nightshiftmodeller

3D printable fuel canister

My friends, tonight we have a brand new 3D printable accessory, courtesy of Kommi! This triangular fuel canister is modelled at 1:1 scale, so make sure to adjust its dimensions according to your project :) 

Thanks a lot Kommi, you're awesome! 

The file is in the drive below, titled "Triangular fuel can 1/1"

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1Qz8...

Mud tones (finally) done

My friends, heavy mud finishes always take the longest because there's just way too many layers at play. But, BUT! I've finally got them done! 

The pre-dusted upper surface were first treated with the same paints and techniques as the lower hull and running gear. After setting up this base layer, I went over the entire model (tracks and wheels included) with my trusty dark mud mixture (Ammo Earth + Dark Wash + Wet Effects fluid), adding the final effects and contrasts. 

...

Early video

Okay, after my initial skepticism, the washes, chips, and rust tones actually made quite a difference! Enjoy! 

Dustify!

My friends, I had to take a break from my workbench session to show you this mid-stage progress on the earth tones. You know I'm probably the last guy who'd blow his own trumpet, but this time I'm so satisfied because I feel like this is some pretty fine pre-dusting. At least personally I consider it the first airbrushed dust where I don't feel like "omigosh better fix this up real quick with enamels and stuff so it doesn't look like crap" 😁 

Maybe it's the extra practice with t...

Mudify!

My friends, after finding some good inspiration during a walk in a rather muddy forest this weekend I proceeded to weather the tracks. 

I used the same methods as on the lower hull and tracks, and some additional contrast will be added once the upper surfaces are weathered as well. I find it easier to achieve the final balance once every effect is roughly blocked in, so you can expect some additional dark tones, some wet glossy stains, etc.! 😁Next up: the rest of the tank 😁&n...

Gettin' muddy!

Muh friends, my apologies! I don't know what happened, but I just had the weirdest mental block in a long time. As I was getting ready to start adding mud effects to the lower hull, I simply froze in place. I wanted to try a different product (and approach) and I was very unsure about the process and results. But okay, after much struggle I've got the lower hull and wheels (except the sprockets, these will be weathered with the tracks since they're glued to them) weathered. Some additional st...

Early video

Okay, this one is a bit on the short side, but I think it gets the point (and weird thinking) across :) 

HD photos

My friends, the phone camera is getting deceived with every batch of photos, lol. These pics show the AMX how it actually looks like, and oh boy, it looks even sweeter on video, no doubt thanks to the fancy blackground. Enjoy! 😁

Los detailos

My friends, the details, welds, small crap, and all the other things are painted! So this means the frog is ready for earth effects and that's where we'll see if this whole experiment is gonna be an epic win or fail. 

I'm very impressed with the details on the 50 cal. Yup, this is the type of 3D stuff I'd appreciate on any model. The large rusty mesh screens on the rear plate are supposedly exhausts, at least that's what I was able to figure out from photos and World of Tanks rende...

Gettin rustyyy

My friends, the rust effects over chips are done, and I think they're starting to tone down the heavy posh-shading. It's not a heavy oil dot filter that covers up the entire surface, thus toning the effects down, but it's more stuff happening on the model that drags the attention away from the shading. Heck, at least that's my perception - we can often become "blind" by looking at the model every day 😁

There were a couple constructive comments under the last post regarding the mottle...

Early video

Finally, let's kick this year off with a build video! 

PS. If anyone is interested in the grab handle tool, here's a link https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/313801731660 

It's a small production item and there's only 10 available at the moment :) 

Sheeping

My friends, the next step was chipping, all done using the standard approach - sponge for light chips and Dark Rust (Panzer Aces) for the steel chipping. I would've finished this step yesterday, but you know how things sometimes go - you plan a long session at the workbench, but other things come up 😊

Gotta say, narrowing this entire process down to 2-3 days ain't bad at all! Sure, the quality did suffer in some places compared to some previous models where all chips were painted by ...

When a pin wash is (almost) irrelevant

My friends, I decided to kick off this weathering with a wash, and what a bamboozle it was. To get some practice, I started with a few weld beads and it was very surprising to see how they made almost no difference (heavily post-shaded surface doing its job). Then, in some places, the welds turned almost black when I tried to apply more, lol. Luckily I was able to wipe the excess paint off, otherwise, the only fix would be a gentle overspray with diluted camouflage color. 

Luckily,...

The science behind choosing new projects

My friends, here's a small story that happened during the holidays 😁 

As I was waiting for the Christmas dinner, I had some time to kill so I started googling random historical vehicles out of boredom. I found this dope ass photo of an Italian Semovente M40 and immediately thought "I have to build this". So, of course, I looked up the available kits, aftermarket and figures, but as the price started piling up, I hesitated for a moment. Decided to leave the idea to "sit" for a fe...

HD photos

Here are some eye-burning white HD photos 😁 My apologies for the radio silence my friends. Everything's coming back to usual this Friday with an early video. I really needed that break for some peace of mind. 

