Happy St George's Day!

Today is saint George's day here in the UK and as usual I'm celebrating all things English, be it warm beer, roast beef or anything else which could be considered English. We have just enjoyed our first barbecue of the year of which steak featured pretty heavily! I'm also enjoying a few choice English ales as I write this so all in all it's a fine day.

"Cry God for Harry, England and St. George."

Gama Goat Cargo Work

I've now finally sorted the cargo out for the goat by using nothing more than some off cuts of foam board and duro epoxy putty. I firstly glued various shapes of foam board together to represent a load then rolled out a large sheet of putty. This was then draped over the cargo and sculpted to fit the cargo bed.

A suitable pack and a cooler box were added too and pressed into the curing putty. The whole thing once dry can be removed for ease of painting later. I will also be adding a couple of other bits of stowage to the cargo bed later.

Tamiya Jagdpanther All Finished

Today has been a monster session at the bench completing the base work for the model. I started by priming then spraying black on the frame. After an hour or so I gave the frame a good coat of lacquer, thanks to the lovely weather today it only took a couple of hours to cure in my conservatory. After that the base was masked then sprayed with dark earth colour and then finally adding pigments and lots of fixer. 

The pine trees went on next followed with some grass tufts and a fence made from toothpicks and thin wire. The lower portion of the model also had some pigments and fixer added and then finally some damp areas were added to the base. So there you have it a Jagdpanther on an Ardennes base. Again I've really had fun with this 1/48th kit and the result is I think rather good.

Jagdpanther Basework

Today I've been working on the base for the model using an old ratty picture frame and some foam board. The base needed a bit of sanding to get a smooth finish and I also filled in any dents and nicks. Then the edging was made using foam board and the void filled with more board and polystyrene.

The groundwork has just gone on and some tracks and sand were pressed into the setting plaster. I then used some cling film as a barrier  then placed the model into position. Once it's all dry I'll prime then spray with gloss black before finishing off the groundwork. I have a couple of pine trees to add to the bank and will also make up a bit of fencing too.

Jagdpanther Done

I've now finally finished off the jagdpanther and only have a bit of pigments to add once on it's finished base. I'm very pleased with how this came out, looks pretty good considering it's only 1/48th. I have binned the idea of displaying it with the US staff car abandoned in a ditch. Firstly because this projects taken too long as it is and secondly I'm not sure it would have looked right. I'll save the staff car for another project. 

I will be cracking on with the base work this weekend so with any luck by Monday it should be all done!

Bench Update

Modelling time has been pretty scarce so far this month what with domestic tasks such as the garden springing back into life and other pressing life events but I have managed to get some work done. The jagdpanther has had some light chipping, washes and staining added before finally getting a Matt coat on. I'm very pleased with how it's turned out.

The US staff car has also been finished off and here I only added some panel washes as most of the weathering will be done later with the airbrush and pigments. The same treatment will also be added to the jagdpanther. Finally the gama goat has had decals added, I used a mix of tamiya supplied ones and modelbau ones from the update set.

I've got some time off next week which means hopefully I can crack on and get at least a couple of these finished off.