1//35 scale Dragon JadgPanther
The idea for the composition is a JadgPanther stopped on a dirt road somewhere on the eastern front in a summer time setting. I’m not looking to be super specific, just give a good composition to the scene. There will be mixed set of infantry riding on the rear deck of the tank and they will have stopped and be interacting with some infantry armed with anti-tank weapons. Here is an idea of the layout I’m shooting for.
The figures will be a combination of Warriors and Dragon. Plus the tank crew will be from Alpine and Royal Model.
To start with I laid out the composition I was going for on a sheet of paper and measured the dimensions for the base. I personally like the look of nice tight bases without a lot of extra space around the subjects. It’s just a personal preference but I think a scene that is a little crowded looks a little more intimate, and appeals to me. I cut out a piece of 1.25 inch foam using a band saw and then cut the elevated corner and shaped it with a hot wire cutter. The pieces of foam where pinned together with a couple of broken toothpicks and glues with some foam safe glue.
I also built the wooden base and stained it a nice red oak shade.
The next step was to create a finished edge. The foam was a little taller then the wood and the elevated corner piece needed something to finish it off as well, plus this would hold in the groundwork material. I ended up using some plastic sheet, cut to shape and pained black on the outside edge. I glued it into place and then inserted the foam, which was glued into the base using foam safe glue. Sorry – the pictures are a little dark.
After letting this all cure for a couple of days, I masked off the base and spread some sanded tile grout over the foam to act as the groundwork. The color happened to actually be “Earth”. A happy coincidence!
I let the grout sit for an hour or so and then pressed in my figures and the JadgPanther, using a set of Dragon DS tracks to get the track marks, as my Fruils are nowhere near finished.
After the track marks and figures locations where set, I pressed some aquarium gravel into the groundwork to add some rocks. I tried to be random in their placement, which is very hard to be purposely random! After everything dried I sprinkled on some stucco sand to give the ground some texture.
Last step was the paint. I started with Tamiya XF52 Flat Earth, then I lightened it by mixing in some XF57 Buff to get lighter patches and then finally some straight XF57 in a few places.
That’s the progress that has been made so far. I think it’s a good start, but would love to hear any suggestions for making it better.
Thanks for watching folks.
Mike
