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Modeller Build Logs
Tasca Sherman Firefly Vc |
| By James Wechsler | | Started: | Dec 1, 2006 | | Updated: | Apr 29, 2007 |
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OK, I’ll admit it, when I got the opportunity to do a blog using Tasca’s new Firefly kit I was giddy with excitement. I’ve got Tasca’s Pz. II Luchs, and I’ve built about three of their Sherman suspension sets, and two of their 0.050 cal MG sets. Tasca has yet to disappoint.
Now as a total Shermanaholic, I’ll admit that the thought of building a Sherman model that requires only a little bit of extra work is hard to fathom. I mean what is Sherman modeling without a bucket of aftermarket resin parts, replacement tracks, and a huge photoetch sheet? It’s … like modeling German armor (noooo don’t say it’s true)! There, I’ve said it. 2006 has been an allied modeler’s dream and Tasca’s Firefly is the grand finally of the fireworks show.
But in many ways I’m glad to be doing a blog using a great kit. My last two blogs involved extensive use of resin conversion and scratch built parts to make unusual Shermans. So they were heavily focused on construction tasks. Yet I’ve noticed that most of the comments I receive when I post photos of my models are requests for more information on how I do my painting, weathering, and groundwork. So for this blog I will spend less time on the construction tasks and more time on the painting, finishing and techniques for making simple ground work.
Up Next: The Construction Starts.
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| The Groundwork | Apr 13, 2007 |
I thought I’d start the section on making the ground work with a little description of the process I went through to decide on the ‘scene’. My first thought was that I really didn’t want to make a large base. I don’t have that much shelf space and my goal for the base was only to provide a suitable setting for the Firefly and not to make a diorama.
I also decided that since a goal of this blog was to show how to make bases, I would use polyfoam so I could show the methods I use to create a base from it.
But want to should it look like? Well since I was using polyfoam it seemed logical that there be some kind of incline to add a little ‘life’ to the scene. So my first thought was to have the Firefly driving up a dirt road. Then I thought I’d have it curving, again adding more ‘life’. Making the road curve led me to think that maybe I could add a small retaining wall to the area that where the terrain is changing. A rock retaining wall would have different colors than the groundwork and the Firefly thus adding more variation.
But that seemed a little dull and flat so I thought I’d replace the retaining wall with a destroyed corner of a stone building that I had bought some time ago. That looked pretty good with the building piece adding some height to the overall base.
Then I went over to a friend’s house to watch a movie one night. He has more models than most hobby shops and while he was getting his kids to bed, I was ‘window shopping’ amongst his stash. There I saw an old Tamiya Flak 38 2cm AA gun. So I got to thinking that since it wasn’t very big, maybe I could add it to the base for even more action.
So I decided to add a Flak 38 (more on that in the next chapter) and the building piece had to go. But I realized that I could go back to using the small rock retaining wall with the Flak 38 and get a very nice combination.
At last I had plan. After playing around on a sheet of paper, I settled on a base size of 6 ½ inches wide by 11 inches long.
Up Next: The Flak 38 |
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