Global Scale Modeller

Hello all! Welcome to my first entry into one of the Group Builds.

I will be building Tamiya's 1-35 scale M4A3 Sherman 105mm Howitzer kit. It is a relatively recent kit, from 2002. I started it back in August but didn't get very far before school came. Last month I got back into it and had already completed the assembly before I realized that I wanted to post it in the Group Build.



I will be doing this kit in one of Tamiya's suggested versions, a tank of the Headquarters Company of the 69th Tank Battalion of the 6th Armored Division in the Ardennes. The tank had a base olive drab with winter camouflage over it.



Here's where I had got to last week when I started taking pictures:



This is the first time I have made my own sponsons to make the kit more realistic. I cut them from one of those cards that come inside dress shirts to keep them unwrinkled. I would have preferred to use sheet styrene, but there wasn't any about. Anyway, I think they came out alright for the first time.



I got the model all primed up and ready to get the base coat down, which I'll do tonight.



The kit came with plenty of extra bits and bobs for stowage, so I put some together and primed those too. The hollow knapsacks needed filling with putty. Simple but tedious.







I'll have some more pictures and some info on the tank itself later today. Cheers!

Hi there. Here is some information on the 105mm Howitzer variant of the M4 Sherman:

Though the U.S. was decisively winning in the latter stages of WWII, there remained concern about the inferiority of the Sherman tank in firepower and armor protection to the German Tiger and Panther. It was said that the U.S. had matched the superior quality of the German tanks only by superior quantities of American tanks. And this was largely true. The Sherman did not fare well in tank-to-tank slugging matches with their giant German counterparts-shells often harmlessly bounced off the thick German armor. Interestingly enough, before entering the war, the U.S. did develop some extremely heavy tanks, but later switched to lighter tanks for the following reasons.
The U.S. tanks had to be transported by ship from Detroit, across a vast ocean to land amphibiously on enemy shores. This reality placed great limitations on the size and weight of the tanks. Especially with the frequent U-boat sinkings, the number of U.S. ships was dropping, and the bigger the tank, the fewer a ship could carry.

Another factor that faced the U.S. was moving their armor over bridgeless streams. The U.S. Air Force was targeting enemy bridges as a means of disrupting enemy supply lines, etc. Once these bridges were destroyed, U.S. tanks would have to cross the streams on temporary bridges. Heavy tanks could not have crossed, but the lightweight and nimble Shermans could.

Also, while the Tiger and Panther were made bigger and more powerful than the Sherman was, they were comparatively slow and ponderous. The German tanks were often used as pill-boxes, forced to become immobile and fire at oncoming armor. On the other hand, the Sherman was designed for deep thrusts into the enemy's rear, where it would destroy supply installations and communications. This demanded great speed and minimal fuel consumption.

But perhaps the greatest reason behind the success of the Sherman was its reliability-maximum performance and minimum care and replacement. General George Patten recognized this when he declared, "In mechanical endurance and ease of maintenance our tanks are infinitely superior to any other". This factor played out on the battlefield, allowing the Sherman to out-run, out-maneuver, and ultimately out-fight the Tiger and Panther.

With about 50,000 produced in all variations, the Sherman was the most widely produced tank during the war. The five major variants of the M4 to the M4A4 were designated by the hull and engine used. Although powerful and proven, its high center propeller shaft gave the hull a tall profile. Suspension was a rugged and simple design, known as VVSS (Vertical Volute Spring Suspension), with three units (or bogies) on each side, and each with two road wheels. The transmission was 5-speed forward plus reverse. Early production M4's had a 3-piece front transmission cover, and a cast one-piece steel turret mounting a 75mm main gun. For added protection, oblique armor plates were added to the turret, hull sides and just in front of the forward hull hatches. Production of the M4 began in July 1942, five months later than the cast hulled M4A1. One of the most powerful variants of the M4 Sherman was the 105mm howitzer equipped version, which provided valuable fire support for the U.S. Army and Marines as well as extensive use in anti-tank operations.

