The tough cows
Another whimsical idea based on past experience with Fresian Holstien cattle...not while I was in a tank but on tractors and in farm trucks mostly. They are curious animals, they're also large and quite strong therefore difficult to move when they do not wish to do so.
Dragon's 1/35 M-48A1 was built OOB for this, finished in Tammy XF-62. The running gear stippled with AK earth texture and then painted with Model Master acrylic Dark Earth in varying consistencies. It was then dusted with AK Kursk Earth enamel thinned roughly 60% at 40 psi with the old Passche single action airbrush I use most of the time.
The cows are from MasterBox, airbrushed white with the flesh and black spots hand painted. Kursk Earth was lightly applied to their legs and bellies as I've never seen a squeaky clean cow and I've been around plenty. The tank commander is a conglomeration from the parts box.
The base is a piece of foam insulation covered with air drying clay which had fine sand and fine driveway scrapings fixed with diluted white glue. Woodland sceinics static grass was applied, and the whole thing was painted using steps and techniques I shamelessly stole from Martin Kovacks on YouTube who is a wizard with this sort of stuff.
A fun and whimsical project that had a grin on my face the entire time
Interesting that you mention the cows are curious - curiosity happens to be a hallmark of intelligence. It was realizing that while interacting with some cows, realizing that they were thinking about what they were doing, that resulted in my coming home and changing my diet.
That's a very nice tank, and the overall little vignette is very nicely realized.
Having grown up in New England's dairy country I know cows, especially this breed, quite well. One thing I noticed about Holsteins early on is the mostly white ones are nervous and twitchy while the mostly black ones are calm and mellow. No idea why.
Thanks for the nice comments
A nice diorama indeed, Mark!
Thank you sir
Beautiful diorama as well, Mark @markh
Great paintwork on the cows.
When I was a kid I did stay over at my uncle's farm on several occasions and I can confirm that cows are indeed extremely curious.
With all the time I've spent around these creatures I still had to google picutes of them to use as a paint guide it just don't seem right
Thanks for the postive comments as well
That is just cool as hell Mark! ? (wait, is that an oxymoron? oh well. ?). Many years ago, I took my tank models out to my ranch for some photos and made a little dio-like base upon which they sat. I returned to town to charge my camera batteries and when I returned, the table with base had been over-turned by curious calves. I'm not convinced though that their curiosity denotes intelligence however...?
They are only as smart as they have to be. Dairy cattle are accustom to having people around them since they are milked twice a day and their habits are pretty well fixed, for instance if it's a stall setup for milking they'll always go the same stall. It was a known quantity which ones were gonna be difficult and which ones would behave themselves.
The beef cattle out here in Montana are very different. Mostly they are Angus and they are often nasty and aggressive so I don't get too guilty when I'm grilling burgers or steaks.
Thanks for the positive waves
Moove over! Another great dio!
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK
Thanks gents
An interesting setting 😉
I haven't seen that before!- I like it a lot!
Also like the paint job on both "animals":)
Based on reality this is, if they'll do this with a truck they'll do this with a tank.
Thanks for the nice comments