nightshiftmodeller

Early video

It's almost a feature-length movie! 

New project

And it's not gonna be a tank! Today I finished the JS-2 diorama video (it's 36 minutes long!) and was wondering what to start next. I was torn between two ideas that I had while building the JS-2. Panzer Of The Lake diorama with a Pz IV, or a rotting VW Beetle in the forest. 

Today I thought it would be the Panzer as it would be a simple and quick diorama, but the RFM staff car arrived in the afternoon... and when I saw the kit, I knew this was the next one. 

I know it's...

HD photos

Finally some nice photographs, and the finished video is 36 minutes long! 

The deed is done

My friends, another diorama goes into the display case! 

The resin water went super smooth this time, I used a few pictures of flowing rivers as reference, everything was good, until I decided to add some water foam using a dedicated AK gel. The foam turned out great around the bridge, but for some reason, I decided to add it over some waves! Bad idea, it looked horrible. Of course, there was no way of getting rid of it, so I had to improvise. You can clearly see those waves that w...

Resin time!

My friends, the trees are painted, weathered with earth effects, and I also finished painting the remaining groundwork. 

Painting every log individually would drive anyone insane, so after a few attempts, I resorted to dry-brushing with various acrylics ranging from dark brown through reddish-brown and finishing with medium grey. Then they received a few oil paint washes, some mossy residue from Slimy Grime, and finally, the top section received a lot of earth tones. This made the ...

A little bit of painting...

My friends, some elements of the diorama are ready. Quite the difference, right? :) 

The brick wall was treated with Bergswerk Lightweight Putty. I've spread it over the wall with a sculpting brush, pushing it inside in irregular patterns. This method is so much better compared to the dry sand + plaster mix! The weathering was carried out the usual way using acrylics - white, light mud, deck tan, black brown, green, etc. 

The concrete slabs were also painted the "usual w...

Airbrushing!

My friends, I've got the entire diorama airbrushed in basic colors. Now it's time to give it a more realistic look with paintbrushes! 

Pretty much everything was sprayed with various mixtures of Tamiya acrylics, no masking involved. I'll approach each element individually, most likely starting with the brick wall because that's what I enjoy the most :D 

The third figure is from Evolution and it's my first experience with this company. I was skeptical, but the quality is ...

It's alive!

My friends, the diorama is laminated, the tree bridge constructed, and I'm almost ready to start painting. 

Laminating wasn't as difficult as I imagined, it just needed a bit of planning. It's easier to wrap the 0.4mm veneer when the woodgrain is pointing vertically. Then you just need a lot of PVA on the styrofoam and glue it one small section at a time using a lot of superglue. 

The tree bridge was the real deal and I barely found enough material for it! Literally pick...

Early video

Full weathering and finishing!

Some work on the diorama

My friends, yesterday I built the bridge and the bank of the river. These two elements had to be done first so I could laminate the sides with veneer. The bridge is now glued in place and yes, everything will have to be glued together before I can start painting :( 

So the bridge is made from Evergreen sheets and 2mm strip profiles. Using the styrofoam shape as a template made it much easier, I just had to glue the main elements with PVA glue and some CA here and there. The railing...

A new diorama is born

My friends, yesterday I made the foundations for the new diorama "Bear Crossing". The reference/inspirational photo is at the end of this gallery, and it will represent a collapsed bridge hastily repaired with wooden logs. 

This time I opted for an oval base, and I was surprised how large the whole scene turned out! The oval is 30cm long. 

To cut this shape, I had to draw an oval using a compass on a piece of cardboard (actually the box from this model), cut it out, and ...

HD photos...

... and some meme material to brighten up your day! 

Finish!

My friends, the JS-2 is ready to be placed in that crumbly tree bridge diorama. 

Adding the final weathering effects would've been fun if it wasn't for the tracks! They started falling apart! My suspicion is that the wires reacted with the VMS blackening fluid and this could've been caused by two things - the tracks are very old so the wire might've become brittle over time, or the fluid reacted too much with the brass material. You see, back when I assembled them for the old JS-3 ...

Early video

How would it look if everything was painted with acrylics, but there was no enamel or oil weathering? 

Rust effects and lower hull weathering

My friends, the rust tones are in place and they especially stand out in those places where the fenders were ripped off!

As for the earth tones, I started with the lower hull and wheels. Reference photos show these tanks rather "clean" in terms of mud, so I'm going with a rather dry, dusty look. Once I finish the tracks and install them, it'll be easier to figure out how to proceed on the upper hull and turret. 

