nightshiftmodeller

Brick and old wood references!

My friends, rural architecture is my new favorite thing and here are some gems I found in my village 😁

Some of them were used as references for the barn - especially painting and weathering. But it's safe to say that I'll use some patterns, shapes and details from these in my upcoming projects. 

Bricks and mortar are like steel textures and welds on a tank - so many different textures, patterns, shapes... especially when builders were very "open minded" like in some of the...

Here's some basic colors and vegetation 😊

My friends, I've got the "construction" finished and I already managed to lay down the basic tones with an airbrush!

The grass is a mixture of 3 different lengths all applied with the static applicator except the longest grass, which is around 1 cm and thus very hard to apply with the magical sprinkler. So I simply grabbed it with tweezers, dipped into PVA glue and stuck it into the ground. I also added a dead tree branch from a dried up root, some PE plants and sea foam twigs plus a bu...

Diorama is finally taking shape!

My friends, it's happening, every element of the diorama is starting to come together!

This time I actually had to make the side walls from balsa wood, and it's because the back of the house is made from wood - and to make it seamless with the base, it's walls also need to be made out of wood. And I think it's a great material after all. So far I've been avoiding it because of all the cutting, sanding, gluing and whatnot, but in the end it's probably less work than coating raw styrofoam...

We're ready to put the diorama together!

Mah friends, the barn is ready, and oil paints are truly magical beings! I probably gave it a very rotten look, but damn I really wanted to try all these new interesting techniques 😁There was only one enamel paint used on this project, Slimy Grime for those green mossy areas at the bottom, everything else is just acrylics and oils. 

The moss on the roof is Fine Turf from Woodland Scenics sprinkled over PVA glue and then painted with US Field Drab from Vallejo, it gives it an int...

HD pictures

Mah frens, it's about time to put this big old thing into the diorama and wrap up this gigantic project (and of course, hide all the work behind the tank 😂) 

PS: yes, I slightly polished the metal hinges with a pencil AFTER taking pictures 🤭

Early video

Here we go, building a building! 

P.S. We'll try another brick method on the next house! 

I wanted to title this post "morning wood" but...

... it's kinda late for that! 

Apart from that, my friends, this was actually pretty tough! There's just WAY too much color variation in old weathered wood and you can quickly get lost in all of it. In short, it's all possible shades of grey with some other extra colors mixed in. Unlike bricks, mortar, or even roof, this takes a LOT of time! And it was, at least for me, difficult to know when to stop. But probably when you start going back over things you consider done... then it's...

Brick hype!

Mah frieeends, I'm so hyped right now because I just had that moment we all know, when nothing seems to work and suddenly you do one thing and it all clicks together, just like that! 

To put it shortly, I applied the mortar lines with an airbrush over a layer of chipping fluid, I used a grey color, and this didn't work very well. They were kinda "soft" looking, so I went over them with the same color applied with a brush. Better! Then I didn't like the brick colors at all, the over...

Lifecolor rust set saves the day, again!

Mah friends, today was all about airbrushing with acrylics (the photos are in reverse order as usual). Now we're ready for mortar, lichen on the roof and who knows... it's supposed to rain tomorrow so I'll have plenty of time to do stuff, so maybe I'll manage to base coat the wood as well! 

I decided to do all the base coating with an airbrush. Yeah, one would've thought I'd paint every brick individually with a paintbrush, but I didn't feel like doing that at all... and in fact, a...

HD photos

The barn in all its raw unpainted... glory I guess 😁

Early video

QnA time, and it's a long one, so make sure to tune in while you're at your workbench! 

We're ready for paints!

Mah friends! Another project which took way longer to assemble than it probably should is done and ready for the paint booth. 

There were many details which I wanted to add, most of it being just pointless crap if I'm being honest, such as all kinds of additional braces on the doors, broken pieces of wood on the roof timbers, but 1) it would just make the whole thing more busy (which wouldn't be necessarily a bad thing) and 2) I wanna keep some of those ideas for more buildings! Be...

Roof tile 3D model

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

Such a small thing, but if you print it enough times, you can make your own 3D printed roof! 😊 

I designed it to be printed vertically - the thick part on the inner side serves as a base for supports. Just orientate it at 90 degrees, add around 6 light supports, duplicate it enough ...

The amount of tiles is through the roof!

Mah friends, first of all, thank you for your encouraging comments on the last post regarding the off-center barn doors! I can now sleep much better! 😊

Doors aside, the roof is done! In fact, almost everything is done except a few small things - doorknobs, hinges and the last remaining window. Then it's off to the painting booth! 

To my delight, the 3D printed roof tiles are pretty good and fit together like they should. I don't know exactly how many are there, but I had t...

Some woodwork and other bits

Mah friends, the brickwork is finished, but that's not all! I also started 3D printing the individual roof tiles, added a base for the roof, cleaned up the rear "invisible" wall and also did the attic. 

First things first, I stippled plaster all over the bricks, thicker plaster works better as it doesn't leave as many bubbles and empty spaces - but hey you can vary the neatness of the mortar with this. I then wiped it down with a moist sponge and did some extra clean-up with a stif...

