I had a little time over the Christmas Holiday and was able to keep this project moving forward!  As you can see, paint and decals are on, and basic washes/dry brushing to bring out the details is completed.  Next up will be some detail painting and the weathering.  I have already started that process some, as you may notice there is a bit of rough texture on the side skirts and around the front and rear of the hull.  That is some acrylic artist texture putty.  A bit of "blended fibers" mixed with "stucco" makes a great caked on mud and dirt effect.  With the texture applied, all we need now is color and dust!  Im hoping that I will be able to just about finish this build up this weekend.  We shall see!

A new project in the works, a Matilda tank from World War II again, but a little different than the previous version.  This time I will be doing a Austrailian Matilda, which was a later Mk III or Mk IV tank, and had some unusual features like the track gaurds, turret ring armor, stowage box and other details.  The conversion is from Firestorm Models out of Austrailia (where else?) and works perfectly with the new tooled Taymia kit.  I also have a crew for it, bush hats and all.  Paint will be pretty simple (dark green), but the weathering will be fun as I make it look well used in the jungles of the South Pacific!

Well I'm back in the Jeep addiction again!  I'm not in a position to own the full size one (yet!), so I'm expending energy on making more of these 1:35 scale ones.  These are the first of many planned..  Both are based on the excellent Tamiya kit, with a few modifications.  The first represents a jeep during the D-Day landings, June 1944.  Note the white bumpers, shipping data on the passenger side, "left hand drive" warning on the tilt, and cammo netting.  The odd color star is a "gas paint" star.  The light green area would change color if under a chemical attack.  The tilt was covered in tea bag paper and came from Italieri's old kit.

The other is the Tamiya kit with Verlinden's "Calliope" rocket launcher conversion. This is a real vehicle, and several were made and used in Europe early in 1945 while the allies were making their way into Germany.  It was a area bombardment weapon, with no real accuracy, mainly point and shoot type artillery.  The Sherman tank was also fitted with these same tubes (though more) and used for the same purpose. 

Wraped up the painting on this over a month ago!  It will actully appear as an "airbrush armour" column in SMMI in the comming months.  But for now here is a preview.  Ill have a few more minor details to add before delivering to the client, but overall Im very pleased with how this came out!

I was handed a box of old models a client had done, all in various states.  Many had sustained damage of one form or another, some missing parts, and others just need a bit of TLC.  His instructions were to "restore" them.  I decided to start with this old Taymia Matilda.  He built it using the kit markings, and what was probably accepted at the time for the colors in the famous "Caunter" scheme.  However newer research has shown the colors to be a Middlestone base, with a Silver Grey, and a Slate Grey.  From what Ive been told the Silver Grey would fade and bleach to a very pale bluish tint, but not as blue as we see on some museum pieces! So I dunked the model in "Super Clean" stripping off all the old paint, and reassembled the model.  For the new paint I ended up mixing the colors using various Model Master enamels, somewhat going with what "looked right".  I used Slate Grey and Radome Tan, both lightened with white, and for the Silver Grey I used a mix of German Afrika Grey Brown with some Duck Egg Blue and a few drops of another blue just to "blue" it up a little.  I think I got it looking pretty good! 

Original Condition	Stripped bare for new paint!