Rushing along to get the Panzerspahwhatever done in time!
Assembly complete 10:11 AM this morning. Didn't help that I slept until almost 9!
I didn't like the kit MG, it was pretty lame, so I replaced it with one from my spares. Had to cut off the mount from the kit part and modify it to fit on the replacment:
The jerry cans in the kit were also pretty lame so I used some Italeri cans that were already assembled in the spares box. Found a PE jerry can holder that fit perfectly on the upper hull so that was installed. I messed around with some clear sprue by carefully melting one end and pushing it into a piece of stainless steel mesh strainer from a faucet fitting. The I sanded down to the correct diameter, sanded the back side to a nice polish and popped it into one of the headlamp housings....what do you think?
Now on to painting! First up were the tires sprayed with some black/brown/gray tire colored paint (all paints sprayed with the airbrush are Tamiya)
Since I had the blackish paint in the paint cup I decided to spray this all over the undercarriage as sort of a pre shade. Then I went over that with a light coat of Red Brown to give it that old, dark rust tinge, then finally a thin, light coat of Flat Earth to dirty it up. The hues don't show up well in this pic, but I think it turned out pretty well:
When I went to paint the hull and turret with a desert colored paint I realized that I had none! All I have are Dark Yellow and Buff. Fortunately I had some leftover paint from an Italian M-13/40 so I did a quick mix job and came up with what I felt was a decent color for WWII German North Africa paint scheme. Wierd thing was that it was also a PERFECT match for the plastic in the kit! I had a very hard time seeing the paint as it was sprayed on and had to go over it a few times to ensure proper coverage. Then I applied a little color modulation, some post shading on the panel lines with dark brown and blended it all together with light mist coats of the main color.
10 more hours to go!!!
Ernest
Last Armor Build - 1/35 Dragon M-26A1, 1/35 Emhar Mk.IV Female
Last Aircraft Builds - Hobby Boss 1/72 F4F Wildcat & FW-190A8