The rear of things!

Treating Mrs. Woody to lunch out today - a £3.75 Spar Lunch Deal (25pence cheaper than the CoOp - every little saving helps!) - we took a ride out to enjoy a walk in the countryside. Having highlighted the early harvest that is currently happening here in the UK it was somewhat inevitable that our view of the countryside on our journey was at times compromised by being behind a tractor and grain trailer. 

However we were in no rush, the farmers need to do what they are doing and driving slowly saves fuel too! 

I certainly would rather see the rear of a grain trailer than the a T34 tank although continuing my modelling activities on the MiniArt Egyptian T34 tank I have added slightly to the rear of that as I have painted the Jerry cans that fit in the holder on the hull. Using the opportunity to add some colour one is green and the other red. No idea if that is prototypical but you do see these cans in all sorts of colours and it adds a bit of interest to the rear of the tank unlike the grain trailers I keep following!

They need to be weathered and made to look battered as most such cans look especially when in operational use.

I have also added further colour to the DShK 12.7mm anti-air (and everything else that gets in its way for that matter) machine gun which is taking on some character.

 I have also glued the drive wheels in place which will enable me to do a final test fit of the tracks before painting those separately. The rest of the wheels are loose at the moment which allows me to remove the tracks. I had to fit the drive wheels because of the way in which MiniArt choose to mount them to the hull. As they engage with the tracks they have to be in the correct position on the hull or the premade tracks will not fit. If that explanation sounds confusing then just put it down to my poor choice of words! 

With the DShK gun temporarily mounted on the turret things are really coming together.

Is this really only the middle of July?

 

With warnings of a hot weekend I still had to remind myself that it was only mid July whilst out on my bike ride this morning seeing harvested fields, hay stacks and tractors out ploughing - sights normally for late August and September!!

Back in the relative sanity of WMD HQ I was pleased to have a visit from Mr Beecham, he of modelling fame and cycling prowess! It was only a flying visit but always great to have a chat with him and he had a look at my Egyptian T34 on which I have added the hatches to the turret which now require weathering, weathered the wheels some more and highlighted a few more parts of the hull.

Out of interest I dug out my Italeri Russian T34 that I built a year or so ago just to see what the two look like together. Interesting comparison and whilst you can see differences in the level of detail between the two kits they do look very similar from normal viewing distance. 

Probably the tracks are the next thing to do but with a hot weekend that may make the Man Cave somewhat oven like and delay progress. However it will be a good excuse for an ice cream!