Not a lot of progress but I've got the first lot of washes on now. I'll add a little bit more to bring out the wood panels then move onto oil dot fading. I think I'm going to go for a dusty finish on this as the contrast will work well between the blue and dusty effects.
Meanwhile the house and man cave renovations are going well with the furniture back in the sun lounge and a new door going onto the cave entrance next weekend. I'll then start stripping the room of everything before ripping up the carpet and painting. I still have no idea where I'm going to put all my stuff, I didn't realise how much I've accumulated over the years! However it's given me an incentive to finally sort everything out and I'm making new discoveries every day. It's surprising what you put away and totally forget about.
Not much going on at the bench this week, I've far too much to sort out around the house and garden but I've now moved onto the decals for the model. The ICM decals are pretty good being nice and thin, they settled down well and look very good. I found a spare red cross decal which I used on the front. Something I've noticed in photos of the real vehicle but which is missing from the sheet.
Today myself and Brian went down to Yeovil for their second show held at Bucklers Mead Academy. As usual I was driving and as it's just a quick hop down the A303 I picked Brian up plus his models for display. Good lad that he is a sausage bap and cup of tea were waiting for me before we set off. After a swift blat down the 303 we arrived in good time and were set up very quickly. The show is spread over three areas, with us located in the sports hall. This held the majority of traders and was very well lit. A good variety of traders was evident here and in the two other halls so there was something for everyone. Once the show was open we were busy talking to visitors as well as other clubs and friends who popped over for a chat. In fact the show was busy until about 3pm which was good to see. I managed to have a look around a couple of times and enjoyed the various displays. I also very much enjoyed the ice cream from a van parked outside one of the halls! Judging by the amount of people walking around with one he must have done well. I also took a few surplus kits to sell and actually sold the lot. One chap basically cleared me out in one go so I've come back with more money than I started with, always nice that!
So a thoroughly enjoyable show and another great day out for Stonehenge Modeller's. A big thanks to the organisers and we hope to go again next year. Stash additions from the show now and the first is actually not a sex toy although it looks like one! It's a paint shaker believe it or not! The leopard is destined for my Belgian build for this year and the SS-100 & flak, well I just couldn't resist!
Today I've primed the figures and sprayed the interior. I just used white primer for that & it's a bit patchy but then you won't see much when the rear is all closed up.
I've also been working on the marksman vision blocks for the turret. I first sprayed them with tamiya clear blue then masked them with VMS liquid mask. This is a new product for me so we will see how it performs tomorrow when I remove the masks. Oh I also sprayed the blocks green and matt varnished them.
More on the ambulance now and I've sprayed the model with mr hobby H56 intermediate blue. It looks really good and as ever went down smooth as silk. I plan on depicting a relatively fresh in service vehicle so no lightening of the base colour will be done. I'll rely on washes & filters later to add depth and interest to the model instead.
A gloss coat of johnson's klear and decals have now been added to the model. Again not much to worry about here with only 6 decals to put on but these are possibly the weakest area of the whole kit. The Finnish roundels are pretty rubbish as the blue portions are off centre which makes the whole thing look odd. In the end I punched out new white circles for the backs and trimmed up the decals. Not perfect but better than the originals. Also the rear hazard boards are smaller than the edgings cast onto the plastic so you need to remove the inner edgings and add new ones from plastic strip. Both are not massive problems but annoying nonetheless.
I also added a few data placards from spare decals here and there. So it's now ready for some weathering.
Most of the detail painting is now done. There's really not much to worry about here so I can now move onto a gloss coat and decals. Then I'll add some wear and sort the lights out and glazing.
After a few days careful masking and spraying the camo is now complete. I'm very pleased with how it turned out and really like the contrast between the colours. It was also a relatively easy scheme to mask being all straight lines. I can now progress to the detail painting next.
