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Lesson 8. 4 deuces plus. Update 4/14/12

bob letterman

Master at Arms
Staff member
As I have finished both the demo models, I decided to weather some more while some play catchup. As many of you know, My diorama, Logistics, will have nearly fifty vehicles. I have finished 10, I have to build 6 more, and I have 33 built, base coated and ready to weather. As I usually do them in groups, assembly line style, I have selected seven vehicles and will weather these as an ongoing lesson, Number 8 and final.

I have been applying the insignia on these seven, so, I'll start by showing each one before the washing begins.

There will be four Two and a half ton GMC trucks, one Italeri Cargo, one Tamiya tipper dump conversion and another Tamiya, this time a gas tanker conversion. First, the Italeri, hard cab which was produced up to 1943 until replaced with the soft cab to save on steel for the remainder of the war.

Before painting.

ItlH.jpg


After painting and applying insignia.

ITcargo.jpg


The dash. Sorry, a bit out of focus.

ITDash.jpg


The cargo. This was from a German resin company called "Real". Not sure if they are still around. I have two sets. One of the munitions cargo and another of the fuel cargo. I used the munitions one for this deuce. I had base coated it and washed it. After I detail paint it, it will be ready to mount in the bed of this GMC.

Cargoalone.jpg
]

ITCargo01.jpg


Next is the GMC soft cab that I converted into a gasoline tanker.

Prior to base coating.

gasconv1.jpg


Base coated, wheels painted and dry transfers applied. I used 6 colors on the gas cans. 4 colors of O.D., German yellow and a couple of German gray tanks. During the war, everybody used every gas can they could find, friend's or foe's. I wanted these to reflect that.

tanker01.jpg


Rear view.

tanker02.jpg


Tanker dashboard.

tanker.jpg


Next, the GMC dump truck, (Tipper), conversion made by The VLS company, Trakz.

Before base coat.

tipconv.jpg


After base coat, tires painted, etc.

deucedump.jpg


And detailed dash.

Dumpdash.jpg


Then, back in 2004. Trakz, a subsidiary of VLS, released a GMC set of cargo canvas cover and another of GMC cargo stowage gear. I built this one as a demo for trade shows. I've had it since and although several broken parts, I'm going to use it as one of the 9 deuces in Logistics. It needs some detailing, and a bit of wash and dry brush here and there and it'll be fit for duty!

olddeuce.jpg


Then, a couple of the six jeeps, these will be painted as Military Police jeeps, part of Georgie Patton's entourage

Jeep3unpainted.jpg


Jeep4unpainted.jpg


Here they are ready to weather.

2MPs.jpg


Finally, I scratched a road grader a couple of months ago. The base coat has hardened and it is also ready to weather.

RToblF.jpg


Ready to go!

grader01.jpg


It will take me a couple of weeks or so to finish these, barring any unforeseen circumstances. I will post as each vehicle moves through the weathering process. I have already copied the first two demo vehicles onto the "Logistics" threads in my masterclass. I plan to do the same with these seven after they are finished, but this tutorial will stay up as long as MP wants it here. There will be ribbons awarded to all who finish the models posted on this thread. Hmmmm, I wonder if I get a ribbon..... :hmmm :hmmm :hmmm :hmmm

Bob
 
Re: Lesson 8. 4 deuces plus

It looks great Bob! I particularly like the ammo load out in the Italeri 2 1/2 ton. Very nice.

I look forward to following along with each and every step.

Cheers, :notworthy

Bill
 
Re: Lesson 8. 4 deuces plus

Hi Bob,

fantastic build and paint as usual. You are my idol and my guide :notworthy :drinks.
I will stay tuned for this other work of modelling art..

Cheers :)
Massimo
 
Re: Lesson 8. 4 deuces plus

Bob,

They look so good in person, not sure if they can look better in photographs, but they do. Excellent work. That Road Grader is fantastic.

Wes
 
Re: Lesson 8 4 deuces plus


Thank you. I don't know about legend, but if somebody has been doing something for almost 68 years, (I started at this when four years old), and still didn't know much about it, I suppose they'd have to be a bit on the dumb side, wouldn't you? :hmmm

Bob

It looks great Bob! I particularly like the ammo load out in the Italeri 2 1/2 ton. Very nice.

I look forward to following along with each and every step.

Cheers, :notworthy

Bill

Thanks Bill,

I've had those things laying around for years, finally found a use for them. When I first pulled them out of the box, I was disappointed as the casting was awful, but, I think when they are finished, they just may turn out OK!

I kinda relaxed this weekend, I'll get back on these today.

Bob


Me too, I'm checkin' out your Sherman! :popcorn :popcorn :popcorn

Dad
 
Re: Lesson 8. 4 deuces plus

Now I understand why you buy paint by the case Bob!!! (y)

:popcorn

Yeah, if something happened to me, Humbrol and Vallejo's income would say Bye, Bye :pilot

Bob

BoB ,

Good Stuff ......

:popcorn

Thanks Erik!


Hi Bob,

fantastic build and paint as usual. You are my idol and my guide :notworthy :drinks.
I will stay tuned for this other work of modelling art..

Cheers :)
Massimo

Massimo, I haven't heard from you in awhile! Thanks, that was a very nice thing to say!

Un forte abbraccio, Amico mio!

Bob
 
Re: Lesson 8. 4 deuces plus

Bob,

They look so good in person, not sure if they can look better in photographs, but they do. Excellent work. That Road Grader is fantastic.

Wes

Weskozonski! (as Pruneau always called you!)

The first time I have seen you post on here in a coon's age, whatever that is.

You need to upgrade the pic of you and Alexis, she looks much more grown up now!

