IS-2 "BRUTE OF THE PROLETARIAT"

[HERMAN BIX]

Decided to go with a big square beam as an unditching aid rather than a round type.
Washed heavily with a blend of track wash and watered down black acrylic art paint, it’s taken on a quite realistic hue.
Balsa wood stock to enable easy shaping.
I dusted over it with Europe Earth to match the rest of the tank.
PVA glue undiluted was applied to the fuel tank brackets where the beam makes contact & once it’s set I will tie it off with suitable chain.
The very back end of it was broken by hand & looks pretty close to a real almost fully broken wooden beam .
All I will have left then is to arrange and secure any looted gear on the deck.

You've all heard of the "fog of War" ............this ?, this is the "log of War"

[EAO]

Never doubted you could pull this off! Love the look of the beam, very clever! Great weathering too! TOTM entry?

Cheers,
Eric.

[PainlessWolf]

Herman,
The Beam really works. Especially as it looks to have been broken by a previous use! The front spares look exact as well. Great Job o' Realism!
regards,
Painless

[Herr Dr. Professor]

All that hard work and skill on the IS-2M, and we all get excited about the unditching beam. Yeah, I like it too. It gave me an idea: make a broken beam showing unweathered wood on its the jagged end. Because I live in the woods, I am familiar with that look after wind storms.

[HERMAN BIX]

Never doubted you could pull this off! Love the look of the beam, very clever! Great weathering too! TOTM entry?

Cheers,
Eric.

Thanks Mr E, TOTM ??...........Perhaps yes!

[HERMAN BIX]

Herman,
The Beam really works. Especially as it looks to have been broken by a previous use! The front spares look exact as well. Great Job o' Realism!
regards,
Painless

Cheers Mr Wolf, that was the idea, to get a look of a misused beam rather than the usual mint looking one.
Plus, I didnt want to use a tree . Im theorising that this was part of a building or bridge that was available to the crew to salvage & put to use.
Although '202' does not have this visible, it might have had one, so I'm calling it 'Plausible' !!

[HERMAN BIX]

All that hard work and skill on the IS-2M, and we all get excited about the unditching beam. Yeah, I like it too. It gave me an idea: make a broken beam showing unweathered wood on its the jagged end. Because I live in the woods, I am familiar with that look after wind storms.

Thanks Proff, idea is that it was sawn off the structure it was attached to such as a building or bridge, to be used as a robust tool to help the crew if required.
Plus it blanks off quite a large area of open side armour from the dreaded 'Faustniks'

[HERMAN BIX]

Chained on now.
Perhaps a little more dust pigment & a touch of exhaust soot next to the exhaust outlet & thats that for the beam.
Stowage now, and to invent a way of having it on the deck but in an easily removable fashion
Shame to have a 360deg rotating turret if it cant

[stu_the_flat]

this looks amazing!

[HERMAN BIX]

Thanks Mr Flat, we try eh !

I had a bit of a moment when thinking about how to get the stowage to sit on the deck but be removable for times when I want the turret to rotate 360.
Put some plastic sandwich wrap on the deck & used a PVA soaked bit of fabric placed over that so that hopefully it can have the stowage attached to it yet not be stuck firm on the deck.
This could be abandoned rickety-tick but it’s worth a try.
If it reduces the sound too much that could also hasten it’s demise !!