nightshiftmodeller

Tracks and hull are ready!

My friends, it might not seem like much but there's a ton of work in these photos 😁Yesterday I've shown you the running gear assembled, and that night I also finished the tracks. Now these are pretty good, but pretty bad at the same time. They have fairly visible seam lines and in some cases noticeable flash, which is kinda tricky to remove on the Duckbill extensions. So getting them all cleaned up took a few good hours. Instead of using the usual technique where you assemble the whole tra...

Early video

Stowage! And other things as well, but mostly stowage :) 

I'm baaack

My friends, I'm back! 

After countless failed attempts to get a verification code from Google, after contacting Patreon support, I noticed one small hyperlink called "Forgot password?" and long story short, I was logged in a few moments after. 😆

It was an interesting experience. The stress, worries I could lose the entire account for some reason, and manually typing 700+ names into the end credits for the next video... it was... yeah, interesting 😁 

Alrigh, I...

opsie

Well, I’m locked away from my account on my computer (posting through phone app). Google won’t send me a verification code...

I’ll keep trying my luck until it works... I hope you’ll understand when I don’t reply to comments or messages because it would take forever through the phone app 😞 I wanted to get back to you after posting the last update, but I went for a quick ride and when I returned, I was auto logged out and now it’s asking for sms verification.

Oh we...

Turret done (for now)

My friends, I got the turret all welded up including most of the details. I'm keeping the hatches for later when it's time to assemble the figures, and the remaining stuff is just photoetch. Some details look better in plastic though, so I used these from the box. I also ordered a resin 50 cal Browning because surprisingly, the Voyager set comes without it. I find this pretty strange considering the M103 Voyager set has a resin MG. 

Speaking of machine guns, there are two coax 50 c...

Goosebumps!

My friends, this tank is so big it gave itself goosebumps 😆

When I was looking closely at reference pictures, the cast texture on the turret got me so pumped... so I spent an entire day playing with that. The turret has a few wrong contours, especially around the mantlet, but I didn't want to spend time re-shaping that area. It's just a minor inaccuracy. However, the texturing process was a blast! 

The last 3 photos show the turret ready for texturing - what I did there wa...

It's huuuuge!

My friends, this is gonna be a really big model! And I'm so stoked about it! 

But you know what I'm not stoked about? The trademark Takom quality 😆 It's very similar to the Jagdtiger. Now of course the huge gap on the turret was done by me on purpose as I'll fill it with casting seam line, but the hull, especially the back, had some fitting issues. Partly due to the parts not being engineered like on the real tank, partly because the kit just refuses to fit together. 

Small rural building references

My friends, today I'm finally starting the T29! I've been editing, shooting pictures and all the other stuff in the past 2 days, but I managed to snap some reference pictures outside. Turns out there's a ton of ideas for vignettes and dioramas outside, you just have to know what to look for 😁 If you'd like to construct a building for your diorama but you're intimidated by large houses or factories (like I am) then something small and compact is the best place to start! In fact, one of thes...

HD photos

My friends, the finished vignette doesn't look THAT bad on quality photos 😁 Especially when some Photoshopping is involved like in the first one. Enjoy! 

Early video

This is where most of the magic happens :) 

aaand this is what we're doing next!

Because I figured it's been almost a year since we built the Sherman Easy 8 😊

And because it's been a LONG time since we built a what-if model... wait, did we build any? I honestly don't feel like there's been any what-if build on the channel! 

Anyway, I'm very stoked for this one because I have a very clear vision for it... let me just give you a few spoilers... olive drab/black camouflage, additional armor on the front hull (concrete? probably nah, more likely an armor p...

Another base done!

My friends, another project is off the bench! 

How did I tackle the scorched ground effect? I'll leave that up to you! What I can say subjectively, this must be the weirdest vignette I've done so far. The Panzer II looks almost cheerful compared to the groundwork 😆

I'm personally quite pleased with the results... it definitely has some character. I worked with several reference photos for scorched grass (mostly large burned meadows), and in fact the whole groundwork, inclu...

Some progress

My friends, I wanted to update you last night but the dark earth washes in the ruts took forever to dry and stop being glossy 😁

By the way, the road is probably finished. As you'll be able to see if you click through all the photos (in reverse order as usual), it was quite a wild airbrush game! The base coat looked like crap but hey, I followed the usual rules and used the same dust colors like I did on the tank. They probably turned a bit too vivid but hey, enamel washes can do mira...

Base, terrain & vegetation!

My friends, today was a nice change from yesterday's epic fail with figures. Creating a terrain must be one of the most relaxing things! (As usual, photos are in reverse order)

Now if you feel like the vegetation feels somewhat "dead" (the trampled grass, just a few tufts here and there), it's no coincidence. This time we're going for a scorched earth vignette! Now it's probably more understandable why I wanted that sad tired soldier in the scene. 

