Reptile Toys

I like to shop the pet department for terrain.

Ancient Egypt used the Sphinx a lot more than just the giant one tourists go visit.

So having models of smaller ones can be useful.  This pet toy is for lizards.

Add a few palm trees and some beach sand and you have a quick set up of tourists visiting a sphinx.

It is nicely detailed all around.
 

T54 On Parade

Tan tank at Lenin's Tomb.

Brown tank at Lenin's Tomb.

Olive tank at Lenin's Tomb.

Tan and green tank at Lenin's Tomb.

Camouflage green tank at Lenin's Tomb.

Unpainted tank at Lenin's Tomb.

The line up.

As i wait for a few more tanks to arrive in the mail, and cobble together bits from the spares box, the unpainted ones will not be painted until the final paint run.  Probably be a few weeks before that happens.  But all the tanks in the inventory are repaired, had touch up paint done, and are ready to go to miniature war.  Only about 20 or so unpainted tanks are waiting for completion.
 

Painting Turrets

I am painting these on cardboard sheets.

I use this awl to poke a hole in the cardboard.

Like this arrow.

Then I can insert the tank pin into the hole.

And the turret can sit flat on the cardboard.

It makes it easier to paint when it does not move around.

Turret with tank hull.

This shows some of the paint build up on the nozzle.

I wipe it off every few sprays.

The build up will clog the nozzle if you don't wipe it off.
 

Mostly All Better

This Roco T54 tank looks pretty good.  Except for the massive mold flaw in the port side upper rear hull.

You can see it here.

So far I have not used this hull, but harvested the parts for other vehicles and the hull is in the parts bin.

So far I have used four cans of this paint.

I use a bit of paper towel to wipe the paint nozzle after about 5 sprays.  

It really helps the nozzle stay clean and not clog.

The X can is the short number version, which seems to be a little greener than the other.

I have been using the long number version for this project.

Mostly because I don't want two different paints on the same model.