So to start things off right i decided on one of the most feared tanks of WWII, the Tiger II. Up until the end of the war the Americans never had an answer for this beast, the front armour was impenetrable by anything we had. Flames of War is a great game that lets us WWII buffs throw down some of those battles without all the pesky breakdowns that the Germans had to deal with.

As far as painting goes i use a combination of paints by Panzer Aces, Model Color, Golden Acrylics, and Citadel.

So here we have the model in its base coat of German yellow using the FoW primer:

From here I wanted to do a striped ambush camouflage pattern that I combined from a couple different  influences. Using Panzer Aces #301 Light Rust and Model Color #70894 Cam. Olive Green i painted wide stripes diagonally along the tank using a little paper guide that i made from a note card. Once down with that i added the ambush dots using Model Color #70913 Yellow Ochre and Cam. Olive Green.

After getting the main camo pattern on the next thing i do is get the treads done. I start with Golden Acrylics Carbon Black across all the treads and inside the wheels without going over the road wheels. if you get a little on the wheels no biggy, I doubt if they were ever all that clean at any point so when you do your wash it will all blend together. After they are all black i highlight with Panzer Aces #338 Highlight German I (Feldgrau) across the raised part of the treads and along the side and inside edges. Yeah, its probably not the proper highlight color but the more i can muti use my colors the better. I don’t need a collection of all colors just to use once or twice in diminutive amounts.

I do the same with the extra treads on the side of the turret, the only difference being that i actual use Model Color #70862 Black Grey for the tracks just so that its not too dark, it works better for contrast in my opinion.

After letting the tracks dry i finish up the rest of the details. The tools strapped to the tank, the steel cables, the exhaust pipes, the tank commander, darkening the end of the barrel, and of course any cleaning up. A little Burnt Sienna for the handles of tools, silver for the ends, Black Grey for the cables with a dry brushing of silver, and Black Grey for the exhaust pipes. I don’t get to fancy with colors. Keep it simple.

The commander’s uniform is Model Color #70995 German Grey, generally tankers uniforms were black but i like a little detail in my guys without going crazy with highlights, so German Grey is all i use and i think it turns out pretty well. Panzer Aces #341 Flesh Base for skin, more Highlight German I for the headphones, a little yellow for his hair, and some straight Panzer Aces #313 Stencil for the white on the collar and hat.

After everything is to my liking i pull out the good old Citadel black wash. Nothing fancy here, mine is a little watered down but no to any consistent amount. Just coat everything and you get a nice dirty, weathered look. The only thing i don’t wash is the commanders uniform. When it comes to late war German tanks, i doubt if they ever really had the time or the want to keep their tanks all that clean, so i feel its fairly historically accurate.  Here it is all done:

I’m not a professional model painter by any means, just a regular guy trying to do his best. So keep that in mind when you judge my work. I hope this helps somebody out there.

In the past 8 weeks i have photographed 7 weddings, all i can say is “phew”.

On May 15th i had the pleasure of photographing my friend Carli’s wedding up in Buffalo. It was a nice small backyard wedding, nothing special but had a very nice feel to it regardless.

Carli and Matt

The kiss

The first dance

Trapped

So first we have a dump truck. Whats so special about a dump truck? I was stuck for 15 minutes waiting for this truck to move so i could continue down the road. I had to work today and me and Devon were sent out to Homestead to check out a fairly new neighborhood (as you can tell) and there’s only one road going into this area and with these guys working, we had no where to go.

Racoon

After we finally got on our way we stopped and started at the bottom of the street we had already started. What do i find at the second house u? A freakin raccoon, haha. I talked to one of the neighbors and it turns out this little guy had been ripping up the neighborhood for a while and this guy finally took it upon himself to trap it. Thats one of the things i like about this job, you never know what youll come across.

Lost doggy

Then around 2:30 when we were getting ready to head back to the office while walking towards the car i see this little guy running around with a lease trailing behind him. He had a tag on his coller so we gave the number a call and got him home. For whatever reason he was absolutely terrified of Devon, haha.

Blockade

Questioning

Then finally while on our way back we find this situation, intersection blocked off and the police very slowly letting people through. No idea what was even going on, the only thing i saw was this kid holding a purse in front of a pickup truck that was on the right side of the road facing traffic. You can kinda see him in the second picture but my timing was a little off.

So all in all it was an interesting day. Tomorrow should be even better since it’ll be my birthday.

Oh yeah and im moved into my new apartment, just still working on getting organized.

Got myself a lunch pail today for work, thats about all ive really got today. I did laundry too, so exciting. Boring day. I was going to go to a musical at 2 that i got invited to but i kinda forgot about it and soon as i remembered it was already 4, gah. Had a few leads on apartments yesterday but nothing i was looking for. What a boring weekend.

Signs of car repair

Washing off the mess

Didnt get anything done this morning cause i helped out Danny getting the starter in his volvo replaced, what a mess that was. I didnt even get to eat breakfast this morning. We got it done though, took about an hour and a half and i had to get right to work with just getting the wires hooked up still left to do. Then what do i find out when i get home? The starter is bad, hahahahahahahaha….ahhh not funny. So all that work pretty much for nothing. Got all dirty for nothin.

But before i made it to that, i had to take Danny to the doctors to get his wisdom teeth out, what a wonderful hour and a half wait that was. Hes going to hate me so much but i took a picture of him and you all get to laugh at said picture.

My face, its numbbbbbb

Yeah, he was a wonderful kid to babysit this afternoon, haha.

So anyway, started my job today, salesman for Trugreen. All the way out in Moon township. Well i cant really say all the way out there, 15 minute drive on a good day. Decent drive anyway. Nothing but training today, probably wont be out going door to door till Wednesday at the earliest. But its gonna be interesting, nice to get out doors at least. I got a little too dressed up today as i found out, but hey its better to dress up to much than be under dressed. So here, this is what i wore today:

Classy

Ill have a shirt to wear as a uniform, then khaki dress pants to go with it, i dont have any though, gotta get some in the morning. But yeah, never gonna have to wear a tie, ah well.

Chilling on the couch

Cart

Then we headed to Danny’s work and played some ping-pong for an hour, i only won one game and Danny beat me 4 but its fun.

Smiley Pong

Its still early yet…only 2:30, so who knows what else ill do today.