72nd Scale T-34: The Base, Part 2

I next painted the surface of the ground work flat brown. Once dry, I applied scenic cement and sprinkled on some Woodland Scenics Fine Turf Burnt Grass. I wanted to keep the grass more or less in scale--hence the use of the fine turf and not static grass as I would use with a larger scale. Although hard to see here due to the lighting, I then added several tufts of miniNatur Short Buffalo Grass Spring Tufts from Scenic Express.

Once all this was allowed to dry thoroughly, I used a combination of airbrushing and dry brushing to apply various shades of brown, green, and grey to the grass, dirt, and rocks. I also painted the sides of the foam a flat black using a generic craft paint. My progress to date is shown below.

Next I will epoxy the T-34 to the base, add some additional ground work around the treads, and tidy up the build.

72nd Scale T-34: The Base(ics)

Before I applied the final weathering, I wanted to construct the base to allow me to integrate the tank with its environment. I dove into my stash of bases I'd collected over the years for various figures and found one that would fit the scene I had in mind. I first scored the top surface with a box knife so that the glue would better adhere to it.

I then carved a piece of florist foam to the basic shape, masked off the sides of the wooden base, and glued the foam to the base with scenic cement (which I suspect is nothing more than a higher-priced white glue with a matte agent added).

I mixed a batch of Aves ClayShay and applied it with a spatula to the top surface of the foam. This is some of the best ground material I've found. Depending on how you mix it, you can use it either as a clay (thick) or as a mache (thin). When it was partially dried I pressed the tank into the surface so that it would appear sunken into the ground and added a few scale rocks to the surface.

Next up will be painting and adding additional ground work.