discussion Ukraine 2022

[Leon Adler]

Now this is a long story ....a very long story so if you want to go ahead
and just skip to the pics please feel free.

I was wandering around Dominoes in Heuvelland, Belgium gob
smacked as usual by the sheer number of kits when I spotted the Vespid
Leopard 2. Now I don’t do modern stuff at all but after my recent expe-
rience with the Vespid Panther which vexed me considerably I thought
this was an opportunity to mend our ‘relationship. Always liked the
Leopard 2.

At the same time as this was going on I was finishing a Citroen Avant
as a German staff car and fascinated by the AK lenses I decided to try
them out for its headlights as I was considering them for a 35th scale
project. When I bought those I saw the red ones and thought they
looked really cool and remembered that some modern tanks had red
infra red lights fitted. Couldn’t resist all I needed was a vehicle to fit
them to.

Looked around and came up with the Russian T90 at this time the
Ukrainians were begriming to get some Leopard 2’s so I thought Id
combine to two things.

I worked up the T90 and then made a complete hash of the paint job. I
was planning the T90 to be fire damaged and to try out something new
to me by using a chipping fluid. Oh dear it did not work out at all well
one problem after another including losing one of the turret hatches!
That situation was recovered by the kindness of a fellow Braille scaler
on here, thank you Tim.

I short I ruined a perfectly good Revell T90 so I decided to just scrap it
and get a new one............little did I know it was now OOP.

I looked and looked and eventually with some trepidation resorted to a
Zvezda kit. I’m used to Zvezda as being fast build kits but this T90 is a
real kit, beautiful moulding , detailed and well engineered. The only
problem I found in reviews was that the road wheels had low profile
tyres unlike all the pics I’ve seen.

Having already done a lot of work on the Revell T90 running gear I
ended up mating the Zvezda upper hull and turret to the Revell running
gear.

So now I had the T90 sorted I turned to the Leopard 2...........some of
you are ahead of me here, yep the Ukrainians are getting the A5/6 vari-
ants not the A7 depicted by the Vespid kit.
Fortunately Border Models ( a brand new to me in this scale) came to
the rescue with an A5/6 variant.Of this kit more later.

So this all started with a misspent afternoon in Dominos models and
wanting to try out AK lenses.

I hope you find the end result worth while.
L

 

[pjgtech]

Nice result, looks great.
How did you do the water? and a few details on the diorama would also be great, eg: base used, how did you make the trees, etc?

 

[langy71]

Very nice, I'd be more than happy with a result like that,
please feel free to share info regarding how you completed the dio, trees, water, groundwork...etc

 

[Jim R]

A great result for sure.

 

[kacitgirl]

nice little viginet

 

[Leon Adler]

Thanks all.
Many people better qualified to write about the groundwork methods but I'll write up a few notes at the weekend.
L

 

[Leon Adler]

Starting with the basics, forgive the pun, the base itself is from Ebay sold by various Chinese sellers as a ‘tray’, comes ready painted in black and not always in the best finish. Quick sandpapering and a spray of Plasticote satin finish black and done.
Many a time in the past I've had a terrain base warp on me as stuff glued to it. These days I use a sheet ABS cut to size for the terrain base. This means you can do all the ‘messy’ stuff ( and if its me doing it its very messy) outside the base.

Terrain shape is the usual polystyrene sheets cut to shape contour style with the river cut out leaving the ABS as the river bed. Contours are now soothed out by trimming the edges ( hot knife useful for this process) but kitchen knife with serrated blade works well.
The whole is then smoothed off using in my case Artex. You can buy ‘small’ tubs of touch up repair texture artex. I say small but reckon you have enough to leave most of it in your will to your grand kids lol
If you don’t want to use that powder polyfilla mixed with water and PVA works well.
Need to pay particular attention to the river banks remember the outside of bends often have a small beach whereas the inside of bends are generally steeper. Your ‘O level’ Geography is your friend here.
To add a little texture to the banks I pop a little soil texture along the bank edge ( I use the Tamiya ones as they were the first to come out but loads around now. You can make your own sand/flock mixed with PVA glue and tinted with some paint. With a brush and finger and a little water you should be able to get a convincing look to the banks.

