6. Chaos Theory

 This is a first for me, I've never put a DeWalt sander in a build log before, but this is what happens when you start experimenting with various things in an effort to create crazy chaotic texture, mostly involving wood dust and dissolved putty, and it seems to work very well, plus it's cheap, just go out in the shed and sand some wood, the stuff that comes out the catch bag is very useful when you mix it with something like Mr Surfacer dissolved putty, which is wonderous stuff, you get a kinda crazy paste that will behave in a very random chaotic fashion, good for adding texture to things, the Daler Rowney Acrylic (Heavy Body) Burnt Umber is also wonderous stuff, if you mix it with rusty coloured pastel chalks and then stipple it on with a brush, the resulting mess is very good at creating a heavily rusted and corroded finish, it will make something look like it's been at the bottom of a lake for fifty odd years, which is very handy for this build.

 Pictures below, There was a very great temptation to just putt sand in the front of the lower hull to fill up all the empty space inside the hull, but in a fit of madness I decided to scratch a rotted out Sherman Transmission housing, just more bodge it and leg it stuff really to be honest, and it has to said that this is not a very good way to do it, far too much faffing around, the grey plastic is three of those Dragon separately moulded tyres from earlier in the build, just randomly glued to some plastic card, it all seemed to be about the right size, maybe...

 Wasting Masterclub resin bolts on this was probably not a good idea, as you can hardly see this nonsense when it's installed in the hull, but I was having fun so that's all that matters, the whole thing stops short because the front portion is rusted out and long gone, and because, well, I'm lazy and couldn't be bothered to make all of it, I was having fun, but not that much fun, It got covered in ca and baking powder as per normal with just about everything I seem to do these days, and then it got absolutely murdered with a Minicraft tool and dental bur, just to rough it all up a bit.

 The hardest thing about making something like this is the strengthening ribs on the tube shaped casting, which has been done with very small (I forget how small) plastic rod, the teeny tiny cross section parts were a fucking pain in the ass to be honest, but they add a certain character to the part, so well worth it, everything else is just hinting at detail, without actually doing it properly.

 Picture above, at this point I decided to put the rusty remains of some kind of drive gears inside, just to fill up the large void really to be honest, and the plan was to fill this void with sand and dust, but I forgot about that plan because I was busy making some rusty rotted out sponsons for the hull from plastic card, but anyway, then I destroyed it even more with some very bad painting and weathering, rust pastels, dusty pastels, all kinds of nonsense that doesn't really matter, because you can't see it, and yes, this is my idea of getting on with the job, lol

 And so that's the gap in the front of the hull sorted out, moral of the story is this - when you can just fill something with sand, then... just fill it with sand, don't mess around with stuff like this, It was fun to do, and I got to practice rusty and dusty painting on something that doesn't really matter all that much, but I'm not really sure it was worth the time spent to be honest.

 A quality quote from my better half the other day - "Do you ever finish any of these models that I keep buying you?"

 Sensing that I now needed to dodge a bullet, I decided to baffle her with some pretentious arty farty nonsense, such as this - "Art is never truly finished, my darling loved one." She did an eye roll like a shark munching on a surfer, and then quickly moved the conversation onto more mundane matters, that seemed to mostly revolve around shopping for a new toaster, job done, bullet dodged,.. women, they complain when you finish early, and they complain when you don't finish at all.

 Matt