Global Scale Modeller

Should be a very nice kit in the end for what i can see ...

Your progress in the build is going nicely , keep up with the good work on this , should be a real nice dio .

Very nice work Alex , the jeep and the landing craft together looks great already.

Thanks for all the great comments guys!

Andy, I feel you're pain buddy and when bits don't fit, 15 parts feel like 150!!

Not really an update as I've been spending far too much time building a Jagdpanther for a certain "Dangerous Cats" SiG, but I wanted to put up something to show that I haven't completely forgotten about this one. Those following this thread will know that one of the figures was showing a little too much of his crack (damn plumbers!! - only kidding Paul! ). Plus I have made a start on a couple of the other figures and so far they don't look to be any better.

And here he is with his buddies.....



I should at least get everything primed primed over the weekend and if I have the right colours, I should get the base coat down as well - we'll see!!

Thanks for taking a look!

Well done Alex. Just remember - you are suffering for a good cause: you are building that jeep so we don't have to! It does all look good though.

After seeing yours and Andy's jeep goodness, I realised that I had to have one for the stash. Your thread led me to ordering the Tamiya one!

Rob wrote:Well done Alex. Just remember - you are suffering for a good cause: you are building that jeep so we don't have to! It does all look good though.

After seeing yours and Andy's jeep goodness, I realised that I had to have one for the stash. Your thread led me to ordering the Tamiya one!

Thanks Rob!

Good choice with the Tamiya jeep - I almost binned this one and went out and bought the Tamiya one, but thought, no, I must persevere! As the old saying goes - rehab is for quitters!!

Update Six Swab the decks!

Managed to get some time back with this one and got the primer down over the weekend, with the base coat going on last night. Vallejo grey primer topped off with Vallejo black for pre-shading and low-lights. I also sprayed a couple of mist coats of black around the bottom of the hull, trying to estimate the portion that will be under the water. This was done over the weekend when it was quite hot and I did have a couple of problems with spraying and hence why it's a bit erratic to say the least! I'm not too worried about this though as I prefer the pre-shading to be a bit wonky and not a lot will be seen once the base-coat is down - it's more a suggestion of shadows etc. It's a big old beast and I thought it would take a lot of paint to cover, but I seemed to get it down amazingly quickly. I did spray the inside of the outer hull first with both primer and base-coat as this would be tricky to get to once the main innards of the landing craft are attached in place.





The colour that is recommended in the call-outs is very, well - grey! And whilst I appreciate that is the colour of this thing, I wanted more of a blue tinge to it. The water will be more green than blue, but I'm hoping that once everything is put together and the landing craft is weathered it will all come together. I'm surprised that I actually get anything done bearing mind the amount of time spent with my fingers crossed hoping everything will turn out ok! In the end I decided to use Mr Hobby Aqueous H75 - Dark Seagray.








I'm fairly pleased with the colour, although it's not quite right just yet. I'm going to spray in some high-lights and once I've given it a wash and a filter, hopefully it will all tone in better (there goes the finger-crossing again!).

Thanks for taking a look!

[/quote] Good choice with the Tamiya jeep - I almost binned this one and went out and bought the Tamiya one, but thought, no, I must persevere! As the old saying goes - rehab is for quitters!![/quote]

Thank you for this! I will be sharing the pain with you when I finally get to my jeep!
That grey look like it covered nicely, too.

This is turning out to be a great build!
Great paintwork mate!

Gret Paintwork on ths build , looking forward to see this interesting build ready !

Looking great mate.

Looking good Alex,great work so far

Interesting subject. Well done mate .

Superb Alex...... the colour is real good and the pre-shading worked a treat...
Well done Buddy...



I will drift round a while and stalk your build looking for tips and what not....
" munch...munch...munch........"
Thanks...

Thanks for the comments fellas, much appreciated!

Andy - funny you should say that, I've been stalking your build for the same reason!

Update Seven

I've got the colour as about right as I'm going to get it, so now it's time to get the decals on before applying the filter and washes. There's only one option for the Normandy landing craft and not too many decals, which means I can crack on with weathering shortly!





After spraying in some highlights, the next decision was what filter to use to try and bring everything together a bit more. After trying a couple on the underside of the hull, I decided to use a filter for panzer grey tanks. I also opted to use an earth wash for the deck to replicate the dirt and grime that would result in the traffics from the vehicles and troops.



Not absolutely right, but it does blend the colour a bit better and once all of the weathering is done it should be even better. Still looks very clean though, but something tells me that it won't stay this way for long!





And the deck and interior once the earth wash is applied.


Painted up some of the details whilst the filter and wash we're drying.



Not very happy with the rope as it didn't take the pin wash too well, but nothing that a little tweaking and dry brushing shouldn't be able to sort out. Talking of pin washing I applied some very diluted burnt umber to the deck to start to add to the dirty and grimy look.




And that will do it for now - want to let everything dry now and assess what it's all like later. Next step is to move onto the exterior to get that to the same level of weathering as the interior and then finish off all of the little details. Still a ton of stuff to do, but at least it starting to feel like the end is in sight.

