Two 6mm Scratchbuild Future Tank Platoons: Finished

I completed two platoons of future tanks last night, finally finishing up the detailing.

Overall I'm pleased with all aspects of these except the tracks: I dry brushed so sloppy that in general I obscured the detail I painstakingly sculpted.  Oh well, that's learning.  Next time I'll paint a lighter base color on the tracks/wheels and then hit it with a heavy wash.

(WIP) 6mm Scratchbuild Future Tanks: Painted

Got the base coat, wash, and drybrushing on two platoons of future tanks.  Managed to get some details on one tank, shown here.

I'll put a few more details on this little guy and then hopefully finish the other seven in a similar manner by the end of the week.

EDIT: Thanks for the kind words guys!  I tried to reply the normal way but for some reason Blogger isn't allowing me to comment on my own posts.  Weird.

(WIP) 6mm Scratchbuild Future Tanks: Heavy Tank

I finished a new sculpt a few days ago, this time a heavy tank, and have been steadily creating copies since then.

The first pic below is a full life cycle shot from sculpt to duplicate cast.

I've managed to create a full four-tank unit as shown next.  I still need to clean the flash off of these and add the barrels but I think they turned out well.  I really like this design.

Scratchbuild 6mm Future Tanks: WIP Update

 I'm hoping to post more this year and I figured today's the best day to get a good start.

Holiday break's almost over so I'm trying to crank out as many new tank designs as I can.  In the meantime, here's some pics showing the tanks in various stages of completion.

The first shot shows almost all the components I produce when making a new design, from left to right.  First there's the initial shape, created in Sculpey (Firm and Super Sculpey mix).  Then there's the master pattern, a plaster casting of the initial shape with additional details added via impression molding (as explained here).  Next is the silicone mold of the master pattern from which I can make duplicates; cast parts of duplicates are the last things shown on the right.  One of my old tank designs and an X-Acto #11 blade are included for scale.  I'm still using pasta for all sorts of applications you can also see...

As shown in the last two pictures below, the new tank designs feature rotating turrets.  I look forward to finishing these up so I can start on some terrain.  I'm thinking moonscape.

UPDATE: One four-tank unit assembled and ready for paint.  A sensible color scheme would be camouflage or neutral but I think since these are space-age tanks I'll paint them in some Chris Foss-inspired garish yellow or blue scheme with checkerboards.

I'm also playing around with a new technique for tracks using pasta and bits of staples.  I like the results of this proof-of-concept shown here; I'll make a cleaner, sharper version and mold it in silicone.