Early video

Figures! And like I mentioned earlier, next week is a small break, so don't forget to post questions for the Patreon QnA video, you can drop them in the comments :) 

Barn's growing!

Mah friends, there's some progress 😁

First and most obvious thing - I've got the brickwork done. Tomorrow I'll fill the gaps with plaster. Now I gotta say that my workmanship on the smaller shed is kinda shady, I realized it halfway through but decided to just go with it. Instead, I made the brickwork more neat and tighter on the barn - as if it was built earlier and the shed was done additionally by a drunk craftsman. Heck, there's a brick wall in my village with every brick pattern...

Brick shed, let's go!

My friends, it's time for some construction work, and luckily I won't run out of bricks because I've made a few thousands of them 🤣

There's also a real life reference photo which I'm loosely replicating, just the ground won't be so bright and happy! I think this will be very interesting, there's so much stuff to do but I already have a somewhat clear plan in my head. So I won't go too much into that because who knows how it'll all end up, but let's talk about bricks. 

Well...

April weather got me like...

My friends, it seems like I've caught some spring flu or something. Don't worry, it's not Covid, I just feel under the weather and tired all the time. Instead of editing I spent most of the weekend in bed binging Netflix 😒 But I finished the video today so tomorrow I'll start working on the diorama. Time to bring on those brick buildings! 

In other words, I've decided to finally take that break everyone kept talking about for the past few weeks 😄 So after the figure painting ...

HD photos

It's that time again... when large photos don't do my figures any favors! 😅

Also, I've got some seasonal flu or something during the weekend so I'm pretty under the weather and tired all the time. This means we'll definitely have to take a break after the video with these gentlemen. 

In other words, it's gonna be time for another Patreon Q&A video, so please ask away anything you'd like and I'll answer it in detail in two weeks from now! 

Early video

The grandiose conclusion to this tank! 

The boys are ready

Ah, that sweet moment when you think "oh I only have to paint a few tiny details" and then you spend 2 hours painting 2 tanker helmets 🤤

Yes, it takes a lot of time, and a lot of different paints to finish every small detail (the palette in photo 2 was only used for helmets and boots).

As for their weathering, I'll just leave that until the diorama is finished, it'll be easier to integrate them that way :) 

At first I didn't even want to paint boots on tanker figures...

So guys we did it

Painting faces is officially fun! While the first head on GI Joe took me like... 5 hours to paint, these were smooth sailing compared to that. You know how it goes with first attempts (in this case second after a LONG time)... you're finding out what works and what doesn't, then you spend time fixing errors etc... and when you immediately repeat the process afterwards, you just put all the good stuff you learned on the first one to good use. In this case it was two times in a row! And to give...

Well hello there!

My friends, GI Joe finally has a face! I got the 2 other guys about 30% in, but they look dull as hell at the moment so I'll leave you with this gentleman for now. 

As I'm looking at these photos it feels like I could add a few more very bright highlights to his face in a similar way like I did on his hands, but I'll leave that for tomorrow. 

The process is kinda interesting, it's Brown Sand as a base coat again, then a heavy wash with Cavalry Brown again, and then inste...

The group is taking shape

My friends, the foundation is there! I got all uniforms painted including some details. The most difficult part was definitely the insignia... I still get shivers when I think about it! Especially when it varies from sculpt to sculpt, for example the GI has his rank pretty messed up on the raised arm - unfortunately there's not much I could do there. 

As for the painting process... what can I say, you can look at them from left to right and see how I kept adding more and more contr...

So I figured I'd drop you an update

My friends, last night I pulled a long session until 2am but it has definitely brought some results. 

Let me say it again, airbrushing the base coat is an awesome method, it makes the whole process so much easier! But it's definitely not some kind of magic shortcut. For example, I spent 6 hours on the loader guy in HBT coveralls picking out lights, shadows and details with a brush. 

But now we're getting into a small trap which I was expecting and afraid of - as expected...

Early video

Feel exhausted yet? 

The gang is getting ready for some action

My friends, two days have passed, two videos have been edited, and today means it's time to start painting figures! 

Let me start with the most exciting part, I'll be painting them with an airbrush! Not entirely of course, it's gonna be a combination of airbrushed lights and shadows (just like post shading on tanks!) and then brush painted details and very fine outlining and refining of those dark and light spots. 

I was very nervous before committing to it, because I ha...

Here's our finished boy!

And a LOT of photos just in case he won't get as much attention once the diorama is finished 😊 Don't worry, there are photos with the entire gun in focus! 

Figures are next, enjoy! 

It seemed unreal, but it's finally done!

My friends, at times it felt like this model will never be finished, but the time has finally come! 

Compared to the last update, there were several things which needed to be done - dry enamel mud on the upper hull, darker damp mud, wet mud and water, grease, oil and fuel stains, polished metal and antennas. 

Now, weather has been fantastic here lately, which meant I spent a lot of time outside riding. And because I missed it so much, of course I wanted to ride as much a...