Specifications for M4 Sherman 105mm Howitzer
Overall length: 6.197m
Overall width: 2.67m
Overall height: 2.94m
Weight, Combat Loaded: 31.48t
Weight, Unstowed: 28.486t

Actual Thickness, Angle w/Vertical

Hull Thickness:
Front: 63mm/47 degrees
Sides: 38mm/0 degrees
Rear: 38mm/10 degrees
Top: 19mm/83-90 degrees

Turret Thickness:
Front: 76mm/30 degrees
Sides: 51mm/0-5 degrees
Rear: 51mm/0 degrees
Top: 25.4mm/90 degrees
Gun Shield: 91mm/0 degrees

Armament: M4 105mm howitzer (X1), M1919A4 7.62mm machine gun (X2), M2 12.7mm heavy machine gun (X1).
Ammunition: 66 rounds 105mm, 4,000 rounds 7.62mm, 600 rounds 12.7mm.
Engine: Continental R975-C4 9-cylinder 4-cycle radial air cooled (15,945cc displacement, 460hp/2,400rpm output)
Maximum speed: 38.6hm/h, Cruising Range: about 161km, Crew: 5

And, as promised, more pictures:

I decided last night that, to spice up the tank, I would make my own canvas cover for the rear stowage. This will serve the dual purpose of looking totally badass and covering up some of the more poorly molded stowage items.

I researched various methods, but the one that seemed most widely used was facial tissue and white glue. I laid the tissue over the stowage and painted on a mix of 50/50 white glue and water, let it dry, then painted on a 75/25 mix of glue and water to stiffen it up more. I worked in some wrinkles and folds with a pencil. I think it turned out okay.



This morning, after the makeshift tarp was dry, I painted it with a 50/50 mix of Vallejo Olive Drab and Vallejo Khaki Brown. The glue stuck to the primer and it came off with the tarp in some places, so I will have to re-prime that area. No biggie.



More on this later in the week. Cheers!

Hello again!

I did some photo research on the 105mm Howizter Sherman, and I found several photos, sadly I could not find the exact tank I will be depicting here. I always wonder Tamiya and Dragon and the like get their historical material to make the kits. The world (meaning me) may never know. Still, I found some good stuff.

I had a spot of confusion about the track color in this kit. It comes with the rubber band thingies, and, as usual, Tamiya decided to make my life difficult and not tell me what color to paint them. Thankfully, the internet, as it does 99% of the time, provided the answer. In this photo, you can clearly see the tracks. The pads in the middle are rubber and only the connectors are made of metal. I have seen about 3 or 4 different types of Sherman tracks of different materials, so I was confused as to which one these were.



One interesting thing about the 105mm variant was that it was used as mobile artillery in addition to the assault support and anti-tank (mostly the former) functions for which it was built. There is a photo in the Tamiya instructions that I believe depicts this function, but I'm not entirely sure. It may even be inspired by this photo.



Some pics of the build tomorrow. Cheers!

Hi everyone!

I'm back with some more historical documents off of the internet. I did some research on winter camouflage on the Sherman during the war, and what I found were these two pictures:

The primary method of applying winter camo, it seems, was giving the whole tank a coat almost indiscriminately. In the first photo, the crew appears to have avoided painting over the insignia on the sides of the hull and turret. For identification purposes, I suppose. In the second photo, the crew has completely covered the tank, insignia and all. The second photo is actually of a 105mm Sherman from the 48th Tank Battalion, 14th Armored Division.





The Tamiya instructions show the tank with most of the whitewash gone, but there are indications that the areas around the insignia were at least left somewhat uncovered. The whitewash was water-soluble and so came off easily. There are numerous pictures of tanks on both sides with the majority of the whitewash gone. The Tamiya instructions appear to depict that scenario, so I would imagine that at some point Tank 58 looked more like the tanks in the pictures.

I could depict Tank 58 as Tamiya does with Ultimate Winter wash, but sadly I do not have any of that magical concoction. Another option would be to simply paint the tank the best I can with white paint and an airbrush, but I don't think that would work well or look nice and accurate. The last option would be to paint how I imagine Tank 58 would have looked when the whitewash was first applied. Decisions, decisions.

So, the options are:
1. Order Ultimate WInter wash
2. Makeshift weathered whitewash with an airbrush
3. "Original" whitewash based on the historical documents.

If anyone has any advice on this, I would love to hear what you have to say. That goes for all of you out there. Speak up, peanut gallery, speak up! Until next time, cheers!

Hi there, everyone!

I've settled on how I'm going to depict Tank 58. As I posted about a few days ago, the 105mm variant of the Sherman was used for mobile artillery support, as shown here:



And here:



I will be displaying Tank 58 in a small vignette, with just the tank and the included commander figure, in a small clearing in the Ardennes forest, in artillery firing position. I have some modeling supplies that should be coming today after school. Static grass and a few other diorama-making items. I watched HollywoodModeling's Ardennes forest diorama series yesterday, so I have some good ideas for ground cover. He used debris and mud from Scenic Factory, but because I live in a forested area, I can use debris made free of charge from actual forest debris and mud free of charge from, well, mud.