Thanks for taking a look!

Very nice, Alex. Love the weathering so far, and am impressed with the boat hook and fenders (even though I thought they were a bunch of sausages at first glance )

Looking great so far, mate!

Looking great!

Oh, that is looking so sweet!

Thanks chaps!

FishBowlMan - - that's exactly what they look like - a string of sausages!!

Update Eight

Reached the slow stage of the build now, but in some ways it's this part of the painting/weathering that I enjoy the most. I've learnt from bitter experience to take this stage nice and slow so that if one step doesn't quite pan out, it's easy enough to wind it back and do it again. The next step was to get some grime onto the exterior and for this I used a heavy diluted mixture of black oils. This was applied in several layers as each layer would dry very light in colour (more of a light grey than black). This then enabled me to gradually build up the "colour", hopefully replicating the way that dirt and grime would build up on the real thing. There's a couple of places where it's a little bit too dark, but this can easily be knocked back with a small brush dipped into white spirit. Looking at pictures of these Higgin's boats on the actual day itself, it's hard to judge just how dirty they got. The temptation is to go overboard (forgive the pun!), but I believe that all of the vehicles and equipment would have been very well prepared. However, as records show, the weather wasn't great especially in the days leading up to the 6th, so I think a little artistic license and interpretation is allowed for!








The lifebelts and sausages got some final touches!


And the jeep got it's first coat of olive drab courtesy of Mr Hobby Aqueous.



I'm sure you all know the feeling, but I'm at the stage that the interest is starting to wane and other kits are starting to call out, "build me, build me!" The temptation to crack open the lid, purely for a look-see you understand, can be too great to overcome - but - must - stay - strong!! Also, because of the size of this thing, everything seems to take just that little bit too long and you can find yourself lapsing into a "slap it on, that'll do" mentality. Granted, it is hard to tell the difference between slap-it-on and take-your-time in my case, but I really must learn to take more care. There's still a way to go with the weathering, plus the MG's still need painting up and don't get me started on the figures! Hey-ho, onwards and sideways!!

Thanks for taking a look!

Those other kits will still be there at the end. Your sacrifice will not go unnoticed!

DBMiller wrote: Those other kits will still be there at the end. Your sacrifice will not go unnoticed!

All of us suffer for our art DB!!

Update Nine The devil is in the detail

I've been picking and chipping away at this one for the last few days as free-time has been a little scarce, but with fifteen minutes here and half-an-hour there, it all adds up. The weathering isn't finished on the landing boat itself, but as I'm still musing over what exactly to do next, I decided to crack on with all the little details and get these painted up and attached. With the kit you get a length of string and this is to be used to attach the rope fenders. It's well scaled with the fenders itself and to my mind it looks pretty good size-wise. According to the instructions you are supposed to thread the appropriate length of "rope" through the fender and then through the attachment point and then tie the two ends together.



I dutifully cut the required length of string and and dry-fitted it according to the instructions. My first thought was that it was just too long and my second thought was that a hand-tied knot would just look too big and clumsy. Now, these rope fenders may well look like a string of big fat sausages, but not as much as my fingers do!! Not exactly the precision instruments required for tying miniscule knots in restricted places. With this in mind I decided to join the ends together with a small dab of CA glue and then "hide" the join behind the fender itself. I'm not sure that this is entirely accurate with how they would have been tied, but it's how I would have done it!!




Life-belts, gaffs and a long metal thingy next - not quite sure what this is, but it looks a lot like a crank for the engines perhaps?? If anyone knows, I would love to know what it actually is.





A little bit of touch-up is needed in a couple of places - one of the hazards of painting parts and then attaching them I guess, but with these bits on, this little Higgins boat seems to be sparking into life. Looking at the pics though, I've suddenly realised that I've made a bit of a boo-boo - the life-belts would have actually been a light grey colour! Before painting them I had been looking at some research photos and in some of the builds I had been looking at, the life-belts had been red and white. Oh well, they're on now and I kinda like them this colour. Not too much more to do with this one now and then it's onto the figures - not looking forward to that as the bits I have assembled so far haven't been the best of fits. Still, all part of the fun!!

Thanks for taking a look!

Looks superb mate. Great build.

Looks great! Your rope trick worked a treat. Gonna be awesome when it's loaded up!

Just excellent Alex...... A superb build so far, I love it mate....
Keep it up...
Thanks ...

Looks fab to me, mate!

Life-belts, gaffs and a long metal thingy next - not quite sure what this is, but it looks a lot like a crank for the engines perhaps?? If anyone knows, I would love to know what it actually is.

The long metal thingy is probably the emergency tiller bar... When the linkage between the wheel and the rudder is damaged, you attach the tiller bar to the rudder head and steer that way. I think that the conical moulding at the stern is more than likely where it would be attached, if required.

amazing work!

How is this going? I need you to finish so I can copy your work!

Looking superb the pre shading really payed off the colours look superb looking forward to seeing more of this build

Lovely work mate.

I do like that a lot.