ScratchBuild Log Part 5: Final Pics 1915 Curiasse "Fortin" Aubriot-Gabet

So here we are at last and the project was finally done! I am pretty proud of this build. It is not perfect by any stretch but it was a lot of fun and a really new and unique experience for me. I think the finishes on the tank are great and it is a really interesting piece overall.  It won Gold in Vehicle at the Sword And Brush painting competition and 1st place at the local IPMS annual competition. I hope you have enjoyed following the build and if you have any questions do not hesitate to ask!

Thanks greatly to AMMO of Mig Jimenez - this piece wouldn't have happened if not for being thoroughly inspired by the innovative range of products they create. I don't work for them (or any other hobby company) in any capacity but when I see companies like AMMO, Badger, and Happy Seppuku - people who make great things that really ADD to my hobby experience - I don't hesitate to share either! Thanks also to my buddy Trevor Howard for taking these photos for me.

This piece is also on my Putty and Paint page! Id love an extra vote if you are able :)

ScratchBuild Log Part 4: Painting the 1915 Curiasse "Fortin" Aubriot-Gabet

So on to the actual paint! Started with a quick shot of Stynylrez. This primer by Badger is the best I've ever used, though **SPOILER ALERT** Ammo of Mig's new one shot primer is the same formulation made by Badger for Mig!!! Partnerships are something AMMO has really been developing as of late - Alclad being another example - What a great way to get an amazing products into even more hands!!

Once primed I reached for the AMMO by Mig Jimenez French WW1/2 Camoflage Colours - a great selection of period appropriate colours, but moreso than that a key selection of skewed grey tones - the light french blue was key in this paint job. I also grabbed some VMA German Grey and some Scale Colour Nacar to do some temperature adjusted contrasting zones in the paint job. With this being essentially a monochromatic model it was important to me to use contrasts of temperature and saturation to create interest in the surface of the model. I tried to create exaggerated and interesting areas of light and accentuated form without making it look completely unbelievable. This can be a difficult line to walk in these early stages as the following filters and layers will dramatically adjust these basecoats in a variety of ways. That being said I nailed 90% of my finishes on the first try. Came back the next day and could see what I wanted to change and made it happen. One of the best starts I have ever had on a model! A quick shot of dullcoat sealed this layer in.

After a little test fitting to make sure all was still properly aligned with the base, the front wheel assembly was removed for separate painting and weathering. I started laying rust tones into the rear roller assembly and then began to apply filters and stains using AMMO of Mig Enamels. Any of my readers will know I love these products and that they have dramatically changed the way I work. Another miniature artist making awesome use of AMMO products is James Wappel - if you don't already follow his incredible mini painting exploits you really should!!!!

While the filters and streaks were drying I started on the wheels where I used a combination of actual chipping with AMMO Chipping fluid and  Layers of paints, enamel rust effects washes and pigments.

I also used a graphite pencil and Forgeworld Dark Iron metallic pigment to add exposed metal marks and edges. While those were drying as well I took the Forgeworld Barbed wire and began to add it to the base as well. It really added life and interest just as I had hoped - Really pleased at this point with everything!  

Once all the parts had dried it was time for test fitting on the base again

So with that it was time to add more marks and interest across the surface of the hull. Some painters like to refer to this as more "information". Even if (especially if?) it is subtle it really engages the viewers brain more.   Sometimes it can also forward the story element by relating the piece to its environment. As this is designed to drive through barbed wire I wanted to make sure it has many little scratches across the lower hull in particular. These were painted with care and individually highlighted.

Once I had addressed surface detail and finish it was time for environmental effects - I like to think of my models in layers - Base coat and basic lighting come first. Filters and surface treatments are next. Weather/environmental factors are layered last. So I began by breaking out more of my AMMO of Mig enamels and using them to simulate a first spattering of mud - basically older dryer splashes that would have a matte finish against the slightly satin hull. I loaded up a large brush with the enamel mud and held it near the hull behind the position where the wheel would be. Using the airbrush I shot bursts of air effectively "flicking"  the bristles and giving a natural distribution of spatter across the hull. This was a VERY effective way of simulating the mud and filth that would be spattered by the turning wheels in this wet landscape.

While waiting for this to dry I also attached the extension cord that ran from the back of this wild little electric vehicle back into the friendly trenches (this easily severed and unreliable power source was one of the key reasons cited in abandoning this project after building only the one prototype!).  I also fit and primed the sandbags and supports and began to paint and weather them using a mix of acrylics and enamels. I wanted them to be harmonious with their muddy surroundings to be an accentuating detail rather than a secondary focal point. When finished they help lead the eye into the scene rather than drawing strong attention to themselves. Even the way they are stacked is to emphasize an upward movement pointing towards the tank.