One interesting technique I tried by accident is applying the ac...

Washes and rust

My friends, after editing the video I returned to the workbench and applied a pin wash mixed from oil paints (Industrial Earth from 502 Abt.)

This was a rather quick job because the IS-2 doesn't have as many surface details as, let's say A7V, and because I still had some time, I also added the rust tones on the turret. This is the step I've been looking forward to the most because rust works perfectly on Soviet 4BO, making it look richer and more interesting without "over-rusting" the s...

HD photos

With everything dry fitted again, you can see how a model would look with everything painted, but without any weathering!

Figures! Wait, what?

My friends, the unimaginable has happened. Instead of painting two figures for an entire week, I managed to finish them in one day (and one extra evening)! 

So the commander's leather jacket was painted using the good old drybrushing method, just like those suitcases. A few extra controlled highlights were required, but it was fairly simple. The rest was done using my standard pre-shading and glazing method. 

These were a blast to paint, especially the loader in his gree...

Early video

It's airbrush time! 

Stowage time!

My friends, continuing with the "paint everything with acrylics first" approach (just for fun), I painted every piece of stowage. Oh, how naive I was thinking it could be done in one day, just like chipping! 

I had to repaint some pieces because they weren't fitting into the overall composition. My goal was to make the stowage as civilian looking as possible, to show that everything was "found" by accident. 

What really paid off was base coating most of the stuff with bl...

Sheeping in one day? Shur, y not

My friends, I had some quality bench time the other day... because the result is a completely chipped model :) 

Now, there's one undeniable fact... yes, the chipping on this model, and the more recent ones as well, isn't as refined and perfectionistic as it used to be. No more 70-hour chipping marathons, that's for sure! The reason for that? Well, it was this technique that was the most time-consuming and it was severely hindering my progress on every model. To make more compact vi...

HD photos (reupload)

My friends, I had to reupload and adjust these photos because the tank isn't as saturated and vivid as it was in the previous batch. These should be much closer to reality! 

Markings and stuff

My friends, I had a tooth extracted on Thursday and it's been driving me up the freaking wall ever since, but I managed to finish the base coat on this grizzled JS-2, and it's now ready for weathering!

The decals (stars and numbers) from the kit are fantastic! They needed a bit of time and a lot of decal softener until they were sitting flush with the cast surface, but once they were in place, even the carrier film vanished! 

White stripes were airbrushed over a layer of chip...

Early video

IS-2 build! Well, it's mostly about textures :) 

Some basic paints

My friends, it's painting day. I laid down some basic tones and got it ready for markings and additional shading. What I quickly noticed is how difficult is to shade such a rough steel surface, it's very similar to Zimmerit! 

But at the very least the textures are now singing!!

The base color was 4BO from MRP, my favorite Soviet Green. Then I made it lighter with Tamiya Yellow Green and the final highlight had some Sky added so it wouldn't become too yellow. 

Now I...

HD photos

Heavy stronk tenk in its full motherland glory... right before I disassembled and stripped it down for painting 🤣 

Ready for paints!

My friends, I think the IS-2 is ready! 

Stowage was fun, I used stuff from Plusmodel - the milk cans, a crate, and suitcases, and a mixture of Legend accessories. One thing I totally wanted to add are wicker baskets, also from Plusmodel, but these are so huge they would barely fit on the tank... very strange! 

Tarps are again sculpted from Green Stuff. I just love this putty! It might be highly subjective, but when it's rolled very thin, I think it behaves like real clot...

Early video

Let's talk about models from my childhood! 

Ready for stowage and figures!

My friends, switching the Eduard PE set for Aber was a good choice. It's not just more detailed, but accurate - some details, such as the parts on the inside of the hatches, were completely made up by Eduard. On the other hand, Aber is just not for me... it's for the cool kids when it comes to detailing! Voyager, with their "simplified" approach (compared to Aber) is more user friendly for me. But hey, if you have time and patience, Aber is the dog's bollocks! 

Also, there was no s...

Ready for PE

My friends, the tank is standing on its own, I added some remaining plastic and wire details, assembled the Eduard PE fenders and now it's ready for the final round of PE detailing! The Aber set arrived today so the timing is pretty spot-on. 

What wasn't fun but worth the effort was adding those tiny intermittent weld lines on the fenders. 

What was fun was attaching the Friulmodel tracks because they were already assembled (as I took them from an old model) :D I kept th...