Now its time to paint the river bed. I use an airbrush sometimes but just as easy and less hassle to use Acrylics. Rather than using your expensive model paints better to pop down to the local art shop and
pick up cheaper PVA or Acrylic paints. The big ‘student’ tubes will last last a good long while.
You really only need a sienna and a green and another browns that take your fancy. You can always use a touch of your modelling paint to get some different shades. Always worth keeping your eye out in Lidl/Aldi as they often have cheap sets of paint. The art acrylics don’t dry as fast so enable you to blend and fade the colours into each other.
Lighter colours at the banks blending to darker browns and to greens and then very dark green in the centre. Remember the deepest part will be in the centre moving to the inside bank on the curves.
Should have a reasonable feeling of depth now Ill give the whole of the base a coat of paint . Mix up the colours and shades, browns and greens.

At this stage there are different options for the basic covering of the terrain.
Personally I use a static grass applicator as I do a lot of terrain work but you can easily use the pre formed terrain sheets, elaborate ones from the likes of Model Scene or you can start with the plainer railway shop types of grass matt.

The static grass application takes a while but its fun. If your doing reeds in your river you can buy ones off the shelf or DIY. Get sisal string paint them the right colour ( reeds fade to a straw range of colours in the winter, green rest of the year.
Take a painting clamp ( DSPIAE 20x Model Painting clips for example) and put a bunch of sisal string in it to make a clump of stems, trim the end so they are even. Then taking a piece of glass ( make up mirrors work well) put a run of adhesive on it and position the clamped sisal in a position so that the base of the sisal sticks in the glue upright. Couple of polystyrene off cuts help to get things level. I use WWS scenic basing glue but any thick PVA glue will work.
Leave to dry and then release the clamp and you have a bunch of upright stems.
Prepare a batch of brown/green flock, dip the end of the sisal in PVA glue and then dab into the flock. A bit of teasing out and manipulating and you’ll have some reed heads. When dry you can slip a blade under the edge of the glue and peel away a bunch of reeds. It really is a lot quicker than it sounds.

Glue some of these along your river bank. Give the whole river a coat of gloss varnish let it dry properly.
Now its time for the water effect. I’ve tried many makes of ‘water’ but have always returned to my favourite reliable one, Liquatex Gel Medium Gloss. Expensive but a pot will last a long time.
Comes out like toothpaste using a biggish brush,lolly sticks but a thin layer over the river and work it into the bed gently. It remains workable for a good while and any sharp peaks will soften as it dries.
Lolly stick and a flat brush make nice ripples.
Dry well in dust free environment if possible. Hopefully now you can see the impression of depth is there. Add another layer, thin layers are best to avoid any thick layers drying opaque whitish.

You can add various tufts to the basic grass look its important to have different shades, densities and levels.
For Trees and bushes not found anything better than Sea Foam. Again not the cheapest stuff around but if you have a green fingered member of the family a good thing to grow for you and you can always sell any surplus. My crop this year was zilch mind you.
For home grown needs to be dried and then soaked in glycerin. I paint it with rattle cans remember most tree trunks are grey/green rather than brown. Trees can be made from a single appropriate Sea foam branch of a few can be glued together to make something bigger. If you want a really big one glue sea foam branches to a plastic ( Woodland Scenics) or cast tree trunk.
I use WWS spray adhesive their web site has useful vids showing how to make trees and bushes.
There you go all rather long winded, probably needs a very good edit!
L

 

[pjgtech]

Thanx for the description on the base, water, textures, etc, very detailed and useful to others maybe? Cheers

 

[Airborne01]

Yup, thanks mate!
Steve

 

[Leon Adler]

Thanks,
@Airborne I will have something of particular interest to you up next week given your member icon.
L

 

[Steve-the-Duck]

Definitely 'worth while'
Crackin'!