nightshiftmodeller

Early video

Stowage and wires, let's 👏 go 👏! 

Heads up!

My friends, it was a busy day but the gang is finished 😊And these were the best heads I ever painted. Their individual personalities are just a small cherry on top. Just excellent figures from head to toe, a real painting pleasure! 

I also added some weathering on their uniforms. At first I went the acrylic route using the stippling method, but this was taking so long I switched to enamels. Well, at least they match the weathering on the Jagdpanther 😁 And now we can finally p...

Leg update, mail call and dugs bollocks

My friends, thank you for all your nice comments over the past few days! Things have been a little tight and stressful with the upcoming x-ray so I wasn't able to catch up with everyone as much as I'd wanted, but after today's visit things should get better! So I'm finally able to stand on both legs as is documented in vivid detail in the last photo 😆 The leg is 98% healed, but there are still a few tiny fragments missing that need to be "filled and sanded". The doctor says I can put almos...

Pooch time!

My friends, it's time for the real MVP of this diorama 😁And although it was my first time painting a puppy, it was much easier than the skin tones on these figures! Painting arms is more difficult than painting faces... just a long, smooth trunk where you need to create some lights and shadows. Not a great time 😁 

But putting this aside, today is a very important day! X-ray time! And I hope it's gonna be the last one, so wish me luck! Gotta wake up unusually early, so I'll go...

Headless gang is here!

My friends, the crew uniforms are ready and the road to skin tones is clear. Or maybe not, I'll probably paint the puppy first 😁

But to be honest, despite how beautifully sculpted and detailed these Panzer Art figures are, I kinda found them more difficult to paint. Maybe there's a certain threshold for us mere mortals and some details become just too small to paint properly. Now I can see why some figures have overexaggerated details - to make them easier to paint (and actually see ...

A different approach to figures

My friends, here's a different take on painting figures. Before I talk about it, I may or may not repaint the jacket. At the very least, the breast pockets have to be repainted because they turned out atrociously bad! Also, shoes and belt are just base coated :) 

So here's the different approach: pre-shaded with black and white Mr. Surfacer and then post-shaded with Tamiya paints! Yup, Tamiya + Lacquer Thinner, just like on an armor model. And then? One brush stroke on every highli...

Early video

Lower hull, wheels, tracks, dust, dry mud, grime! 

Idea for the next project?

Well, I just placed an order for the Tamiya Mark IV tank, a British soldier figure and two-component resin water. 

Everything about this photo is saying "DO IT, DO IT, DO IT!" 

If there was ever a reason to do 3 new things at once... diorama with water, WW1 tank and a destroyed vehicle??!! 😁 

But okay, I should probably get back to the Normandy diorama! 

HD pictures

Muh furendzzz, this is the final photoshoot before we place kitty in a diorama 😊 

I think this is the finish line

My friends, I pushed forward and finished the whole model, not just tarps but everything else as well 😇

There are wires on the sides and roof, those were used to hold foliage on the vehicle. Adding these was clear from the very beginning, it's a prominent feature on all Normandy vehicles (Allied included), and it adds additional texture to the model. But I won't add any foliage this time, although it would come in handy for hiding some less pleasant areas 😁 Painting the wire was a...

HD photos

Almost finished, we're nearly there! :) 

Hard stowage

A bunch of updates today, my friends 😊 

Starting with the stowage, I painted the "hard" bits, those that aren't tarps... I still need to add the rust tones, dustify them and add some streaking effects. Jerry cans were post-shaded with panzer grey + white and the ammo crate with olive green + dark yellow. The white cross on the water canister was simply airbrushed over chipping fluid, because masking would've been too tedious 😁 The triangular canister was brush painted to look...

Early video

It's washing time! 

Question for y'all

My friends, I'm currently editing a new video, but until I'm done and can get back to all of you, I wanted to ask you something. 

We're reaching 200 000 subscribers on Youtube and 1000 Patrons, which are both amazingly huge milestones, so I was thinking if we could celebrate it with something... else. I'm starting to itch for something I haven't built in a while (or ever),  just to change the pace for a moment, and I made a list of ideas and potential models which I'd enjoy bu...

All dirtied up!

My friends, this time I'm coming with a load of photos from a new phone with better camera 😊 Close-ups are sweet, even better than my DSLR. Besides, the camera on the iPhone XS was getting a bit outdated, so I upgraded to 12 Pro (the new 13 is out of stock everywhere). 

So now there will be better photos and in other news, I've got the weathering done. Stowage was left until the very end because I want to try if it's going to be a better approach. The problem I always experience...

Dustify!

My friends, weekend is over, late summer is here (what's the correct term in English anyway? When there are a few sunny, warm days in autumn? Is there a term at all?)

