I was going to do a bit more on the moss and small grassed areas tonight, but I got sidetracked by the figures, or rather facing up to the fact I have to do them ( partly due to the guilt trip @petbat sent me on lol)
I really am not good with figures, so anything that resembles human in the end is a bonus for me lol, and my surgery of figures is even worse so I will be keeping that to a minimum.
Now the poses are not 100% correct I know, but they are probably as good as I can get them.
I used various figures and parts of figures from the DML Wiking in Hungary set, Miniart panzer maintenance crew, and Tamiya tank ammo loading set.
The guy sitting the mudguard is from the Wiking set. I had to do some surgery on his right leg to get his boot onto the headlight. He isn’t in the correct uniform for the pic, but it was the only one whose pose was close enough. The guy on the mantlet is from the Miniart set but with the arms from another of the same sets figures. I had to reshape the shoulders a bit and they all will need filler of various amounts to bulk them out and give them decent shape.
The guy standing on the hull is again from.tje Miniart set but his arms are from one of the Tamiya ammo loaders figures. On this one the shoulders were reworked a bit and I had to saw the left arm off at the sleeve, then reglue it in a more realistic position.
The basics are there now so I just need to work on some finer detailing now
I feel your pain re figures but just placing those headless ghosts immediately brings the scene to life. Despite being a build-a-photo campaign hopefully some leeway’s allowed about their positions & poses. In other words suggest keeping them as simple & natural as possible, that’s hard enough!
Well John. You will have to get the okay from the campaign leader - do you have a mirror handy?
They do really fit in with the theme well and add a lot to the ‘story’. Nice.
Hit another wall with the Conqueror. The regulator on my compressor has decided it has had enough. Was just turning down the pressure ready to start pre-shading and something went bang. The handle came off in my hand and parts Inside the handle have broken apart. As that is part of the whole lifting mechanism that regulates the flow and I can’t see any way of fixing it and still being able to properly adjust flow, a new part is in order.
Those figures add a lot right away, you can almost hear them shout at eachother: Wie ist das passiert? Keine Ahnung, aber Heinz hatte gestern Schnaps gefunden…
Your build looks on the way to be a very good work, fully re creating the accident.
By the way this mishap is not the only only involving a large cat (Panther, Leopard)
There are some epic fails by tank crews and falling off things or getting fully hull down bogged in, and its worth doing a google search and seeing the results.
And finally got around to making the muzzle cover/bag. It’s simply tissue brushed with PVA white glue and moulded around the muzzle … Will let it fully cure then paint it.
All nicely coming together John, , glad the sawdust worked for you, it’s cheap, normally plentiful if you’ve been cutting wood, and you can make small batches of any colour you want, .
I also agree with the others, the figures really add something to the whole, .
Luckily we have the chippy shop on Station, so I just went in with a small tupperware container and filled it with sawdust from his bin. And yes, I really like the texture and feel it gives this and other scenes. its ideal and like say, able to take any colour you feel like mixing for it. Win win
And to sing the praises of the Maple leaf boys… Going for breakfast at the Ledra palace hotel in Nicosia in the CanCon sector was the must thing to do on every patrol we went on…heavenly … I do miss that !!
, glad the sawdust worked for you, it’s cheap, normally plentiful if you’ve been cutting wood, and you can make small batches of any colour you want, 
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