Once the body was dry and the bags were in place I mounted the tank to the base and moved toward final harmonization - making sure it looked as though it was part of the scene and not just placed on top of it. I began by adding the next layers of dimensional mud. Made with pigment, acrylic pigment resin, paint, a little bit of gravel, static grass and some plaster this sticky mess matched the groundwork beautifully. It needed to be applied in stages, however, to build up naturally and to hold the dimension. It was really important to pay attention to the front wheels in this stage and make sure they looked partially sunk/dug in.

As the mixture was built up it was also added to the sandbags and areas of the base with additional roots and plant matter mixed into it - to keep the finish natural and to ensure harmony.

With that it was only a matter of small touch ups and finishes - highlighting the wooden posts, using dark iron pigments and black pigments on the gun barrel and metallic components with Ammo pigment fixer and a few more streaks etc with AMMO rust streaks and track wash. 

Next Week - Finished photos!

ScratchBuild Log Part 3: Basing for the 1915 Curiasse "Fortin" Aubriot-Gabet

So now that I had the proto-tank built and riveted, it was time to start working on the presentation base. I started by laying out some rough ideas with scrap pieces of balsa foam and once I had a clear idea in my head I started piecing together the pieces I would actually use.

For compositional purposes I wanted to use a raised piece of groundwork that would help draw the sight lines up and that would narrow towards the wide end of the tank and be wider at the narrow back of it. this would give emphasis to the bodywork and form of the vehicle while still giving me some space to add some landscape details and points of interest. It would also give the impression of forward movement.

As a competitive modeler an a judge, I cant emphasize enough how important good composition and interesting presentation are to separate your work from the competition.

Next up I started to carve into the layers of balsa foam. I wanted to add sunken track marks that would help to emphasise the weight of this contraption as well as to reinforce the nature of WW1 Trench warfare. The Fortin was designed to help cross the muddy shell pocked no mans land - pushing its way through barbed wire and shrugging off conventional small arms fire.  To the right here is a photo I took In France of a section of No Mans Land - even now a hundred years later the effects of the shelling and digging upon the landscape are frighteningly impressive.

Therefore I wanted to include:  Mud, Barbed Wire, Shell damage/craters, evidence of destroyed features from before the war, and a trench line. The tracks and pockmarks were easy to dig in to the balsa foam and then I just sealed them with some PVA foam glue. I took some Bass wood and used it to make some wooden posts, debris and the core of a shattered tree trunk. I built out the rest of the tree and its roots using Super Sculpey. Finally I made some Barbed wire support pigtails like the ones I had seen when touring the battlefields of Europe out of wire.

Next I broke out the Celluclay - a strong powdered paper mache that is great for making textures. I applied a coat of it to the balsa foam to give a real churned mud texture. It also let me smooth out the seams between the layers of foam. This also allowed me to build even greater depth into the surface and imbed the tree so that it looked like it had grown out of the landscape instead of being placed on top of it. I sprinkled some additional sand, small gravel, cork debris, static grass and wooden shards and worked them into the celluclay "mud" so that it all looked cohesive and organically occurring.

With the groundwork established it was time to begin building the edge of the trench line. I wanted to include a sandbag edge like the ones seen at Vimy. I have built these before with great success for a couple projects and find that it is important to build the bags one at a time and detail each because you never can be quite sure what will show. So I treated each bag as its own little sculpture - texture, patches, stitching tears and all. Though it takes a while it is quite fun to be honest. I made sure that I kept setting aside my favorite bags from the others to become the most visible ones where possible.

I made some with apoxie sculpt and some with super sculpey.

The next steps were pretty fun. I broke out a variety of earth colored paints and powders and went to work creating as natural a finish as I could. The photos don't pick up the color variations nearly well enough but I was pretty happy with the overall result. I broke out some AMMO of Mig rust finishes (enamels and pigments) and treated the barbed wire posts as well as some Forgeworld Brass etch Barbed wire. Once the tree, all the wood and earth and scrap had been fully painted I mixed up a batch of Envirotek Lite clear resin and using a medicine dosing syringe and an old brush I added wet effects and puddles to the mud and added a little static grass in both clump/growths and sprinkled into the mud and water

Time to let things sit dry and harden. 

Next week working on the paint and weathering for the Proto-tank itself!!

