Global Scale Modeller

Talk about jumping on the band wagon here!

Going to build myself a muscle tank for this here group build thingy! Got myself the bad boy M1A2 Abrams with TUSK - it's like a Ford Mustang only with a gun! It's fast, it looks awesome, and it's built in the ole USA! And I got myself some dudes, and got myself some stuff, and then got myself some extra big ass bullets that I'm going to throw on this bad boy as well! Even got myself a resin saw! Nothing like a new tool!

Wait there is more! Even got myself a busted up building, that met my little friend here Mr.Abrams, and I am even going to throw in the US Military's version of an SUV - a Humvee (although it might be outdated to the tank - but that don't matter none!), I even got myself some damn street signs I can't hardly read. I am going to be listening to some old school hardcore punk bands like Black Flag, and drinking beer the entire build! Baby - this build is going to be epic fun, so I hope all ye'all join me here!

Dude!! That's going to be an epic event for a build.

That abrams tusk ii is a superb kit. I loved mine and is a real stunner. I'm also building a tusk abrams, only this time in miniature 1/72

This is looking like it is going to be big
I like it
With all those kits and goodies you can make a really intresting build
Good luck and i will be looking forward to the build updates

Sweet, may have to dig through my tape collection for some black flag and agnostic front.

Haha a great opening post! I can just imagine the fun you'll have putting this build together

I ran into a snag here, my keg ran out last night so I have to wait for my new keg to carb up before I start - guessing next week. But I am listing to Black Flag's My War and Six Pack - of course!

Started about as back-ass-wards as one can, building the dudes first, and some of the stuff. So start off with the dudes who are chosen to load up the big ass bullets!




I had to hit the head and when I came back there were more headless dudes! Soviet Ghost even! And I realized I was in Sleepy Hollow - only it's not a headless horseman but Headless soldiers!




As I screamed for help - BATMAN came to the rescue!



There was a huge fight!


And in the end their heads were served up to me on a silver platter!




Other than that - this was easy - and my first time working with a resin product. Details are epic...

Until next time...

Going to start this project with the Humvee M1025 by Tamiya. I guess I could do a seperate thread - so if I run behind I'll keep that thought in the back of my mind. I am ready to start, open the fridge: 5gallon keg (that's about fifty pints to all ye'all on that strange math system).


And here is the kit, a few more parts than I anticipated. Hey let's be clear here, Humvee is the name of military vehicles, the hummer is what the Stepford wife down the street drives.

I think you should try to find yourself a M1114 or M1151 to replace that Old M1025
either from Bronco (M1114) or Academy (M1151)

You would appreciate the Meaner look of those improved HMMWV that would match the Era of your TUSK2

Good luck with the project none the less.... should be quite nice once all put together.

schweinhund227 wrote:I think you should try to find yourself a M1114 or M1151 to replace that Old M1025
either from Bronco (M1114) or Academy (M1151)

You would appreciate the Meaner look of those improved HMMWV that would match the Era of your TUSK2

Good luck with the project none the less.... should be quite nice once all put together.

Ahh I had a feeling I had the wrong era - thanks for the tip.

TheTroyster wrote:Going to start this project with the Humvee M1025 by Tamiya. I guess I could do a seperate thread - so if I run behind I'll keep that thought in the back of my mind. I am ready to start, open the fridge: 5gallon keg (that's about fifty pints to all ye'all on that strange math system).


And here is the kit, a few more parts than I anticipated. Hey let's be clear here, Humvee is the name of military vehicles, the hummer is what the Stepford wife down the street drives.

Okay so this really doesn't fit in my overall thing so since I already started this I'll move it to a different build thread

Okay, here is my token photo of the opened box, lots of stuff, all sealed up real nice like.


And I even finished the lower hull. I even had batman stop by for a beer, judging from the number of beers, I'd say two hours to get to this point.



Needless to say, those are all Colorado beers. Which I would highly recommend to all beer lovers.