I'm actually recreating a p...

Figure(s)

My friends, it's been quite an eventful weekend, but it brought another "disaster struck" moment! 

The idea for the Panzer II vignette was to try some plastic figures from Dragon. I remember them being top quality back when I was a kid, and from what I've seen on the internet, they do look quite good when painted properly! 

Another thing that drawn me to them are poses - most resin figures on the market seem to be just soldiers or tankers standing... I don't know why, bu...

Early video

Let's gooo, Panzer II restoration! 

HD pictures

20 photos of the finished Panzer II, enjoy! Next on the menu: base and figures 😊

... and done!

My friends, it was a tough day! Luckily I started to feel much better in the afternoon and then it was just a matter of sitting down at the workbench and adding the finishing touches. That was probably the hardest part, but once I picked up the brush it was a great time! I think that this time it was just an unlucky coincidence, those final cursed moments of each model when I'm overthinking stuff combined with not feeling so great, but hey all is good again! 

In fact I was able to ...

Almost done, but...

My friends, I managed to finish the lower hull, which was quite simple. As there already is textured mud applied and that's covered with pre-dusting, I only had to apply some darker earth tones with enamel Ammo mud. 

It's that phase again... when I spend more time thinking what to do and if I didn't forget something! But considering how subtle everything about this model is, I think it's safe to say the only missing thing are some fuel and grease spills, smoke on the exhaust and so...

It was an uphill battle

My friends, this stowage gave me a hard time! Most likely because it was my first time painting resin stuff (alright, I painted the two large tent rolls on this model in the past, but that doesn't count 😅), but hey, I feel like the result is mostly-somehow-probably-partially presentable. 

First lesson learned: no, it's utter nonsense to paint the stowage after pre-weathering. I needed to apply a layer of chipping fluid and dust mixture over all of it, so yeah, way to waste a ton...

Rust tones

My friends, with another video out of the way it's time to make some progress. Today I managed to put all the rust washes in place. Well, it was just one rust wash because I only used Streaking Rust Effects. So this makes the chipping finished and tomorrow I'll start painting the stowage. 

What I noticed while blending the rust tones is how they behave over Panzer Grey. While they add a ton of depth to green finishes, they can turn a grey finish into something that just looks like ...

HD pictures

When I look back at the previous HD gallery, one thing is for sure: the Panzer Grey didn't get buried under a layer of dust 😁

Onward to stowage painting and other stuff! 

Early video

The BMR-3 is already done!! 😱😱😱

Looks pretty much finished doesn't it?

My friends, the pinwash was more complicated on this one! But as a reward the model looks like it's already done, except some small bits and stowage of course. 

So what was different this time... I don't know if it was the old wash bottle or the surface of the model, but somehow it was more difficult to blend. Not that it was hard to wipe off, but it kept leaving visible remnants of paint which required more effort to remove completely. As such, I had to work in very small sections...

Finally some dirt!

And the camera is now getting even more confused 😂 Poor phone has to deal with a cold blueish grey on the Panzer and a warm earth tone. 

But hey, now we have a general idea about the weathering! As you can see I painted the spare tracks and exhaust beforehand, that's another reason why I postponed the pre-dusting because I wanted to hit 2 birds with one stone and get the spare tracks and exhaust almost 100% finished including the earth effects. But of course I'll be adjusting th...

Ready for pre-dusting

My friends, it's been a couple of busy days but I made sure to put some work into this model. As it stands right now, it's ready for some textured mud on the lower parts and a round of pre-dusting over hairspray. Then it'll be all ready for a pinwash and rust effects. So basically, I have all the chipping and detail painting done.

Now my idea with this model is to get the chipping and details out of the way before the weathering even begins. I've gotten this idea while I was painting th...

Chipping

My friends, I spent more time on the last video but I think it will be worth it - that's why I got delayed with progress on the model. I also got a new camera because I wanted to try a camcorder instead of mirrorless, so I was getting used to it and it took some time too. The bottomline is - footage from the camcorder is so sharp it's almost uncanny, it shows things I can't even see with my own eyes 😅

However, I'm back at the workbench and this time I started with chipping! Here's a ...

HD pictures

Alright, gotta keep these so we can go back and look at the Panzer Grey after it gets completely covered with dust 😆

Early video

This is where it all gets tied together! 

Oh boy

Behold the power of varnish! It toned the shading down a LOT! Note to self - add varnish into the paint every, single, time. 

I'm sorry for the delayed update my friends, yesterday wasn't very productive. But the Panzer is now ready for the next stage, but first I want to wrap this progress into a video. 

So what I did since the last update - painting small details with a light grey paint mixed from Vallejo, spraying all the stowage details in different colors, but just ...