nightshiftmodeller

Some details on the turret

My friends, the work continues, and if everything goes well, the turret will be finished tomorrow. And by that point, I think the model will be ready for painting! 

So far I have finished the commander's cupola and the gun mantlet, where I also added a faux gun barrel going into the turret. 

What's missing now are some wires and a bunch of small PE... oh, and I decided to keep the metal barrel because the plastic one is a really sad parody of the real thing! I'll just ke...

Back and engine deck done!

My friends, these post-covid symptoms suck... but apart from that I'm once again able to move furniture and do model stuff! 

The engine deck was really tedious. Adding all the missing weld detail wasn't fun. Glad I added half of it years ago! Also, those grab handles were something I wasn't looking forward to. They're made from 0.3mm wire and to ensure every one is placed precisely where it's supposed to be, I made a simple template from a plastic strip. I used this small "square" ...

Out of the woods?

My friends, after three days of suffering I'm back on my feet. Covid hit me hard during the first night, feelings of extreme cold and heat, shivers all over my body, sweating, everyone who went through it knows the drill! Then headaches, runny nose, wet and dry coughing, the whole nine. Yesterday I felt pretty good but still exhausted, and today everything feels pretty much normal except the runny nose and a bit of coughing every now and then. Energy levels feel back to normal as well! <...

New studio, new project...

... and I have Covid! 🥶

I didn't feel like building another huge model, but this Conqueror has been sitting in my cabinet as a shelf queen for years. I started building it a long time ago as a tank operating in West Germany as a part of the British Army Of The Rhine (BAOR), but quickly lost interest because 1) it's not a very exciting subject, and 2) the model is MASSIVE and the Dragon kit (from the Black Label, or Black Plague) series is not great either. 

It didn't help ...

Early video

Wasn't able to surprise my friend with the finished scene and capture our chat on video due to more important stuff (ripping out old floors, lol), but I hope he'll like it! 

HD photos

When it's 1AM, you want to start exporting the video, but you still need to edit the photos... and once they're done and you deleted the original files, you realize that you placed a negative vignette effect on every one of them! 

But it's all good, nothing that a little bit of blood, sweat, and tears wouldn't fix :D 

Snow, snow, snow!

My friends, the snow is on, and I guess that concludes this project! On one hand I'm sad that I didn't have more to show you, but on the other, I'm glad the scene is finished because I was finally able to move everything to the new studio. 

I tried a variety of new products in this scene. The last winter one, the tiny StuG, back then I only had Snow Sprinkles and Snow Microballoons from AK, so my options were rather limited. 

The ice was made from Still Water and Ice Spa...

New studio - after and before

Here's what preoccupied me during the weekend! This is the new Night Shift headquarters, before I clutter it with workbenches, studio lights, shelves, and everything gets permanently covered in static grass and Real Earth from My Garden (trademark) :D 

I'll move all the equipment there once I finish the winter vignette. 

Here's a (hopefully) simple scenic base

My friends, I wasn't able to do anything at the workbench during the weekend, so what you see here is a result of Friday and today. 

Well, to be fair, most of the "interesting" work was done today. I only managed to carve out the basic shape of the base, cover it with VMS clay, and laminate the sides on Friday.

Today I textured the ground with Real Earth from My Garden (trademark), added the static grass, and started painting. 

Taking a similar approach to the prev...

Early video

Just in time before Thanksgiving!

HD photos

5 days to paint, 1 day to narrate, edit, and shoot photos... what a dream! 

Muddy and ready!

My friends, I finished the weathering yesterday, and the model is ready to be set in a cold, muddy vignette. 

Unfortunately, I was pressed by time towards the end. Had a word with the contractors this week, and to keep it short, I'll have to start preparing the house for their arrival, and that means setting up a few rooms in a different, less temporary layout than it is now. The most important room is, of course, the filming studio, so I was painting the model and preparing the ro...

And we can get muddy!

My friends, the stowage is done, and it was a pretty fun experience! 

I started with the hard stowage as this needs some basic weathering techniques as well, and I don't like it when enamel paints or thinners seep into painted tarps. Some of the stuff, like the canteens, isn't very detailed, so "sculpting with a paintbrush" came in super handy here - basically emphasizing details that are too mushy. 

Painting large tarps with a brush isn't as easy, but perfectly doable. ...

Ready for stowage!

My friends, here's some progress from yesterday and today. Saturday was my friend's wedding so no progress there, so when I think about it, this is quite a lot of work for two days! :) 

I started with pin washes - interior wash for the white parts, winter streaking grime for panzer grey. These created some awesome effects and subtle accumulations of dirt, which were followed up with mapping - adding random stains and "maps" with very diluted white. This method adds more texture and...

New project

My friends, this was an exhausting week, but I managed to complete the video and start a new model the other day. This one is special! It's a 1/48th Pz 38t from Tamiya. 

