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.

Fallschirmjager Mortar Crew

Glad to call this little project completed. It was fun painting the splinter pattern smocks. All figures painted with Lifecolor. Hopefully more photos to follow once I figured out where I left my tripod.

Happy New Year!

Glad to put a close to this little project. Lost a bit of steam towards the end as I was looking for suitable "stowage" to be carried by this workhorse.

The mud was made using a mixture of diluted white glue, plaster, static grass and grounded pastels of varying shades, with the darker shade representing fresh mud churned up.

Panzer IV Ausf G - continued

Photo updates of the Panzer IV G.

First photo was taken after a thin wash of yellow orche oils to harmonise the colors. This was then followed by pin washes of raw umber in the deep shadow areas. Limited streakings were applied to nuts and bolts.

Second photo was taken after a liberal coat of Tamiya XF-57 Buff was applied to the entire under-carriage to prepare for the application of "mud". A diluted buff coat was also applied to the entire model to simulate paint fading in the hot Russian summer of 1943.

Fallshirmjager mortar crew, Italy 1944

Glad to know that my Vallejo paints are not dried up after more than 1 year neglect. Put 2 Hornet head and a stock DML head to the torture of my brushes. The Mortar tube was airbrushed with Gunze's Mr Color.

Panzer IV Ausf G - continued

Final highlights hand painted on raised details such as rivets, hatches etc. The harsh highlights will eventually be muted down when the camouflage green is applied.

Green patches were applied onto the model to represent a typical vehicle belonging to 2nd Panzer Division participating in summer offensive of the Kursk salient in 1943. Spare tracks were hand painted with red brown at this point.

Next step: filters and washes!

A new module.....

Hopefully the last of the "Imperial" series kits that I will build. This entry is to document the my application of the "color modulation" technique in its initial stages.

Completed model ready to be primed, note that the spare tracks are not fixed at this stage. I was still meddling with them and trying to find a logical way to have these spare tracks sit naturally in their position.

Model primed with Gunze Sanyo's Mr Surfacer 1200.

Gunze's hull red applied to the model.

Base coat comprising of a mixture of Gunze dark yellow and hull red applied. While it is not evident in this picture, the hull red was allowed to show through in the deep shadow areas.

3 layers of progressive highlights applied giving the impression of the light source coming from the upper front of the model.

Panzer IV F2 - Completed shots

Completed shots of Panzer IV Ausf F2 also belonging to Pz Rgt 204 during Fall Blau, Germany's 1942 summer offensive in the Eastern Front.

Panzer IV Ausf E, Pz Rgt 204 22 Panzer Division, Kerch Penisula 1942

Completed shots of a Panzer IV Ausf E belonging to the Pz Rgt 204 of 22 Panzer Division during the Battle of Kerch Penisula.

Panzer IV Ausf E, Pz Rgt 204 22 Panxer Division, Kerch Penisula 1942

Coincidentally, I applied markings of Pz Rgt 204 on this model. This represents the appearance of Pz Rgt 204 tanks in Spring 1942 when participating in the Battle of Kerch Penisula, Crimea in Spring 1942.

Similar to the Ausf F2, this was painted using the color modulation technique. I have also avoided the use of pigment dusts as I found them to be fairly messy to clean up after.

Geez, it took me more than 2 years to get my act together to paint this... gotta work faster!