Anywho, I have some more pictures for you guys.

I have given the whole tank a base coat of Vallejo Model Air Olive Drab, thinned with Ultimate's Airbrush Thinner, and sprayed at about 15-20 psi.







I've also hand-painted the stowage and extra bits, including the 50 cal. MG for the turret.

Ammo boxes


Stowage and K-rations


Oil cans and spare wheel


MG


I also gave the canvas cover a wash with black oils.


That's all for now, until next time. Cheers!

Hi , very nice entry , love the Sherman !

About what paint to use ...in my entry (I'm building a Nashorn Diorama in Russia) I tried the Ultimate wash ...the effect I think will be the desired for doing the wash in your Sherman , I love the Ultimate washes , as they are water based , it is very easy to remove and create that weathered effect ...the paint option could be hard to remove later if something go wrong , but your call , you may check some photos on my build to see , I liked a lot the effect

Looking good! I love the facial tissue idea

Mighty fine work going into this Sherman

Sergiotron wrote:Looking good! I love the facial tissue idea

Thanks! I got the inspiration from Coen's Nashorn build earlier this year.

OliveDrab wrote:Mighty fine work going into this Sherman

Thank you, sir. I try.

Such a simple way of making tarp. Nice idea indeed.

rodrant wrote: About what paint to use ...in my entry (I'm building a Nashorn Diorama in Russia) I tried the Ultimate wash ...the effect I think will be the desired for doing the wash in your Sherman , I love the Ultimate washes , as they are water based , it is very easy to remove and create that weathered effect ...the paint option could be hard to remove later if something go wrong , but your call , you may check some photos on my build to see , I liked a lot the effect

You're probably right about the effect. I know the airbrush wouldn't be good for reproducing the camouflage as Tamiya depicts it. However, my budget for models right now is running on fumes, and shipping costs for Ultimate products to the US are out of my price range. I usually save up for them, and I'm not sure if I want to spend $25-$30 on something I won't use that often, even for such a good product. Maybe when I need some more stuff from Ultimate.

I will have to go for the "original" whitewash, that is, painting the tank as it would have looked when the camo was first applied. I've had to modify my normal procedure for this build because of the winter camouflage. I will gloss, then add decals, then gloss, then paint the winter camo. I'm hoping that having the camo over a gloss coat will allow me to correct any mistakes I make. Then I'll do the detail painting, wheel rubber, etc.

Back to the pictures.

I gave the upper areas of the tank a light coat of a 50/50 mix of Vallejo Model Air Olive Drab and Vallejo Model Air Sand Yellow. I had hoped it would turn out slightly yellower, but I still like the effect, and I hope you can see it in the picture. It will eventually be mostly covered up by the whitewash, but I thought I would take this opportunity to experiment with some new techniques since they won't much affect the final product.




I weathered the wooden stowage some with Tamiya XF-57 Buff. Wood doesn't often enter a war zone without ending up chipped and dented and scratched.



I also gave the knapsack some straps made from masking tape. I was inspired by Pete in his M4A2 build. They don't look as nice as his, but they add some realism, I think. I painted it with Vallejo Model Color Khaki.



This weekend I'm hoping to at least get started on the diorama groundwork. Some goodies came from Amazon yesterday. Scenic grass, snow, and Liquitex Matte Medium (my choice for cheap scenic cement). The Blended Turf I've had for a while. I probably won't be using it, actually. Woodland Scenics Mold-a-Scene plaster will be the base.



That's all for now. Please let me know if you have comments, criticism, praise (especially the praise), anything. Until next time. Cheers!

Nice progress. The crates look good.

You've been a busy boy, love the overall colour and all the other work, coming together very nicely

Bissyboat wrote:Nice progress. The crates look good.

Thanks. It was a spur of the moment decision, and I'm glad it worked out.

privatepete wrote:You've been a busy boy, love the overall colour and all the other work, coming together very nicely

Thanks Pete. I aim to please.

This week has been full of obligations, but this afternoon is wide open for some modeling. I'm thinking gloss coat and decals today.

I might have some pictures later today of stowage painting from last night. Until then, cheers!

Hi all.

I have some pics for you from last night.

