on the wheels and on part of the base (on the base it's covered by Woodland Scenics "Realistic Water" which is very good). It's very neat stuff - it's very dense and very dark. It costs $6 and you can make mud for a lot less pretty well. But I was impressed. I'm not using plaster in my mud any more because it's hard to keep the colors right - Golden mediums dry clear and work better. But this stuff looks like mud - it's better than anything I could do. There are several varieties.
So in my terms this model has very heavy weathering. I did several filters and washes with either Vallejo acrylic washes or Iwata Com.Art paints. The whitewash was mostly Com.Art opaque white which comes off very easily. I did some Mike Rinaldi "reverse dry brushing" during the base paint stage (that would be Vallejo Model Air olive drab over Model Color black gray) to start with an uneven finish. I did some chipping - mostly with black gray with a sponge - with Vallejo acrylics. It's not easy to pick out because of the faded whitewash and some serious streaking with AK "streaking grime." In general I don't do a lot of chipping on US vehicles because Detroit knew how to make a tough paint job. Except for the exhaust - which is hard to see - there is no rust. (It may be that Tamiya cast the hull a little thick - judging from some photos the hull was easily dented.)
I used an Academy accessory collection for the stowage - minus the netting left over from my Cromwell project. Next time for sure - think that I could make some good stuff with apoxie sculpt and modeling paste - but this project ate too much time as it was. I threw together a simple base to hopefully give the overall untidiness a little emphasis.
I'd like some honest opinions here. There are many times when my hand lets down what I have in mind's eye. In this case, I made almost exactly what I wanted. So I can't blame my average modeling skills. I hope it worked. More pics below:
