Bish: Great work on the 251 and the dio. I have to agree that you have a way with armor. Your mud in the tracks is outstanding. Looks like it has been raining or the snow had melted and made a lot of mud.
Axeman: I will use your tip on mud on my nest armor dio. Great information
greentracker: Awesome that your compressor working. Nice start on the wings…
Doug
Thanks Doug,
I hadn’t thought about it, but now that all of the exterior is painted. It looks like a different hue in different light.
Bish Your halftrack looks great. it make me think about pulling mine off the back of the bench. I messed up the axles on mine. So I’m going to have improvise. I think I can used a solid metal axle like in the car models. They won’t be seen anyway.
Eric Great job on the tank. Sorry, I don’t know my tanks; Guess I’ll have to take tank idenfication 101
Ken
Doug, thanks. The setting is Normandy in June, but it was rather wet that June in Normandy. I am aiming for a time frame of late June, just after Kurt Meyer took over the Div, so I am glad the look is coming across.
Ken, thanks. And get it dug out, is that the one for the Hollywood GB. Nice to see the B-24 coming along.
Eric’s tank is a Pz II, if it was an Allied tank, I would have next to no idea.
Bish , I was considering trying to recreate the photo below in a dio; for some reason I had it in my head that the Hellcat was aiming over a wooden fence, but its clearly stone, so it’s a moot point anyway. Thanks though.
That would be a great dio!!
My problem with the mud method is getting some variation in the color. It should be the chalk that adds the color but my exxperience is that it doesn’t always make that much of a difference depending on the dirt I use. My yard is kind of sandy as I live about 1/2 mile from Galveston bay. Today and went down to the bayou and got some dark mud. We’ll see how that does. I had kind of given up on this technique until my brother-in-law asked me why I quit doing it. He thought it was great… i was so-so on it the last two times. We’ll see how I do with it in the next day or two. I;m going with light mud - not swimming in it.
I’ve stalled as long as I can on doing the main camo painting. This German stuff always has a bunch I do freehand whether aircraft or armor. I dread it and look forward to it at the same time. I’m using Tamiya acrylic paints this time instead of the usual vallejo. My family will start showing up for Christmas tomorrow evening.I hope to get the main job done before that happens.I hope to have some pics for you all.
Heavy mud is a tempting technique because it was very common indeed in spring and late fall in basically every front of the ETO - this was a world where paved roads were uncommon and vehicles tore things up regardless. You don’t think of mud and Tunisia or Italy together, but they were. The rasputisa in parts of Russia stopped the war for a few weeks in spring and fall. And I’d guess that NW Europe during November 44 through early March of 45 was full of it on and off. But give the ground a week (or less) to dry and you’re looking at something else. The more I weather tanks, the more I like using pigments and fixer more or less alone for light mud. It takes several layers with differing colors and a lot of attention to the tracks and wheels, but I think you can get good results without plaster, mediums or anything like it. If you want to give a hint of “wet” you can apply a little clear or Pledge in streaks - works great.
I’ve mentioned this source before, but if you haven’t seen one of the Mig Jimenez DVDs on weathering, there’s one complete on YouTube - “AFV acrylic techniques” - 55 minutes long and Mig walks you through a build. This one is designed for people that don’t like solvents and shows that you can weather a vehicle very well with acrylic products alone. You don’t have to employ all of the techniques, but I’ve found many of them very useful. This video also uses fewer of the brand specific products that make some of the other DVDs infomercials. There’s a very nice job of a build-up of dry mud on it. Mig Jimenez could weather a model with color crayons, so there’s no guarantee mortals will get the same results, but it’s good for inspiration. Smaller bits of the other DVDs done by AK and MIG are also on YouTube.
