To quote AR Turner,”Not just light at the end of the tunnel,
but glorious chaotic light”
I know its not everything finished but its a start 🙂
Please click on images for a bigger picture.
Now that my painters block has been removed(excuses, excuses)
I should be able to finish the rest.
Yes its taking an age, but that old problem beer keeps
getting in the way 🙂
Slow progress but there is light finally at the end of the tunnel.
Bases yet to do, chevrons and fine detail.
The rhino is still without paint but now with plough and hounds.
Still have not started my Warsmith but I do have a chosen
model for conversion(top secret) and the candidates who failed
for the job are going to be Command/HQ extras.
Cant remember his name and he`s got a broken sword
so he volunteered to be a statue. The bottom of the
mount is a 1/72 scale tank base and a wooden printing
block above it. The best bit for me was the creeping vine
which is horse hair(got a riding stables next door to me and
its all over the road),microwaved to kill anything unwanted and
dyed in wash and paint. Add some pva glue and on with the scatter
by Tremendus.
In the picture he is sitting on a red Martian looking
background and as of yet is still to get some red
weathering to blend in.
In think he needs to go outside a temple or city complex ?
As I was building in the shed I went all out and
had a go at Teddy Bear fur fields.
Once again trusty ebay did the job and up
turned a bag of hair. After reading online I
found an old pair of clippers and lowered the height
of the fur which must start at about at least 2 inches
or more. Anyway either the clippers were blunt or who
knows what, but it was useless. Plan B came into force
and out came the trustee scissors which worked a treat.
I cut a lowered section of fur through the middle so it looked
like a natural path.
Now for the colour. The fur comes as a natural creamy/
brown which is great as grass is usually that colour
towards the bottom, away from sunlight. I borrowed the
kids hogs hair brush(big fat thing) and dry brushed
acrylic paint into the fur, trying to only paint the
top third of the fur. I basically started with a dark
green and got steadily lighter.
1st shot after 1st lot of paint:
2nd shot, more paint:
3rd shot surrounded by bocage:
I think it worked out well and once surrounded by
additional terrain such as walls and hedges it will
look even better.
Deep in the depths of my shed I have been experimenting
with the bocage and have finally got a winner, perhaps ?
Step One:
Polystyrene was used for the banking(light and dirt cheap)
and cut to shape, then pva glued. I based one on 3mm mdf
and didn’t bother with the other. The cocktail sticks
are just to hold it together while gluing.
Step Two:
Add some twigs from the garden as tree trunks and glue
into place.
Step Three:
I used standard house hold filler to smooth off the bank
and any sharp edges. I then cover everything in pva glue
and added a mix of sand and stone for texture. Let dry.
Step Four:
Paint brown with house hold paint.
Step Five:
More pva glue over all and add your flock/scatter mix.
I tried all green at 1st but found the brown gave it a
better look.
Step Six:
Grab your self some rubberised horse hair(ebay was cheap)
and separate it out into thin bits. It comes as a thick
section and reminds me of horse jumping hedges. Now with
your pva glue again thread between your twig trees and glue
down. I found you had to put weights on the horse hair while
gluing as it springs up otherwise. I added a bit of moss as
well.
Step Seven:
Using a spray bottle(50/50 pva glue and water) spray the
horse hair with your glue mix. Now sprinkle on your scatter
so it looks like leaves. Leave it dry over night.
This is what it looks like next to a field and with a tank in:
Click on the image to get a bigger version 🙂
I tried two other methods of making bocage from moss but
was not happy with the outcome.
Also the bocage next to field is not 100% finished and
needs a bit of airbrushing here and there.
What do you think ?
Just finished by Battlefront plastic Jagdpanther and I`m very
pleased with it. The cheaper plastic kit(there is a metal version) is
just as good and comes with a ruined building(not shown). Once again I
really could not be bothered getting the airbrush out for a couple of
minutes use and then spending an hour cleaning it so free hand time
with the camouflage.
Please click on pictures for larger size.
The interesting part about this small project for me was the bocage
itself. I knew what bocage was and have been all over Normandy and seen
the stuff first hand. What was compelling was the constant argument on
various forums about should bocage have stone at the bottom of it ? Well
the first hand and most accurate answer is yes and no. Some bocage is built
up on age old(Middle ages or later) walls and some is not. Quite often stone is
used on hill sections of bocage and deep cuttings. Farmers in general clear fields
and push stone to the side and leave it. It is then overgrown by weeds and becomes
part of the bank/hedge.
The second compelling bit of information I came across after reading up on the
subject was the way enemy tanks were killed in the bocage. First initial thought
was great big dirty tank destroyer behind a hedge kills all(the Jagdpanther for example),
but you couldn’t be more wrong.
In bocage country 54% of tank kills were caused by gunfire(tank,anti tank,td and arty),
20% by mines,13% by non combat(stuck in mud or mechanical failure),7% by Panzerfaust
and the remaining 6% by miscellaneous.
If we then look at the 54% in more detail ,Britsh and American studies show that half
of theses kills were attributed to Stugs and by direct frontal penetration at an
average 800 yards. Forget the Jagdpanthers,Panzer I`Vs,PAK 43 man handled and arty the Stug
was the main man in the bocage!
Anyway I`m building a Normandy board as we speak to look out for hand crafted bocage with
and without stones and a few lurking Stugs.
I need to get my lava painting skills up to scratch and was
wondering how everybody else paints lava ?
These two are examples I have experimented on. Please note the Terminator
was not painted by me. I only made and painted the base on the Terminator.
I used plasticard to built up the bases. Black base coat and Dawnstone dry brush
for the rocks. The lava was basically Dark red through to orange and a tiny white
line through the middle.
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