I'll be happy to get mine looking that good.
Yeah, that mat's pretty cool. I never had one, before this freebie, and it proved to me that I should have just bought my own, way earlier in my modelmaking.
A box containing a 1:35 scale model Crusader Mk III tank kit, by Border, showing the cover art of a Crusader Mk III driving up a sandy hill, as the commander stands in his cupola smoking a pipe. On top of that box is a smaller one, containing cast metal track link parts for the model, by Friulmodel.
Next on the bench - this Border 1:35 Crusader Mk III. I'm hoping for a fairly relaxing, slow, steady build. No scary new techniques for me to learn and practise; just putting to use what I've learned. #HistScaleModels
A friend gave me a little box of googly eye stickers for Christmas, and I knew that I had to put a pair on a tank or a gun, so here we are. I also fancied having some fun with the airbrush, using colours that an AFV modeller doesn't usually get to play with. This was a first go with masking putty.
1:35 scale model PAK 40 anti-tank gun with a pimped up paint job: the front is a glitter-sparkly purple/pink swirl scheme; the rear is a heavy industrial hi-viz scheme of yellow with green bands. View from above.
1:35 scale model PAK 40 anti-tank gun with a pimped up paint job: the front is a glitter-sparkly purple/pink swirl scheme; the rear is a heavy industrial hi-viz scheme of yellow with green bands. View from back left, showing the gunner's post with gunsight and control wheels.
1:35 scale model PAK 40 anti-tank gun with a pimped up paint job: the front is a glitter-sparkly purple/pink swirl scheme with googly eyes; the rear is a heavy industrial hi-viz scheme of yellow with green bands. View from front left.
1:35 scale model PAK 40 anti-tank gun with a pimped up paint job: the front is a glitter-sparkly purple/pink swirl scheme with googly eyes; the rear is a heavy industrial hi-viz scheme of yellow with green bands. View from front right.
A palate cleanser after the rigours of the Panther - a simple little Tamiya 1:35 model PAK 40 anti-tank gun, with a couple of mods. This gun was sold to Finland in 1942, and ended up being used as crowd control in a 1990s Helsinki acid house club.
#HistScaleModels
Feels a bit tin foil hatted to say this, but isn't this playing into the hands of Russia (again...)? If Iran can sell oil to countries whose ships it has agreed to let pass the Strait, then the price of crude drops, due to increased supply. If not, Russia benefits from continuing high crude prices.
At least 97% of the pain and annoyance in creating any application comes from developing the user interface and the error handling. If it weren't for the users and errors (which are mostly the fault of users), life would be much simpler. ;-)
If the Iranian leadership and armed forces are all dead, then it must be Joe Biden and Barack Obama firing those missiles. It's logical.
One of the unintended consequences of my getting an airbrush has been a shift away from lacquer and enamel products, towards more water-based ones. It took me a while to adjust, but it's certainly for the best. Still got lots of old Tamiya acrylic paints, though, which need organic solvent.
That's great. What Felon 47 calls "American oil" actually belongs to the drilling companies who extracted it, and oil companies seem to love to give big bribes, er, sorry, donations to Felon 47 and his cronies. So oil companies make more cash, which they can give to Felon 47. What's not to like?
Flippin' 'eck. I'm thinking what I might run out of... At my incredibly slow build pace, my stash of three kits will last me for a year, and I think I have all the paints I need, too... But thinner is a different story. Time to build a still and start making hooch, to use as thinner.
Thank you. I took a while to be convinced that metal tracks were worth the expense and effort, but they definitely make a big difference on some model tanks, and I think the Panther is one of them. I'm very pleased with the curve under gravity.
The radio operator in a tank is called a Panzerfunker.
I'd bet that Felon 47 didn't write that message personally. No way would he remember the accent on the á of "Orbán", and even if he did remember, he wouldn't know how to make his phone write it. Oh well, it's Putin's words anyway, so no matter whether Felon 47 or his staffer writes them.
Correction: White House staff told not to get found out placing bets on prediction markets.
They'll still do it. Felon 47's system is all about corrupt self-enrichment at the expense of the rest of humanity.
I do this! My ex-girlfriend would look at me pityingly as I did it, in a way that implied strongly that she thought I was a time-wasting weirdo.
It's interesting to think about the Physics involved, as the teabag changes shape in flight. Needs some computer modelling. Must write some Fortran.
And also, guess what? European air personnel don't need to be rescued from hostile territory in the first place, because their governments aren't ordering them into harm's way unnecessarily by perpetrating this illegal bombing campaign.
Ha! Do you know, that correspondence between model scale and divisional number had never occurred to me, despite seeing the darn thing for hour after hour as I worked on it? Yes, it's 1:35, so the cat is a fairly normal sized shorthair moggy.
Thank you! It's the 1993 Tamiya kit 35170, depicting the early version of the Ausf. G, so it's reasonably accurate. I was, however, given the OG Tamiya kit 65 as another present, at the same time... I've had my fill of Tamiya Panthers. Although I've still never built their Ausf. D kit 35345...
I've tried this way several times, and I can never judge it right, when the oil wash is just dry enough to be scratched, with an old ragged paint brush, to simulate the grain of the wood. This time, it just dried looking good, so I left it with hardly any scratches. The video showed me how to do it.
Thank you for noticing those - I was particularly happy with the way they turned out. It was partly luck! 1. Black acrylic primer. 2. Light brown acrylic base coat (Tamiya XF-59 desert yellow). 3. Wash: burnt umber oil paint, thinned with thinner & a drying enhancing medium. 4. Let dry. 5. Scratch.
A book called 'Zimmerit. The Ultimate Modelling Guide", by Ammo.
Thanks to @stefjn.bsky.social for making me aware of this book, which really helped me make the Zimmerit look good, using dry brushing to highlight the ridges and an oil wash to accentuate the grooves. Lots of other good weathering hints, plus historical and technical information, in there too.
A 1:35 scale model Panther tank. A grey cat stands behind the model, towering over it.
A 1:35 scale model Panther tank. The ridged Zimmerit effect has been accentuated by dry brushing and an oil wash.
The rear of a 1:35 scale model Panther tank, showing weathering and mud effects.
The right side of a 1:35 scale model Panther tank.
It's finished. The most accomplished build I've ever done - a Panther kit given to me as a present in 2024. Hopefully the last Panther I'll ever build! Kit, Zimmerit stickers and photo-etch by Tamiya. Metal tracks by Friulmodel. Cables by Eureka. Art by me (and Earl Cat). #HistScaleModels
It's more important to have solid skills in the INTERCAL, Fetlang and Malbolge languages.
#HistScaleModels - awesome weathering skills here.
You know I hate to ask -
Allen Scythe electric?
Only mine's broke down
And now I've no-one to love.
I like the concept of "high wombat risk", as per the road sign.
It's all good. Vibe coding will introduce so many bugs that, statistically, they _must_ cancel each other out. Who knows, the applications might start giving your computer _more_ memory!
A man photographed from the chest up, bathed in pink light. He has no shirt on. He's wearing a pair of dark glasses and a satin hair-protector bonnet. He's making a serious pouty face and holding up one hand in the "devil horns" gesture.
A friend lent me her therapeutic infra red lamp, to see if it has any good effect on my chronic pain condition. I also have a cute satin bonnet to protect my long hair in bed. Put them together, add a pair of shades, and it's a rock and roll Friday evening. My girlfriend says it's getting weird.
Pro tip (if you hadn't already worked it out) - paint/draw labels on both sides of the tag.
Now that Bondi's out of favour with the Orange Felon, does that mean that she's no longer in line for a pardon from him for her federal crimes? That would be such a shame.