Reference Material Part 1

I have never been a major fan of German Armor, and I prefer Allied subjects. Unfortunately, most of the major companies (Revell, Dragon, ect.) produce mostly German AFV's in their WWII lines. Thankfully this is starting to change; more and more Allied AFV's are being produced (to tell you the truth I think it's bcause they are running out of German AFV's to kit). I'm not a big fan of the Tiger either, it's too square and boxy. So why have I chosen the Tiger as my next subject? Well it's this picture.



I stumbled across it a few years back and it really caught my eye. I plan to base my next braille scale diorama on it. It will have the group of Russian officers (including Marshal Zhukov I believe) walking past the captured Tiger tank. The tank is quite unique for a Tiger. It was part of the first production run of Tigers, and was sent off to Russia as part of the 501. It was captured in Leningrad, and finished off the war as a war trophy. The tank has many unique features, and I've been able to accumulate pictures of all four sides, which have proved to be very helpful.

New Blog

Well I've gone and done it. I want my Braile Scale Blog to be small scale armor only, so I've started another blog. Manicmodeler currently has my P-40 build.

Done!

Well it's almost done. I still have a little touch up work to do. I still have 2 crew figures to add, but where to put the seated figures? There's also a few little odds and ends to add, but I'm pretty pleased with the results. The repainted figure, while not perfect are a 100% better than my first painting attempt. Hopefully my painting skills will improve with practice.

What's next? I've had this Revell Tiger 1 conversion on the back of my model table for 2 years! I tried to finish it for AMPS 2003, and left the lower hull under a 60 watt bulb to speed paint drying. Big mistake! The entire lower hull melted, and I had to rebuild it with a new kit. The model is pretty far along, and it wwill free up some modeling time to work on the P-40 for my IPMS club's BTSK contest.

Proof of life

Just a few pictures to show I haven't abandoned the old M-10. It seems that life has gotten in the way of modeling. The warm weather has arrived, and most of my spare time has been devoted to things other than modeling (camping, yard work, spring cleaning, you name it).

I've added the 76mm rounds to the ready racks, and I've continued to work on the figures, and base. I've added more texture to the base to simulate track marks, and just need a little dry brushing to bring them out.

I've also been working on an airplane for my local IPMS chapters "build the same kit" event. We chose the Academy 1/72 scale P-40E/M/N. I'm building a Kiwi P-40N. I've never successfully completed a BTSK project, so this should be interesting. Maybe I'll start an airplane blog!

It's been a while

Sorry for the long delay in posting, but I just haven't had much time to work on the M10 lately. I've added more texture to the base to simulate track marks. I still need to give it a new coat of burnt umber, and do some dry brushing before it's done. I've also been painting the figures. The colors are more toned down and subdued. There still a little bit of touch-up to do, but they are basically done. I'm still not completely happy with them, but they will do. Hopefully my figure painting will improve with practice!

Painting the base

Well I've gotten a little more work done on the M10. The base is pretty much done, except for some dry brushing. I'm working on painting the building now. I wasn't very happy with my paint job on the figures either, so I dumped all 9 of them in some Floquil Disol, and I had some nice shiny figures again. I picked up an Osprey book on US Uniforms, and my color choices are looking much better now.

Adventures in Plexiglas

Previously, I mentioned that I was going to do a different base for the M10. Well I decided to use 1/4" Plexiglas as the base. It's inert and won't warp or react to the various materials that I plan to use. So I ran down to Home Depot, and picked up a 24"x28" piece, but how to cut it? A quick google search gave me some answers. The only trouble, I don't own a table saw. One guy said you can score it 10 times, then snap it like glass. Well about 60 scores later and lots of pressure, I finally get it to snap!

Now add some evergreen, Apoxie Sculpt and Liquitex Texture gel's and it's finally starting to shape up. I just need to a little more debris, and add a Tiger Productions building and it will be ready for paint.

And the look I'm shooting for

Post AMPS

No M10 update today, just an AMPS rap-up. I attended Steve Zaloga's talk, Saturday morning. He focused mainly on painting, and weathering, and overall presentation. He had lots of great tips, many have been published in his Osprey books, and Military Modeler articles. After listening to his talk, I think I will change the diorama base. I heavily weathered the M10 with mud and dirt. It will look better on a dirt road than a cobble stone road (it will look more like the picture I based it on anyway). I'll use the old base for another model, which is more lightly weathered.

We had a Braille Scale Meeting after Steve's talk. Meeting the guys from the Missing Lynx Braille Scale forum was great. The guys brought a bunch of kits and accessories to look over. I'll have to get my hands on some of those Astra Models diorama bases. I picked up a few Tiger Productions buildings, Prieser figures, and some other accessories. The braille scale selection from the venders was thin as usual, but better than previous years. I took lots of pictures of models on the contest tables. They should show up on On the Way soon.

Finally I've added a link to Jason Geelong's on-line Panther Build, in Braille Scale of course! He's really tripped out the Revell Panther Ausf D/A, check it out.

Happy Dance

I forgot to mention that I finally got a copy of Sherman, by RP Hunnicutt. My Sherman Library is now complete! Actually that's not true, but don't tell my wife! I one the Ebay action while in San Diego, and the book arrived shortly after we did. It's a first edition, without the dust cover, that's in fairly good condition. I probably paid too much, but it wasn't my maximum bid.

While in San Diego I did manage to visit a hobbyshop, Discount Models. I picked up an Extrapac version of Eduards M4A3, for only $19. IMHO, Eduards "Extrapac" versions of the M4 chassis are nowhere near as good a deal as the Extratech, but they are a bit cheaper.

Make it dirty!

Ok, it's been a long time since I had an update, but my wife and I went to San Diego last week. It was tough, I know, but I managed to survive out there. Unfortunately, I developed a rather nasty cold, which turned into bronchitis, and knocked me completely off my feet. I haven't been able to devote much time to the M10, and sadly doubt that I'll have it ready for AMPS. Even if I do get it done, I doubt I'll feel good enough to spend all day at the show. Oh well, there is always next year!