Love of Sand in Me Pants

Post by **Coen** » Thu Sep 03, 2015 1:13 am

Hey fellas,
It may be a few days or so before I can get to building any of this, but these are what's sitting on the bench... And probably for the duration. These are intense pieces of work. I'll probably need all four months of the GB to finish these.
I haven't decided what I'm going to do for the build yet but it's probably going to be something along the line of the "thunder run"
We shall see.

Post by **Oper8or** » Thu Sep 03, 2015 3:19 am

This will be a super build! I'm watching this SIG!!

Post by **timtamtung** » Thu Sep 03, 2015 3:58 am

A boss build!

Post by **wookiee76** » Thu Sep 03, 2015 6:25 am

Nice mike, i will be following closely as i will also be doing a dragon abrams to go with the meng bradley and will attempt my first diorama and possibly figures, guess i will be watching your how to series on dioramas again!

Post by **Aliktren** » Thu Sep 03, 2015 7:42 am

Looked at a bradley but settled on something else, looking forward to watching this!

Post by **Nige201980** » Thu Sep 03, 2015 8:45 am

Nice one mate looking forward to this one

Post by **Nev** » Thu Sep 03, 2015 1:37 pm

If anyone can pull it off mate it is you

Post by **chief5437** » Fri Sep 04, 2015 1:42 pm

Blimey! That's a lot of work ahead Mike! It's gonna look awesome though, the figures look great.

Post by **Paul** » Fri Sep 04, 2015 2:06 pm

Thats going to be an epic build mate, good luck

Post by **Dunhill2005** » Sun Sep 06, 2015 6:29 pm

Awesome kits with a lot of extras.
Can not wait to see the result

Post by **ladip63** » Sun Sep 06, 2015 8:21 pm

You can do it Mike!!! Will be following.

Post by **Coen** » Mon Sep 07, 2015 12:23 pm

Not tonnes of work done, but the lower hull on the SEP is done. So far the build is pretty straight forward, a lot more clean up of mould seams than I expected, but nothing that I haven't seen before.
It's certainly a much more detailed kit than my last Abrams by cyberhobby. The PE really steps it up and there isn't that much of it.
An after market set would blow this kit to Oz and back again.

These are some of the shots that I'm using for scenic reference and weathering details.

Post by **Nige201980** » Mon Sep 07, 2015 6:07 pm

Some brill photos there mate love the ones with all the spare parts on the green parts that is. You going for that look?
Great start by the way.

Post by **Coen** » Mon Sep 07, 2015 6:56 pm

Oh ya... I can't just do a nice clean tank.
Beat up and seen the scene.

Post by **Diverrob** » Mon Sep 07, 2015 7:06 pm

Nice job so far, Mike. Looking forward to seeing the progress.

Post by **Jip** » Mon Sep 07, 2015 7:34 pm

Nice build sofar, I've build this kit longtime ago, it's not an very recent kit, but still good enought to make a decent model. Good luck!

Post by **timtamtung** » Tue Sep 08, 2015 12:19 am

Oh Mike, does it come with anti-slip texture out of the box? If not, highly recommend you put some on. It makes any abrams look really nice!

Awesome pics for reference btw. Will be using for my tusk haha

Post by **Coen** » Tue Sep 08, 2015 3:19 am

It comes with the texture Tungy

Website · Post by **Gav0909** » Tue Sep 08, 2015 12:30 pm

Pfft, stealing my idea. Lol!

Should be an awesome diorama, well we know it will since you have done a similar one already.

Post by **ladip63** » Tue Sep 08, 2015 11:14 pm

Loookinnggg good Mike.

Post by **chief5437** » Tue Sep 08, 2015 11:40 pm

These are gonna look mint with all that gear on! Some great pics there Mike. I smell a winner already

Post by **Coen** » Wed Sep 09, 2015 4:53 am

Thanks.
No worries though, I'm just in it for the fun. Not the competition,

Still no major issues with the build, just a few fit issues and some flash. Not to mention dragons instructions that are always oh so helpful.
For all intents and purposes the build of the Abrams is finished. All that I need to do now is finish a few stowage options off and it's complete and ready for paint.
Next will be the Bradley

Post by **gaz45** » Wed Sep 09, 2015 11:04 am

nice work mate that M3A2 is an awesome kit

Post by **Diverrob** » Wed Sep 09, 2015 3:30 pm

Looks great, Mike!