The last time I messed with really wet mud was part of a medical experiment. (One pic from it is above - but the experiment was much longer. Wish I’d taken pictures.) One problem with using stuff like plaster is that it impacts the color of the mud. I found one useful tool here - get some flat school grade acrylic paint from a place like Blick and use it as the mixing medium. If you start with something like flat dark brown, you can alter the color with other paints (black, white, gray, even red) and use the pigments for texture. One thing nice about using pigments on their own is that they’re very color true - although permanent fixing solvent (I think it’s ISP with mineral spirits the temporary fixer) will darken it a little. Anyway, don’t listen to a duffer like me. Check out Mig.
Eric
[:O] WOW! Bish, another amazing build. And as always…super base! I’m just going to send you may builds to make bases for! [;)] Awesome work mate!
Eagle90
Bish, that Halftrack looks amazing! Some really awesome stuff! I know what you mean with the mmud not turning out as you’d like it to. Getting a proper wet mud look is still a mystery for me (gonna have to redo the mud on my winter King Tiger once I figure out something that works for me). I think the mud on the base and 251 look great though, maybe not like wet mud, but certainly like damp earth if you ask me…
Ye, that would be a nice one. You could always adapt it. The distance between the tank and the wall in that photo would leave a big empty space in a dio. If it was me, I would use that as an inspiration for a dio. I would bring the fence/wall closer, so maybe its just under the end of the barrel.
Thanks guys. I think I have the wet look I want now. The future still didn’t work out, after spraying it still have that white look. So I went over it with my normal gloss varnish and its done the trick.
I have now started loading the kit onto the vehicle and the figures are coming along nicely.
I’ve had the interior on my Revellogram P-51/ 2/3 done for the better part of two months, but hadn’t gotten around to finishing it. And while doing the weekend madness GB (another P-51B)I mistakingly finished the cockpit for this guy, and didn’t realize it till I tried to fit it into the Pegasus kit, and no dice. Then I realized I had a whole other cockpit to do! (Might explain me missing the 48 hour deadline by an hour and a half…) Anyways, here she is, all thats left to do before I close her up is install the tail wheel, and maybe do something about blocking off the air intake so one will not be able to see all the way through (I decided to file it open earlier) 
She will have a closed cockpit, so I didn’t super detail it. Although I did take a minute to dust it down progressivly with black, brown, and dark tan pastel powders to dirty it up alittle.
Bish, your half-track dio is looking SUPER neat!! I would love to do a aircraft dio one day, except I have no idea where I would put it when complete.
Nice work on the P-51 aj.
And that’s one reason I build 72nd aircraft. But the dio doesn’t need to be that big, especially for aircraft.
Making good progress, ajd! It’s looking superb.
Getting out of work a half day early has its advantages. I was able to finish up some loose ends, and reach some milestones. In the picture below are the main landing gear for the Mosquito. In the foreground to the left you can see bombs that need some touch-up painting. Now, it’s attach the landing gear, and start the cockpit.
I must say, this Tamyia model is much more detailed than the models I’ve done in the past. But, that’s only making me work harder.
I’m off for a bunch of days, I hope to spend most of those days at the bench.
More to come soon, I hope.
Nice set of wheels, G-J. You’re going places.
ajd, Well, despite how you got there it’s agreat looking cockpit. Good to see you making such excellent progres.
G-J, The landing is really sharp. Very nice work indeed.
May you all have a Joyous and Merry Christmas. My well wishes to you all.
Nice work on the landing gear G-J.
Merry Christmas to you all.
Absolutely the last 1944 picture. I spent most of the last month trying to figure out how to model a water base for Hobson. It is not easy. I have very little space and dios have never been a temptation. Then I stumbled onto some water base tutorials by one of the gurus on Model Warship and figured if I could do one one third as good it might be worth the candle. I’ll do a full build write on in the ship section in the next couple of weeks if anyone’s curious about the details. BTW: I picked the dull green color because it’s been raining in Northern California the last few weeks. So we’ve got low clouds, an ugly rain without huge winds and that sounds like D-Day when Hobson and the other USN DDs earned their supper. Anyway, the Bay looked a lot like this and several D-Day photos I’ve seen have the same look. Not Hawaii.
Merry Christmas one and all.
Eric