01.24.08 » Source, Concepts &
Initial Scratchbuilding

I’ve been wanting to make a lighthouse for quite
a while now. One of my original ideas for my Griffon dio was
to place it flying near one. After receiving the UC Hardgraph
Cyclops Set, the idea came back to me. This diorama will feature
a young boy standing off against a team of Zeon soldiers sent
to secure the family lighthouse as a strategic lookout.

This diorama, like my Fireball
one, will take advantage of the vertical space in my display
cases. The base will be small, but the setting will reach
near the vertical limits of my display. I’m estimating this
to be roughly 13-14 inches tall when done. The base is made
from some scrap lumber and will have the lighthouse, rocks,
foliage, derelict rowboat, nautical junk, and other materials
added on top of it.

01.24.08 » The Lighthouse and
Scenery

The lighthouse is being scratchbuilt using an
old drinking cup and spraypaint lid as a base. These were
epoxied together and coated with a layer of stucco texture
get to give the surface tooth for the next step being the
large stone facade. The stones are slowly being added in sections
with Amaco Marblex air-drying clay. Thin slabs are being applied
to the outside then the brick pattern sculpted in. The bricks
don’t need to be too detailed as I’ll later apply the mortar
and a layer of in-scale-stucco to the outside.

The
arched door and boat are made from thin basswood. I used some
techniques I learned from Chuck
Doan’s website to paint and detail it to this point. I
still need to make some black iron hinges and handle to the
door and oar supports to the boat. The boat is based on plans
for a
single-sheet plywood rowboat here. I scaled them down
for this dio.

After cutting the wood and gluing it into shape,
I applied a few washes of black india ink thinned with water.
This gives the wood objects an old weathered look.

When that is dry you ready the color of acrylic
paint you want to apply to the objects. I used liquitex and
apple barrel acrylics here. Apply a wash of thinner (I used
mineral spirits) to the wood surface. Just apply to a section
at a time. When that begins to dry, brush on a thin coat or
two of your acrylic paint.

When that dries in a minute or two, apply sticky
tape to the painted surface and pull it off. This lifts the
paint from the wood giving you a great chipped paint on wood
look. Afterwards you can weather it further such as the water
damage added to the bottom of the door.

01.24.08 » PVN.3/2 Zeon Technical

The Cyclops set jeep is small, but has a lot
of detail. The wheels are a vinyl material which have no flash,
but will need the sprue marks sanded down. The front wheels
are “steerable” which is a nice touch and the underside
is nicely detailed. A hatch in the back conceals the tarp
roof and the front hood hatch contains a spare tire. The engine
is located in the rear of this vehicle. The driver and other
figures, like the jeep, are molded in color and are nicely
detailed. The faces are a little soft in the detail area,
but if you wanted you could replace the heads with aftermarket
ones.

The jeep is a quick and easy build however.
What you see above took all of 3 hours to cut, sand, and put
together.

01.24.08 » New Stones

I was messing around with a large piece of plaster
I poured the other day… carving some stones into it. The
stones look so good that I’m pitching what I have so far on
the lighthouse and starting over with an all-plaster version.
To do this I’ve poured plaster into the same shape cup I was
using on the first. Then later I’ll carve the stones into
it with dental tools, then tap with a wire brush. It’s easy
to carve, looks MUCH better/more real and has inspired me
to do a natural stone lighthouse instead.

To paint the stones I thin some india ink and
various Apple Barrel acrylics. First I brush on a thin layer
of the paint, then a thin layer of the ink. Less-thinned ink
makes darker stones. More thinned paint and ink makes for
lighter ones. For the mortar between I just rescribe into
the bare plaster to reveal the natural white, then paint the
bare plaster with a thin india ink/paint mix to tint it. Follow
it all up with a coat of prepared matt medium and viola!

01.29.08 » Blistering Heights

After 4 days of carving then roughing up with
a wire and nylon brush, the lighthouse tower is complete.
And I havea few blisters from all that carving to prove it!
Here’s pics. Next up is the upper deck and light components.

01.30.08 » Top of the Tower

Today I finished painting the stones and started
work on the top part of the lighthouse. After looking at several
lighthouse photos I decided to go with a decagonal (10-sided)
shaped top. The thin I-beams will hold clear plastic for the
window panes. The T-beams around the outer perimeter are the
supports for the balcony floor which will be wooden planks
like a deck. You can also see that I have one of the 2 windows
installed on the tower.

