After some further test fitting of the first figure, I've come to a satisfactory placement on the vehicle.
It involved some further surgery - arms sliced off and then repositioned better. The right foot was also sliced, just deep enough to straighten out the bend. Also hollowed out the left side of the torso above the waist belt so the body can be pressed into the antenna railing.
Second figure conversion is also done.
This one went a bit quicker, as the jacket length was good as is. Did have to add some shoulder straps, and the Hornet head needed some filling of an air bubble on the chin. Both figures also had the collar ends chopped a bit to rid of the pointy look to them.
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A dark dirt Flory wash has been applied, followed with a light session of colour modulation.
Next up were decals before proceeding further with weathering.
Finnish markings are not provided with the kit, so cobbled these from Star Decals 35-895 Finnish Tanks in WW2. Don't know the story behind them, but the black sections are more of a dark grey and they didn't look that bad on the sheet.
The turret rear has some serious 'terrain' over which the hakaristi decal would not settle down, even when drenched with copious amounts of micro Sol setting solution.
To solve this problem area, the decal was cut in half horizontally. The top half had a tab like section removed to fit around the vision port, while the bottom half was further cut in half to fit around the three bolts (1.)
The missing sections were then hand painted in (2.)
regards,
Jack