Awesome! I'll get it up front pronto. See ya in the other thread!

Thanks John, just figured you were busy with Christmas stuff. 

I'd probably go with the third from the bottom or the fourth one down, one with a three-quarter view. 

It was a pleasure, hope No Place is just as fun! 

Good luck with the cattails! Looking forward to seeing you done! 

Gamera, sorry I missed your post! Great work, and yes, the frogs on the surfboards are a nice touch! Which pic do you want for the front? 

Thanks for participating and I'll see you in the No Place Like Home GB. As to my project here, I'm still working....aargh. But I'll keep plugging away. I've got more cattails to make and the tree I'm constructing needs more wire branches. I'm now officially on vacation, though, so maybe I'll finally advance. :)

Thanks Mongoose! It doesn't really compare with your insane SR-71 diorama but I'm happy with it! 

Gamera I'm telling you the frhs on the surfboard really make it! It's all such a natural look, you'd never know it was 3 random items. Superb!

Thanks G! I forgot who suggested that I use fingernail decals but they worked out great. 

Gamera!  The frogs on the surfboard are a nice touch!

Gee whiz- has it been four months!?!?!?! 

Nice work there John, sorry I missed your post- have you gotten anymore done? 

I think I'm done here with the Mazda K360 'Frogmobile'. I ended up fumbling around with the rearview mirror for over a month and then went on vacation/holiday and forgot about her. Well, here she is- I decided to go ahead and finish her up- the rearview mirror still isn't right so I just left it off, not that it's all that noticable. 

Thanks John for running a fantastic GB and looking forward to the 'No Place Like Home' GB coming up!!!! 

A few more updates:

I've got some grass on and have continued wrestling with the cattails....I need SO MANY! Lol

Thank you, Gamera and Mongoose! So glad it turned out...Phew, that scheme took some time. I have some touch-ups and corrections to do; but the bulk of it is done! Yay!

Hey John those came out perfect! What were you worried about lol

Nice!!! 

Looks great John! 

Added the black lines!

Coming together, Gamera! I love the frog-decal surfboards idea! That's great!

Thanks! I forgot who gave me the idea of the nail decals but there's zillions of different ones out there. Look on Ebay- it's some cool stuff. 

Oh too cool! The front of that thing looks just like a frog sticking it's head out of the water  stickers look like a great find and the surfboard will be perfect 

Okay here's my frog trike. I kept meaning to get these shot and posted and kept forgetting about it. A little more clean-up and I'll try to get the final clear coat on. 

I found these cool frog nail decals on Ebay. They had to ship from Australia but got here last weekend. Now I just need to get a good solid coat of gloss white on the surf boards and then add the decals. 

Thank you, Gamera! I've also heard that Sharpies actually have a purplish tint instead of pure black...not that I was gonna care about that really. Mostly I'm just worried about fitting the Sharpie tip into narrow crevices on the tank. 

John: That looks cool! Glad the Silly Putty worked out. I've used a black Sharpie for the black lines but I've heard that you shouldn't. Seems they can bleed but I've never had that issue myself. You're probably better off with the paint. 

Thank you, Mongoose! And, yes, today I picked up some Model Color Black paint, and brand new paint brushes for the job. Looking in my local HL, I additionally found a wonderful surprise....resin mushrooms for 50% off! Yeah, so of course I got those, too.....

John that's gonna be sharp aas you pull it all together! Tree is awesome but those cattails will knock it outta the park. Cool idea with the pine needles. Will look natural.

for thin black lines what i did was cut down a brush to just 3 to 4 bristles. A longer bristle brush works a tad better for holding paint. It takes alot of strokes to do anything but you get good control this way. maybe an 1/8" to 1/4" long stroke at most before the paint runs out. Also clean and wet brush often. I did Snoopy's doghouse using this method. I think it would work for your black lines between colors.

So, I've continued my work on the diorama:

Using ultra-thin copper wire to simulate small branches, I am slowly but surely expanding the frame of my model tree. Much more must yet be done, but I'm off to a decent start.

Then, there's the pond bed. I added stones and a few boulders to the pond...

And what is a pond without cattails? Using pine needles and small rolls of clay, I have engaged in the endeavor to make a small plethora of these water-side reeds to bridge pond and shore. I still have to add green and brown paint to the stalks and seed clusters respectively, of course.

Lastly, and perhaps most notably, I finally bit the bullet and got down to business with the R-35 tank. So, originally, I was gonna try freehand, but for some inexplicable reason, my airbrush would NOT work with the .25mm spray pattern parts which I was wanting to use for it. (I've contacted Paasche to get replacement parts.)

Apparently, silly putty was just meant to be! (Looking at you, Gamera! Lol ) And, though, yes, it took effort and still needs touch-ups, I think it turned out all right! Praise the Lord Jesus!

I used MM Dark Green all over, then started working with the silly putty to add Testors Flat Green, Rustoleum Camouflage Khaki, Testors Flat Rust, and lastly my own mixed concoction to replicate the "Sky" color the directions called for. (I used MM Neutral Gray, Testors Flat Gray, Testors Flat Sky Blue, and Testors Flat Green) Now, I must decide how to add the thin black lines between colors. I had been thinking sharpie; but after what I've done, I'm not sure. There are apparently some places on the tank that it might be hard for a sharpie to reach...at least hard for it to reach without risk that is.

And here's a teaser photo... 

Hmm. I could do that; but I'm not sure what title would work. I'm not actually "Chopping" anyone.....or am I?.... Lol 

With a rename and a second round, we'll find out if we're the crazy ones or not. Either way, I'm cool with crazy! Mwahahaha! 

I would do it again. 2024 is out there a bit so i think like everyone it will depend on what's on the bench at the time. I loved the concept. If i could offer one suggestion it would be to go with a title along the lines of your original explanation related to "Chopped" for plastic models with the cooking show 3 ngrdient theme. It might bring in more modelers. Or itmight just be that this group of us now are the crazy ones on the site?

2024's pretty far out anyway, and one or two projects is enough to tackle at a time! We'll see later on.

Congrats on getting the wheels on! I've always had a distaste for wheels--too round for painting!

And thanks for your advice and well-wishes! I do hope things work out with the camo--especially since it looks like I'll be working on another camo-scheme tank next year, too!

Thanks guys. I need to get the photos of the car/trike thing up. The wheels are on at least. Think I'm about 75% of the way done. It shouldn't be much longer. 

Good luck with the camo John. Silly-Putty works for me but your tank is so small it might not work that well. 

And lemme see on another of these. I want to get this one done first. Then I'll think about more... 

Also, in question, would any of y'all be interested in another Models, Inc. build in 2024? 

Gamera

Looks good to me John! Did you try Silly-Putty? It's the only way I can do French camo. 

I need to get some photos up of my car. The wheels are on and I'm getting close to being done. Mostly working on the surf boards now. 

 

I tried playing with the putty--trying to mask a pattern like the instructions show. It just seemed way hard, but maybe I was trying to follow the instructions too closely for accuracy and making it more difficult for myself? 

I'll be looking for your car pics, too; gotta see what all you've done!   

TheMongoose

Hey John let's use the 1st poc.

Dang that tank is timy. Didn't have a sense for it till i looked at the paint bottles in the background. I bet you need a 20 thousandths needle for that fine work. Looking forward to the dio!

 

I'll get that pic right up! Congrats on the first to finish! 

As to my micro tank...why do I like "flea" tanks when they come back to bite me this way?! Lol