02.02.08 » Land Ho!

Happy Groundhog Day! How appropriate then that
this update deals with the groundwork for this diorama. As
seen above, the base is pieces of scrap lumber glued and stacked
to make a sturdy platform. Added to this was rocks made from
plaster. These were made using the Woodland Scenics rock molds
purchased at my LHS. They look great and paint up beautifully.
Once the rocks and such were glued in place, I covered the
base in celluclay to blend in the ground to the rocks and
make several sloped areas such as the slope for the stone
steps. These too were made from plaster.

Over the celluclay I sifted a mixture of dirt,
sand, plaster and small rocks. There were pressed into the
celluclay and brushed off of the rocks. Larger pebbles were
added afterwards and pressed in. I then steamed the plaster
coating using my iron to add moisture via a very fine mist
rather than spraying it with a spray bottle which usually
makes drippy messes, pits, and craters for me. Once this dries,
I’ll paint it up and apply some washes and folliage.

02.07.08 » And now some green…

Once all of the plaster/dirt/celluclay had dried
it was time to add the dirt coloring and some greenery. First
I gave all of the plaster/dirt a coat of Prepared Matte Medium
to lock and seal it. Then once dry, I painted the base in
a mixture of real dirt I sifted and water. Basically, paint
with mud. Once again I gave that a coat of Matte Medium thinned
with water aka Prepared Matte Medium. When dry I dusted it
all with various pigment powders such as Russian Earth, Dry
Mud and Beach Sand.

I spent a day or two experimenting with creating
moss. The moss
and lichen tutorial can be seen here. My moss
mixture was applied thinly in spots that are shady and would
recieve some water. I also applied some lichen to the rocks
for added texture/color.

Wooden dows were cut, weathered, mossed and
inserted as supports for a rope railing. The rope is beige
crochet string which was perfect for this. The plants are
a mixture of acrylic-colored and teased out hemp rope, real
sheet moss, real lichen, woodland scenics fine-leaf foliage
and silflor spring grass and flowering meadows. And that’s
just for what’s seen there so far. I plan on raiding the spice
cabinet for some other folliage and litter.

Lastly, here’s the top of the lighthouse so
far. The light cylinder is clear PVC, large styrene tubing
and brass sheet. It sits on the small servo which will spin
the whole thing to reflect the light 360 degrees.

02.07.08 » BRING ME A SHRUBERY!

Nnnnnee! Nee. I needed some small bushes to
fill out some of the dio and bring it to life. Again I turned
to research and found that applying spices (parsley especially
works nice) or dried crushed up green tree leaves to brown
lichen brushed with white glue works especially well. Using
different mixtures of spices or crushed leaves to produce
different colors on different bushes makes for a more random/more
organic look. Unter the bushes I shoved crushed brown leaves
and brown bits of dried moss for the dead stuff from prior
seasons.

The ground leaves also work well for recreating
small creeping plants. My rear driveway ends up with small-leafy
plants that spread out over the asphault, in sidewalk cracks,
and everywhere else that’s bare. Just apply some thinned white
glue where you want these planst then sprinkle the leaves
on it and blow away excess. Kinda like adding glitter to a
kids project.

I also added the veneer to the outside of the
base to finish that off. I used a 1/32″ birch plywwood
from Michaels. I stained it with thinned black ink then applyed
some white drybrushing. When barely dry I then sanded it down
to get a nice old greyed wood look. I think I’ll add rusty
nails to the corners for the final touch. This makes it match
the rest of the nautical/rustic scene nicely.

02.13.08 » Rust Chipped Paint

Since I want this lighthouse to look somewhat
dilapidated I decided to have the paint for the top peeling
and chipping due to rust and harsh weather conditions. To
achieve this look I first primed then painted the parts with
a Tamiya Acrylic drark gray then random coats of Nato Brown
and a rust mixture through my airbrush. Then I gave it a coat
of FFA and let it sit for a day to cure. The next day I sprayed
it with several coats of Hairspray and painted the white.
A few hours later I used water and wet brushes to loosen the
water-soluable hairspray under the paint and create the chipped
effect.

02.14.08 » Jeep Painting Part
1

I’ll be doing this as a step-by-step tutorial
in my blog later, but here’s what I’ve got on the jeep so
far:

1: Primed jeep via airbrush with Mr Surfacer
1000 thinned with lacquer thinner and a few drops of Mr. Retarder
Mild.