ScratchBuild Log Part 2: 1915 Curiasse "Fortin" Aubriot-Gabet

Balsa Foam armature

So having decided to build this rare oddity of WW1 (a French prototype trenchbusting "tank" made of a tractor with a concrete reinforced turret and an extension cord/ power cable that connected it back to its own trenchline.... not hard to believe they only made one eh?) it was time to start cutting styrene and creating forms.

Initially I was struggling a little - I new I could build the general body forms around a skeleton of balsa foam - this material is easy to glue and cut to shape and sandable to give the opportunity to perfect any complex forms or curvature that would be very difficult to build straight away in styrene without the armature.

I also had a brilliant idea about how to create strong armatures for the circular central body forms! I too two rolls of tape and removed excess layers of tape until they were both the same diameter the one was a little tall so i slid it through my bandsaw to shorten it slightly. Once that was done it was a piece of cake to clas the armature in plastic using thin styrene and Bondene solvent glue.

I also formed the concrete "roof" out of balsa foam which I sanded and filed into shape. In order to ensure that it would take paint well and to avoid further damage or distortion I used a foam glue that is more or less a thinned pva. It absorbs into the foam and seals it making it stronger overall in the process.

While that was drying I set about constructing the wheels. I hunted down a couple of plastic lids that were the appropriate diameter and then wrapped them in styrene. While those were drying I started chopping styrene square rod to appropriate lengths for the welded teeth-like of the wheels.

To ensure I got them placed correctly I took an extra copy of my blueprint and a xylene marker - note this is some pretty nasty stuff to be using in hobby projects but it certainly did the job in this case.as it transferred the pattern from the page onto the plastic. From there the spokes an inner supports of the wheels were constructed out of various thicknesses of styrene and adhered with Bondene.
The center Hubs were initially roughed in with Apoxie Sculpt. but i eventually abandoned these in favor of some better representative parts scavenged from another kit.

Around this time I also cut open a Brita water filter and started separating the beads inside by size. Using a tiny awl I began to punch small divots in the plastic body panels and using an old bent airbrush needle as an applicator

I carefully placed a drop of glue on each indent and then adhered a single Brita bead to each spot. It is slow and patient work but a great way to create rivets on a surface like this!

Once the rivets satrted to go on this really took shape and the overall direction became very clear. I mocked up the appropriate forms for the rear roller and supsension and started on the inital assembly. It was really starting to look good IMHO!

I still needed a way to attach the turret to the hull and came up with an incredibly simple solution that would allow me to position it later once I had figured out the model facing and best compositional lines - I simply used more balsa foam inside the turret and body and a plastic tube as a swivel point. A little apoxie sculpt made sure that it wouldn't move . The alignment was perfect.

From there it was just a little fine tuning around a couple seams and it would be ready for paint!

Next week Developing the Groundwork and Starting the Paint!

ScratchBuild Log Part 1: 1915 Curiasse "Fortin" Aubriot-Gabet

Here is the build log for my 1915 Curiasse "Fortin" Aubriot-Gabet (Experimental Electric Armoured Vehicle) Scratchbuild in 1/35

Designed in 1915, the Aubriot Gabet “Fortress” was considered as a way of pushing across the dangers of no man’s land. The armoured Body was fitted to a Flitz tractor chassis to provide protection for a crew of 2 (driver and gunner) and featured a 37mm Navy Cannon.

It was electrically powered by an external source which meant a long cable was required to trail behind it as it rolled through the fields of barbed wire and shell craters. This left it extremely vulnerable as any damage to the power line meant that it would grind to a halt.

Only a single prototype was built and tested before it was determined the design flaws were too significant to continue development, and only a single grainy photo of this remains. 

There does not appear to be any company manufacturing a model of this at this time (nor in the past) so it looked like it could be really fun and a chance to finally scratchbuild something!

Since many of the details were not shown in the picture (like the door to get in and out for example!) I looked to other experiments of the era to draw inspiration from - such as the Fahrpanzer rolling turret emplacement.



 I also found this rather handy digital illustration and tiny resin miniature that was being sold on ebay.  Though it was clear that this maker had altered some of the details (like the rear roller mount) and the placement of the door made no sense considering the large electrical cable that is supposed to hang from the back of this vehicle, it was really helpful to see a clear 3-d interpretation of the forms.
  

Finally, I came across a 1/35 paper model that I could purchase the download for $4 !!! Huzzah! This became the basis for my measurements and made the whole process a real treat. If anyone else decides to build one based on what they see here I highly recommend using this as your starting point.

Now it was time to begin scratchbuilding!!!!! Cya next week with details on how :)