Cheers Kev. I wish I had more bench time, I'm really enjoying this set.
The more I look at the blown up picturs, the more I am leaning towards starting again on the smock. I'll play around with it as it is, because I'm trying something out, but if it doesn't work Pvt. Witherford's coat gets a wash...

Some progress has been made. I'm enjoying the work on the smock, I'm just freewheeling at the moment, it's getting where I want to go, but I'm very much "off piste" as to how I used to approach the Denison camouflage. I've already worked out how I'll do the next one differently lol. I've also started blocking in the gaiters and the rifle. His shoes will be started over, but more on those later.

The pictures are a bit shiny, suffice to say that they final version will be dull coated appropriately lol.

I don't know if Pvt. Witherford had blue eyes, but here he has.

Nice work Henk.
Steve

Thanks guys.

I've just realised that I have been mixing things up, I've been painting Pvt. Witherfords head (the sigarette needs to be added later, I think it may be cast on, the stub is between his lips, but on my copy that seems to have broken of in transit), but the kneeling figure is NOT Pvt. Witherford, but the unidentified kneeling soldier to the right of the Pvt. . I've started Pvt. Witherford too, he will be the next figure to go on the bench... oops.

Whilst paint dries on the Pvt., no time can be lost. Work on the base commenced, with the scratch build water pipe. Made of some simple plastic pipe, painted with Vallejo Saddle Brown, and sprinkled with a variety of Mig weathering powders. The same are used on the base, with Klear as a binding agent.
I'm letting the waterpipe come out of the diorama, one to give the unidentified para somewhere to put his right foot.

Looking good from here!

Thanks Steve.

Last update this week, of to work again tomorrow..

I've added the major tree branches to the base, next weekend I'll be working on the tree roots. I'm fairly happy with the colouring of the sand, I may add a few more layers to add a bit more variety to it.



Oh, go on then... one picture of the nearly finished unidentified para, in position. Arm with rifle and head are still separate, and he's obviously not quite finished, but he's getting there.

Its been a while since I've been busy in the laboratorium, having pretty much only painted figures for the last year or two. It's good to get messy again...

.



I've decided to add a few details to Steve's excellent base. The shell hole appears to have been modified by the paras into a larger foxhole/firing position (the handle of a spade can be seen in the photo, just below the Cpl. In any case, the ground around the trees in that area would be covered by leave litter and grass, so I'm adding some of that to the edges. I'm also adding some fine sand to parts of the inside of the hole, leaving the smoother areas that Steve sculpted, where the digging action with the spade would have left those marks.
Next will be final drybrushing to bring all the colour together, then adding the fine roots last

Hi Henk, I had the same thoughts when sculpting the base, from the photo it does look like they adapted the shell hole into a more suitable trench for the period they stopped during their advance. Looks like they used the spade to deepen/widen it and throw the spoil onto the edges of the shell hole to form a parapet.
Nice progress with it.
cheers
Steve

Not much progress this week, but the unidentified Pvt. Is done for now. Still a few things to tidy up, but those will be sorted when the piece is put together and everything is blended together.

Pvt Witherford is next on the bench.

Coming along quite nicely, Henk, fig looks great, base too!

Thank you Steve and Kev.

A very short weekend this week, and not much happening next week, because I'll be away from the bench. But I've made some progress the last two days, the base is nearly done, and Pvt. Witherford is starting to take shape. I've finished the camo on the Denison, next I'll create the worn and dirty look, and see if it all blends together. If it does, happy days, if not, I'll start again.

Nice work on the sand colours. Very realistic variety of tones.

Adrian

Thank you Adrian. It's a painstaking job, stippling and drybrushing over and over, but its worth it.

I start with a base colour, anything sandy will do. I actually started with Vallejo Dark Sand, and started drybrushing with Vallejo Pale Sand, but that was to much like yhe beach. I then made a wash with Vallejo German Camo Brown, and washed the complete base with that, with a few randomly applied coats. I then used the same colour, gradually lightened with Dark Sand and Orange Ochre, applying it in a stippling motion, or drybrushing, with my Army Painter dry brushes. Just keep randomly adding the colours to the mix, to achieve a truly random finish. The added bits of sand, which have a different texture, received multiple washes of the very diluted mixture.

I almost forgotten how much I enjoy doing groundwork.