Well. That was fast

My friends, it's actually done! Took exactly 2,5 days 😁 I'm sorry for not updating you yesterday, but truth be told there actually wouldn't be much of an update! What I had yesterday can be seen on the second to last photo... not much, I know. Needless to say I was spending way too much time with pointless stuff like post-shading the panzer grey base coat. Like, why?? I have no clue 😆

Ironically I feel like the StuG is the least interesting part of the scene, and that's saying something when you're primarily an armor modeler 😅

As it turns out, when you want to finish something FAST, you need to learn how to not give a f*** about certain things. I could keep going and painting the Stug in a similar way like the IS-2 from last year, trying to make it look like a bigger scale, but that would leave no time for the vignette. 

As for the terrain, everything went rather smoothly. I used crushed leaves for the first time and they work like a dream, the natural scatter adds so much texture to the scene! They also created a massive problem though. When I applied the Snow Sprinkles mixed with Snow Microballoons (both from AK), the acrylic snow started draining color from the leaf scatter!!! You can see that in the last photo, also note how patches of snow with no leaves underneath are untouched. I had to leave it to dry, then apply another layer. It was less yellow, but had to leave it dry again and repeat a few more times. There's still some yellowing in lots of places, but again, time restrictions! Also, it's much better to discover this problem on a project like this rather than another 2-month project. 

I also wanted to add some running water over the road, but the problem is I have no water products. So I tried mixing Tamiya clear varnish with a bit of Khaki for that muddy tint and applied it in ruts. It worked to some extent, but of course not as much as a dedicated product would. 

That's probably all the new stuff I tried this time. Something tells me editing the video will be a lot of work, but at least we have a Christmas special episode now! 😁