Nam OH-6 Loach

Spending some time in my local B&M bargains store on the look out for targets of wargaming interest and came across this pack of 3 vehicles for the princely sum of £1.69p, and there it was, a Loach OH-6. To good to miss. When I got the pack back home the 2 vehicles went strait in the bin, a note of warning here, I later fished out the camper van from the bin, after the thought that the body work on the back could make a useful pre-fabricated building for my yet to be built fire base.

On closer inspection of the OH-6 the skids had been put on backwards, but I was able to pries apart the 2 half's of the body by putting a small screw driver up the engine jet pipe. This has opened up the option of not only painting the inside of the cockpit but also perhaps using the Peter Pig Hue crew, and put some additional detail in the cockpit.

In the bottom picture I've put a steel ruler in the shot for people who are interested in the exact scale of the model. For people like myself who have a more relaxed attitude to the exact scale of things I've put a Peter Pig 15mm scale 8th army figure in the picture. Looks to me just slightly over scale, but not by much. Next mission is to go and find some more, 2 should do it.

The big Green wood

I have finally started to put some foliage onto the polystyrene former that creates the body of the trees. For this I use Woodland Scenics bushes Medium green and Forest green. I start by building up the foliage around the top of the trunks and the cardboard base that the polystyrene former sits on. Then working upwards in a more random way to try and make the two types of foliage create the impression of different types of trees growing together. It seems to be working out quite well at the moment. Its quite time consuming and at the moment I'm lucky to spend more than ten minutes a day on it.

Big Wood construction

Just found this picture on my computer which helps to show the construction of my big woods, up to the point at which the polystyrene former is added to the top.

Blast from the past BIG WOOD 3

March last year was my last post on the big big woods, so with lightning speed we move on to the next stage. Large blocks of polystyrene are cut down to fit the cardboard outline shape which has been hot glued onto the top of the toilet roll tubes and twig tree trunks. Lots of PVA glue to hold it in place. Once dry I start to shape the polystyrene by hand nibbling it away to create more tree like shapes. One happy with the general outline I then under coat it with black acrylic paint, to help cover up any bits that I miss with the clump foliage.