Camouflage foliage

[Bluelion]

My leaves just arrived all the way from the USA to me in London and they look the dogs bollocks. Which is English for great . Cheers for the extra Autumn leaves ( which is English for fall)
Thank you and a pleasure to do business with you sir .

[ausf]

And here I am waiting over two weeks for a 1/72 Revell Type VII from your land.

My dog had his bollocks pinched years ago, but I'm glad you like the product.

[Max-U52]

And here I am waiting over two weeks for a 1/72 Revell Type VII from your land.

My dog had his bollocks pinched years ago, but I'm glad you like the product.

Damn, if I had known that, Jeff, I have a 1/72 Revell Type VII I could have let you have for a lot less than getting it from across the big water.

The Dog's Bollocks, eh? That's a good one. I like to say "It's The Cat's Ass".

Now I'm curious, Jeff, if you don't mind, are you waiting for an order from Hannant's? Why did you have to get it from the UK? Did they stop production on that kit again? I just hope I get to see photos of whatever you do with it.

[jackalope]

Gorilla Glue for wood is waterproof and easy to find around here, will this work ok?

[ausf]

Now you tell me Gary, I could have traded you a bunch of stuff for that, resin, leaves, gearboxes...

I may still. I've been looking for the kit for a long while now, I have the Type IX and Type IXC/40, but the VII has been OOP forever. I've been on a RC sub kick and the VII is my favorite, but the going price has been in the $140 range, that's why I went IXs since I get them wholesale. After spending too much on the OOP Kubel and Schwimm, I decided not to chase the VII.

Then I found a UK vendor who was selling them for 37 pounds, about $55 and shipping was $18, so a bargain.

I'm looking for an Italeri 1/35 Schnellboat, you got one of those? It's been OOP too, but they rereleased it as a premium package, but it's yet to show up in the States (MMD doesn't seem to import them anymore), so I may reach across the Pond again.


Gorilla glue would work, but that's like using a sledgehammer to drive a tack. Titebond or one of those wookworking PVA would be fine and waterproof, but again, just Future would do well too or an acrylic bindere from Michaels, etc. Even the pigment fixative from Mig or Ammo would be fine.

I wouldn't stress too much about it, most adhesives would do the trick, just not a solvent type that's designed to melt plastic. Gorilla glue is an expanding urethane glue, iso based, so just regular CA would probably be better, but I wouldn't go that heavy.

Both of the examples in the animation were simply dunking the stem (on the green ones) or the whole leaf (Fall ones) in a watered down binder and stuck them in place.

[Max-U52]

I didn't know the Type VIIC was out of production (again). I missed the first run, picked this up for $125, then they re-released and I was pissed, but if it's once again hard to find I guess I'm OK again. I bought this intending to backdate it to a type VIIB, as that was Max's boat, the 52. I guess it depends on what you plan to do with it, Jeff. If I can get you to make it a B and the 52 I think I'd be compelled to give you a very, very good deal on it. You're a pretty talented guy and having you model the U-52 would be worth quite a bit to me (all I'd ask besides whatever we work out is lots and lots of photos). Nate is also doing the 52 (maybe in 32nd scale? I think he said it's over 6' long) but he's been working on it for quite a while. I like Nate and don't want to rag on him, but I sure would like to see video of his completed U-52 in action, ya know? Being patient sucks.

Anyway, let me know if you want to work something out for the kit, Jeff, and if not, that's also cool as I really should build this one myself one of these days.

[ausf]

To backdate the C to a B, you'd have to cut the kit in half in two places and remove 1/6" before and after the periscope, right down the middle of the conning tower. It can be done, but would take some work to get it true with no deviation over the three feet of kit.

You might be better off doing it to a smaller 1/144, if there are any of the plain C (not 41 or 42) is still around.

I'm pretty sure I have a B in 1/125 on the shelf, but it's an older kit, not quite the detail of the new releases.

[Max-U52]

Yes, I'm aware the C is about a meter longer than the B, but in that scale it isn't super noticeable so it's one of those we're going to let go. The rivet counters will hate that, but you know what they say if ya can't take a joke. The only other real differences are fairly minor, I think the escape equipment is different and the life raft canisters may need a bit of change? I admit that I'd have to do a lot more research before attempting the backdate but I went over all this a couple years ago with the boys at finescale.com and we determined it wouldn't be that difficult to get a reasonable facsimile of the U-52. At least one that would pass inspection of 99% of the great unwashed public.

I've done the 1/125 B kit, that one was Gunther's boat, the 47. Then there's a kit of the 99 (Kretchner, maybe?) and I think that was an odd scale, like 1/99 or something. Then there's the cut away, which I did many years ago, and have totally forgotten the scale.

So the point is, Jeff, that I do have one of these in the stash and if you ever find yourself in serious need of it we can probably work something out. Otherwise I'll just keep it here where I can see it and smile, and i might even build it some day.

[Bluelion]

I'm going to attempt to make the branches for my super oak leaves out of copper wire of different sizes soldered together , and then painted brown, being flexible they should be able to be bent to the desired shape.. I will be looking in our electrical stores at work today for different size cables . Probably be a complete cock up but it may work!!

[ausf]

That's how I did it in the sample.

You can get magnet wire, usually in packs of three gauges, which are single strand, thin wire coated with enamel. You burn off or scrape off the end and solder like any other wire, and the pre painted enamel coating takes paint very well.

Oak trees seems to work in threes: The end of the branches have three off shoots, each with three leaves. That gives a good realistic coverage.

It sounds tedious, but it doesn't take long once you get a rhythm going. A pile of leaves, a set of tweezers, a blob of glue and it's pick, dip, stick, repeat. The leaves are light enough to stick and stay immediately. If you curve the leaf a bit around the center stem (before gluing or after glue is completely dry), it adds to fullness. The curved edges should face the same direction, usually towards the ground, especially if you are using the branch as camo on a tank. Cut branches would have drooping leaves relatively quickly once they start to dry out.