Friul set arrived

I've started the M106A1 and found a LOT of ejection pin marks... And holes on the hull (already filled). But now at least the track issue is solved with the new Friul set - though I've glued the plastic sprocket and now I have to break it to fit the new metal ones somehow...

On the other hand I'm hunting for photos/videos of the vegetation of Makin atoll as I'd like to complete the Stuart diorama. Figures are to be painted as well... And of course the Flakpanzer is in progress. Some of my Miniart figures will be modified and partly rebuilt... Sometimes. As I have not enough time. Never.

Going to Vietnam for a ride...

Got it from a colleague (thanks, Karesz!). Almost the same age as me. Not the colleague. The model. I'm excited... Something else than WW2... I plan to pimp it with Eduard sets (both exterior and interior) and a Friul track.

The plastic is strange, hard and breaks easily. But surprisingly crisp moulding especially at this age.

On the Flak project: I have a rough plan of a setting. Some figure sculpting necessary but I'm starting it soon.

Almost finished

Tracks finished, and my final conclusion about them is that Model Kasten worths the price and time as the result is nice, painting, weathering and installing them to the vehicle is far easier than the otherwise also nice magic tracks provided to the kit by Dragon. 

Some more details to add are the convoy light, antenna, etc. I plan to spray the lower parts with light earth colors to unify the result and the vehicle is ready. This year. Unbelievable...

Neverending tracks

There was a serious doubt in me about it. But finished the MK track finally. Now it's time to finish the running gear. And the weathering. And then the vehicle will be ready. But not the crew, equipment, or the diorama...

On track...

I was not prepared how tricky it is to glue MK tracks. I found that normal modelling glues are not OK, one section was glued with Tamiya cement (the extra thin type) and that section is not moving so nicely as the later produced ones. Now I'm using CA glue, and it is working so-so. However, it took days to clean all parts, now I hope that in a few hours I can glue the two tracks. As the sprocket wheels had to be changed (and Jadarhobby sent me the ModelKasten replacements), some more painting is needed but that is also true to the tracks, as well. In the meantime I'm thinking about the setting. I got some nice photos on Missing-lynx forum of crews refilling Flak magazines so I plan to depict the refilling (even with the device if I can replicate that) but I'd like to have a diorama where something "happens". But the question is: what?

Little cat in the box

While struggling with the hyper-boring job of cleaning all the MK track links of the flakpanzer, I invested some spare money in a whole new universe: 1/72... Revell's Tiger I ausf. E is the donor, with Part zimmerit and detailing set (only extreriorbut I do not intend to detail the interior), Aber barrel, Eureka towing cable. As far as I know my speed, it will be ready until 2020 in a lucky case :)

First figure ever...

First time ever I am pleased with the result of my figure painting. German officer's head for the winter pzbefehls dio.

Tracks

Dragon's magic tracks are nice but I always had problems with assembling and painting them. It is not possible to paint separately (I tried in case of the Panzer II F but did not like the procedure) and it is very tricky to paint when assembled to the model. So this time I give a try to ModelKasten track. It will be a tedious work to cut/clean/glue all links and compared to the magic track the detail is nothing extra. The only real addition is that it is workable so I can paint it separately and the track sag can be more naturally done.

The other tricky suprise was that the sprocket is half a millimeter too narrow to both tracks. I ordered ModelKasten sprockets and will use the late type one...

Dirt

Some MIG pigments in several layers and some pigment fixer was used to weather the lower part of the hull... And now the pain with the track begins.

Flak

Some more progress on this build. Flak needs its barrel painted with gunmetal (I prefer Model Master Metalizer for this task) and some more dirt and dust to hidden corners. Overall this would be a perfect model on its own. I simply love it with all its fine details. Even with the useless construction of the seat-footpedal which makes any figure impossible to attach. It can not be moved closer (especially now) and a figure that has long enough legs would mean a homo sapiens with 2.50 - 3 meter height. No problem. Let the vehicle be ready and then I will be thinking about how should it be set in a diorama. BTW I planned lots of dioramas in my life but have never finished one yet...

Hull almost ready

Some more progress to be announced. The hull was washed (once with oils and second round with the new MigAmmo wash products) and chipped. The chipping is very subtle as I intend to depict a fairly new vehicle in good condition. The bodywork is slowly ready - and in the meantime the 2cm gun is progressing as well, washed and waiting for chipping (and painting the gun barrel to gunmetal). Next big step is the track and the wheels and a lot of dust and weathering the lower sections and finally bring together the hull and the gun. Probably this year. Or maybe not :)

"Kasten"

I have no problem with spending my non-existing free time. But some progress happened anyway. Painted the ammo boxes and made some experiments with weathering. I decided to paint some grey boxes too just to be a little more interesting when put in the fighting compartment. The Griffon box with open top (though quite slow to build its 24 parts) looks very nice when painted, maybe I buy some more...

The original ones look like this (found on missing-lynx.com): 

Second "Mini Me" project...

On 14th of May our daughter was born. Beautiful, healthy and always hungry :)

Sloooow style

Weeks are passing by and I play World of Tanks instead of building the model ones. Finally the radio is ready (the wiring took several hours from my life) and looks as I wanted it to look. Unfortunately the spent ammo basket does not fit the gun because of the aftermarket firing pedal mount. Also a few hours of work for nothing... Or not nothing but for the spares box.

Friday afternoon

I've painted the radios. Small plastic pieces were glued before to hold the wiring of power supply and the headset and microphone. The knobs are black but the white is not really white to decrease the contrast I mixed it with buff. I'm a bit afraid of the wiring but it will worth a try I think.

Pipe

Slowly progressing further... The full body received pin-wash and some very subtle filters (simple oil paints were used, no "official" filter or wash products). Tow cable was painted, weathered, some missing minor parts (Notek, aerial base, etc) were glued and painted.

The most recent action: painting the exhaust pipe. I always had problems with painting this part - my experiments ended in too orange-shade and too vivid results. So this time I tried a different method.
1. Painted the exhaust with Dark Rust as a primer
2. Some hairspray...
3. Vallejo Model Color - BUFF was applied
4. Made heavy chipping (hairspray technique)
5. Very light filter was made with the original colour (Vallejo Model Air - Sand Yellow)
6. Dark Rust and Light Rust was applied with an old brush (very short bristle) like some kind of mix of the "sponge method" and dry brushing
7. Final touches with MIG Standard Rust pigments...

The result is close to what I wanted to achieve: an exhaust of a not-too-old vehicle.

Washed

I've made some wash with natural umber oil paint. I was thinking about to buy washes from some of Mig/AK/A.mig lines but again I found that any wash color can be replicated by oil paint and I can spend money on more useful things. Same applies to filters as well. The result is quite OK, the color on this photo is closer to reality then in the previous post. Next step will be some fading with oils (the "dot technique"), painting the tools and radio set. Later one of the harder tasks: wiring the radio...

Modulation and ghosts from the past

Added two lighter layers of paint, dark yellow plus white in 5:3 ratio in case of the lighter one. Experimented with color modulation but left the effect very subtle - almost sure to become invisible during the weathering process later. In the meantime I started to paint the radios. Still not sure how the wiring will be done as the parts are tiny and according to phoos found on the net there should be lots of wires connected to them... 

And a long forgotten project popped out of the stash: the Gaz-AAA from Zvezda. Painted the interior and try to finish it in a year :)