SBS - Caterpillar D9R (Patreon)

My friends, it's time for another model from the past. This is the Meng 1/35 kit which I finished as a USMC dozer with field-made protective cage (constructed from HESCO barriers in real life). I started building it in late 2013 and finished around April 2014. 

Still heavily influenced by Mike Rinaldi's style and in this particular case his take on the subject, but still long before his books came out, so I was only taking clues from finished photos of his work. 

Two things which might not be very clear from these pictures: the hydraulic pistons are covered with self-adhesive chrome foil which is also excellent from rear-view mirrors on vehicles, and the earth build-up on the blade was done by piling large amounts of pigments, pressing them down with my finger, soaking them with Tamiya X-20A and quickly drying with a hairdryer - this fast drying process created the cracks in the mounds. 

Such an enjoyable project, makes me wonder if it would be worth a shot to build it again and see if similar effects are achievable with acrylic pastes and enamels? 

Side-note: Patreon is messing the order of photos a little bit with these large posts, but they're all numbered, so if you're downloading them, they'll get sorted in your computer.