I do have a beginner question if you don't mind? Is the extra stowage gear already attached, or put there for the photo? Is it better/easier to attach all extras and paint everything the base coat, then paint the details? I'm guessing it would depend on the type of paint scheme in a solid camo pattern versus a 3 tone pattern, maybe? I'm trying to learn color modulation and not sure how it would all fit together. If it would be easier to point me to a video tutorial, or a previous explanation, by all means do!

Thanks for any help you can throw a noobie,

Rob

Post by **Aliktren** » Wed Sep 09, 2015 3:35 pm

so Mike, I see some tape on there... how much of that tank is glued right now, and how much will you remove before paint ? - do you literally paint it all in one and then do the details at the end, or do you remove the detail parts for seperate painting (not sure If that made sense, been in finance calls all day

)

Post by **Coen** » Wed Sep 09, 2015 5:04 pm

Diverrob wrote:Looks great, Mike!

I do have a beginner question if you don't mind? Is the extra stowage gear already attached, or put there for the photo? Is it better/easier to attach all extras and paint everything the base coat, then paint the details? I'm guessing it would depend on the type of paint scheme in a solid camo pattern versus a 3 tone pattern, maybe? I'm trying to learn color modulation and not sure how it would all fit together. If it would be easier to point me to a video tutorial, or a previous explanation, by all means do!

Thanks for any help you can throw a noobie,

Rob

Aliktren wrote:so Mike, I see some tape on there... how much of that tank is glued right now, and how much will you remove before paint ? - do you literally paint it all in one and then do the details at the end, or do you remove the detail parts for seperate painting (not sure If that made sense, been in finance calls all day )

I guess to answer the both of you,...
The only thing that's temporarily attached is the side skirts, wheels, tracks, figures, and the ration boxes (they're preprinted and made from paper) everything else will be painted in place.
It's easier for me that way, that way I don't have to worry about trying to get glue to stick with paint present, or trying to blend paint later. It also helps me with weathering, by forcing me to take the stowage into account while adding the layers. This keeps the weathering levels homogeneous.
It wouldn't matter what the paint scheme was I'd use the same method. I've done it this way for almost a decade now, so it's what works for me.
I'll show how it's gets painted as best as I can when I come to it in a few days.

Post by **TheTroyster** » Wed Sep 09, 2015 5:32 pm

Hey you're at this point in your tank build where I have a question - and it's a basic question or request. I've noticed on other builds of yours you have this "rope" that ties down the stowage. I know the tape trick but maybe you could post some pics of the rope work you do - I can never duplicate it so I must be doing something wrong. I know it's basic but somehow I am stumped on this. Thanks

Post by **Diverrob** » Wed Sep 09, 2015 5:52 pm

Thanks Mike, I'll give it a shot when I get to that point.

Post by **Nige201980** » Wed Sep 09, 2015 6:56 pm

Looking good buddy.

Post by **Coen** » Wed Sep 09, 2015 9:32 pm

Thanks Nige.

TheTroyster wrote:Hey you're at this point in your tank build where I have a question - and it's a basic question or request. I've noticed on other builds of yours you have this "rope" that ties down the stowage. I know the tape trick but maybe you could post some pics of the rope work you do - I can never duplicate it so I must be doing something wrong. I know it's basic but somehow I am stumped on this. Thanks

I'll,see what I can do.

Post by **ladip63** » Wed Sep 09, 2015 10:32 pm

Nice looking Mike. In one of the photos of the crew, one looks like a Borg

KUTGW!!

Post by **MarkVerploeg** » Sun Sep 13, 2015 1:36 am

Somehow i managed to mia this build before

Very ambicious project with 2 of these rather large vehicles
The Abrams looks good though and there is a ton of extra stuff on there that will make it look great once it is painted and weathered
Keep up the good work

Post by **Coen** » Wed Sep 16, 2015 10:49 am

Thanks fellas.
I've been a bit preoccupied with a few things the last while so I haven't had much time to post any work... I've also been a bit lazy about taking photos.
Still, I have progressed.
The M2A3 is finished now and ready for paint.
Both the M1 and the M2 will take quite some time to paint, but the M2 will take the longest. There's so much interior and surface area to cover and so many fiddly bits.
It will be a handful that's for sure.

