nightshiftmodeller

Let's give it another shot

Edit: well... still no luck... I'm so sorry for this inconvenience, I'll be trying my best to resolve it as soon as possible!

There were some issues with photos the other day. The two previous posts just show miniature previews but they won't open... I wrote an e-mail to Patreon support but didn't hear back from them yet. So I figured let's try if these pics will do any better....

Crusader is done, now what?

Hey friends, I wanted to create a poll but it shows pictures really stupidly, so you'll have to vote through comments... 

What's gonna be next? The mangled Valentine Mk IX or the Object 279 which I already have fully built and ready for paints? 

Also, I'm so sorry, but I'm still working on those last 2 Crusader videos. Road signs are already exported and done, and I'm now gonna prepare clips for the vignette video so I can finish it tomorrow. 

Finally!

Phew! That's a lot of photos, but I think every one was worth the time and effort! 😁 I couldn't decide which photo should take the "front page" so I'm giving you the overall action shot, but the second detail picture is honestly my favorite!

So this photo set makes the project officially over... well, I still have to edit the video tomorrow. I spent today editing the road signs video, uploading on Youtube, editing pictures, etc etc. 

But hey... I hope you'll enjoy these pi...

HD pictures vol. 1

Hello friends, here are first HD pictures of the road signs. I'll post more photos of the finished scene later - it's a lot of material to go through, almost 7 hours of footage for both videos, but I'm trying my best to get it all done asap. Thank you for your patience 😊

Well, we're done!

So here it is my friends, the whole scene!

What a fitting day to end this summer project, as temperatures got so low today I had to wear a hoodie outside. 

So what are my final thoughts... I don't know 😆 I'm happy to have another model with a vignette done. Using new tools like the foam cutter and static grass applicator made this one a lot more fun, and some of the new techniques I learned from FAQ Dioramas book totally paid off in my opinion (BTW I also bought the FAQ Sn...

Signs are in place

Well hello my friends, hope y'all had a fabulous weekend! I'm still quite beat up from yesterday, went for a big ride, 50km loop with 1100m vertical elevation without any food and too little water. Started bonking half way and just barely made it down the last trail to my car (see third pic of me dead  💀)  Lesson learned for future rides!

Anyway, today I finished the signs - some chipping on the metal ones, painted the wires and then gave every chip and metal surface a rust...

How about deez signs

Hey friends, I'm sorry for not posting yesterday. Had to sort out and deal with a bunch of crap that just piled up into one day... and needless to say, it didn't leave me with much time or will to  do modelling. 

But hey, even though there was some of it today as well, I decided to be dedicated, "professional" and whatnot and just GRIND IT.

Well, I think it brought some results, as the signs are almost finished. Basically what's left is to add some steel chips on the met...

Early video

Chipping and details! In other words, tons of work! 

https://youtu.be/m5qPaxS80Og

Terrain = done

Hellooo friends! The terrain is finished I think. I weathered it completely with enamel paints from the Ammo Heavy Mud and Splashes range. Two were the same as on the Crusader, but I added one darker tone for some of those more contrasting areas.

At first I went with this approach: let's add a light dust tone on the road and darker ones on the sides and be done with it. Easy, right? But it lacked detail, it looked bland. So I took inspiration from Volker Bembennek who's becoming one of ...

Base colors

Hey friends, here's a quick update from yesterday! Blocking in the base colors takes surprisingly long so it's not finished yet, but here's the progress: I "nailed" the wooden signs together (wanted to add as much detail to them as possible), then the whole base was sprayed with a combination of Desert Yellow, German Grey, Buff and Deck Tan, grass was painted with a mixture of Park Green and Olive Green, and then I started brush painting the individual stones with Vallejo paints. This takes l...

Do you know the way?

The signs might help 😁

Needless to say, the base is ready for painting and making those signs was a blast. But also boring. Cutting and texturing wood planks from styrene is always boring! 

But damn, I think this base will be much better than the one under the Sherman. I guess I'll start by painting the groundwork which should be pretty straightforward and only then I'll paint the signs, which are removable. 

You might see a few places where they sit kinda awkwa...

Groundwork done

Hello friends, hope you had a wonderful weekend! 

I didn't do anything over the past two days, but I'm including a few photos of what I've been doing and where I went - they're at the end of this gallery. 😊 

Sorry for not getting back to you sooner, but I was quite exhausted and overwhelmed with all the stuff people do over the weekend.

Today I went back to the bench first thing in the morning to get the groundwork done. This meant adding more fine sand and ston...

Base

So... it's time to start another base 😁

I've put the foam cutter to good use today, and working with it was just amazing. I started by sketching the basic base dimensions on paper and then I cut the base according to that - so no more "working with what I had", this one was tailor-made 😆I decided to keep the terrain profile simple, just a small hole on one side and I made the road slightly off-camber to make it more interesting, but not too evident. All easily done with the hot wi...

