Heruilles Heel ;) AFV Club's Achilles Mk.IIc 35039 1/35

[FishBowlMan]

Lovely stuff, Mike. The Achilles looks superb with the whitewash on it, and the dio is shaping up nicely.

Although I'm disappointed you're not doing youtube videos any more (and I completely understand your reasons), from a modelling point of view, if you're producing work of this quality again, I've got to say that you've made the right decision.

All the best mate,

John.

[Coen]

Thanks John, that was the whole point.
I can concentrate more and this format has always been my favourite one.

[Tiger131]

superb job on the white wash coen and the rusty chips look spot on looking forward to seeing more

[ScaleArmorBuilder]

Looking great bud!
That paint/weathering looks incredible.

[Coen]

Here we have the final mock up of the vignette before the major work begins on it. All figures and the TD are in their final(ish) positions.
The tank crew have been base painted and the infantry have just been primed and some things here and there painted. I still need to do some filler work one or two of them yet.










.



Now that the vignette is dry I can start painting and building up the rubble and scatter. Should be interesting. I've never done anything like that before.

[ForbesHutton]

Loving it!
I tried reading through but may have missed it, C2 = Royal Canadian Artillery?
The mattress makes me laugh! One of the crew must be a real princess.

[Donkeywalloper]

Why travel hard when you can lay comfortable.
John

[ForbesHutton]

Why travel hard when you can lay comfortable.
John

Then join the Navy, never more than 100 yards from your bed, shower and hot meal. And one pair of boots will last the whole career.

[Coen]

Hahahaha! Be nice Forbes hehe. My baby brother is a sailor... His name isn't lawrence though

And yes... C2... It's an imaginary vehicle though. There was no number s235120 and no moose that I'm aware of.

[Paul]

Its looking brilliant mike and its gonna be a showstopper

[Nige99]

It really is cracking Mike. Great composition of the figures, shows the action well.

[Russ72]

Looking good Coen.

[Coen]

Thanks guys.
I'll be trying to push a bit on the vignette base tonight. Hopefully all will go well. Most of it will be effects that I've never done before.

[Coen]

The last couple of days have been all about the layers. Lots of them.
I've pretty much been concentrating on the base for the Achilles and finishing off the construction of my entry into the six wheel sig.

The first thing that I did was prime the thing. Three coats of Vallejo primer in fact.



I base coated the brick wall with a dark rust colour to start off.



I also sprayed ll the loose bits laying about the street.



Then I sprayed the street in a stone colour.



Then I spent three hours painting every piece of brick on the street the same colour as the wall. Then the curbs were painted a concreteish colour. I finished that off by painting every other cobble stone a different colour.







This took forever to do. It looks pretty cartoonish right now. Once the washes and pigments are added it will look very different.
I finished off today's work by deciding to add some broken drain pipes and a street lamp. What the hell eh?

[MikeyKb]

UMPs concrete wash looks nice on walls too, it gets into the cracks.
3 hours! that's a lot of concentration and meditation. I'm sure it was super soothing hahahaha
looks sweet!

[Coen]

Soothing. Sort of... I was watching all the episodes of walking dead that I haven't seen. Haha.
Not really soothing I guess.
I have every intention of using the Ultimate washes on all of the surfaces Mike.

[Coen]

A bit more work after the kiddies were in bed post halloween and I was on the hangout.

Lampost painted and the copper drainpipes painted. The rest of the mortar painted on the wall as well.







And the final mock up before the pigments and washes are added to the base.

[AchtungPanzer]

Awesome Heil Mike

[Coen]

Thanks Eyrk

[Coen]

Today's work was all about washes and patina. Ultimate concrete, light dirt, and dark dirt for the cobbles, my own mix for the algae and lichens.
I added tarnish to the lamppost and to the copper drain down spouts.
It took all freaking day and two Harry Potter movies but I'm calling that part finished.
Next will be snow effects.


The first layer of Light Dirt on the road surface.




Then the Dark Dirt ...



I added concrete to the brick wall next.




After I gave it was dry and I gave it a good scrubbing with a stiff bristle brush.



A dry brushing of copper to the down spout...



Next was the patina. I mixed these together to make the colour for the tarnish on the copper and the iron on the lamppost.







The over all effect. I've added the algae to the walls and the the lower edges of the curbs as well as between many of the cracks in the cobbles.
It's a very subtle thing when it's wet, but once dry it becomes more noticeable.









Dry...











The snow that I'll be adding will be small amounts. Enough to suggest that it's winter. I also need to add mud and dirt to the running gear of the achilles.
That's for tomorrow.

[Nev]

That's looking the business mate!

[Russ72]

Nice work with the Coen C brand washes mate. Its all coming together.

[Hillbilly]

Stunning dio You have a wonderful eye for using just the right colors to make your dio's pop

[Coen]

Thanks fellas.
So I'm calling the vignette finished and the Achilles itself finished. All that's left now are the figures.

To night on the hangout I added a small amount of more dark dirt wash then I added the snow.
For the snow I used two things. The first was Doc O'Brien's while pigment. It's meant for railroad modelling, but it works marvellously so I feel no guilt in corrupting it, haha.
The second is a mix of white pastel chalk mixed with a bit of grey and a tiny amount of brown.
So... Clean white snow and some dirty snow.
For application I just sprinkled it on with a brush then ground it in with the bristols. I brushed away any large and odd looking particles, then sprayed the whole thing with hairspray to seal it all in.


Here's a few shots of it.

Before snow but after all the washes are on.



After the snow...

















Im not sure when I'll get the figures done, but is should be soon, cheers for looking in.

[timtamtung]

Cracker job!

[FishBowlMan]

Fantastic, Mike. I love the transformation from, as you say, "cartoonish" into realistic. It must take a fair amount of trust when you first apply the paint, knowing that the finished article will look completely different.

The snow effect is excellent - a light sprinkle rather than the full-blown Christmas card look for this one.

Looking forward to seeing the completed dio with the figures added.

[PaulAyrey]

Absolutely first class. Great work!

[Coen]

Thanks guys.... I finished the thing tonight... A video and pics are coming.
This is the latest and the last bit of work. Mostly just finished painting the figures and placed them. So not much to look at.
I'll post the work shots and I'll put the finale in the Reveal section.

Tank crew installed in place.



The last part of the figure painting before installation. Washed and drybrushed.



Then installed...



And that's all she wrote. So you can check out the reveal here... http://www.intscalemodeller.com/viewtop ... 51#p131051
There's a video too if you're interested.

[FishBowlMan]

Take a bow, sir! That's a wonderful piece!

I love the composition of your dioramas. Almost like taking a photograph of a live-action event.

[Coen]

Thanks John,
After you said that I went in and tweaked the special effects in photobucket on one of the shots out of curiosity.
It's not perfect, but it's interesting...

[wappynutter]

WOW!!!
Dude that is amazing!
Fantastic Mike... Well done buddy...

[andreb87]

i love the stowage! great job! especially additional mg on the turret and the trees!

[JayCub]

Impressive Mike and a variant I have not seen before, the whole piece is just awesome, the paint weathering and rust streaks are a killer touch, you could say I like it a lot
Tom

[FishBowlMan]

Wow! That's really messed with the contrast! Looks like they're wearing tiger-stripe camo.

Every time I see one of these "sepia" shots I hear the old pathé news voice in my head: "Here comes Cpt Cholmondley-Warner and his pals sticking it to the Bosch"

[RCehFFan]

An amazing build, truly inspiring. Worth joining ISM for.

Cheers
Frosty