Old Dominion Open - IPMS Richmond

On February 25th I attended Old Dominion Open Hobby Show, hosted by IPMS Richmond.
It was good show, a lot of good models on the tables, and quite impressive vendors' area.
As always it was great occasion to meet some old friends, and make some new ones.
The only unhappy  thing was how armor categories were divided :( My beloved braille scale armor was joined with 1/48th scale in Tracked Armor Vehicles, and to make it worse in Armored Cars, Softskin and Artillery categories it was placed together with 1/35th. Very unfortunate decision, which may keep away braille scale modelers from this show.
However I was quite lucky, and 3 of my models received awards in other categories.

28mm Demolition Team

1/72 Fighting For Vodka!

1/35 M4 Early Sherman, Italy, 1944 

It was good start of 2012 season, and I hope it will get better along the way.

1/35 M4 Sherman Early Tamiya - Completed

After previous episode I had Sherman sealed and ready for the DIRT & MUD TIME. First I built up layers of mud with different tones, with help of AK Interactive products. To achieve volume of it, I mixed them with white plaster (Plaster of Paris). When all the layers dried up, I added some more dust using various pigments. At the end, despite my earlier resolution, I eventually decided to make small base for Sherman.

28mm Mordor Stormtrooper

While ago I received from a friend bag full of 1/72 figures (Thanks Micha!). For my surprise, among them, I found metal figure from Games Workshop's Lord of the Rings series. Figure looked incomplete, and for some time I had no clue what to do with it. One day, while browsing through some remnants from 1/35 scale figures, I found some weapons, bags and pouches, and I got an idea. How about modernizing the guy to Stormtrooper?

1/35 M4 Sherman Early Tamiya - Workbench Part 4

While working on Firefly, I also gave some attention to bigger Sherman. I slowly started weathering process, which is in its very initial stage. I applied oil wash and first filter from Winton artistic oils.

1/72 Sherman Firefly Vc Dragon - Workbench Part 4

Since Firefly build is coming close to an end, I decided to start working on the base for it. I sculpted base it using DAS (air drying sculpting clay). After shaping general terrain layout, I added tracks impression on the ground, with DS tracks from another Firefly... It still needs some more detail, but here's general idea of it.

1/72 MAUS Dragon - Workbench part 5

Small progress, despite constant time shortage...
I casted from resin two parts of cobblestone street with sidewalk and assembled one base from its partials. Dug out some ruins from my collection, which initiated my work on the base.

28mm Demolition Team - Warhammer

One of my quick and relaxed project.Figures by Warhammer - Citadel. Two buddies with nice faces came Demolition Charges Team  set, accompanied by little handsome guy with hoodie occupying so far one of the darkest drawers . Building's wall form some HQ72 set. Rest of stuff from spares boxes, some odds and ends.
Painted with Vallejo, Citadel and Lifecolor acrylics. Weathering AK Interactive and pigments from artists' pastels.

1/72 MAUS Dragon - Workbench part 4

While working on both Shermans, I also took care of Maus. First clear coat, with some unwanted texture, little bit of sanding and more clear gloss. Next I applied decals.

1/72 Sherman Firefly Vc Dragon - Workbench Part 3

Work on Firefly continues. First some problems... I applied Johnson's Clear, which resulted in a bit rough texture and also darken the tank. I sanded it down a bit and few more coats of gloss clear. I was ready for decals. I used decals from Polish manufacturer ARMO, set 72408 1st Polish Armoured Division Part 1.

1/35 M4 Sherman Early Tamiya - Workbench Part 3

Another update. Maybe it's a small progress, but in fact it took me a while. First I applied clear glossy coat, which resulted in rough texture. After sanding and several coats of clear I was finally ready for decals.

28mm Red Commisar - Games Workshop

This figure comes from Games Workshop's Warhammer line, and honestly it ended up on my workbench accidentally. But after closer examination, I decided to give it a go. So, here it is - Red Commisar.

1/72 MAUS Dragon - Workbench part 3

Spending evening at the workbench, I could not abandon my little Maus :)
Maybe it's not too much progress, but at least I'm moving forward.

1/35 M4 Sherman Early Tamiya - Workbench Part 2

While working on braille scale Firefly, I also did some work on his bigger brother.
Painted tracks and rubber bands on road wheels. Following the pattern, I painted all hand tools.

1/72 Sherman Firefly Vc Dragon - Workbench Part 2

Finally I found some time to paint smaller details on Firefly.

1/72 MAUS Dragon - Workbench part 2

 In previous part, I ended up with Maus painted with base color. Sometimes I have crazy ideas, and decided to try Digi Camo on this beast. Initially I thought it would be much quicker, but apparently I was wrong. Let me cover this process step by step...
It takes masking tape, scalpel, and lot of free time accompanied with patience. First masking layer on.

1/72 Sherman Firefly Vc Dragon - Workbench

Another Sherman on the workbench, but it's a braille scale this time. Quick built OOB (out of the box), without any modifications. I wanted to try slightly different approach with the paint job.

There were no surprises during the build, so could move on quickly to painting stage. First, grey primer Mr. Hobby Surfacer 1200, then black pre-shading.

1/72 German Panzerkampfwagen VIII MAUS Dragon - Workbench

During one club meetings I bought Maus tank model kit from one of the members. Initially I was little bit hesitant, but he convinced me I should give it a shot since I already have built E-100.
Panzerkampfwagen VIII Maus was a German World War II super-heavy tank completed in late 1944. It is the heaviest fully enclosed armoured fighting vehicle ever built.
The complete vehicle was 10.2 metres (33 ft 6 in) long, 3.71 metres (12 ft 2 in) wide and 3.63 metres (11.9 ft) tall.
Weighing 200 metric tons, the Maus's main armament was a 128 mm KwK 44 gun with a coaxial 75 mm gun. The 128 mm gun was powerful enough to destroy all enemy armored fighting vehicles at close or medium ranges, and even some at ranges exceeding 3500 meters.

 

"Fighting For Vodka" in "A View From The Sprue"

My project "Fighting For Vodka" was featured in "A View From The Sprue", monthly newsletter of  Northern Virginia IPMS Modelers.

1/72 Fighting "For Vodka" SF Project

Sometimes you end up with model kit, which some impulse buy, and after a while you look at it wondering what to do with it. In my case, I bought Soviet KV-2 tank from PST, for reason which I don't recall. One day finally I pulled it out from my stash, and I got an idea to convert it to SF Walker Tank :)
And I made this beast...

Here we go...

1/35 M4 Sherman Early Tamiya - Workbench

Upon one of my friends request, I decided to deal with Sherman in 1/35th scale, and M4 Early made by Tamiya landed on my workbench. 

1/72 Bereznyak-Isayev BI-1

One day, while digging in my stash, I found this little kit, which I purchased probably about 20 years ago. Quite recently I saw it re-released by Eastern Express. I just hope they fixed the molds...
Soon we'll get there. Model kit was packed in tiny box, quite sturdy and attractive for its time.