Early video

Let's find out how much can be done with just one bottle of enamel wash 🤔

https://youtu.be/NK7aGfm6uBE

HD close-ups

Alright, that's all. Now I need to edit the video 😁

HD photos

This is the first round - close-ups coming next! 

Finally Fully Finished

Well, my friends, it took me a few hours longer to finish it so I didn't post any progress last night - basically all that was left after yesterday was to add the antennas and a few glossy stains here and there - nothing significant so I didn't want to post two almost identical updates. 

I spent a good amount of time thinking what else to add, but in the end I felt like there's simply nothing that could make it more interesting. 

So the finishing touches were as usual - ...

Almost done?

Hello friends! So after a weekend spent doing other things I kinda did a lot of work today... but it also wasn't a lot actually... basically just the whole dust thing around the entire model including the tracks and then I just used the same DAK wash as before to "refine" it with some speckling and another round of pinwash around hatches and other deep details.

Now I think it's a good idea to let the model "sit" until tomorrow so I can easily figure out if it's missing something. Obviou...

Dust!

Hello friends, so I already started adding dust on the model. Now this was, or seemed like the most intimidating task for me, because I didn't want to hide all the previous effects. My goal is to make it look dusty so it obviously won't look out of place on the base, but at the same time I want to keep it subtle so it won't be overwhelming.

Well, I spent a lot of time thinking what mediums to use and how to approach this task. I ended up going completely with enamels from Ammo and what ...

Early video

Here's some post-shading fun! 

https://youtu.be/FD9AcHBnUq4

HD pics

Well, I must say the tow cables are really making this model look heavy!

Also, these pictures revealed that I indeed got carried away a bit with rust effects, especially towards the back, but now I at least know where to start with dust effects 😁

Anyway, I just finished editing the video, I'll get back to y'all tomorrow morning! 

This also arrived

I've been also receiving packages every day lol... so... stowage and wooden crates from Eureka XXLL, fenders and details for the Valentine, and damn.... Russian tankers!!! Well, one tanker actually.... there's only one figure inside. I suspect the set wasn't packaged properly because these figures are also sold individually... I contacted the seller on eBay and he promised to send me the missing figure as soon as he restocks Alpine figures... fingers crossed because I paid ridiculous 36€ fo...

Details done

Hey friends, the details are finally painted and the model is now ready for dust and earth tones. 

Tarps were painted with the wet palette which made things much faster and easier, except the sandbag which was just too flat for me to add any contrast to it. So instead I just randomly added some highlights using the stippling method which created some interesting results. 

Also the searchlight was painted with light and dark greys with a hint of blue, and although the res...

Details...

So I took care of all the details that are usually painted grey... and as we might already know, there are usually lots of those 😁 Rubber wheels, periscopes, headlights, machine guns, metal tools, even tow cables. Tow cables can be either painted in the same color as the tank or more usually in a natural metal color. Most of the time they have some sort of lubricated core to prevent corrosion, but I gave them the same metal look like I normally do with all metal components. An earth colore...

Trying to be subtle again

Hey friends, another weekend behind us! I only did some work in the evenings, because it was hot and sunny - perfect weather to be outside, but the rust tones are done. I again tried to be subtle so I only applied them over the largest chips or where more chips are close together, and blended the effect a lot. 

I'm hoping to have it ready for dust tones today. That means painting the tow cables, headlights, tools and roadwheels. Doesn't sound like too much work, but I can already t...

Early video

Crusader build! I still don't have a thumbnail :)

https://youtu.be/-ophELCAr-8

Grass cannon

I also gave the static grass applicator a quick try, and it works perfectly! 😊

Chipping done

Hey friends, so yesterday I only managed to chip the stowage (it takes longer than one would think!) and today I'm gonna start adding some subtle rust tones. Yesterday was a bit busy and seems like today won't be any different, because my 100K youtube award is stuck at the customs department, so yeah... great... 😐

Ok, this is actually quite subtle

And I'm not even gonna lie, I'm pretty happy about it! Because these chips are actually quite tiny compared to, let's say, the Sherman or T-90. And doing two-layer chipping in 3 days? Not bad! 

I think the main trick behind this better brush control is that I unloaded the brush twice each time before touching the model with it. First on a napkin like usual, but then also on my hand like you can see in one of the photos. The rubber surface can leech out more paint than paper which w...

I'm trying to be subtle here...

... but it ain't working 😆 Nah, I think this time the chipping will actually be much more subdued than usual. I won't be filling all the light colored chips with steel tones, because these light ones already provide some contrast and visual interest, especially on the black parts. 

These were all brush painted with a mix of Buff + White Vallejo paints, and then I gave the whole model a very, very diluted speckling with Light Buff oil paint. Looking at the pics there are a few sp...