I decided that, even with the tarp and the other stuff, the back of the Sherman was looking somewhat deserted. One of the perks of this kit is that Tamiya gives you a ton of extra bits and bobs, much more than you would need for the figure set that comes included. I grabbed some stuff from the sprues and got to work painting. As of now I've painted a Thompson, a M1, a shovel, an extraneous helmet, and some extra ammo packs. Let me know what you think of what is there and let me know if there's anything you think I should add or do in general.







With any luck, I should have the winter camo on by Sunday and the pictures up Monday. Cheers!

Hi what colours have you used on the two weapons ? and are you go to tie down the stowage ?

privatepete wrote:Hi what colours have you used on the two weapons ? and are you go to tie down the stowage ?

Hi Pete. On the two weapons the metal is painted with Vallejo Model Color Gunmetal Grey and the wood is painted with a mix of mostly Vallejo New Wood with a little Vallejo Leather Brown. The ammo packs are 50/50 Vallejo Khaki and Tamiya Buff.

I thought about tying the stowage down, by unfortunately by the time the thought occurred to me I had already done the tarp, and the tarp isn't lined up with the hooks that the rope would go through. So... probably not. Yeah. Not thinking ahead is fun, right?

spock1701 wrote:
Hi Pete. On the two weapons the metal is painted with Vallejo Model Color Gunmetal Grey and the wood is painted with a mix of mostly Vallejo New Wood with a little Vallejo Leather Brown.

I thought about tying the stowage down, by unfortunately by the time the thought occurred to me I had already done the tarp, and the tarp isn't lined up with the hooks that the rope would go through.

Thanks for the feed back on the paint, I like the mix for the wood on the weapons ,you could use the light guards and cross over to the "U" tie down have it done before.

Looking good, love the small arm weapons finish and the tarpaulin looking forward to further up dates mate

privatepete wrote:

spock1701 wrote:
Hi Pete. On the two weapons the metal is painted with Vallejo Model Color Gunmetal Grey and the wood is painted with a mix of mostly Vallejo New Wood with a little Vallejo Leather Brown.

I thought about tying the stowage down, by unfortunately by the time the thought occurred to me I had already done the tarp, and the tarp isn't lined up with the hooks that the rope would go through.

Thanks for the feed back on the paint, I like the mix for the wood on the weapons ,you could use the light guards and cross over to the "U" tie down have it done before.

That would work if the top flat bit of the stowage pile were to the rear of the "u" tie down. It is forward of the tie down, so the light guard is even further away from the top flat bit. Using the light guard would just make it worse.

I had a thought about this. I'm considering adding rope to the tank that looks like it was set up to tie down the stowage but was untied to access the stowage. After all, the tank is supposed to be parked for artillery purposes. It stands to reason that someone might have needed something when they stopped (like the ammo packs and the guns) and untied the rope. I just have to figure out how to position the rope to make it look like that happened.

The decals are on and glossed over. I don't have the pics because I'm posting from my phone. Zero hour is almost here. Time to do the camouflage.

Nice work on the stowage and tarp. It´s all coming together now.

So I've done the winter camo, which basically came out ok. Not great, but decidedly okay. I think. You'll see the pics tomorrow, and you'll see a horrible mistake on my part that came out okay too.

I also did chipping with olive drab to weather the whitewash and then chipping with Vallejo German Camo Black Brown.

Then came the detail painting and painting rubber on the farkakte wheels. Oy.

Oh, and I glued the suspension onto the lower hull and gave the tracks a look. They're a little loose on the suspension, which is strange for Tamiya rubber band tracks. I prefer them loose, actually.

Pictures of all this and more tomorrow.

Hi all.

I have the pictures from yesterday all set for you. Get ready, because there are A LOT of them. Like 20. Maybe more.

Also be ready for the winter camo. It's not as good as I hoped. Not at all.

Let's get down to it.

First came the gloss



Then the decals. Turret first, as always. The decals started to wrinkle a lot this time, which has never happened before, so each one needed about six coats of Micro Sol to look decent. That took a while, but they look pretty good.





Then I masked all the decals with poster putty.



Then came the snow. VMA White mixed with a drop of VMA Russian Green to make it less stark.





It's not very close to the Tamiya instructions, but it looks good so far, right? Not for long, unfortunately.

When I unmasked the decals, the unpainted sections looked weird to me.









