Comet-ed

[Lee Drennen]

Andy everything is looking great nice details

[Mickc1440]

That's looking great Andy, lovely work on your figures

[Andy T]

Thanks Lee and Mick. Sorry for not replying sooner but I appreciate your support.


The little things seem to take the longest but firstly I've added the sides to the base and blended them in ready for the real groundwork and bridge building to begin.




I've also been adding some luggage to the UC and throwing a bit of mud at it.







The tent roll at the back was made by rolling foil tape around some florist wire. The stuff up front is from a bag of black dog bits I had lying around. It's not the best quality and not a patch on the Value Gear items that finally turned up today but does the job with some paint on it.

I really must get back to the tanks soon!

[scottie3158]

Andy,
Firstly my apologies for taking so long to comment. I have just had a catch up and wow some lovely modelling going on. the vehicles and figures all look excellent.

[Andy T]

Absolutely no need Paul. Thanks for the kind words.

[Guest]

I missed this due to not habitually reading the dioramas category, but this is looking excellent

[Andy T]

Thanks Jakko, glad you like it.

I do feel a little tucked away in here when so far I've mostly been building armour, but I do understand the reasoning behind Ian's guidance of keeping all elements together, so am happy to follow it.

[JR]

Firstly love the whole layout of the dio Andy .
That black primer is superb on the two Comets.
Some really class work showing on this , figures for one and the bren gun carrier , wow !

[Andy T]

Thank you John. I may be able to start painting the Comets this weekend which is something I've been looking forward to.

[Andy T]

It's a long story but bench time has been a bit sparce for the past few days so I still haven't gotten around to painting the tanks yet. I have managed a bit here & there though so cracked on with some little bits like the stowage.

I took this picture to remind myself what will eventually go where:



Chain seems a bit out of scale now that I've seen it in the picture so may swap it for some finer stuff.

[Andy T]

Managed to sneak some time in the shed so both tanks got some pre-shading.



I then set about number 1 with the Mr Color OD modulation set. A few light coats of the main shade were added all over, then the shadow coat went on under the skirts, around details, panel lines etc. I then went over with the first highlight shade picking things out.

I usually tint my own shades but this set just made the process quicker. I didn't bother with the second highlight as I'm not going for a super faded look since these tanks weren't in service for very long I believe.




I'm also not one for super accuracy but the colour was still more brown than I'd like for these late war tanks so I gave it a few filter coats of XF61 to add a bit more green. It also toned the stark contrast down a bit.



More contrast than I normally go for but then I often lose the effect with later weathering so I'm trying it a bit heavier this time.


Then a gloss coat of GX100. I know there's debate on whether gloss coats are needed before decals but there's a tricky Allied star for the roof that'll probably need my strongest solutions, so a bit of extra protection won't hurt.



Much more work to come obviously but I think it's a good foundation.

[Waspie]

Can you tell me more about pre shading Andy. The method and why?
Cheers, Doug

[scottie3158]

Andy,
Very nicely done mate.

[The Smythe Meister]

Yep,gotta agree with Scottie here...
.... that's look great Andy,I think the last coat of Gloss has tied it all together nicely already.
... AND,the stowage is going to make a great addition.

[Andy T]

Cheers Paul, it's a good start I think.

Doug, pretty much what you see. By adding the squiggly white coat then putting fairly transparent coats of colour over, some of that shows through and breaks up what would otherwise be a solid block of colour. Tends to be used more in aircraft but I do it on everything.

To be honest the camera doesn't pick it up that well, and I've also used post shading (adding different shades on top of the main colour) but the idea is to add variation into each layer which will eventually lead to a more interesting surface than a single shade all over.

My execution still isn't great but I'll only get better by practicing.

And thanks Andy. I'm planning to play around with oil paints on top of this once the decals are sealed in, so hopefully this is just the start.