This is too easy. This fits together like it was ment to be. Hell, I might increase my beer intake during the build cause there ain't no way, no how, no one can screw this up.

Good progress on the Tusk 2 KUTGW.

Haha!
I'll bet that you could... If I can screw up a build sober you can most certain crisp on looping the room,
Even if it's a Tamiya.
It's awesome to really enjoy a build though eh?
I built tamiyas bt7 kit not too long ago and it was love at first sight. Superb kit.
They may be vastly overpriced, but they are certainly sweet builds.

The next part is going to require I switch from beer to water. Going to need the steady hand. I decided on using Gesso. My thinking is at a 1/35 scale this slip stuff is going to be real fine. I'll mask the nuts and bolts with Mr Masking, let's see how this works out.

It either works out or this bad boy ends up down range.

Pulled this pseudo pattern off someone's blog and loosely followed it. Now going to let this dry and then apply the Gesso - this better work!



My back-up plan if this doesn't work - so I'm covered either way.



UPDATED
Hells bells! I am going to resort to my backup plan, as it also makes a great item for a victory lap!


I put the Gesso on by dabbing it:



Cleaned off the Mr Masking Sol:



Up close and personal.


Now it's homebrew time!

Finished the basic build of this tank. I've left some items off until after the painting part as they require clear parts. And that's always my biggest problem. The problem is I don't paint my stuff at home, I do it at my store, in the back room. So what always seems to happen is between here and there and back again I loose something, most likely one of those parts you see in the upper left.

The turret took some time, about half the steps of the entire build. Everything was a perfect fit. Going to add stowage before I transport to the paint zone - where the fun part of this hobby starts.

Oh wow!
Very cool work bud. I know Norm uses this method,mor a variation of it on some of his projects.
Nice work.

Took all damn day to get this crap ready for painting, and am sure this resin is not healthy for you. Wanted to get those pieces that are attached to the outside basket done, and attached before i prime the model.

Primed the model in grey.



And let's get some close up so we can see how the Gesso turned out.





That is about the look I was going for. For a details on how to apply this stuff go to YouTube check out Norm's channel - worked for me.

I'll let the beast sit for another day or so before I paint. Gets the primer nice and fixed.

Went ahead and started working on the figures, stowage, and even the base of the diorama. The diorama is a little tricky because I have a limited amount of space to work with.
Even managed to build some "junk" for the diorama. You can see, in the second photo, the damaged residents building.




See the odd base of the diorama:


Quick mockup of the diorama:

In keeping with my opening on this build I wanted to add a punk rock band something on this bad boy! First, I didn't go with the Tamiya color call out, an aerosol light sand color. I don't like the color too much, and Tamiya rattle cans are mostly toxic propellants and piss poor coverage. So I did a mix of colors, which I pinched out of Michael Rinaldi's epic work Tank Art 3 Modern Armor, it's the same color he used on the Caterpillar D9 - and I love it! I threw a figure on the tank here done in the Tamiya light sand so you can see the difference. And of course, this bad ass wouldn't be compleated without its Black Flags!


[url=http://s1154.photo%20bucket.com/user/coloradocoin/media/2015%20project/55D8745A-654F-47DE-80AA-C4E66B9B38ED_zpsg6lvg4hi.jpg.html][/url]
Side view





Side by side with my first Abrams M1A1 the Academy Iraq 2003 done in Buff.

Wow!!!
You've been busy
That gesso certainly worked, worked well in fact. It looks awesome.
That stowage is freaking perfect for living colour effects. It's going to be a bigger to paint though.
The end result will be superb.
I love that dio layout.

Chipping with HS this morning. Must be careful when doing this, this dark splat was a result of h2o gathered and I simply touched it, so I'll use this to re-paint this area later today and a couple of other areas which I missed with the base coat.


Here is an area where, again too much water and some over chipping, but this is not so much that I'll have to re-paint the area, rather this can be worked into the story of this model.



