Making Barbed Wire

Two things people think of when they picture WW1 - mud and barbed wire. Mud is easy to make; here's my go at making barbed wire.

Basically, all I'm doing is painting some insect screen and then cutting it into strands.

This is just a patch I cut out of an old Screen Door I was dumping. It's plastic and the holes are tiny; small enough that a skinny, starving mosquito cannot squeeze through.

The paint is just a cheap can of Red Oxide. It really doesn't matter if dust and dirt sticks to the mesh; on the real battlefield, real barbed wire would have been covered in all sorts of muck.

These days barbed wire is galvanised, so it stays shiny for a long time; many years. But I think they had better things to do with Zinc in WW1, so I don't think it would have been galvanised; I think it would have been made from mild steel. In that case it would have rusted within hours.

I took the paint and mesh into the garage and gave it a generous spraying. The temperature has suddenly dropped here (it's -15^oC) and that will affect the paint drying, but this doesn't have to be a perfect looking job; in fact the dirtier the better.

When I get a few minutes to myself, I will be cutting this up into strands. But today, the kids don't want to sleep so it will have to wait.

Painting Tracks Part 2

Well, it turns out I didn't like the colour enough, so I have started to repaint them.

I used Tamiya Gun Metal and Tamiya Black, mixing them on the brush - a cheap brush. I want the track plates to look slightly different colours - some darker, some lighter - so I didn't mix up a big batch of paint. I want the non-uniformity.

After these have dried they will be getting several washes with different brown mud colours. And when those have dried I will see how I feel about them; maybe add some mud, maybe add a lot of mud!

Update on Why No Updates!

We had another baby boy born about 3 months ago which, as any father can tell you, puts a lot of demands on a couple. Income is cut because mother is on maternity leave, so father has to work a bit more to make up the money. Available time for making models is cut to zero, for obvious reasons.

Hence, no updates.

One day, sooner or later, I'll start doing modelmaking stuff again. In the mean time I'm enjoying being a dad.

Painting Tracks

I was confined to quarters this morning and I looked over and saw my models abandoned months ago. Thought I'd do a bit of painting and thought I'd paint the tracks. I decided to start on the underside as I haven't done anything for months and I find it takes me a while to get my eye in.

I was trying to find a good rust colour and rejected Revell 83 in favour of this, generic Burnt Sienna. The Revell paint would have needed a special thinner and brush cleaner, whereas this one washes off with water.

 

The paint is years old, so it is thick and goopy and fills a lot of the holes as it paints. After the rust colour, I'll use a Gun Metal colour or a dark, steel grey, and after that I'll very sparingly highlight with silver.

I quite like the colour, but even if I didn't not much of it will be visible once I've added the other layers of paint.

British in Gas Masks by Strelets

I was just passing the time, in my little room, and I ended up putting some paint on these

I used a very big brush and covered them with Reaper Master Series Green Ochre, that took about 5 minutes. Then I gave them a heavy brushing with some Sepia ink that I found in a box in my basement, that took about 5 minutes as well. Not bad for 10 minutes' work.

I don't usually paint figures, or perhaps I should say I haven't painted many figures. These probably bring my total up to about 12. I think the uniform is a good colour, but it looks as though the ink is going to stay glossy. I will try to fix that with some matte varnish.

Two weeks later...

The sepia ink didn't dry so I brushed over it with a brown wash. I made a start on the rifles but I don't like the colour I've used.

I have to say, I've made almost no effort to try to paint well with these figures. I didn't much like them and I was painting them in between other projects to see what various colours looked like. But they have grown on me. They're not the prettiest of figures, but they do have a certain charm.

A 1/72 Tank Mark II

Just thought I'd try this. It's been playing on my mind ever since I noticed that the cab front from the Airfix kit is the same size as that from the Emhar kit.

The Airfix kit is really a Mark II, despite what it says on the box, so making a Tank Mark II has never been a problem. I have one I made years ago sitting on a windowsill collecting cobwebs. The problem is the kit is 1/76 scale, presumably because back in the olden days that was the size of the figures people used. Today's figures, however, are 1/72 and when placed in the vicinity of the Airfix tank make it look small.

The Emhar kit is 1/72, so no problem set beside figures. The two cabs shouldn't really be the same size, but they are. I don't know why I noticed it. So I sliced the Airfix cab front off (it is attached to the glacis) and glued it to the Emhar body. It took less than 3 minutes. I wasn't very careful, just wanted to get it going.

The two models assemble in different ways so there are some gaps, and it's not helped by my indifferent cutting and gluing skills. But I think it's going to work. A little bit of Green Stuff, a little bit of "mud", something to draw your attention elsewhere, and Robert is your mother's brother.

Molding and Casting with Oyumaru

I've just had my first go with Oyumaru. It really is as simple as all the videos say.

1. Get some Oyumaru:

2. Put it in hot water for a few minutes and it turns malleable. Press it over the object you want to copy (in this case, a 1/72 German Cavalry figure from LW):

3. Let it cool and harden, or run it under cold water for 30 seconds to harden. Remove the object. Mold is made:

4. Push Green Stuff into the mold. When the Green Stuff has hardened, remove it from the mold:

You're done.

I know I used too much Green Stuff, but it'll trim off. Just look at how much detail it captured!

Very pleased with this.