One Down One to Go

More progress .
The silver hydrolic arms , the wheels and the connection between the bucket and frame may look a little crooked/off but that;s cuz nothing is glued yet .

Ruck On, Brotha!

That's just COOL!

99% done .
Some more weathering , rear view mirrors , eleven more hydrolic hoses and twenty two metal hose ends .

what an excellent finish! I love it! rough and rugged with dirt and scratches in all the right places!

Thanks Pup , BroSki , Rhino , Ian , much appreciated .
Done , and done .
I gotta send a nasty letter to the CAT dealership tho , the right side rear view mirror sits higher than the left .
Next up is a beat up surplus wrecker .

Good job! Looking forward to the wrecker!

I've been eyeballin that wrecker everytime I see it on the shelf. Can't wait to see your take on it Glenn.

@Cheyenne, you already have your tow truck but if you need a crane for that dino BBQ thigh, this is the thing! also, for anyone with a 32d scale WWII bomber.

Pup , this is one extremely detailed kit .
You literally build it from the frame up just like in the Chevy factory .
Lotsa small intimidating parts .
The good news is the fit is amazingly good .
I was worried about the frame and wheel base being straight/square/level .
Only minor eyeballing was needed , the parts fit is that good .
Even the u bolts to attach the leaf springs to the chassis are seperate parts .
But it's worth the worry , hell I put on my brown pants to start this build just in case .













You even get a styrene jig to bend the p.e. bumpers , ......... man I'm lovin this kit , I've got a lot of other MiniArt Chevys so I'm glad the others will turn out the same way . MiniArt radio truck and the one with the trailer , Sauls bomb loading truck , and a couple of cargo trucks .

Absolutely superb.

I had more eye surgery on the 10th this past Thursday , so the intricate small work on the truck is on hold till the cloudiness in my left eye clears up .
However the build needs concrete parking lots/driveways so I tackled that , it's large enough to work on .
Disclaimer : This is not my invention/creation it's a pretty well known method .
I based mine on a tutorial by Martin Kovac " Night Shift " on U-Tube , who happens to be my modeling hero .
Imho , the greatest builder on the planet , any genre .
Do yourselves a favor and check his work out , you will be amazed .

I started out sectioning a 3/16ths block of cork , no thinner , it needs to be stiff enough for the process .
Divided that into nine four inch squares .



Then I took one of the squares and bent the cork creating a long crack and breaking off two pieces .
Trimming away some of the cork along the adjoining edges to further simulate the cracks .



Then I fit the broken pieces back to the four inch square , DO NOT GLUE .



Next I coated the piece with good ole spakle/sheet rock mud .
Not to thin and not to heavy , a baby bear coating , " just right " and got it level as possible .



Then let it harden only long enough to take a wire brush and stipple the hell out of it .
I filled some divits with mud and sanded some high spots , rinse and repeat on the stippling .
Carefull sanding , you don't want to loose the wire brush stipple/holes effect .





Happy with the look and totally dry I then bent the long crack to appear and broke off the two smaller pieces .

Now I can glue the broken pieces back to the four inch square .



Now I took a pale grey paint and a round blunt brush and stipple painted , not brush painted the mud .
Using water on some of the paint on the brush to get different cosistincies absorbed into the mud .
You don't want a universal grey paint job .



Then I stippled a buttermilk color which is an off/dirty white color in random areas .



I also stippled some antique white which is lighter than the buttermilk .
You can use whatever colors you want for whatever you think your concrete should look like .
Just don't paint the colors on , stiple them .



Lastly I took Iraqi sand color and now I did a diluted wash , not stippled , in some areas .



I used dark grey chalk to put in the cracks amd lightly dusted the whole thing wirh it also .
It also fills in the thousands of wire brush stipple holes .
The good thing is if you start to darken things too much or the colors don't look concretey enough , you just restipple your base coat and try again .

Its your build keep playing with it till in your minds eye it looks like old concrete .



You can add grasses and weeds to the cracks or anything else .

Most excellent! I saw someone else do concrete with construction paper, painting and weathering much the same way.
And think of all those spare parts that could be strewn around @Brokeneagle Ian Hill style.

Yeah , Ian and BroSki [ Steve ] , are also modeling heros of mine !!!

What a great job. I have heard of modellers using cork sheets to get the crack effects for simulated concrete but this is the first time I have seen it done - wonderful finish! ..........
and yeah, think of all the detritis, rock, rubble and broken stuff you could have on the base to really make it zing!

No I was talking about the truck!

Yeah Pup , I knew you ment the truck , That screams extra stuff hung all over it from bumper to bumper .
I've got a little scratch addition for the truck I think you'll find interesting .
No spoilers ............

So many nice pieces in this diorama. It's starting to look a little Letterman-esque!