2: Sprayed jeep with gray then random swaths
of Nato brown and a rust mixture. All Tamiya Acrylics. Later
this will show through as random rust and primer coats under
paint chips.

3: Clear-coated and sealed jeep with Future
Floor Acrylic (FFA) thinned 50% with Tamiya Thinner.

4: 24 hours later 3 thin coats of hairspray
(hair lacquer) were applied.

5: Jeep was sprayed with Olive green then parts
were highlighted with JGSDF Olive Green which is a little
lighter.

6: A few hours later, using clean water, various
brushes were used to wet the model and loosen the water-soluable
hairspray undercoat. This makes the topcoat of greens unstable
temporarily so that they can realistically be chipped away
with the wet brushes. Other implements (toothpicks, styrene
card shards) can be used on the unstable surfaces to create
line-scratches. Larger areas of paint can be removed as well
as I did on the fenders. Remove as littler or as much as you
want.

02.16.08 » Jeep Painting Part
2

8: Now that the chipping is done, it’s time
for decals. Normally I would coat the whole kit in gloss Future
Floor Acrylic. This time however I just brushed a few thin
coats where the decals would end up. Note the gloss on the
front fenders.

9: Decals were applied and tools, dashboard,
seat cushions, and other hand-paint-necessary bits have been
painted. Mirrors and lights were painted with silver. Later
clear Tamiya was applied where necessary based on the light
color.

10: Now a satin coat of FFA was applied. This
seals the topcoat from firther chipping attempts, accidental
or not and seals the surface for the solvent-based weathering
apps.

11: Next up, three applications of filters have
been applied to all the jeep parts. Filters are kind of like
a wash, but not really… they’re hard to explain, but add
a lot to the depth of a model. For this filter I mixed up
a pale blue-green oil-paint mix with some turpenoid. This
alters the color slightly and blends colors together between
the various colored parts. It also “seasons” or
tooths the surface slightly for the next step, discoloration.
Note also as I go, more and more of the jeep gets put together.
This is based on what needed painted when and with minimal
masking.

02.19.08 » Jeep Painting Part
3

12: Once the filters have dried/cured for 24
hours, it’s time for the discoloration. This technique involves
applying small dabs of various oil colors then blending them
in with a thinner dampened brush. This gives the surface more
variation in color and a more realistic and deep appearance.

13: After the discoloration has dried, about
24 hours, a wash is applied. This wash is a mix of oil paint
to a dirt-color then thinned with turpenoid. This thin wash
is applied to the whole vehicle and all external parts such
as wheels, seats, etc… While it’s drying you might notice
pools or water (thinner)-lines. These can be blended out with
a stuff soft brush before the wash fully cures. Another 24
hours.

14: Next up is pre-dusting with the airbrush.
For this I’ve mixed Tamiya Flat Earth with Flattened FFA to
make a semi-transparent dirt-mix. This is sprayed in very
light mistings where larger amounts of dust would collect.
Side skirts, underside, and the rear pannel. More specific
dusting effects will be added next with pgment powders.

02.19.08 » Jeep Painting Part
4

I didn’t expect to finish this today, but here
it is!

15: The windshield was masked off where the
window wipers would hit. Then the windshield was lightly sprayed
with my Tamiya Flat Earth + Flat FFA mix.

16: The tires were painted in flat black then
had a satin finish applied. Pigments were dusted onto the
wheels and then rubbed off with rubber gloves. This removes
all the pigment except for what’s around raised edges and
in the treads. A little bit of pigments were then brushed
around the road-hitting edge of the tire since it’s been running
on a dirt road and would pick that dirt up.

17: The machine gun was painted in flat black
and given a flattened FFA coat. Powdered graphite was rubbed
over the weapon to give it its gunmetal sheen. After it was
attached to the jeep it had just a little disty pigment applied
since the weapon would generally be removed and kept very
clean and maintained.

18: Pigment powders were applied dry with various
brushes. Thinner was applied to these dry pigments to affix
them to the surface better. The end result is still fragile
and should not be handled much, especially not with bare hands
as that could leave fingerprints in the finish. The underside
and rear panel recieved a lot of pigment, while the rest just
got dust added in specific places. A little powdered graphite
was rubbed onto the floor grates and sides where the crews
feet would rub/polish the surface.