Here's where I made my first heinous mistake. I had glossed the tank twice after the decals, and the gloss varnish I use (Alclad Aqua Gloss) is supposed to be pretty strong, right? So I decided that the best way to weather the camo realistically would be to go at it with soapy water and a toothbrush. Boy, was I wrong. The toothbrush barely did any weathering, but when I rubbed at the camo with my finger in a paper towel, the camo came right off. Along with the gloss, the base coat, and the primer. I'm luck I realized that after only one suspension bit was weathered. So I thought maybe I could paint over the camo with olive drab to create large spots of weathering. Well, here's the result of that:





Sad. So sad.

So I fixed those spots with a little white through the magical airbrush, and it basically went away.



Then I resigned myself to chipping the camo with olive drab and a scouring pad piece. Not great, but it was the only other thing I could think of, and I was pretty annoyed at this point.







Then, to calm myself down, I went to work hand-painting the rubber wheels. Only 12, but still so many. Then the suspension bits went on the lower hull. I did a quick check of the track fit, and they seem fine.







After that, because both football games (American football) were boring, I did the detail and tool painting. All metal bits were painted VMC Gunmetal Grey and all wooden handles painted Tamiya Buff.



Then the tracks got painted with Ultimate Primer. The metal connector bits on the outside are the only metal parts, and they were painted with a mix of VMC Gunmetal Grey and VMC German Camo Black Brown.





The final item on today's list was a pinwash using Ultimate Dark Dirt. I'm still considering a sludge wash too, but I don't think I will do one. I also tried an oil stain for the first time.





Let me know your thoughts. Cheers!

Hello, all. Welcome back.

I managed to get around to some more modeling this week.

First up are the tracks:

I gave them a coat of Ultimate Mud wash. It looks great, in my view. The color is just the shade of brown I wanted and it didn't dry uniformly, which is good. Great stuff!



Then I gave the tank a matte coat with AK Ultra Matte varnish. Sprays nice, cleans up easy, and the flat finish is fantastic. So far so good.



Here is where I ran into a bit of an issue. I thought the tank would look nice with an oil filter. A green one. Maybe the notion itself was stupid, or maybe doing three coats was where I messed up, but it doesn't matter. It looks green. Excessively green. Green green. I tried using a thinner-coated brush to make it go away, but that failed. I think what I will do, and let me know if you think I'm being stupid again, is give it a white oil filter to perk up the camouflage again. Otherwise I'm afraid that it will look like a hunk of mold on top of the snow diorama.





Anywho, my next task is getting around to the diorama itself. I'm putting the tank aside for now until I hear back from the peanut gallery (that would be you fellas) about the filter situation. Until then, cheers!

Looking good so far! The white wash has turned out very nice.

Sterling job on the Winter camo and the chipping effects. The Sherman is close to being battle-ready.

Hi all. Quick update here, only on the diorama, as I'm still deciding what to do with the filter situation.

I bought several cheap frames at a Target when I was in Washington DC last August, and after removing the canvas from them they make excellent vignette frames for 1-35 scale armor or diorama frames for figures or smaller scale armor.

I didn't have a cardboard piece big enough to cover the whole bottom, so I taped two together.





Then I thought, hmmm... cardboard is porous, and plaster is wet. So I added another layer and sealed the gaps at the edges with some foam adhesive I had lying around the basement.



The wood itself seemed boring in its original state. Luckily, I had some olive drab enamel spray cans lying around from my airplane modeling days. Quick spray=colored frame.



To protect the paint and the wood of the frame from the various messy diorama materials to follow, I taped paper towels to cover the wood. This way the extra glue and groundwork and such won't get stuck to the frame, just the paper towel. And now we're all set for the Mold-A-Scene from Woodland Scenics.



Hopefully at least that will get done over the weekend. Cheers!

Coming along very nicely!

hansolo wrote:Coming along very nicely!

Liamcraven666 wrote:Looking good so far! The white wash has turned out very nice.

Bissyboat wrote:Sterling job on the Winter camo and the chipping effects. The Sherman is close to being battle-ready.

Thanks, guys. I'm glad you like it. Let's hope I can fix the green a little.

But before that happens, I have some pics from the diorama. I put down the base groundwork using Woodland Scenics Mold-A-Scene plaster. It has more big chunks and hard bits mixed in with the plaster than I would like, but that just means I can't use it for mud effects because it looks weird. For the groundwork it looks great when smoothed out and makes a really nice base for other, more realistic groundwork. I made a little jig for the extra track pieces that I used to measure out the depressions where the tank will sit and I'll be using it to make track marks later.