The M2 wasn't too difficult to build, but it was time consuming. Meng breaks everything down into many sub-assemblies and something that would have taken me 3-4 days to build like the M1SEP did, took almost a week. There were also a lot more ejector pin marks than I had expected that I had to deal with. Very much like an academy kit that I built last year of the M113. Careful clean up of seams and some flash as well was needed to prevent fit issues.
All in all though, she was a very fun build and for the cheap price, she was fantastic.
I'm still not sure about the figures yet, I may try and hunt some more down that will work better. The poses of the fellas that I have now just don't do it for the story that I'm trying to tell. The trouble is, there aren't many to choose from for the M2. Not that I could find.
The few that I did find so far didn't fit the story either.

Anyway... here's how it looks now, it's all mocked up in the shots, but almost all of it comes apart for painting.

Post by **wookiee76** » Wed Sep 16, 2015 12:00 pm

Epic work again mike! Looking forward to seeing how it should be done in comparison to my efforts.

Post by **Coen** » Wed Sep 16, 2015 3:45 pm

wookiee76 wrote:Epic work again mike! Looking forward to seeing how it should be done in comparison to my efforts.

I'm sure that it will be awesome all on its own rights bud.

Post by **Coen** » Wed Sep 16, 2015 3:57 pm

This morning has been all about diorama layout. I want to go all,out this time and do a fully fleshed out street scene.
After the first mock up I think that a couple more figures might be needed.
We'll see once I finish the buildings.

The base is just a cut to size piece of oak plywood that will have a thin celluclay coating for the ground, I'll texture that with various sands and small pebbles.
The buildings are foam board that will be coated in either texture paint or with some celluclay and then textured. It depends on how much celluclay I have on hand.

I'm not sure about veggies or local colour items yet, they'll come as I move through the build.

So... The general lay out so far...

I'm just starting to cut out the details for the buildings...

Im still debating on whether or not to build any interior for the buildings, the big storefront I might, we'll see.

Post by **NAMBiohazard** » Wed Sep 16, 2015 4:04 pm

that's gonna be BIG!!!!!!!

looks great, nice idea for the dio..

Post by **Nige201980** » Wed Sep 16, 2015 4:08 pm

Epic mate simply epic

Post by **ForbesHutton** » Wed Sep 16, 2015 4:22 pm

That's going to be an awesome dio.

BUT.....

needs a...

Post by **Coen** » Wed Sep 16, 2015 5:00 pm

Alas poor Yorik... I'm fresh out of goats

Post by **wookiee76** » Wed Sep 16, 2015 6:12 pm

Solution! Goat poster on a wall somewhere. I couldnt even begin to attempt something like that mike.

Post by **Coen** » Wed Sep 16, 2015 11:47 pm

Consider it done.

Post by **ForbesHutton** » Thu Sep 17, 2015 1:29 am

Coen wrote:Alas poor Yorik... I'm fresh out of goats

were they delicious?

Post by **gaz45** » Thu Sep 17, 2015 12:13 pm

wookiee76 wrote:Epic work again mike! Looking forward to seeing how it should be done in comparison to my efforts.

and mine

Post by **chief5437** » Thu Sep 17, 2015 5:39 pm

Nice work Mike!

Post by **Coen** » Thu Sep 17, 2015 9:35 pm

thanks Chief.

More work on the diorama today, detailing up the buildings...

Then filling the gaps and filing the rough edges.

Then the texturing of it with some Vallejo texture stuff and a coarse texture gel.

Then a layer of celluclay for the street and sidewalks.

Post by **RichBuilds** » Thu Sep 17, 2015 9:56 pm

Loving it!

YouTube · Post by **Kingdan** » Thu Sep 17, 2015 10:33 pm

Another masterpiece in the making looking forward too watching it progress

Dan

Post by **ladip63** » Fri Sep 18, 2015 11:16 pm

WOW!!! just WOW!!! This is going to be BIG!!! Your doing a great job Mike. Not to sound like a stalker fangirl but I have never thought about building armor but after watching you now I want to try. Can't wait for the next one!

Post by **Coen** » Sat Sep 19, 2015 4:32 am

Once you go armour you never go back...
Unless, of course, you hate it... Then it's back to whatever.
Haha

Let there be paint!!

Torn to bits...

Then stylnrez black for primer and the last of my Vallejo model air 71028
Good riddance!

The buildings too.

Now comes the part I hate...... More painting.