02.21.08 » Lighthouse Details
and Figures

While doing everything else, I’ve been painting
the figures. These take a while since I’m using oils so it
ends up being a process of paint one color or paint some highlights,
then set under a heater vent till tomorrow. All I have left
now is shoes/boots, a little more eye detail, straps/equipment,
and uniform details. There’s decals for some of it that I
can apply then add oils on top of to blend. The red neck detail
and the insignia are decals. There’s also some yellow parts
on the soldiers uniforms that need painted as well.

Lighthouse-wise I added the painted/weathered
door details (minus the bolts for the foor hinge parts), some
chain (since BK liked that in a ref pic) fishing net, and
my buoys. The buoys were made from styrene rods and spheres.
I still need to lay the rest of the grass and flowers.

The fishnet is made from some nylon mesh material
used for wrapping party/shower-favors… can’t recall the
name. (edit: called tulle!) I wasn’t going to use it, but
everything else was way too thick. I wanted something I could
drape, but this wasn’t it. Instead I had to make it into a
roll with some painted beads used as floaters.

The top of the lighthouse is complete except
for the wiring. Waiting on an LED order to finish that part.

02.23.08 » Grass and Bird Poop

At this point the figures are about finished…
just a little drying left before their flat coat and discolorations.
While waiting on them I’ve planted all of my Silflor grass.
This diorama uses 3 different types of Silflor and bunches
of my own home-made tall grass. The Silflor used is “SF72221
Dandelions & White Clovers”, “SF71021 Spring
Short 2mm Lawn”, and “SF72021 Spring High Pasture
8mm Lawn” from the Flowering Meadows and Spring Assortment
sampler packs. These were mixed-and-matched to get a natural
random clumping between the heights and flower density.

In randoms spots I added some of my tall grass.
This was made from short 2″ pieces of hemp-rope which
were dipped/soaked in various water-thinned green acrylics.
After these bits were dry I took a wire brush to them to thin
them out and seperate the clumps. Then they were snipped with
scissors at various angles to randomize the lengths of grass
in the clumps. After that the bottom-side was cut flat across,
dipped into glue and placed on the scene. When the glue is
dry you can ruffle up the grass clumps to get them looking
bushy and blended into the scenery. Using these different
colored clumps within the Silflor makes it more random and
natural.

There’s still a few pieces of grass that are
drying, but while the glue dries, sprinkle the grass with
real sifted dirt. Lightly brush this in so that it settles
on top of and hides the white glue used to hold the grass
down. Later you can press the dirt in more. I found that sprinkling
the grass with crushed leaves/spices makes for some nice random
litter/small plants thrown in.

In this pic you can see some heavy rope resting
in the grass. Glue the rope down first, then plant grass around
it. This gives the rops the look of weight on the grass. Also
in this pic, the grass hasn’t been dirted or teased out yet
so between the flowers and plain grass there’s a definite
line. When the glue dries, this will be teased/blended. The
small hole in the wood is to insert a nail or something to
press the on/off switch for the lights/motor.

And what seagull-ridden natural scene would
be complete without bird poop? I made a small nest using the
same hemp rope cut into small bits. Small plastic Britta balls
were painted and used as eggs and white oil paint with dabs
of gray/black were used for bird poop. You know you’re into
the small details when scale poop is added. You’ll notice
it throughout the scene… that “crap” is a pet-peeve
of mine as I always have to clean that “shit” off
of my kids toys/swingset all summer. Grr.

02.24.08 » Last but not least…

So this will be the final update for this in-prog
thread. At the moment the entire piece is completed except
for the wiring of the motor and LED. Unfortunately I didn’t
oder any LEDs until this past week so I have a few days until
they arrive before I can finish it. In the meantime, here’s
some final images of the figures which are done. Gun-straps
were made from lead foil and boots have since been dusted
lightly with pigments..

I used some Lifecolor Tensochrom “oil”,
“fuel” and “kerosene” to add some fuel
stains to the engine caps.

And here’s a final teaser before wiring and
final pics.

A while back when I had finished up my 1/35 Scale Hovertruck Diorama titled Gone Fishing, I posted it at a number of forums. The editor of the fantastic Czech language military modeling magazine Modelář loved it and asked me to write an article on the build-up. I don’t write or speak Czech, but that was no problem. I wrote the article in English and they did the translations. I might have overdid it with the article being 11 pages in Word, and I’m sure they had a “fun” time translating all of that, but it was a huge project and they wanted every detail described. It appeared in the current “Extra” issue of the magazine and is available now.