Back after the holiday break

My friends, first of all, I wish you the best in 2022! Let's hope it'll be finally better than the previous year (or the year before that). As the minutes were closing in on midnight on Friday, I thought about the start of 2021. It felt like a fresh start after 2020, but it ended up being... well, the best way to describe it... 2021 made 2020 feel like a prequel 😆

Back to the workbench now: during the holidays I had some bench time for a while, at least to the point of finishing the ...

It's that time of the year again

My friends, I wish you all Merry Christmas. I hope you'll find something nice under the tree, be it a new kit or something completely different. But more importantly, good times with your family and loved ones! 

Back on my feet! Also, the plot THICKENS

My friends, I can finally walk without a crutch, and it doesn't matter if it's just around the house or it's a long walk outside! You must've sent me tons of calcium because my bones look MINT. So now I can fully focus on regaining all the lost strength in the leg 😊 

In other news, I found some time to outline every panel and detail with the trustworthy black + brown "grime" mixture, and also to apply the first light layer. I was getting tired after the whole day though, so only...

HD photos

Here it's still orange 😁 And the background on these will always remain white. Oh, my eyes, they're burning!!! 😁 

Well, it ain't orange anymore

My friends, you've seen a paintbrush telegraph pole, now get ready for a brush gun barrel! The start of the spraying session was a disaster struck moment, because I've run out of black primer! So I had to prime the hull with mahogany brown. At first I wanted to re-spray it with a black paint, but I thought it would be an interesting test to see how different primers affect the color. The difference is more than noticeable, haha! 

What you see here is the first layer of post-shading...

Pimp my Ateliers de construction d'Issy-les-Moulineaux-50

Muh friends, the AMX-50 is ready for painting! 

The model was a bit bland, definitely a nice canvas for painting, but still... it lacked some extra surface details. So after using the remaining parts from the kit, I went through my spares, hoping to find some useful details.

For example, the 3D printed 50 cal had that "uncleanable" ammo canister, so I added a photoetched lid from a "50 cal ammunition set" from Voyager. Various engineering tools were added, making the tank mor...

Welds, seams, bolts...

My friends, the welding on this tank is really crazy. The entire turret is just randomly welded from various steel plates 😁But I've got that out of the way, as well as some casting seam lines on the mantlet and front hull. 

I also added those handles that were destroyed either during transport or by my poor handling skills, as well as a few missing ones. The smaller handles on hatches survived, so it will be interesting to see how they look all painted up. 

Bolts that...

Lots of scribing and texturing

My friends, the running gear has been successfully snapped off and re-glued into correct position. But another tedious task was scribing! Yes, there are the obligatory weld lines (the turret has some CRAZY welding!), but also some of the panel lines are strangely reproduced as raised details, for example, the entire engine deck. This isn't a limitation of the technology, rather a very strange creative decision. I simply didn't like it, so I rescribed what I could. 3D printing resin is actuall...

More 3D models for your printing pleasure

My friends, these gems were kindly provided by Mac McCartney, one of Night Shift members! 

As usual, they can be found here: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1Qz8uvCPM9AihsbJxO_t19NvahY4SEPAn

Files are: Jerry Can - British, Jerry Can - German, and Flimsy Cans And Crate.

Thank you, Mac, for sharing these with all of us! 

3D model from the future

My friends, so this was supposed to be that quick weekend build before I start working on the WW1 diorama, but...

My initial impressions about the Resinscales kit were way too optimistic. Removing the printing supports from large parts was very easy, just as expected, but the small stuff and especially the entire running gear was a tedious, painful job. No matter how delicate I was, it wasn't possible to safely remove the tracks without damaging them (and later I had to build up the bro...

Early vid in 4K

Just a heads-up, the video is now processed and you can watch it in full res, enjoy! 

3D gutter

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1Qz8uvCPM9AihsbJxO_t19NvahY4SEPAn

My friends, here it is, the file is called "Gutter.stl"

It's quite a rudimentary design, but anyone in dire need of such accessory might find it useful! In the future, when time allows it, I'll design an entire "kit" of gutters

This one can be also printed horizontally, just add suppo...

Slightly better pics 😊

My friends, this has been such a wonderful project. At times it felt like an adventure where you go and explore uncharted territories and discover new things. I can't wait to put this scene into my display case! 

This diorama will also be the final video in 2021. Now I need to clean my entire studio because right now it looks like a small model shop exploded in here. Then, it'll be time to start a new project! 

At the moment I'm totally drained from this diorama and vide...

Picture time!

These photos do it more justice than the video, much enjoy! 😊

Main protagonists!

My friends.... this enormous project has officially reached the finish line and oh boy, it was a joyride and a rollercoaster at the same time. The more I was reaching the end, the more I started disliking the whole thing, the more mistakes I kept noticing, etc etc. But finally completing it... it's a great feeling and there's definitely a strong sense of accomplishment! 

Sadly, just like my personal opinions, the phone pictures kept getting worse and worse, so I'll snap you a few m...