Hey everyone - Eric sorry about your current situation - hang in there.

Very nice finish Jack, Dan's tiger looking good, Eagle90's 250 halftrack, and Thunderbolt379's Pz IV 'D'

Update with my Pz IV 'D' - Dragon - finish up the turret noted hatches on the lower and upper hull will be position open along with the turret hatches. Photos below.

Rear hull only portion left to finish, then time for paint. Armor86

Some nice work here guys. Well done for sticking with those Nitto kits eagle.

Eagle: Both the 250 and the Kettenkrad are looking great!

Dan: Same goes for your Tiger, nice work!

Eric: I'm very sorry to hear about your difficult situation and I hope things get better for you soon.

Dan: Your Pz.IV is looking better in each update and it is truly an inspiration for me to keep plugging away at those interior sets.

I have no clue when I'm going to get enough done to show you guys an update, but progress has been slow as I'm not used to working with so much resin...

Some small progress after a brief vacation time.

The second, brown color was applied. I did not trust my skills with the airbrush in such a small vehicle, so I chose to hand brush the camo using a mix of Vallejo colors. After that, the basic color was sprayed overall in thin layers in order to blend the two tones and also as a first step of the fading/weathering effect.

I did not have any strict camouflage pattern scheme available, I just tried to make it look 'right'.

Finally an enamel satin clear coat was applied to seal the painting.

Your comments, criticism, etc are highly welcomed.

Now its time to find the patience to paint all those wheels.

Eric: I knew about your job situation but not about the divorce- I swear when it rains it pours. God bless and I hope things straighten out at least some.

Eagle: Despite your problems very nice work there! I thought you were done at first until I noted a few missing things here and there.

And sharp work from the rest of you guys too!

Thanks Armor86!  That is some serious detail on your Pz IV!  Looks awesome!

LOL!  thanks Bish.  Don't see too many of them in my future!

Thank you SS!

LOL!  Hey Gamera!  Yeah, there are a few missing bits here and there.  You may find more with these finished pics!    It was a challenge for me with these older Nitto kits.  The instructions were vague, the part fits were crazy off, and the decals were atrocious!  But I did learn some things along the way and that is what it is about! 

I know there are a lot of "mistakes" with these two kits, but I did what I could.  Still pretty much a novice when it comes to the armor genre....but I sure am getting a lot of training!    I still love doing armor even after these harder, older kits.  I may dirty up the tracks in the future, but for now I figured they would have been pretty dusty, not muddy....and I don't have anything to make "dust".    So without further ado.....here they are!

And here is my family of armor kits I have done so far!  The Tamiya T34/76 is the next one!  A real tank!

Hey Eagle, those look pretty darn good! Really nice work on getting that 'GREIF' decal to lay down properly over the angled edge there.

Only nitpick I have is you might want to paint the rubber tires on the Kettenkraftrad there!

Just nitpicking there, excellent work!

Hey Gamera.    Didn't notice the tires didn't go over the plastic well!  LOL!  Thanks!  Man, you guys come up with some great reference pics!  The seat in your pic is black, the call out was leather.  I like the light camo they did on it too!  Wow, after seeing your pic, this kit REALLY lacked in detail!  Any idea what those brown things behind the seat are?  Kit didn't have anything like that.

Thanks again for checking out the build and the reference pic and advice!  That would make the tire look a whole lot better!

Eagle90

Hey Eagle, no problem I just grabbed the photo off the internet. This vehicle was restored so the seat may not be the right colour leather- restorers try to get stuff like that correct but sometimes you do see stuff that is 'off'. The brown things behind the seat look like German canteens, seems like an odd place to store them- maybe someone else has more information on this?

Zvezda, you went on vacation, I hope you got permission . Nice work on the little Panzer there. Those colours look good.

Nice work there Eagle. I imagine they are would have had seats in both black and brown leather. That side decal must have been a right pain, well done on getting that down.

Gamera, indeed those two items look like water bottles, not seen that before. Nice pic though.

I got a bit done today, I made up thirty boltheads to add to the inside of the front fenders, details omitted due to limitation of moulding. Have a look:

Yes, those white dots are parts... .030" hexagonal rod from Plastruct, cut with the Chopper II guillotine. I set the guide by running a thin plastic strip between it and the blade, then removed the strip and cut the rod simply butted up to the guide by hand. I had to store them against something dark coloured or I'd never find them again!

Applying them will be a case of finding a way to get a drop of glue small enough into the right place, then catching the plastic bits by static effect on the end of a needle and guiding them into the glue, then adjusting position by pressing with the needle. At least that's the theory...

I'll see how it works tomorrow!

M/TB379

Ouch Mike, good luck there- my eyes and hands aren't up to that sorta work anymore!

Cheers, Gamera -- in the morning I'll find out if mine are!

M/TB379

Gamera

Hey Eagle, no problem I just grabbed the photo off the internet. This vehicle was restored so the seat may not be the right colour leather- restorers try to get stuff like that correct but sometimes you do see stuff that is 'off'. The brown things behind the seat look like German canteens, seems like an odd place to store them- maybe someone else has more information on this?