I don’t have the issue yet, but they sent me pics of the article to post provided I shrink them enough to be illegible. Modelář is a well known mag in the military modeling world and is full of fantastic build-ups. There’s not any sci-fi in it so the editor wanted to print my work to show how the same techniques one would use on armor and aircraft can be used to do something different. Here’s the shots of the article:

About The Kit »

This is a diorama I had planned for quite a while before actually doing it. This time was spent collecting the kits and stowage that would be needed as well as researching materials for the groundwork such as the Silflor grass and the Castin’ Craft resin for the water. I used prior builds as testbeds for what I wanted to do here such as the Briegel base and the stowage on the Hovertank.

The kits used were two UC Hardgraph Gundam releases from Bandai. The Hovertruck and the Zaku head. I used a few figures from the Hovertruck set and others were from Dragon and Tamiya German figure sets.

06.08.2007 » Concepts/Initial
Progress

I
can’t describe how glad I am that Bandai started
doing a 1/35 scale Gundam line of support vehicles
and ground troops under the Universal Century
Hardgraph (UCHG) name. Really fantastic releases
so far and lets me do Gundam and 1/35 armor at
the same time which just rocks. Best of both worlds!
I’ve had my UCHG releases on my shelf for a little
while now while working on other projects and
planning for this one. This project will be a
diorama of the Type 74 Hovertruck and the Zaku
head.

All of my recent projects have allowed
me to test certain elements of the terrain and
building that I’ve been planning for this amd
now I get to put them all together. The terrain
will consist of a dirt road, a grassy slope and
a rocky stream. The hovertruck will be sitting
on the road while the severed Zaku head will be
resting half in the stream. This will give me
the chance to do some nice rusty effects to the
head. The figures will be resting and taking a
break while on the road delivering supplies or
maybe just making camp for a few days while out
on maneuvers. Below is a diagram I did to map
out what I’m planning. As usual the actual terrain
will probably be modified and shifted as I adjust
to fit the elements into place. Each square is
1 inch so as you can see, this will be a rather
large piece.

I started on the hovertruck first
as I think that’ll take the longest to complete.
I decided to add an interior to this since the
kit does not have one. Pretty surprising since
there’s so many openable hatches and doors. I
found some reference pics of the interior from
the anime and source books thanks to some helpful
folks on the forum. I’m using these mostly as
rough guides and am not going to kill myself making
it anime-accurate. There’s really no need since
the hatches in which you can view the interior
are actually not that big. I guttet out a wall
that had been placed between the driver/nav area
and the rear communications/gunner areas of the
interior as it wasn’t there in the refs and would
allow more visibility of all the work I’m doing.
Here’s some images of where I’m at. Mostly I’ve
got rough parts and areas installed and will detail
them up more later. I had to order some diamond-plate
textured styrene sheet from the LHS since they
were out so much of my next steps are waiting
on me installing the flooring. The chairs in the
front are leftovers from my 1/35 Cobra since I
got resin updates for them.

Lastly is the stowage I’ll be adding
to the rear bed of the truck. I only had 1 of
each of the 2 gas cylinder sizes you see below
so I ended up making molds so I could cast a bunch.
While I was at it I made molds for some other
resin stowage bits and radio equipment from armor
kits to use on the truck.

06.14.2007 » Base

I finished most of the part removal
and nub-sanding for the hovertruck and zaku head.
Still some seams to sand down however on the HT.
For now though I’ve been focusing on the base
as I need it partially ready before I can start
the damage mods to the Zaku head. I started with
some scrap plywood for the base and added some
other scraps to build up the base for the roadway.
Leftover sprue and citrus netting was used to
make a frame for the hillsides and then paper
mache towels were added. Rocks are temporarily
in place until I add the rest of the celluclay.
I used Balsa sheet for the sides of the base and
stained them. I’m in the process of adding the
successive coats of polycrylic to seal them. Once
that’s done I can add the rest of the celluclay.
You can also see how I’m using some wood molding
glue to partially seal the inside of the balsa
from the future wetness of the additional celluclay
which may warp it.