Otherwise, I was/am going for a minimum wear on the unit, something that hasn't been in the field for long, some wear, but not too much:

It looks good bud.
From the pics that I've seen so far of these things,they got a lot more beat up than I originally thought before I ever built one.

A few rough patches wouldn't be too out of place.

First I worked on my road for the diorama - let that dry up and see how it turns out.


Then I spent a few hours painting and weathering the carry on stowage, looks ok, I'll sleep on it and see how it looks in the morning.
Clay wash



See how it looks

Looks good bud.
Did you apply the wash over a gloss and take it off with a cotton bud or is it over a flat coat and taken off with a stiff brush?

Coen wrote:Looks good bud.
Did you apply the wash over a gloss and take it off with a cotton bud or is it over a flat coat and taken off with a stiff brush?

See you learn something everyday. First a cotton bud, then a damp cloth, never even thought of the brush. I did do both a
Flat Coat on most of the tank, and Semi- gloss on those tusk II parts, see how those parts weather. I am not planning on doing a clay wash on unit, more pin wash and filters, we'll see how it turns out.

great job you are doing there.

Worked on the tracks this morning, painted the metal parts in a red brown. Then I copied Coen's work, washed the tracks in sand, concrete, light, and dark dirt Ultimate wash.




So had this side plate fall off and took the opportunity to paint that box attached to the turret in a green color to add some interest. I also drilled those smoke canister holders a little deeper so they would look more convincing.

Stowage that's attached to basket I finished painting as well Decided not to use all that stowage you see in a earlier post, its just too much.

Tracks look excellent. I still love all that stowage, lots of interesting colour contrasts.
It looked really good... Still does

Cracking work bud love the no-slip you've done.

Thanks for the words gentlemen.

I did start a pin wash using MIG Dark Wash. The below pic shows one side done, the other not. Good news I have to go to my store, bad news I have to stop this project right in the opening stage.

Very nice work so far
I like the stowage and like you said it is enough as it is now
It suits the vehicle this way and it's not a truck so it doesn't need that much
Keep up the good work

MarkVerploeg wrote:Very nice work so far
I like the stowage and like you said it is enough as it is now
It suits the vehicle this way and it's not a truck so it doesn't need that much
Keep up the good work

'"it's not a truck"

hahaha - Truer words were never printed - god that is funny - and so to the point.

TheTroyster wrote:

MarkVerploeg wrote:Very nice work so far
I like the stowage and like you said it is enough as it is now
It suits the vehicle this way and it's not a truck so it doesn't need that much
Keep up the good work

'"it's not a truck"

hahaha - Truer words were never printed - god that is funny - and so to the point.

I was serious though
I have seen some tankmodels that had way too much stowage on them even in front of the vision ports and those kind of places
Sometimes modellers make it look like a soldier drags all his posesions with him
In my mind it is simple a tank is for fighting, a truck is used to get stuff from point A to point B
Some times the 2 get mixed up i think

MarkVerploeg wrote:

TheTroyster wrote:

MarkVerploeg wrote:Very nice work so far
I like the stowage and like you said it is enough as it is now
It suits the vehicle this way and it's not a truck so it doesn't need that much
Keep up the good work

'"it's not a truck"

hahaha - Truer words were never printed - god that is funny - and so to the point.

I was serious though
I have seen some tankmodels that had way too much stowage on them even in front of the vision ports and those kind of places
Sometimes modellers make it look like a soldier drags all his posesions with him
In my mind it is simple a tank is for fighting, a truck is used to get stuff from point A to point B
Some times the 2 get mixed up i think

I know you're serious - struck me as funny because I was looking at all the stowage this morning and thinking to myself - "who the hell has time to put all that Brad Pitt on a tank? That's what trucks are for."

