June 1917 US Marines at Belleau Wood
Advancing through the Wheatfield

Roy Stefferud
Got the initial cleanup and most of the base coats done. Picked up a black metal frame that was on sale to use as the diorama base and some packets of Wild Grass by SceneARama that I plan to cut in half to be the wheat in the field. Still deciding if I'll put down a base of railroad grass and then mostly cover that with glued in dirt or if I'll see if I can find railroad grass that looks like dirt.

Roy Stefferud
As a side-note, since the figures I'm using aren't turning up in the kit database yet, it's from Armies in Plastic - World War 1 U.S. Marines at Belleau Wood (#5405). They're molded in soft plastic and have a little better detail than my 1970's plastic army men, but on my budget hunting for resin pieces is out of the question (and besides, I'm only just starting to get back into my old hobby after a 30 year hiatus. No point in practicing on the expensive stuff straight off).

Roy Stefferud
I got another coat of base painting on the figures yesterday, and today did a wash of Tamiya's Dark Khaki. Afterwards, I lightened the uniforms up with Testors' Olive Drab. Will throw on some more paint tomorrow and post pics of their coming along on Monday. I suppose it's about time to get some concrete plans on what I'm doing for sure with the base frame. Will give me something to work on while the Marines dry.

Roy Stefferud
Added 4 pics from Saturday's foray; too tired to upload the remaining 8 photos of my painting efforts from yesterday. Can't seem to shrink the pics in filesize properly and my internet connection is slow as molasses today. I'll get to adding them later this week.

Roy Stefferud
Well, no idea what I'm doing wrong but I seem to be unable to upload any additional pictures to my Belleau Wood project album. Maybe I'll give it another stab later.

Roy Stefferud
Stab given. Most likely culprit on why the pics wouldn't upload is that they are pretty large in size. Will have to play with Photoshop again and remind myself how to shrink that size down. Anyway, the Marines are as done as I'm able to get them at this juncture. After looking at my pictures I've realized I need to invest in a desk lamp with a magnifying glass.

Roy Stefferud
Completed the base and got it all put together today. My computer doesn't have a functioning SD card reader so I'll upload the last of the WIP pics and the final pics tomorrow. Amazing how nerve-wracking setting out a wheat field can me.