While for now it just looks like
a boring HT and Zaku head, I think it’ll be the
modified figures and their actions that will make
this very interesting. That and the rocky stream.
That’ll be VERY fun and challenging to create.
Here’s some pics:

06.17.2007 » Base
and Stowage

I’ve been making some simple one-piece
molds to create additional stowage for this project.
There’s a lot of room in the truck bed for stuff,
but most stowage sets available for armor don’t
really have what I want, enough of what I want,
or just plain don’t fit right. The Italeri Modern
Battle Accessories set had 2 different sizes of
gas cylinders, but only one of each. Growing up
I lived near a Corning Glass Plant and saw many
trucks carrying loads of gas cylinders. They always
intriqued me so I wanted to recreate that here.
I first made a mold and cast 4 cylinders. Then
I took those 4 (of each) and made another mold
so that I could cast a bunch at one time. I added
a barrel and some small canisters too to fill
up the space. The hovertruck also came with 2
large ammo boxes. They have openable lids, but
for my needs that wasn’t necessary. I took one
and glued it shut and filled in any gaps. I made
a mold of it (and a beer and water bottle) and
made a bunch to use here and for later projects
as well. These are large enough to look good on
1/20 MaK projects too. The beer and water bottles
will be cast in clear resin, having made a new
mold to cast a bunch at once. Then I can paint
them with clear green or brown and the water bottles
will have just a clear blue lid. The resin I’ve
been using mixes clear and dries white. What’s
great is that you can see any air bubbles in these
simple molds and tease them out with some wire
before it sets. Below you can see my truck bed
filled.

Also I finished applying the celluclay
to my base. Now I can start on the damage to the
Zaku head!

06.19.2007 » Figs
and Damage

Next up for this in-progress report
is the Zaku head damage and the figures. I’ve
used figures from a few different sets for this
project. I’ve used the squatting figure from the
Hovertruck (unaltered) and the “relaxed”
figure who will have a new head (gotta sculpt
a new neck) who is laying on a rock. I used two
figures from the Dragon Afrika Korps set as well.
As far as modifying them, they both have caps
that match the Hovertruck figure (included in
the Afrika Korps set, but for the other 2 figs)
and the one who is fishing has a new right hand
that will hold the pole better. The fishing poles
will be scratchbuilt. The tan figure from the
Tamiya German Tank Loading Crew set will be carrying
bags of ice and has had his hair removed. The
box below him will have a tarp inside, and bottles
of beer, bottled water, and ice.

The Zaku head is almost done now
too. I just need to clean up the “d-rings”
and add a rough cast texture. I might dent up
the “nose” too. To make the damage I
used a Dremmel, candle (to bend the plastic out),
and pliars. I made a dent on the top left of the
head by heating that part with a candle and pressing
it in with the handle of my pliars.

Painting and Weathering the
Zaku Head

06.21.2007 » Head
Rust

After the primer on the head had
cured I began the painting and weathering process.
The process of weathering and painting the head
to look rusty and damaged will be a little more
complex than what I do for normal vehicle weathering.
First the parts were primed/textured with a dark
gray Krylon primer. After that cured I sprayed
it unevenly with a rust colored mix of Tamiya
Acrylics.

When that dried enough (a few hours)
I applied mapping and drybrushing with Tamiya
XF-12 J.N. Grey. What is mapping? It’s creating
larger areas of paint and stains to give a multi-dimensional
look to the weathering. Imagine that you’re basically
painting small islands on a map. Below you can
see wone of these spots/islands. Later when I
apply more effects, washes, discoloration/fading,
etc… they won’t be so pronounced. You begin
blending these in by drybrushing around and on
them with the same color.

After the XF-12 mapping I applied
another coat of mapping, but this time with Tamiya
XF-71 Cockpit Green (IJN). This has a great Zaku-esque
color to it and contrasts the rust nicely. This
time the mapping and drybrushing was applied with
bits of sponge where the prior coat was applied
with a few different brushes. After the XF-71
green had dried I drybrushed some more XF-12 over
it to dull the look and help blend it in. Then
small brighter spots of XF 12 were applied much
like negative paint chips here and there. These
greens will basically be whatever paint is left
on the Zaku after the initial damage and sitting
in the rising/falling water for a few years.

And lastly for this update I applied
a gloss then satin coat of Future to seal it,
an earth colored wash, and a flat coat of Future.
Next up is more washes and staining to bring out
the rusty effects and blend in the leftover green
paint.

07.02.2007 » Head
Progress

The head is pretty much done. After
applying some oil paint rust streaking, a wash
or 2, and a flat coat, I applied the pigment powders.
I still think it needs some more, but I wanted
to get it affixed to the base first. Here’s some
pics:

07.04.2007 » Busted
and Rusted

The head rusting is pretty much
done. I tweaked it a bit and added more light
rust streaks. I also added some waterline dirt-marks.
They’re not showing up well in the pics however.
Next up is the scary part… pouring the water
and potentially ruining the head. Scary scary
scary.