Thanks Pal,

Bob
 
Re: Lesson 8. 4 deuces plus

Magnificent work! Congratulations! The wheeled vehicles are my favorites and Construction of the grader is really fantastic :notworthy
 
Re: Lesson 8. 4 deuces plus

Magnificent work! Congratulations! The wheeled vehicles are my favorites and Construction of the grader is really fantastic :notworthy

Thanks Piase! Still have a lot more to go! A couple follow!

Well, I got a bit more vehicles weathered.

First, a couple of tricks I've learned over the years. I use pastels a lot in my weathering. Way back in the 70s, there was a great modeler that was also a Chicago cop. His name was Jim Stephens. He was in the Shep Paine books, How to build Dioramas and How to build Military models. He was a master of pastels, the best at it I have ever seen. I have one of his scratch built 1/24th scale trucks in the museum. Check it out.

stephens-1~0.jpg


Entirely weathered with pastel chalks. I use them in many different applications. I'm no Jim Stephens, but here is a trick that takes seconds to do. I am aware of all the products out there to make rust, but this is the most simple and the most effective I have ever seen, and it can be done in less than a minute.

First, a slightly out of focus, (I have a hell of a time photographing in my basement workshop), exhaust pipe and muffler.

muffler~0.jpg


All you need is a bottle of flat black paint, acrylic or enamel, doesn't matter. I used Vallejo.

pallet-2.jpg


Then I keep a piece of plywood with a fine slip of sandpaper taped, face up. Then three colors of pastels, (Available in any art supply store, black and my two favs, burnt sienna and raw umber. Rub all three in seperate locations on the sandpaper till you have some powder from each.

pastelboard.jpg


Then, paint the muffler with the black paint and before it has a chance to dry, use a stiff, wide brush to stipple the three colors of pastel dust onto the wet painted muffler. It dries absolute flat and has a very realistic finish.

muffler-1~0.jpg


It is so quickly applied and looks so real, I wouldn't use any other method. Here it is on a Ferrari engine.

Eng01-1.jpg


OK, now to the Jeeps. There will be six jeeps in the diorama. Two will be part of Patton's entourage. I washed them yesterday, they were dry this morning. Then the dry brushing, (Note; the wash and dry brush were minimal as Patton's HQ vehicles would never have been all that weathered). I added radios, antennae and the Military Police markings.

Frnt-1.jpg


ltfrt~0.jpg


Rear-3.jpg


Another little trick is to paint the reflectors on softskins black, not the mounting brackets, the lenses. After they dry, use a bright red paint to place a dot in the center of the black lens. Then after drying, paint the entire lens with clear gloss, it has a very realistic appearance. Just noticed I threw in a commercial for my friend Chris Merseal of CRM Hobby shop! :cheer:

reflectors01.jpg


rtfrt-1.jpg


I left off the one steering wheel as it will have a figure in the driver's seat that can't be mounted after the steering wheel is attached.

RtFrt02.jpg


Frnt-2.jpg


Rear-4.jpg


right.jpg


More to come.

Bob
 
Re: Lesson 8. 4 deuces plus. Update 3/21/12

oops! I forgot to include the cargo from the Italeri Deuce and a half.

It is all painted and ready to fit into the bed of the truck! I first sprayed the entire resin block with O.D., Then, after drying, I gave the entire piece a raw umber wash, then painted all the wooden crates with a skintone acrylic. Then, using matt 72 and matt 159 Humbrol, I drybrushed all the canvas objusts to a khaki color, painted the straps with straight matt 72. Gave the rifle a Humbrol 270003 polished steel and a skintone to the wooden part.

Using a mix of Artist's oils raw umber and burnt sienna with rectified turpentine to thin, painted the wood grain on all the boxes and the stock of the rifle. Oh yeah, I used some Archer dry transfers for the stenciled boxes.

cargo01.jpg


Cargo02-1.jpg


That's about it!

Bob
 
Re: Lesson 8. 4 deuces plus. Update 3/21/12

Everything looks great Bob! I use the same method for rust except I base coat with dark brown and then dry brush with model master exhaust. I glad I'm not the only one not to get pastels from a bottle.

Terry (y)
 
Re: Lesson 8. 4 deuces plus. Update 3/21/12

I've used pastels quite bait in the past Bob but never thought to apply them to wet paint. Great tip and one I'm sure I'll try out. :snoopy
 
Re: Lesson 8. 4 deuces plus. Update 3/21/12

I am utterly, appallingly clueless about this stuff but I know art when I see it. This is wonderful, Poppy...and like all of your dioramas and everything in them, photos do not do them justice. :)
 
Re: Lesson 8. 4 deuces plus. Update 3/21/12

I am utterly, appallingly clueless about this stuff but I know art when I see it. This is wonderful, Poppy...and like all of your dioramas and everything in them, photos do not do them justice. :)

Thank you Sweetheart,

I appreciate that, but I also know if what I had posted was just awful, you would say the same thing.

Daughters are not very objective! Thank God!

Pop
 
Re: Lesson 8. 4 deuces plus. Update 3/21/12

Everything looks great Bob! I use the same method for rust except I base coat with dark brown and then dry brush with model master exhaust. I glad I'm not the only one not to get pastels from a bottle.

Terry (y)

Thanks Terry,

I literally have buckets of pigments as VLS at one time sold their own brand, but I prefer pastels. Just old fashioned I guess.

Bob
 
Re: Lesson 8. 4 deuces plus. Update 3/21/12

I've used pastels quite bait in the past Bob but never thought to apply them to wet paint. Great tip and one I'm sure I'll try out. :snoopy

Thanks, I learned that by accident way back in 1981 when I built this Monogram 1/8th scale XKE Jag.

xke02-1.jpg


I like it because it not only has the right color but the right texture as well.

Bob
 
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