After starting to build and paint some accessories I got side tracked, as I often do, so the truck and trailer were relegated to a nice dust free storage box. Early in 2024 I got some inspiration from the excellent ‘The Army that got away' publication to restart the project. The book tells the story of how the German 15th Army largely escaped from their Atlantic coast defensive positions after D-Day. Pursued without any real urgency they escaped via the Scheldt estuary pretty much intact. There is some great info and period images that I’ve never seen before, and it gave me some ideas on how I could finish off this project.
I started building a base that I could display both vehicles abandoned and pushed off the side of the road with GI's rummaging over the booty.
Starting with a long wooden picture frame and some polystyrene I began playing with ideas. Having weathered the underside of the truck with the intention of it being visible I eventually had them both sat in a roadside ditch. The bank behind them would contain a hedgerow and some trees.
Playing around with composition
With the final vehicle positions marked with cocktail sticks I began laying down the groundwork contours with Sculptamold. Once the basic shapes had taken form I framed the sides with Balsa wood. The final terrain layer was made up with mixes of AK Diorama series light and dark mud texture paste. A few natural logs were pressed into the wet surface in the ditch.
Basic contours filled in
Happy that the AK textured paste colours would serve as a
dark enough shadow base colour under the hedgerow, with the aid of PVA glue various lengths of static grass were added with an applicator.
AK acrylic asphalt paste added to the main road surface 
A hole was made for a telegraph pole base and much test fitting of the vehicles, bushes, and trees took place until final placement was marked out with cocktail sticks.
Over a few evening sessions the hedgerow slowly took shape. I used scenic products from Mininatur, MK35, and the beautifully hand-crafted trees and bushes from Robert Benasiewicz.
To combat the unnatural shine from some of the scenic materials, various mixes of water diluted Tamiya acrylics were mixed up and airbrushed on. Starting with shadow coat mixes of grey and flat earth over exposed areas of earth on the verge, gradually moving up to raised areas highlighted in Buff. These were followed by various airbrushed tones of greens onto the static grass and foliage. The darkest shade being Dark green, through Nato Green and Light Green down to handmade mixes of yellow and blue to create the most vibrant tones.
Flat earth and Buff mixes were airbrushed over the edges of the road where it attracted the least traffic, and a very diluted misted layer was airbrushed over all the vegetation to rid it of any unnatural sheen.
Temporary marks have been made to simulate the tyres marking the road surface as they were pushed off the road by a dozer. These will be worked on more as the scene progresses. The truck marks would naturally show two straightforward parallel marks, but I suspect the trailer would have first pivoted on its draw bar dragging those wheels in an arc first before the rear wheels were pushed again by the dozer. I will test the theory with two sets of axles attached with a draw bar to see what marks would show if the truck was pushed off first, followed by the trailer.
To combat the unnatural shine that many of these scenic materials exhibit, I always planned to airbrush various mixes of water diluted Tamiya acrylics over them. I have in the past completely dark primed the whole scene once all the scenic planting were in place as you can add your own vegetation toned colours making for some great contrast. In this case the AK textured earth tones were a dark enough shade to begin with. I much prefer the harmonising effect that this additional airbrushing creates. Various plants and leaves were also brush painted.
The truck and trailer contents are being slowly amassed so
next up will be to build up, paint and fit the telegraph pole and dropped
wires. I also have another item I have started building which will be in the procces of being uncovered by the Gi's but that I will keep under my hat for now.
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