It happens
British tankers had that habit in WWII though
They even brought a tea pot but camouflaged tanks to look like trucks aswell
But what i ment to say was you added a good amount of stowage
The back and sides are covered but the important parts are still clear
Still nice my blunt point of view made you laugh though

Okay, so I worked on the diorama today, added some rubble and how about that cloth out the window?



And finished my first pin wash


Next up, some oil paint dot work, and I'll check my pin wash again.

Had a painful amount of time on my hands today. I ended up doing a dot oil weathering on the vehicle (about seven hours worth). Kept the colors in the brown range, and didn't want to overdo the whole weathering thing. Vision it weathered, but not too much. After doing the oils, I slept on it and had this vision in my sleep and knew what was missing - some sand colors in between those TUSK II plates - and went at it again this morning. Turned out okay for now, I'll kick it around for a day or ten and see how I feel about it before calling this step good or not.

End of night Oil dot on tusk II plates:



Next morning oil work in brown between the TUSK II plates:



It's slight but you can make out that sand colors in there.

Here's a walk about the work at the end of the oil paints:






What I had to do next was apply a filter to the entire model to even out those colors - A little too much sheen for my taste and a filter would kind of bring all the colors in the same range and not affect the over all color of the model. Using my airbrush I applied a filter wash to the entire model and I love the results.




Here you can see that sand color oils between the TUSK II plates well.






This image is a great contrast about what a filter can to do level out the colors. If you look at the oil paint pics above at this area you can see how it really worked this area to something that looks consistent to rest of the models surface.




Even managed to prime the diorama:

A couple of shots here for the progress report:

Holy crow Troy!! Can you every do a lot of damage in seven hours!!
I thought that I was bad.
Excellent and massive progress buddy.

So my build is sitting in its box in a symbolic time out - want to wait a couple of days before I even look at it again to see how I like it. In the meantime I have been monkeying around with the diorama and I'd say even finished it. I know it's not part of the build itself but what the heck, I'll post pics of the build anyway.

Wanted to have a street in some dumpy third world town - you know pavement is all mucked up, rubble all over the place. And having never been to some third world Brad Pitt hole - I decided to base the diorama off the dumpiest place I have been - so if you get confused when looking at this diorama - I apologize - I know it looks a lot like it (just a little cleaner), but this is not suppose to be Providence, Rhode Island.


use white glue around the edges:

Here is the dust - lightest colors furthest out, darker as I move in towards the rubble:



Pulverize the stuff - which also blends it as well.


end results;


Even added a sign:


Up top view - yes those are shadows of bars, and no, I am not in jail.



Do you dare walk down this street...

Completely and totally proper awesome work Troy!
You've give me some nice ideas for future desert pieces as well. You're building looks really cool.
Nicely done bud!!

Coen wrote:Completely and totally proper awesome work Troy!
You've give me some nice ideas for future desert pieces as well. You're building looks really cool.
Nicely done bud!!

Ah you're too kind. Thanks so much.

schweinhund227 wrote:I think you should try to find yourself a M1114 or M1151 to replace that Old M1025
either from Bronco (M1114) or Academy (M1151)

You would appreciate the Meaner look of those improved HMMWV that would match the Era of your TUSK2

Good luck with the project none the less.... should be quite nice once all put together.

That gesso technique of yours worked better than expected for me, thanks so much - I am sold on that stuff.

Took the break as a chance to finish my dudes. Not just dudes for this build, but all my dudes. I read that one only gets good at painting figures by painting a lot figures. Well clearly I have proven that statement to be false. Man I may pass on figures altogether. Jesus wept!

Regardless here they are:

Pigment applied today, very light and limited. Want it to look more like a dust than dirt.

Spent the better part of two hours doing a pathetically small amount of stuff: added four lenses, decals, painted the front fenders in black, and cut up some party stringer for a blue optics effect on the lower (drivers?) hatch.
I used a party stringer for the color lenses.

And I had to quit drinking beer because I have had a gout outbreak. Go figure.