I'm in the process of experimenting with mud right now. I'm mixing real dirt with water, PVA, and various paints and things for coloring, so I need to figure out the right mix that will set firmly, look dark enough to be mud, and be able to hold track marks nicely. Not an easy task, mind you. I mixed up a test batch last night using Ultimate washes as color, and it didn't turn out great. So, another night of trying again before I can actually get it down on the base.

Looking good really enjoying your thread

Very nice job so far, looking forward to seeing that fine shermy on the base.

Hi all.

Big update on the diorama. I did a lot of work on it over the weekend and I've basically finished it. Hooray!

It was messy as hell, I have to say, but it was worth it and I'm very satisfied. I hope you guys like it as well.

Here we go:

On Saturday night I grabbed some branches and outside bits from the woods to add to my mud mixture and to add some forest debris. I only ended up adding some branches and logs because most everything small would have been covered up by the snow.



Then I got down and dirty with the mud. This is a mixture of actual dirt, white glue, water, and some black and brown paints, along with some small twigs and bits broken off the bark piece you saw above. It took a while to get the mix right and then cover the whole base, but I ended up with a very nice dark brown color. The line in the mud in the bottom left corner is supposed to be a motorcycle track.







Then I laid down two coats of Liquitex Matte Medium to seal the mud before putting the snow on. This is just after it was applied, so it hadn't dried yet, but when it did it wasn't matte, really. It was glossy in a way I don't think it should be. It wasn't a huge problem here because I wanted the exposed mud to be glossy and a little wet anyway, but for other projects it might be an issue.



Then came winter in the form of Woodland Scenics Soft Flake Snow, which is very good and doesn't get used up quick. I don't think I'll run out for many years. I mixed it up with white glue and water.



Once the snow was dry, I added another coat of Matte Medium. The snow hardened up last night and is rock solid.

After I decided that I was satisfied with the results, I removed the tape and paper towel. Ta da!



Now on to the tank itself. A muddy base needs a muddy tank, no?

I'll forgo the explanations here, as the pictures are fairly self-explanatory. Hint: if something is glossy, it's probably got gloss varnish on it for a wet mud effect.













That's all for today. Let me know what you guys think. All that's left after this is some decals on the stowage, then we're done! Cheers!

That's coming along really nicely - I don't know if it's just my monitor but the green-filtered finish doesn't look overly green to me, maybe it just shows up more to the naked eye (or simply because you know it's there).

Great work on both the Sherman and the base - I'm really looking forward to seeing how you finish this one off

Tomcat64 wrote:That's coming along really nicely - I don't know if it's just my monitor but the green-filtered finish doesn't look overly green to me, maybe it just shows up more to the naked eye (or simply because you know it's there).

Great work on both the Sherman and the base - I'm really looking forward to seeing how you finish this one off

Much appreciated!

I double checked those pictures, and you're right, the green doesn't show up so much in them. I think it may have to do with the lighting when I took them and the contrast with the mud in the pictures. In the earlier pics with no mud it looks greener, I think. Anyway, you'll really see the green tint when it goes on that pure white snow diorama.

Hi all.

It's been a few days, but yesterday afternoon I finally got around to finishing up the build, and the only thing left is to get it in front of a proper camera and not my iPhone (which crapped out yesterday anyway, so a new one might be in store depending on what the problem is).

The final thing to do was get the commander figure in the turret hatch and finish up the stowage.

Some decals on the ammo boxes and K-ration boxes







Then all the stowage got glued on. I used PVA just in case I messed up or wanted to remove something later.







Then the stowage and the top areas of the model got a finishing matte coat.





And we are finished! Final pics to come, look for them in the Final Reveals thread. Cheers!

Great result mate - looking forward to seeing that in its field of snow!

Indeed. It´s a Ronson packed to the brim with goodies. That tarp looks incredibly realistic.

Tomcat64 wrote: Wed Feb 08, 2017 3:23 pm Great result mate - looking forward to seeing that in its field of snow!

Bissyboat wrote: Wed Feb 08, 2017 10:52 pm Indeed. It´s a Ronson packed to the brim with goodies. That tarp looks incredibly realistic.

Thanks guys! Good to hear, and I'm glad you like it.

It's supposed to snow BIG tonight here, so I'll take a page out of the Coen book and take pics outside in the snow, see how they come out.

Excellent work!

Great work there mate

Congratulations on your finish!