Anyway, it brought some inspiration! Inspiration for a dry, dusty look for the Jagdpanther. After all, it operated in Normandy during summer of 1944 and the historical photos show it almost completely covered in dust. Well, dusting the upper surfaces of any model ain't no quick job compared to something like a lower hull o...

Running gear = done

My friends, the weathering starts at the bottom. It'll go as follows: lower hull and running gear, then tracks, and finally the upper surfaces. 

Since Normandy 1944 is more of a "dry" theme, I'm trying to keep the dark earth tones at bay. Whether it's a success or a fail, well, you decide 😁Generally speaking, the lower hull is mostly hidden out of sight on most tanks, so it requires more contrasting effects. We'll see how it's gonna turn out once the tracks are in place.

T...

Early video

Let's get ourselves in a chippy mood! 

HD photos

As Dalai Lama once said, the camera is ruthless and it'll show every blunder in your work and make it look 10 times worse. Considering what I did and described in the previous update post, these pictures are especially painful for me 😁 

But gosh, worse things can be turned into a nice result, right? I'm sure it'll be alright in the end! Just... in the meantime, don't look too much on the right-hand side of the tank, alright? 😁 

This just in

My friends, my package from China finally arrived. Pretty "soon" considering I placed the order in August 😁 But it was held at customs for 10 days, although in the end I wasn't charged any extra money. 

So, this might be the most exciting kit I've ever laid my hands on. A fully 3D printed AMX-50 in 1/35th scale from Resinscales. Not a printed master which is then re-cast in resin, this is a unique, raw 3D print. It's crazy to see what the technology can do! 

What's so...

Good news!

Good news, everyone, I'm bringing you bad news! Wait, that didn't make sense... or did it?

Good news: I've got the JP ready for dust and mud effects. I've also got the washing and rusting video ready. I've chosen the main viewing angle for the diorama. And I've received something very cool in the mail, and I'll show it to you later today.

Bad news: I'm sorry for being so irregular with the updates. I try to up my working pace a notch, but something from real life always gets in th...

Rust tones

My friends, it's rust washes over chipping as usual, and as always it's about keeping them subtle so they're not evident from a normal viewing distance.

With three colored camouflage it gets trickier because they're less evident on green and brown and as such need additional blending on the yellow areas. Going over them two times with enamel thinner usually works just fine. 

Streaking Rust Effects were used on the tank while Oxide Patina oil paint played the main role on oxid...

HD pictures

Photos from Thursday night... video editing days are intense 😁 

The DSLR captures the model as close to reality as possible. I have to make more color corrections in the video compared to other models, and phone camera goes completely crazy most of the time, so it's a very good thing we have these proper shots 😁 

Pinwash 🤯

My friends, yesterday I started with the pin washing stage, but the oils were taking their time while they were draining on a cardboard palette, so in the meantime I painted a bunch of details - and as usual, all of them are grey 😁 (pardon the photos, the phone camera is starting to go all coocoo from the different colors and contrasts). 

It took me a while to choose which paints to use, I ended up with Industrial Earth for the dark shadows over brown and green parts, and Raw Um...

Early video

Some shady business going on here

It's that time of the year!

Also, don't forget to grab your supply of birch seeds! They're the easiest source of scale leaves. Not very accurate, but they're free, and they make for an excellent ground scatter. They're just starting to dry up, so it's the perfect time to go out and collect them before they're all gone in the wind 😁

Chipping overload

My friends, it wasn't a day, but two days ain't bad either, right? 

Light chips were all applied with a sponge. I tried this approach on the BMR, Pz II, and T29 and it works well enough. It's not as pretty as brush-painted chips, but this year has proven to me that steel chipping will tidy it up nicely. This color was mixed from AK 3rd gen Dark Yellow and a few drops of Pale Sand. I used a brush for some of the hard-to-reach parts and due to my laziness, I used only pale sand for t...

Zimmerit chipping

My friends, Zimmerit is now completely chipped and I can move on to the steel chips. To my horror, the second vaccine shot got me pretty hard and I felt like your regular sick person during autumn thorough the entire weekend - tired, muscles and joints aching, etc. 

But today it was all gone so I could focus on modeling again. At first the process was rather... painful? But after getting 50% done I found a nice workflow so the rest was really fun.

So yeah, now onto the steel ...

Early video

Big kitty, panzer kitty

Zimmerit chipping

My friends, after finishing the airbrushing video the other day I was very enthusiastic to get back to the workbench! Well, here's what I was able to pull off today, not much, I know :) But hey, I slept for 5 hours, woke up early and got my second vaccine (because my broken leg kinda got in the way before). So maybe it's the lack of sleep or the vaccine (or both) but I'm completely unusable for the rest of the day 😁 

But I'll get back to it tomorrow, refreshed and everything, an...