No Modelling Just Winter Sun!

No modelling for the last week or so as I've been off chasing some winter sun. This time we went much further than usual and Spent a fabulous week in Mauritius. The weather was superb, the scenery was to die for and the hotel was exceptional as were the people. Although it was quite a punishing 12 hour flight from London Mauritius is only 4 hours ahead of the UK so no real jet lag to deal with. 

So now back and totally chilled I'll be back at the bench very soon to finish off the last figure and get the final weathering done on the Scimitar. 

More Crew Painting

With a rare bit of free time this afternoon I've managed to get a bit more done on the crew figures. As you can see the tones on the second figure are slightly lighter to reflect the vast difference in colours and tones on the real uniforms. The final figure has also had the helmet, face and shirt & jumper painted.  

Scimitar Driver Done

A nice bit of progress on the figures with the driver now completed apart from a matt coat. I will vary the tones of the DPM on each figure just for a bit more variety. 

Scimitar Figures

The figures have had a primer coat followed by a base coat of tamiya buff before starting with the vallejo colours. For these figures I've started on the heads and helmets due to the tight areas around the parka hoods that need painting. It works out easier this way I think. 

Scimitar Matt Coat & Figures.

The model has now had a good coat of matt varnish which has really worked well, perhaps too well as it's knocked back slightly the dusty washes. However this can be corrected later on. All lights have also been added and here I used little lenses 1.5mm coloured items. The front headlights had some lenses added using a punch and thin clear plastic.

I've also used some hornet heads, set No HBH 11 on the figures with only a slight bit of hollowing out needed for a good fit. These will get a good coat of primer later today.

Tamiya M18 Hellcat Finished

Well with all the excitement of working on the scimitar I totally forgot to post the final pictures of the hellcat on the blog! So after knocking up a small base using a picture frame the project is now all finished. 

I'm really impressed with this kit & think it's the best tamiya kit I've built to date. Ease of construction, excellent details and excellent figure all make for a very pleasant build.