It was built and painted by my friend, the one I refer to as "Airbrushing God" or Guru, and he's also the one who taught me how to sculpt tarps way back in the day. Over the past years he focused more on airplanes and this was his attempt to get back to armor modelling. However, he lost interest immediately after s...

Early video

It's been a long and exhausting week, but here's the video!

HD photos

What is thine wisdom?

Disaster: avoided

My friends, the leakage problem wasn't such a problem after all and I managed to finish this little diorama today! 

You'll see in pictures 2-3 how the bubbles looked after the first layer solidified. They left two small holes in the resin, but these were filled with the subsequent layer, and this one dried to the usual glass-smooth finish. 

The mixing ratios were 60ml of resin and 7 drops of Khaki Drab for the first layer, and 60ml + 4 drops of paint for the second one, ...

Ready for water!

And I have a disaster in the making! But first things first.

I finished the Panzer by painting all the details and adding some earth effects. Just as I said in the last post, it was real earth, some natural scatter and then dry tones on the turret + dark damp tones on the hull. 

The groundwork was painted partially! I primed the grass with mahogany brown primer and then airbrushed it as usual, but the earth was only post-shaded with Dark Yellow and Buff. This created some awe...

Here's our little rust bucket

My friends, the basic colors and effects on the Pz IV are done. 

I wasn't sure how to approach a tank sunken in a river, but I knew it should be kept simple, especially on the hull as this part will be completely submerged. As I started applying the rust tones, the idea was suddenly becoming clearer. So the hull is generally rustier than the turret, and this should serve as a good layout for the more complicated effects. 

Once I paint all the details in their respective ...

Ready for paints I think!

My friends, here's the diorama and it's gonna be pretty small, tight, and compact! 

Learning from the JS-2 diorama I angled the river bank in such a way that it won't obscure anything. Also, the veneer was glued using double sided tape which works like a dream! 

The eroded bank and the overhanging "carpet" was sculpted from a thin sheet of styrofoam covered with AK acrylic mud and VMS clay. 

As usual, I was only inspired by the historical photo because it's ve...

New project

Panzer of the lake, what is thine wisdom? 

Well, truth be told, I'm so glad I had to build just the turret and a slice of the upper hull of this tank. The thing about Panzer IV kits, at least here, is that they're all sold out, and the only one I managed to snatch is from Hobby Boss, a.k.a. re-boxed Tristar. 

I clearly remember how modellers in our local community were losing their minds over Tristar kits in the past, saying it's the ultimate kit, with unbeatable detail,...

Early video

It's aliveeee!!! 

HD photos

Nice and proper shots of the scene. The video is exporting as I'm typing this, so I'll let it upload on Youtube during the night and post the link here for you in the morning :))) 

Early video...

... is currently in production! I'm working tirelessly to get it done tonight, so my estimate is that it'll be uploaded for you tomorrow. If you're patient with me, the reward will be a 26-minute long full build + paint + vignette video :))) 

Just a simple base

And we're done! This base was cut using a circular jig and because it was rather smooth, I brushed the sides with two coats of thick household acrylic black paint. 

This is the first time I didn't paint the earth because it had a very authentic color that captures forest ground perfectly. Combined with lots of leaf scatter it was the perfect base for further details! 

So the painting was mostly about moss, paper plants, and the dead branches. Although these received just...

Rot n' Roll

My friends, the Beetle is finished and ready for a small scenic base! In this case it's quite necessary because, let's be honest, it sure does look a bit out of place like this, doesn't it? 

Adding the natural scatter and moss was the most enjoyable thing I've done in a VERY long time. You already know how much I enjoy moss and green grime from dioramas, and this was the perfect subject where I could feel like a child on a playground! 

I started in the interior, not only...

Enamels and details done

My friends, another day, another chapter finished. Weathering can be super easy on these rotten vehicles if you play around with the airbrush beforehand! Just a pin wash from Dark Streaking Grime and some tiny spots and streaks with Streaking Rust Effects. 

Streaking Grime is an excellent effect for these abandoned vehicles because it has a distinctive black-brown-green color, and it emphasizes the rotten look a LOT. 

Of course, I painted a few details, such as the headl...

Airbrushing - check!

My friends, last night I sprayed the rusty base coat and today was happy color day! 

The rusty base is a black primer, flat brown + flat yellow for the rust tones, German grey for the greyish stains and some AK Rotbraun for the rust primer. 

White base color is flat white + dark yellow for that off-white, creamy tint. 

Faded blue is flat blue + white, and the rotting vibe was done with Ammo Shaders: Light Rust, Olive Drab, and Grime.  

So... what co...

This is a weird feeling

My friends, building something that's not a tank is definitely odd! Especially if the kit is simple, small, and just doesn't contain too many parts. Even more when there's not much to modify, improve, or add texture to! 

Well, to keep this short, I started by milling out the thick plastic from the fenders. So much so they were thinner than paper and this was very easy with a ball burr. Once you can see through the plastic, it behaves very realistically, like real sheet metal! It ju...