T34-85 "Kurzeme 1946"

When I realised the rain wouldn`t stop I decided to clutter up the workbench with some tiny plasticparts and jars of paint. I chose a T34-85 in a scale I have never worked with earlier, 1/48. The Hobbyboss kit went together easily. The parts needed some light cleaning with scalpels and sandpaper but the was no issues with fitting the parts together. The kit comes with full interior but I skipped all that as none of it would be visible anyway.

I had a clear idea of the scene and story, and a base to place the tank on. The scene would be a knocked out machine of war a year after the guns fell silent on the Kurland battlefields. I wanted to try making alot of rust as I haven`t made much of that before either. I made some battle scars and non penetrating hits using the scalpel and a hot needle. On the middle of the turret I made a larger hit that went through the panzer and created a hot mess inside the turret making it so intense that paint got cooked on parts of the turret, or something like that :) Next I started painting the tank using Vallejo Model color and a brush. I then weathered it with Mig Pigments and some oil color.

When I was happy with the paint and weathering I fixed the T34 to the base. I wanted to use a large piece of shrapnel of a shell found in Kurland in May this year. It had been cleaned using electrolysis and then covered with wax. To prepare it to be used as a base I sanded the areas where the tracks and vegatation would be. Then I spread out a good amount of two-part Epoxy glue and squeezed the tank lightly in place. As this hardened I took whiteglue mixed with sand and pigments and spread over the epoxy and fixed the vegetation to it. 
The last step was to write the title of the vignette to the shrapnel base.
Now on to the next build :)