We're ready for some paints!

Hey friends! 

I think the base is ready for painting. Looking back at the previous post, it has changed a lot! 😮

As you can see I worked on every section - the road, the hill, and the lower corner. 

The road was very "grainy" after fixing that 0.25mm gravel yesterday, so I gave it another coat of very diluted textured earth, which created a very nice compacted ground look (even though my goal was loose sand, but whatever 😆). Textured earth was also used to build up the ruts. I didn't want them to be tight around the tank, because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to place the tank properly on the base after. I mean, it's not a big deal, tanks can be passing by all the time, even this one could be moving back and forth creating wide ruts in the road. Luckily I found references for all of this, but you know - when you need to explain something to the viewer, you failed 🤭

When the base is finished, I'll add some more textured earth beneath the tank and press it firmly in place, and then I'll just give it a quick coat of paint to blend it with the rest of the base. Should be pretty straightforward.

The hill is a combination of loose rocks glued with gravel and sand fixer. I used all sizes - 0.25, 0.5, 1 and 2mm. When they dried, I gave the top portion another round of textured earth to make it smoother than the bottom. I'm kinda proud of this effect to be honest :) 

The lower corner is mostly just loose rocks. As you noticed I printed some empty crates and cinderblocks... those should look pretty cool once painted, even though the crates don't have the wood plank texture on the inside... I'll try to make fake panel lines with paint. 

Also, grass tufts! Holy moly, I'm totally out of control! 🤣🤣🤣

Anyway, now it's all ready to be painted. The road should be pretty much the same color like the dust caught in the tracks, but the rest will probably have a slight reddish tint like the dark spots on the tank. Luckily I have a ref pic for the terrain color so at least I have an idea about how it should look. 

And I also printed some extra stuff, mostly just jerry cans and plastic canisters, maybe I'll add a few of them on the tank, but I'll keep that for the very end. 

Hope you'll have a great weekend!!! I finally got my bike back, so I'm definitely going for a ride tomorrow, but I'll be of course painting as well 😊