Metal Earth Models - Monitor and Merrimack

 

I can practically hear the Civil War nerds griping that the ship on the left is actually the CSS Virginia, but I opted to go with the more widely known name because it’s the one Metal Earth used for the name of the two-boat kit.

Of the two, the Monitor was considerably easier to build. The parts in general fit better together, and it required four pages of instructions rather than its partner’s 12. Plus the Monitor was a childhood favorite of mine.

That said, both models had a lot of tiny parts, some of which inevitably hit the floor. So pretty typical Metal Earth experiences.

Leaf Ghost #248

For a ghost that was mostly intended as experimental, I ended up really liking the combination of colors and techniques.

The background is a wet-on-wet blend of Kuretake Gansai watercolor Cadmium Red and Cadmium Yellow. Usually when I do this particular trick, the combination is a color straight out of the pan for the dark squares and watered down for the light squares. The red proved to be somewhat temperamental, but the orange went on more smoothly.

The leaf is the most complex acrylic blend I’ve tried so far. The light squares are a combination of Chromium Oxide Green, Chromium Cerulean Blue, Titanium White and high flow medium. The dark squares are the same mix with three dabs of Bone Black added. I should probably have stopped at two. I’m finding that I get the best illusion of transparency from colors that are just different enough to tell them apart without changing shade or hue beyond that.

The leaf colors are also an experiment for another project, where they’ll probably show up a little lighter and with more medium.