Early hobby builds

 

Carrying out home improvements recently has unearthed a stash of old finished and part finished models, of which a few have since been cleaned and re-photographed. Still finding my feet and experimenting with all sorts of new materials, many early builds were painted in rattle can base coats! There are a few early attempts at adding resin and photoetch aftermarket parts. I hated the stuff until I finally discovered the rubberised black CA. There are a few builds I am still proud of, and I still like to look at them, but there are also some terrible builds with some shocking construction flaws and paint finishes. Getting a consistent paint finish without any construction gaffs was still a long way off. They might all be flawed in some aspect or another, but they are all physical evidence of my creative journey. May I apologise in advance for some of the photography.

Back behind the wheel

Whilst I do love to model wheeled vehicles, I’ve never actually built a non-military one! And that’s odd since I have always had an interest in 1:1 scale automotive stuff. I purchased a Tamiya GR86 kit a little while back as I had once owned a Subaru BRZ but am still yet to build it! I suspect that as I'm so accustomed to applying a myriad of weathering effects over an operational vehicle's often rushed paintjob, I am a little intimidated by the smooth unblemished, immaculate paint finish that would be required.

I’ve always fancied building a few scale representations of cars I’ve driven over the years and that got me thinking about another predicament I found myself in. Getting the mancave ready to work in again I had planned a few upgrades, and one of them involved a trip to a hardware store. Trouble is, I didn't actually have a 1:1 scale car to pick the stuff up with!

Italian mountain road diorama (part one)

 

 

 

This started out as groundworks for a vehicle project that turned out to be slightly too small and then took on a life of its own.

My inspiration was taken from images of the terrain around the Brenner pass in northern Italy during the German army’s retreat north through the mountains. Looking at photographs of the kind of materials that were used to build these roads I found a contemporary pic of a cycle race over the same terrain. I liked the idea of the tight bend and added height element that it would bring to a display.

All quiet on the western front

 

Apologies about not posting any updates recently but there has been zero bench activity of late. This has been due to some heavy duty and extensive home renovations. This has affected every room in our home, so as you can imagine it has been extremely disruptive. What it has meant is that all my focus has been required to liaise with and manage the builders to ensure a productive workflow with the least disruption as possible. TBH most of the work went without hitch and any little snags are slowly being ironed out.

In all this time both our garage and my mancave have had to accommodate all sorts of personal paraphernalia so even if I wanted to just chill in the cave, I had no way of getting in! December will be occupied with getting our home respectable again and ready for the ensuing festivities.  I should be back to some sort of normality early in the new year, so once the cave is accessible again normal service can resume.

Until then, a happy Xmas modelling to you all.

Los 

Why do I build what I build?

I’ve had to take a break from the hobby since the beginning of September due to some large home improvement work and whilst doing plenty of re-shuffling hobby stuff around the place I have been musing over why I model the subjects I do. Looking at both finished product and ongoing work I do seem to have a propensity for depicting damaged or destroyed axis vehicles. So why is this?

 

Scale modelling with ADHD

 

Being naturally blessed with wizard like hyper focusing abilities, you would assume that during the past decade I would have produced a vast portfolio of work. That is one of the upsides of the condition, however there are far more downsides and being neurodivergent makes things a little more complicated!

My condition appears to be getting more difficult to deal with as I get older so a return to scale modelmaking has been a lifesaver in so many ways. The hobby has created a quiet, calm, anxiety-free space that I rarely get to experience in everyday life. I love other shit too - obviously, I’m not completely mental, it’s just that most regular day-to-day stuff makes my cranium internals spin, like it’s occupied by ten highly caffeinated squirrels!

Jagdpanther G1 (Meng 1/35 kit TS-039) Chapter 1: Brief history, kit reviews, and adding zimmerit

 

History

The Jagdpanther was preceded by two attempts at mounting an 8.8 cm gun as a self-propelled anti-tank weapon; Ferdinand - also known as Panzerjäger Tiger (P) - These used the ninety-one leftover Porsche-built VK 45.01 (P) chassis from the Tiger tank competition it lost to Henschel in 1942, and the Nashorn on the Geschützwagen III/IV (which used a combination of the Panzer III and Panzer IV components) chassis. Ferdinand proved to be too heavy, and Nashorn lightly armoured and under-powered.

Sd.Kfz.8 DB10 Gepanzerte 12T (Trumpeter 1/35 kit #01584) Chapter 16: Mission accomplished.

 

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And so, at last, after more than thirteen years of neglect, may I present the finished article. I hope you like it.

 

 ‘der Grashüpfer‘

 

 

Sd.Kfz.8 DB10 Gepanzerte 12T (Trumpeter 1/35 kit #01584) Chapter 15: Final stage weathering & tilt cover frame

 

 

 

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Oil paints were used again to accentuate areas at the rear of the vehicle over existing acrylic dust layers. This was done by adding both oil paints and pigments. Once dry, areas around the handles and steps had the dust layers smudged and dirty deposits were also added onto high wear surfaces. 

Sd.Kfz.8 DB10 Gepanzerte 12T (Trumpeter 1/35 kit #01584) Chapter 14: Second stage weathering (dust layer)

 

Previous chapter

 

The next stage of weathering effects is one I have used on a couple of projects to date, and the results can look convincing. Looking at progress so far, I decided to add a subtle toned-down application to just the lower front, rear, and sides, and see where it would take me.