Painting and Weathering the
Hovertruck and Stowage

06.21.2007 » Primed
Interior

Here’s some shots of the primed
interior of the hovertruck. When the primer is
cured I’ll be painting this in Tamiya Deck Tan
and weathering it up. I’m using the light deck
tan so that once it’s all closed up you’ll have
a better view since it’ll be a lighter color.
That’s the hope anyway! Plus a lot of real armor
have very light colored interiors. Here’s the
pics:

06.25.2007 » Such
a SHAME!

What a shame… what a shame. The
interior of my Hovertruck is all painted and weathered.
It looks great! The shame is that now I’ll be
closing it up and you’ll only be able to view
it through some little windows. I airbrushed the
entire interior with Tamiya Deck Tan. Then I hand-painted
all of the little details, consoles and such with
various colors. After a gloss coat of FFA, decals
and a satin coat of Future, I applied the paint
chips and then gave it all a light earth colored
wash. Then I gave it a flat coat and added some
stowage, water bottles, maps, modeling mags, and
the Mig FAQ. Here’s a bunch of pics.

I also painted and weathered all
of the stowage since I needed to add some inside
before closing it up. I think all of my recasted
gas cylinders, barrels, and ammo boxes turned
out great. The large wooden box was scratchbuilt,
while the others were from a Tamiya set. Those
were also fun to paint and weather. Overall I’m
very happy with the results. The various colors
and tones of the stowage will add a nice bit of
visual interest to the piece.

07.02.2007 » Fish
and Chips

The hovertruck has been painted
using Tamiya Khaki Drab as a base then lightening
the panels with a lighter mixture of the khaki
drab + khaki + white. After that was done, a gloss
coat and decals were applied. Then a light green
filter followed by the paint chips. I still have
some paint chips to do yet then onto the fading/discoloration.
Since this is a truck/utility type vehicle I want
it to look somewhat “broken in” and
worn.

07.03.2007 » More
Chips

The chips are all done. The scraping
on the front part of the HT was done first with
a brush, then with a sponge. The longer thinner
scrapes are done by drybrushing with the same
sponge.

07.03.2007 » More
Chips

The fading and wash is done for
the hovertruck. The first pic shows just the fading.
The second two show the hull after the wash. The
wash is a dirt color and not real heavy. The dusting
effects with pigments will show off the dirt and
dust later.

07.07.2007 » Weathering
with pigments

Now that the wash has cured, a final
flat coat has been applied and weathering with
mud and pigments has begun. First I did a pre-dusting
using a mixture of Tamiya Flat Earth and Buff.
Then I mixed some my my sifted dirt that I used
for the base with some water and used a thick
old brush to spatter it all over the underside
andwhere else that the turbines might blow mud
and water. And finally I’m in the process of adding
dusting here and there with pigment powders. To
do the crew footprints I made a mold of one of
the Hovertruck crew’s feet which have treads molded
in. I then poured more silicone in that mold and
made a “foot stamp”. What’s cool is
that it “erases” or places pigments
depending on where you use it. It erased from
the bed and the collected pigments from that it
released when placed on the roof.

07.08.2007 » Pretty
Much Done

The truck is pretty muc done except
for a few minor things like painting the rest
of the lesnes and applying the mirrors. I think
I’m going to use some chrome window tint for the
mirrors. It’s thin sheets and thinner once the
film is peeled from the clear backing. The stowage
is all added and the weathering is all done. The
stowage adds a fantastic and much needed splash
of color and visual interests to the monochromatic
scheme. Here’s pics:

Display Base, Figures, and
Final Touches

06.25.2007 » River
Rock

I finally, after much searching
and testing found the perfect cheap and nicely
scaled river rock for my creek/river bed. I had
first tried dyed cat litter and it looked okay,
but not perfect. Talus and ballast was too uniform.
But then my neighbor had his driveway paved. The
pavers had poured construction sand all over the
asphault which at first I paid no mind to. However,
after a good rain, all the littlest sand particles
had washed away and what was left was what you
see below. I went to Home Depot and for under
$3.00 got a 50 pound bag of the stuff. After some
sifting through fine mesh to remove the sand,
all that was loeft was the rocks. About 5 cups
of sand yeilded 1 cup of rocks. Below is a pic
of some in a Crystal Light cup which I save tons
of and use for mixing washes/resins.

