2014 Completed works Part 2- Jagdpanzer IV

Another ancient DML WIP that was sitting on the shelf for a long time. Painted as a generic vehicle in autumn 1944. It was an attempt at the disc camouflage featured by some German tanks during this period of WW2 and was achieved by pasting hundreds of little disc stickers over the model. It was something which I had promised myself to attempt many years ago and I am glad I finally did it.

The model was predominantly finished with Mig products, from the German late war camouflage set to weathering washes. 

2014 Completed works Part 1 - Sturminfgeschutz 33

2014 marked my "serious" attempt to get back into the hobby. Did not build much due to work but managed to splash some paints on a couple of WIPs. 

My first posting of this old DML offering was in March 2011. Had grand plans to scratch build the fighting compartment, to that effect, I purchased a resin 155mm gun in preparation for the scratchbuild. Perhaps the resin kit will see its use in the DML smart kit version...

The model was finished as a vehicle participating in Fall Blau. Used the excellent washes from Mig to simulate the dustiness of the operation theatre.

A shot of the stores at the rear deck before painting. 

Test fit ammo belt

Got very little done due to heavy work schedule recently. Test fitted the ammo belt after painting the whites for the assistant gunner.

Stalingrad vignette WIP

Spent the weekend bending and soldering. The Griffon set was surprisingly straight-forward to fix. 

Belts of MG rounds and ammo box completed.The MG rounds were given a wash of black enamel and the rounds will touched up with copper enamel. However, these were a little flimsy to manipulate and one of the belts broke during the painting process. Hopefully, they can remain intact when fixing them to the figures.

Painting whites

Added white highlights to the machine-gunner. May need to "lighten" the deep shadow tones. After failing to find a decent ammo-box replacement, I finally succumbed and purchased the Griffon MG-34/42 ammo belt and boxes from Ebay.  I will probably spend the week fiddling with it.

The white highlights on the machine gunner is more apparent when placed next to the MG assistant. 

The highly detailed Griffon PE set

Work in progress: Stalingrad'42 Machine Gun Team vignette

Only able to put in a couple of hours into this little project. 

"Brightened" the base by repainting the bricks with a random mix of orange to reddishbrown paint.

I also gave the white bedsheets(?) worn by the soldiers a coat of light gray. This should give them a decent mid-tone to work with.

Deep shadows were made up of successive glazes of dark gray.

WIP Stalingrad 1942 German machine gun team vignette, 1/35 offering from Jaguar

Returned to the hobby after taking a long break due to work. Was cleaning out the "shelf of shame" at home and I found myself staring at this vignette from Jaguar and decided to give it another go to see if I can salvage anything from it. Spent 2 rather inspired nights poking my paintbrushes at the faces. 

Appearance of the faces after 2 nights of dabbling with the paintbrush. On the 2nd night, the final highlights and deep shadows were added. Also attempted to blend the different areas to try to achieve a smoth transition between the various shades. A far cry from works of the great master but happy with it for now.

Re-attempt at the faces after months of studying the master, Calvin Tan's works. The appearance of the faces in the photo above was after 1 night of Calvin-inspired painting. 

The appearance of the vignette's figures as I found it. It was left untouched for a number of years on the shelf of shame. I never got beyond my poor painting of the faces and gave up trying then.