Its been quiet on the Western front, almost too quiet. But we have been able to progress on the big cat.
For once things are looking up. So far I haven’t gone and done something to completely ruin a perfectly good kit, but don’t worry, there’s still plenty of time to live up to my reputation.
To progress on the whole I needed to get the interiour of the turret done. I started by sitting at my desk sulking with my face in my hands crying. When I snapped out if it, I tastefully decorated the interiour with ‘Ammocans by Chris ™’, then waved my airbrush manacingly at it. I shamefully coated everything with tamiya’s German grey. I have no regrets. Once that stopped evaporating solvents, I added a little salt here and there. No pepper. Once that had set I accosted the turret with some Tamiya flat white. I am not sorry. After that appeared dry, I rubbed off the salt and admired my handywork. I then painted the various bit 'n bobs ™ dotted around the turret with Tamiya field grey, (which looks oddly green to me, but hey, what do I know?) and some flat black where applicable. Once that was done doing the drying boogie, I gave it a black oil wash and drybrushed with titanium white oil on the black bits and deep naples yellow oil on the green (sod it, its green to me, no matter what anyone says…). The oil gave me a much nicer drybrush than any acryllic or enamel ever could have. I still have no regrets. The rust was next. I have no idea whether it rusts or not in there, but I can imagine it can get pretty damp and moist in there, so I dotted tiny amounts of burnt sienna oils on various exposed grey bits and used a brush moist with turpentine to spread and blend the rust. I generally brushed from top to bottom once, which gave me good results. After all that commotion I decided to cover all my hard work with pastel dust. I used a mixture of dark brown, black and white on the breech, and a mixture of brown and yellow on the rest of the interiour.
As I said before Micheal looks great. Glad “my” new line of ammo cans worked out, they should be hitting the shelves in all the LHS sometime soon. [:D] Look forward to seeing something under the turret.
Not only does war belong in a museum, so does that piece! Looks like it was salvaged from a Russian Steppe in '46. First reaction was of course, ‘I hope he does put the roof on’. I’m sighing right along with you. Great Job.
i had a scary moment when i looked at the first picture.
i am so used to looking ‘up’ into the turret from the bottom, w/ the turret top on,
that i thought that’s what i was looking at. which would mean all of the rust was going ‘up’ instead of down.
but fortunately, i was confused!
well, if you can do that, make a complete alternate turret top-out of plexiglass, add in some lights, and wire it all up!, then you can see your work or show it off!, or you can have the top removable
Edog, the after market bits are the Aber detail and fender sets for the Italeri Tiger E/H1 and a Jordi Rubio barrel. The interiour has only a smattering of spare parts, kit parts and some sprue. The gun sight is a pair sprue lengths, a 1:72 german towing clasp and a section of PE fret. No real AM bits there, just a nifty paint job, which is easier than it looks.
