SimonT - 1/72 MasterBox Mk1 Male

[Tim Marlow]

Great work here. Groundwork and details coming on a treat. I know I’m late to this, but Wilkes do dark brown match pots, called Chocolate I think.....I use it mixed into papier mache, fine sand, and PVA as my standard basecoat for wargames scenery...

[SimonT]

Thanks Tim

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did a casting and it turned out ok :thumb2:

just need to do a few more of them then i can start assembling the base

not sure i am going to get to the finish line on time with this

[Steve Jones]

"not sure i am going to get to the finish line on time with this" - Would you have it any other way Mr T?:smiling5:

Resin work looks really great. Looking forward to seeing the items painted up.:thumb2:

[SimonT]

I guess it is rather 'situation normal' :smiling:

[Jim R]

Hi Simon
Glad the resin casts are OK.
Jim

[SimonT]

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base now has soil and the various bits'n'pieces added - boxes, rifles, bits of planking and the duckboards etc

barbed wire still to sort out

it looks like it has snowed but that is the still wet Wilko water based varnish that I have liberally painted on to help retain the dirt

[Steven000]

Very muddy Simon, looks good :thumb2:
Cheers Steven

[Steve Jones]

Nice aerial shot Simon. Will you be doing an aeroplane flying overhead taking photos??

[SimonT]

Thanks Steven
Steve - no planes. Got enough trouble trying to finish it as it is :rolling:

This has been drying out all week. Sprayed it with primer and it showed up various cracks in the groundwork

Filled the cracks with VJ red oxide paste then sprayed the entire thing with a heavy coat of matt black then picked out the tank in Tamiya khaki. It then received some highlights of khaki mixed with light grey
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the base then got a first dry brush of Tamiya flat earth

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[JR]

Morning Simon.
Looking top class, its great when the base starts to dry out and starts to give a sense of depth .
John from a very foggy morning in Linc's.
T

[SimonT]

Cheers John - starting to get there but fast running out of time for completion

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base got dry brushed to within an inch of its life - first with Tamiya buff then medium grey followed by JA Grey and finally a little white. The ground in the area of the Somme is very chalky so after looking at various pictures of chalky soil I decided on the above colours
The craters got a wash of black as they will be getting some water in them and the soil would therefore be darker

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the tank has had a black wash and now looks terrible. I don't know why I bother doing the airbrush shading as I always loose it when it comes to adding a wash :rolling:

Lets hope I can recover things and get the finish looking a bit better

[rtfoe]

Hi Simon, great idea on the barbed wire. Will definitely use that on my next 1/35 build.

Hi Jim - I'd spent a good few hours with some really thin wires trying to tie evenly spaced knots in it without success when I saw the mesh and it just hit me that it might work


Morning all,
had a go at scratch building a Lee Enfield .303 last night[ATTACH]317144[/ATTACH]
needs a bit of tidying up and some bits adding but generally just about passable - this is version three. One was too thin, two snapped in half

At one time I would have had a working bolt and removable magazine - it is rubbish getting old :disappointed2:

Not many Lee Enfields in kit form, had to carve my own as well...later I wittled down the barrel as it was too thick.



It was going to be a one off so didn't make copies.

The moon surface is looking good and this time you're finishing it. :thumb2:

Cheers,
Richard

[JR]

Simon..
There's nothing wrong with the beast, maybe some larger light chalky dried mud towards the top and center and some darker wet mud towards the lower track run.
Think you've got to the stage of looking at it too long like we do.
John.

[SimonT]

Nice one Richard - I cast a few off mine and added three to the base. Unfortunately two of them seem to have been swallowed up by the mud!

John - agreed, the tank will need mud. Haven't started on that yet apart from an application of VJ red oxide paste in places

I have managed to get the next two days off work as we are in a period of calm before the storm - there is now a better chance that I might get this to the finish before the deadline

Have spent 2hrs+ highlighting individual 'chalk' stones on the base - watching old footage on the Beeb showed that the ground in places was well littered with white chalk stones. I have used Tamiya JA Grey rather than white as that looked too bright

Also started picking out details - ammo boxes, rifle, duck boards, wriggly tin panels.......

[Jim R]

Hi Simon
Groundwork looking good. Watched a TV programme on Passendale so I recognise realistic mud. (The programme was heart wrenching to watch - unimaginable suffering)
Jim