Zenrat's Flying Circus

[Nick]

Or a coffee mug and a thermos flask?

[Rick Lowe]

Looking really good, Fred!

And any of those ideas would work well. 

[zenrat]

I'm on leave.  Woohoo!

Finished painting the figures for the Hydra Pz4 today.  Well, apart from some flat clear where needed on fabrics.
I also rigged up some stowage chains to hold the blade in the up position when not in use.  I find this sort of thing the most enjoyable part of armour modelling - all the fine detail of stowage etc.  The chains themselves were pre weathered from an earlier build but the rings and hooks were shiny and so had to be aged.
Looks like this will be going to expo.  I am working on a new brick paved street base for it (Vallejo cast resin, but it needed fettling) but if I don't get that finished I can borrow an earlier stone cobbled one I painted for the Poland '39 diorama I still need to finish.  The back story is they are celebrating a victory - Portsmouth just fell into Hydra hands...

Hydra Pz iv WIP 28-05-2024 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

[NARSES2]

Looks good 

Enjoy the break,

[zenrat]

Today all i've done is paint bricks and pavers on the base for the Pz4.  I had planned to continue decaling the B17 but got engrossed in the latest Neal Asher book and them later had to run drugs to my sister in law who is recuperating from her second knee replacement.
This is the base.  It's by Vallejo and wasn't cheap.  It just looks that way.  It's warped slightly (clamping and gluing to a wooden base will cure that) and has more bubbles in it than I would have liked.  I'm also not happy about the uneven brick sizes.
Still, it is what it is.
Hyrda Pz4 WIP 31-05-24 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
Its moulded in a very soft resin.  I added the rectangular drain and replaced the moulded manhole with an injection styrene one.  Both from a Miniart street furniture set.  The moulded manhole was identical to the Miniart one so I reckon that was what was used on the master.  But it was crooked and they had lost some the detail.  The mortar gaps between the bricks and pavers were of variable width with most of them being like trenches (maybe it was mastered by the Matchbox panel line engraver?).  I filled and recarved the worst ones and then gave the rest a heavy coat of surfacing primer.  Then I brush painted all the mortar.
And today I started painting the bricks with a base coat mixed from Red. Mahogany, and White.  I didn't mix it too well in order to get colour variation.  Brick colours will be enhanced with later applications of adjusted shades to individual bricks to give a random pattern.  Once I had finished the bricks I started on the pavers before running our of time.  They are Medium Grey straight out of the bottle.  But will also have their shades varied like the bricks.
The section in the middle is meant to look as if it has been relaid.

[Rheged]

Today all i've done is paint bricks and pavers on the base for the Pz4.  I had planned to continue decaling the B17 but got engrossed in the latest Neal Asher book and them later had to run drugs to my sister in law who is recuperating from her second knee replacement.
This is the base.  It's by Vallejo and wasn't cheap.  It just looks that way.  It's warped slightly (clamping and gluing to a wooden base will cure that) and has more bubbles in it than I would have liked.  I'm also not happy about the uneven brick sizes.
Still, it is what it is.

My compliments and commiserations to your  sister in law  (and to you too)  Madame R has had one hip replaced and is due the second one soon.  I know only too well how much running around everyone else has to do because the victim patient can't do anything.

As to the uneven bricks, **Kit's second law/ Rheged's hypothesis  ** applies.  Cheap seconds were used for road surfacing and poor quality mortar used.  Obviously the contractor was a right cowboy!

**A good backstory, as you yourself have already proved in other builds, can cover almost any  and every  discrepancy.

[PR19_Kit]

**A good backstory, as you yourself have already proved in other builds, can cover almost any  discrepancy.

Not 'almost' every discrepancy, every and ALL discrepancies.    

[zenrat]

Thanks Rheged.  It's a complicated relationship.  But there is no-one else to look out for her.  She has a condition where her joints lose cartilage becoming bone on bone.  She's had both hips replaced, both shoulders rebuilt and this is her second knee replacement.  The op went OK but the wound is taking its time healing.

What time I had today when I wasn't putting stencil transfers onto a B17 I spent painting pavers on my dio base.  Aim was to give the road pavers a variation in colour by wet mixing two shades of grey on them.  Seemed to work OK.
The lighter ones on the pavement (sidewalk for Americans) I mottled by brushing on light grey paint I knew wouldn't cover in one coat.

Hydra Pz4 WIP 01-06-24 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

[Old Wombat]

That's looking really good, Fred!

[zenrat]

Thanks mate.  Tomorrow i'll vary the brick colours.

[zenrat]

...and I did.
Hydra Pz4 WIP 02-06-2024 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
I also retouched a lot of the jointing, in the process toning down the relaid patch so it didn't stand out so much.
So next is a clear coat followed but a dust coloured filter which will tie all the colours together and mute them a touch.  Then static grass in some of the cracks and holes, and a lamp-post.

WOT8 driver's painting is underway.  His hat is done and the rest has had one coat of base colour.  I'm going to try and give him a sweat stained shirt.
WOT8 WIP 02-06-2024 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

[Rick Lowe]

Both looking good, Fred. 

[NARSES2]

That base is a terrific piece of work 

[buzzbomb]

Base is very nice.

[PR19_Kit]

Top line painting going on there Fred.