In the meantime, I added the ammunition boxes on the back of the vehicle, as well as the drivers compartment. I also finished the side armors, which were painted and weathered inside, and then added to the hull. Before I will mount the main gun, I decided to finish the running gear first to minimize the need for handling the model with the gun mounted. Due to the very open construction, the build is a constant iteration from building to painting to building again.

So I started to add mud and dust, and also worked on a set of Friul tracks.

The mud texture consists of a mixture from acrylic paint, artists’ acrylic medium, real earth and plaster. After having tried some readily mixed diorama mud products, I am quite sure that these are also based on simple artists’ acrylic medium. So it is a much more flexible approach to create this on your own, and also the earth texture can be varied and better controlled by mixing it yourself. The plaster is also a quite useful ingredient, as it helps to add texture as well and guarantees a dead matt finish of the mud.