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Tiger 1 early - Winter Russia 1942 -completed

Groundwork process for Vegitation, track muck and Mud
VEG:

This is my process for making small stringy vegitation to use on the ground work and for adding to the rocks and dirt in the tracks to add to the realistic detail effect in scale.
Weeds........ cut the lower stringy roots after you shake out the dirt. Then either add them to you mud mix directly or soak them in white glue /water mix for a couple of days then leave to dry out. Paint or don't paint - its up to you and how they apply to the conditions on your base.

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Making Russian Mud : Part 1
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1. Create the mix using pigments, oils dirt and some [very]small stones. Whatever you have that you are familiar with. Make sure the color matches the theatre of operations too.
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2. Pour / force the mix through a siv into another bowl to reduce the amount of moisture in the mix ,down to the consistency you are looking for. Clumpy, Thick, Medium or Runny.
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Remove desired bits with long flat ended tweezers to your groundwork or onto your tank.
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Making Russian Mud : Part 2
Attaching the mess to your vehicle
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Attaching the mess to your vehicle
so that it looks like it has actually driven through your dio and not arrived by helicopter. :geek:
Like in the last post I used tweezers to push it into the tracks and spread it into clumps in the desired locations.
I leave the turret off so I can hold the chassis while I work, as its all going on down low!:D
'Clump -up' the mud mix to your personal preference. No 'hard & fast rule here, just try to get it to look realistic. Looking at references on the net will help you decide on where - i find pictures of catepillars on muddy work sites help and trucks in the mud, plus the obvious, military photos.
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FIXING THE CHASSIS TO THE BASE
Thank you all for following , we are in the final run now so not long to go......
This is a simple step - I remove the turret first so that I can apply pressure safely via the interior of the hull. I then apply a strong white glue in lines up and down the track impressions on the ground making sure i don't go beyond the actual position of the tank.
Push tank down into the desired position and let dry for one day - I advise a few test fits and mods before applying the glue and comitting.

I changed my mind on the position of the vehicle and turned it around so that it had backed into the spot next to the T34 turret. I will explain my thinking in the next section.
After this stage is dry, I move on to the blending of the edges of the model with the actual groundwork.
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Completed, bar the figures and the chassis bow MG!
So now I had to blend the ground work with the edges.
When you begin this phase i find that I have to have a clear vision of the final effect that I want. I wanted the tank to have backed in recently but be stationary, which would allow for a little bit of wet mud, a little bit of snow on the tracks and some new freezing on the track fronts where the moisture has stayed and not been thrown off so much as at the other end [at the rear}.
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The sides now needed to look embedded into the ground, so taking advantage of the concave impression created at the start and the wet mud mix, I worked on hiding the lower section of the tracks and reproducing mud that had stuck near the outer front wheel (early Tiger wheel configuration was notorious for this), the top of the tracks and blending the lower leading edges(front and rear) with the ground.
Remember these photos are very close and the actual model looks better at a human scale than at this macro position.The advantage of using pieces of weed root in the mud mix really comes to light in these photos, as they add an impotant level of detail to what would have been a bit bland.
 

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Completed - part 2
This section has a mix of the tank attached without the wires, fuel drum etc, then after I finished the extras.
As mentioned above I changed my mind on the position of the vehicle and turned it around so that it had backed into the spot next to the T34 turret rather than facing the other way and driving through. After completing the groundwork the balance of the scene changed slightly due to the completed white snow making the scene appear smaller to my eye. When I turned it around and had the tank back-in, the balance worked much better [with the T34 turret and the additional angular offset of it's gun]. This now also called for a change in figures as the vehicle is now stationary.
Back to the dwg board on that aspect, though I am pretty set on a couple of figures pointing off to a skirmish accross the steppe.
The final shot is my idea using the half completed figures.
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Some more......
I ended up purchasing some Tamiya Powder snow effect and was waiting for this in the mail. I applied this over the power lines on the ground and was happy with the light snow cover it dried as.
I still might do a little more weathering on the front of that sign post though.
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In the photo below you can see where I have splattered the mud outwards from the rear tracks to similate the mud 'flinging off the tracks partially as it slowly backed into position.
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Thats great news James . Glad to pass on some new ideas for your next idea!
Can't wait to see it in the summer.
:ro:
 
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