Well it is a great reference pic for sure!  Thanks!  I bet the restorers have a time finding parts! 

I thought they looked like canteens, but like you thought it was an odd spot to store them.  But they sure do look like canteens.

Eagle90

Bish

Zvezda, you went on vacation, I hope you got permission . Nice work on the little Panzer there. Those colours look good.

Nice work there Eagle. I imagine they are would have had seats in both black and brown leather. That side decal must have been a right pain, well done on getting that down.

 

Gamera, indeed those two items look like water bottles, not seen that before. Nice pic though.

I guess they would have used what ever they had at the time n the factory.  Makes sense to me! 

It some hobby knife manipulation and lots of SOL to get her to stay down.  Then I threw about 2-3 coats of dull on top of that!  LOL!  we shall see if it stays down!

I think they might be canteens also.  It is a great pic of a Kett!  Like I said, didn't realize how much detail the kit DIDN'T have until is saw the pic! 

Eagle90

Thunderbolt!  Holy mother of Pearl!  You are the man!  I can't wait to see how they turn out.  You are talking about a micro dot of glue!  Definitely let us know how you do it.

Eagle90

Dan - looks great, can't wait for the paint to be thrown on.

Zvezda - good foundation with the tropen scheme, look forwards to the weathering.

Eagle90 - nice work on that duo, not familiar with those particular kits.  

Thunderbolt - good luck with the boltheads.  The method I found that worked best for me was to place the tiny piece within a quarter inch of it's required placement.  Dab of gel superglue in the correct spot, and then nudge the bolthead into place.  

regards,

Jack

Thank you Jack!  Not sure if they are even still around.  The company is Nitto.  The instructions were very hard to follow and not accurate on placement of parts at all!  The fit of the parts was the worst I have run into since getting back into the hobby.  And the decals had to soak for at least 5 minutes before even thinking of coming off the backing!  These were estate sale kits I got, so who knows how old they are or how they were stored.  But I got a lot of good experience and ideas to work with now!

Thanks again!

Eagle90

Thanks, Eagle and Jack! Well, the fun will begin today... Also, my airbrush is being couriered to a workshop for some maintenance, it goes this afternoon -- it'll be the first time since I was 16 I don't have an airbrush to hand, it feels kinda strange to contemplate!

M/TB379

Update -- my AB is in the workshop now and I'll hopefully have it back in top order next week. Now, I worked up the replacement bolt heads on the Pz.IV and the ones I cut before turned out to be too big! I reset the guillotine without the spacer to get finer slivers and applied them using a tiny brush to dab on liquid glue, then used the tip of a scribing tool to transfer the slivers by moisture. There are 14 inside each fender and the fact is I should have been using .020" rod, not .030", but I'll accept a quarter of a millimetre out! The two boltheads on the barrel cinch were made from the longer slivers as they seem much more prominent.

The next job is to finish the scratch built laminate armour around the driver's slit and do all the bolt detail on that too.

M/TB379

Wow, Mike- that's fantastic. I'd go blind before I even got that many cemented into place.

Some nice work there Mike.

Hi Guys-- I'm still trying to figure out Flickr and getting a pic of my Pz IV F2 posted--- its in the weathering stage now , so I hope to have it posted soon -

It cant really compete w/ some of the phenominal work Ive seen here--- I just wanted to check in -

Regards,

Dog

Don't worry Dog, its certainly not a competition. Look forward to seeing your pics.

Thunderbolt379:  Nice work on your Panzer IV, lookin' good. Hoping to get one of the varients in the coming months.

Eagle90: Great work on you Kettenkrad & sdkfz 250/3

Yesterday I put on the decals,  I choose number 731 of the 7th Company, sPzAbt 501, Tunisia 1943.  All that' really left is detail painting on the tank crew men, glued on the track cable this morning.  Friday I'll airbrush another light coat of Future, let that dry fro two days then follow it up with Dullecote. Decided not to apply weathering to my tiger, after getting back into the hobby this year I'm a little rusty and just want to get this project finished.  Started construction back in February.   Hoping she'll be all done next Thursday.

Thunderbolt379 - a lot of nice details on your Pz IV 'D' took a closer look on my Dragon Smart Kit and noted the bolts.

Dan Tiger looks great - I always like the finishing touches of applying washes and pigments to get the look of a weather armor vehicle. 

Zvezda1980 - Pz III looks great

Eagle90 - 250 Grief and Kett look great

Ongoing progress photos - finish all the major assembling - left with just the small details, spare track, extra storage rack, spare road wheels, jerry cans ... Armor86

The Tiger is looking really nice Dan, almost there.

Nice work armor, all those lovely little track links. O Joy

Dan and armor86...thanks you!  They turned out pretty good considering.  I wouldn't recommend any Nitto kits.  

Eagle90

I am DETERMINED to meet the deadline!
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The 109 office

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