RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

HERMAN BIX wrote:the tracks almost pressed back into the printed impressions but without getting fussy for the picture , not quite sitting right.
Acceptable for now as its going to be lifted off the display base regularly.
The ground cover & dirt displacemet should help blend them giving weight effect to the base.

Hey Herman... There's a landscaping trick I used to do when I made Dioramas ..... the track impressions you have are good...but because your tank moves ..they won't always line up... the trick is... mask off the bottom of your tracks.... get a spray bottle filled with water...wet your current base ....then sprinkle unsifted cement or plaster over the surface.. let the powder and chunks absorb the water... allow to harden for a couple of hours... pull off your tank..then spray another coat of water over the textured area...allow that to set a day... seal and paint... you should come out with a surface that looks like fine gravel dirt and stones

ALPHA

you'll do me mate, thanks. I will indeed give that a go. The printing trick worked much better on the smaller scales I used to do, but the plaster & aggregate must have shrunk during the curing process just enough to reject a perfect match on the metal tracks on the Jagd. Being it will be removed from time to time I wasn't overly desperate to have it exact, but better than it is would be desirable. I flogged a couple of my daughters large paint brushes she uses for school projects as they seem to offer the right 'grassy' look & texture when I dye or paint them.............hey its a fair trade for the money she drains off me !! so I will see how they go . Cheers for the tip mate.

This weekend is the only time Im going to have to get this base completed. Rugby season is on, Saturday games for the boy take up a lot of the day, especially the after match "analysis" with the other dads from South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Ireland
Deided the look & scale of the fence I had completed just didnt look right, so I set about getting a replacement put together. Used ice cream sticks as pailings & would you believe $50c packet of take away chopsticks as the cross members. Used white glue to secure them with compression to cure the joint being a large glass oven dish with tonights steak dinner defrosting in it
Used a British Paints fence stain product to treat the 'timber' (making an assumption that wood during this period would have been treated with creosote & diesel or waste oil)and used the drying time to get the ground cover ready . Drying time at the moment is pretty quick, its autumn and today was 29 C.
Bought a paint brush from the hardware supermarket that had the right texture & length for overgrown grass. Destroyed it to get at the bonded bristles. These are worth the extra cost over the cheap throw away brushes as the cheap ones are compression bonded not set in acrylic. Much better for setting in .

Mounted the fence panels, used plenty of quick set PVA glue and any passing hands that were spare to hold them in place until the bond took. Placed outside in 'the curing oven' for a while so the glue set sufficiently.
Once back inside, set about hacking chunks of brush out. Set the ends in superglue to the right density & set aside.
Got the cordless drill out & made a few sockets for the long grasses/weeds to be placed in. These will need colouring & trimming once fully set. While I was at the hacking chunks phase, managed to slip with the caft knife & spear my finger that was holding the brush.
Give you the news, that F*#*&#ing hurt like bejeezus
All that sprang to mind through the pain haze was to bung superglue into it .............because it was handy, and to stop the claret from ruining my establishment !!.............oh, yeah, great idea............why didnt I just chuck battery acid into it ???

Anyway, once my S**T had calmed down and the tea-towel was replaced with several compassionately placed(not even close) sticking plasters , the mission continued.
Made up a slurry of PVA white glue diluted with water. Got it spread around with an application method close to a bulldog eating custard & covered all ground space except the track prints. Once covered, served up the actual German made grass material mixed with the leaf mix(from the coctail drink mixer) that I had pepared earlier, and gave all the adhesive a good dose( nothing like a good dose eh!?)
Built up the layers as the glue appeared to soak through so that there hopefully wont be any thin spots (unlike my hairline )
Now its a waiting game overnight to see what will shake off.
If there needs to be further building of volume, I will have to use spray adhesive to get the deired depth of grass cover.
Still will have the track marks to cover for final blending, and the fence & rock wall to weather etc, but for now its a waiting game on the white glue slurry to do its job.

Fantastic work.

Hooked into the final stages of getting this display base done so the 'White Tiger' project can begin . Brewed up the muddy track marks with burnt umber and ochre..........with a gloss agent to try to retain the damp look of freshly removed turf.

woops, got the upload wrong forgot the second picture.Have a bit more weathering to do, more as practice than necessity, but its coming good and will be more of a fit for purpose method of sitting it out than just sticking the Jagd in storage.

for added character I got some wildlife to throw in the mix. You've all heard "never act with children or animals" well, acting is one thing, but trying to get the huge base mouldings off the damn chicken legs & feet was like a first date in your car........frustrating & rewardless
I measured a drumstick out of the freezer & did the maths. These things measured up ! Schleich animal figures with the green marks. Allowing for contraction @ 0 degrees C they seemed to match the ancle to thigh bone distance on the figurines. (*oh god now Im getting into 'model anthropology' )
I persevered with all of them & got them set in the base.
Drying time, some final bits and this is done.

Cool idea mate......