Stug III Ausf B Operation Barbarossa

Got around to painting the accessories on the engine deck and finally concluded that air-brushing these accessories is way easier than hand painting. These photos are taken pre-"dusting" and hence the undercarriage appears so clean. Will update the post with the final pictures.

Panzer IV Ausf F2 Completed

After several weeks of dragging my feet with other projects, I finally turned around to finish this little cat. The figure is from a Tristar kit and is completely painted in Vallejo acrylics following Calvin Tan's Osprey publication. Not as smooth as the master but good enough for me now :P.

Feels good to finally complete an old DML offering.

T34-85

Dragon's premium offering of the legendary Soviet tank built straight out of the box. Painted in Gunze's Dark Green and added sail to the base color as highlight. Overall a really fast and enjoable built. The lack of on-vehicle tools in comparison with its German adversaries is a much needed relief.

Panther Ausf D, Kursk 1943

Built pretty much straight out of the box with minor improvements for the engine mesh and cables from Karaya. The model was undercoated with Hull Red before the actual 3-tone camo was applied. The entire model was given a wash of diluted yellow orche oils to "warm" up the tank. As this was to represent a fairly new Panther making its debut appearance at the Battle of Kursk in 1943, I restricted myself to only fairly light "chipping" to areas where the paint job were expected to wear off.

Weathering of the undercarriage was done with a mist of Humbrol thinner before "sprinkling" of the pigments. This resulted in the pigments clumping up together at random position giving the dirt a more scaled representation.

Completed projects

After much procrastination, I finally got down to taking some pictures of the models I completed within the months of August and September. Different color schemes and weathering techniques were used (some with disastrous results due to my own doing) for these models for myself to get warmed up. Will post more pictures once I get the camera battery recharged.

DAK Panzer 99% complete

After much contemplation, I decided not to attempt the "hairspray" method on this model. Instead, the worn-off areas showing the underlying German gray coat was simulated by good old dry brushing . Perhaps this method better replicate the effects of the harsh Sahara weather would have on the tanks with the frequent sand storms beating on the armor plates to create a more sand-blasted wear on the surface paint rather than heavy chips.

The tracks and lower hull was given a heavy wash of oil wash mixed with yellow ochre and titanium white oils to simulate the fine dust/sand trapped in the crevices of the lower hull.

The model was painted entirely with Gunze paints and several different shades of oil paints will applied as wash. Remaining work to be done include light dusting of the vehicle's hull and touching up on some OVM details.

Interesting links

An interesting video clip I found on youtube of a Japanese modeller completing a Tamiya tiger. Eventhough I have no idea what he is talking, it is still interesting and informative. Wonder how long he took....

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

Chips ahoy!

After a month of chipping and the distraction caused by the Panzer IV F, the "chipping" on the Jagdtiger was finally completed. At the same time, prepared a pair of figures to be placed on the engine deck of this giant tank killer.

Bad hair day

In between chipping the large areas of the Jagdtiger, I decided to give the fabled "hairspray" method a try on the DAK Panzer IV. The model was primed with Mr Surfacer and an basecoat of darkish grey mix of gunze color was applied. All seems well and the hairspray was applied onto the turret followed by a mix of tamiya acrylics thinned with tamiya's thinner....

This was when disaster struck. The thinner reacted with the hairspray and the overspray bit down on the basecoat, making it almost impossible to "chip", large chunks of overspray lifted up when water was applied, not the subtle chips I was visualising.

More reading and I found a lengthy discussion on this technique in Mig's Production Forum. It was mentioned that when using Tamiya acrylics as overspray, it was best to thin the acrylics down with water. What followed was a few painstaking days of removing the botched job from the turret and in the removal process, the stowage bin detached from the turret. More repair work on the way...

I have not been slacking!

The Stug III and Jagdtiger after post shading and 1 round of wash.

Keep them moving

Spent the last few nights adjusting the German grey tone on the Stug. Used Vallejo Air series for this tank and surprising it is holding rather well to abuse. Perhaps this was because the primer coat was an auto-primer instead of my usual Gunze's Mr Surfacer.

A darker version of Vallejo Air 052 German Grey was obtained by mixing black into the paint. The tonal highlights of the panels were acheived by spraying a mixture of German grey and white. Next step.... post shading.

Not much progress with this big cat except for the spraying on of primer red onto the area where the side skirts were supposed to cover.

Tamiya Stug III B (OOTB)

Got myself so hooked on tarp rolling the past week that I pulled out the Tamiya Stug III B to construct. As lovers of Stug III would know, almost all the Stug III from Ausf A-F were seen with equipment stowed on its rear deck and what better excuse for me to roll more tarps. The next thing I knew, this kit was completed (OOTB) with a evergreen stowage rack. Heck, I even painted the interior together with the Panzer IV E I completed recently. The build happened so fast (kudos to Tamiya's excellent engineering) that I forgot to take any photos before priming the model.

Dry Paints

Had to spend a couple of days for the thinner to dissolve the hardened paint pigments before I could use them. Afterall, it has been 3 years since the last time I opened my paints and used my trusty airbrush.

Completed the basic scheme for the hard edge camoflage of the Jagdtiger. The base coat was a mixture of Gunze Sanyo's dark yellow, white and sail color on an estimated proportion of 3:5:2. The green was hand painted on using Andrea Color's AC3 olive green. The brightness should be toned downed after weathering is applied.

Keep them rolling

The fact that improvements are needed to bring old DML kits up to current standards meant that you either add these improvement in the form of aftermarket accessories or simply scratch build them. I did both for this Panzer IV F1.

Improvements made to the kit:

- Commander's cupola from Artisan Mori

- Driver and radio operator's hatches from TMD

- Sproket housing (no idea what they are called)from TMD

- Fenders and on-vehicle tools were spares obtained from the Panzer IVE kit.

- Dipped into my spare parts box for jerry cans and spare wheels

- Tarps rolled from Tamiya epoxy putty

Building of this little cat allowed me to rediscover the joy of building old DML kits. The little imperfections in these kits has allowed me to improvise, think out-of-the-box (pun intended) and in the process, produce a model that is unique from others.

Panzer IV Ausf.E construction completed

Building on the momentum of the completion of the Pz IV E's construction, I pulled out a previously half-built Pz IVF-1 and spruced it up with the parts left over from the newer kit.

Yes, this F-1 is based on the old DML kit, which at its time of release was considered an excellent kit but pales in comparison when placed side by side with the new generation Panzer IV kit.