07.02.2007 » Figs,
Ducks, and More Rocks

First up is the base progress. I
applied the dirt using my dirt tutorial to the
base. I sorted the riverocks via a strainer into
a small and large sized rock piles. Then I started
adhering the river rocks by first pouring on the
larger rocks and then over them the smaller ones
filling in the gaps and such. I wanted larger
ricks near the shore and the smaller ones out
in the actual water so that under the water they
look smaller and deeper. I didn’t go all the way
up the slope with them since that’ll be grass
and such. The Zaku bullet casings were also added
on the shore as if they were washed up by waves/floods.
The weathered Zaku head was attached to the base
using 5-min epoxy then more rocks were applied
around it to make it look more sunken in. The
rocks were then given drops of “prepared
matte medium” from ScenicExpress.com. I applied
it using an eyedropper and applied it liberally.
Now the rocks are set and are not going anywhere
without some effort.

I’ve also been painting the figures
using oil paints over an acrylic base coat. They’re
just about done. They need a little of the fading/discoloration
technique, a little bit of a wash here and there
just to pop certain things, and a flat coat. The
eyes also need done. Also, a few days ago I was
thinking about the guy squatting at the shore
and why he’s right on the waters edge looking
in. I decided that he needs to be looking at some
ducks swimming in the water. Maybe he’s wearing
the gloves to try and catch one for dinner. Who
knows? So I started sculpting some small ducks
today. Here’s the progress so far.

07.03.2007 » Duck,
Duck, Duck, Duck…

No geese. Ducks are about finished.
Just need to clean up the males beak a bit.

07.04.2007 » Water
Tests

Here’s my tests of the resin over
the past few months. Basically any time I knew
I’d be pouring clear resin I had a test ready
for the leftovers. The first tests were to see
how different glues would work to hold down the
rocks which in the beginning were going to be
colored cat litter. Later I tested colors mixed
in the resin to check for reactions. And finally
I checked my final glue and water color mix. Lastle
is the ducks sitting on my final test. The ducks
will be sat into the resin a bit in the end. THe
resin I’m using is called Castin’ Craft.

07.06.2007 » Tests
can’t account for everything.

Well, just when I thought that I
knew just about everything that could go wrong
with the water pour, took measures against such
disasters, and believed all went well… of course
there was a problem this morning. Let’s start
from the beginning on the pour process…

First I followed the advice in the
Mig FAQ and used clear tape to make a wall to
hold in the resin. This worked well when pouring
the first layer of resin as seen below:

The tape wasn’t tall enough so I
added more and poured the second layer. This also
went well, but the tape started to warp a little.
No biggie as It wasn’t a look I was against as
it looked liquidy.

I poured the final layer and waited
for it to firm up some so I could to the ripples.
I had practiced the ripples on the previous 2
layers so I knew that part would go fine which
it did. After the resin began to firm up I added
the ducks. Again, all was good at this point.
A few hours later the resin felt hard enough to
remove the tape which I did. I had noticed a small
fissure between the resin and the base in the
front and didn’t think too much of it. I covered
the water/base with a box to keep out dust untim
it was no longer the slightest bit tacky which
can take a few days sometimes. This was all yesterday.
This afteroon I checked on it and noticed the
fissure had spread and that the side of the water
opposite the head had come up. I can only assume
this is due to shrinking of the resin during curing.
At the front corner it’s raised about 1/8″
or so. Grrrr. The side of the head didn’t raise
up and I can only assume that the head which was
anchored to the base VERY securely held the resin
in place. Next time I’ll add a few small d-rings/staples
under the water to keep it down all over. Lesson
learned and passed on. Enjoy! Also if I ever have
the need for water like this again (which I certainly
will) I’ll try the Andreas Miniatures water instead
of the Castin’ Craft as I hear it’s supurb.

Now, I could sit around and be pissed
off about it, but I have an easy fix. I was contemplating
adding another wood boarder around the base as
a decorative feature, but decided not to. Well…
now I have to. I bought some thin basswood and
just finished staining it. When that’s finished
I’ll glue the strips around the outside edge.
This will add some nice edging to the base and
cover up the gaps. Whew. Glad it’s not a round
base! Here’s the pics. Next I’ll add some ripples
on the sure and around the head using gloss gel
medium and FFA.