54mm Girl With Bunny

 Knowing I can not hope to get the Tiger finished before starting on a couple of Tournament trophies and being the same with the Hussar Bust I wanted to at least finish something so went with this lovely 54mm 3D printed figure. 

Bags of character but I felt she should be not so innocent, maybe it's the bunny but I just felt she would have some dark secret that makes her dangerous.

I wanted pink for the bunny so made it a bit tough on what other colours for the night dress as white was out of the question. Yellow seemed the best solution as it's neither creepy or out of place and besides I have the new paint set that I have only used for small areas. The pale or baby blue works for me so I went with it. It has to be said Cath was not a big fan of the choices but we don't always agree on such things.

I added the blood to the base and some on the figure to try and add a bit of freaky to it. A big part of why I used the backdrop (mix of airbrush paints and cleaner that I thought was a bit dark). The figure comes with the option of a open wardrobe with arms reaching out of it.

The blood is also on the girls hand, dress and the bunny's paw and lip. So the question is which one? or maybe both, but either way little Timmy ain't coming out to play.

So a figure that was just bought to paint with no actual use or design. Just nice to paint something just because. I have another 3D set to paint based on the Pied Piper, that will have to wait for the time being as I start the commission work and insert bits to keep me motivated.  I will have however a few more games to report as I continue to play with Matt and have started to go to a games club in Chesterfield.

Tiger 1 Build Update 2

 Since the original post I have managed to build up the Tiger to the point it will receive it's base coat. The Photo Etched has been a huge learning curve that has tested me quite a lot.

The interior of the hatches have all had a big upgrade with multiple parts with up to six bends to a single piece. Front mud guards were less tricky but still full of challengers.

Less bends on the righthand turret hatch but the small catch is actually three parts! The crew will be all over the hatch areas so I felt I should add the detail and now wait to find out how much is hidden by the figures!

View of the rear of the turret, a lot of the PE requires the original details to be filed off the model to be replaced with the brass parts. I have in plenty of cases felt the added detail was not worth the extra work. Here it seemed well worth it, about 40 minutes a clasp I was not so sure.

Each clasp set has four parts, the base plate that requires two bends on a area about half a mm if that, these then allow the hasp to be fitted into the two bent arms. Then the lock has it's upper wire bent to go through hole in the clasp. Finally a upper piece fastens to the tank box and threads through the back of the clasp!

Adding the side skirts last night and today took up a chunk of my modelling time and I had a fair bit of fun bending the skirts after looking at lots of photo's of Tigers. Seems the skirts were easy to damage in Normandy due to the narrow lanes in the Bocage. This will hopefully come across on the diorama. 

Very shinny at the moment, hopefully the primer will deal with that tomorrow. The rear guards were the most challenging and I had to go back to do a few changes to get them right. 

One flaw with the kit is that you can't have the turret facing forwards if you have the hatches open as the lugs force the turret to be put on to the side and when traversed hits one of the forward hatches. Simple solution is cutting off the lugs, will be glued in place when fully painted so no problem for me.

Half the wheels awaiting priming in the base colour. I won't fit the wheels until I have added mud and other effects to the lower parts of the tank. This will allow me to work a lot of effects onto the wheels as well. Tracks will not be even looked at for awhile yet.

Still need to add the exhausts and housing but these will be done post painting the body of the tank as using the airbrush. The AA MG will also be fitted once the tank is painted and tracks added, too delicate to risk getting knocked about.

I have two tournament first prizes to start in the next three to five weeks so not sure how far I can get with this. I should get the tank done for the most part as I am off for a little over a week and we don't have many trips out planned.