Panzerjäger IV, Normandy - finished photos

Geeminie-Christmas. That's superb!  The Figures are great and the tank is VERY Realistic looking!  Really great work!  I mean it!!!  Damn I wish I could do that! LOL

Jack, you are truly one of the most talented modelers on the site. Your tank and crewman and are well painted as always. I Like the simple dio as well. Another winner my friend.

That first picture........ it's too early in the morning........ I must be dreaming........

 I love how you've got that set up. It looks like an actual photo of a real moment in time. SUPER!

 This is all really great stuff, but my eye went to the figures for some reason.  I can't explain it, they look WAY cool, but they're the ONLY thing that gave it away as being a model.

 It's really quite beautiful though. I know we all strive for results like this.

Jack the finest ever. Your vehicles are so good but you could make a living on painting figures.

Terry

Nice! Figures are superb....

This is what I'm striving for in my work! Wow!! Just amazing what you did here. Your figs are gorgeous!

Hi Jack,

The tank is what catches my eye, there is just so much detail in there!

The figurines are brilliant.

Must admit that the color of the tanker dress is a bit of a surprise but I am convinced that your references are spot spot on.

The effort to put this into a historical picture, brilliant work!

Thank you for sharing your builds with us.

Very Best Regards

Johan

CodyJ, Eric, disastermaster, Terry, Bucksco, KT5150, Mike, and JohanT, thank you all for the kind and positive comments.

The vegetation on the vehicle is an organic product from JoeFix Studio, item #113 Small green leaves on twigs. Once I had them in place, they looked yellow (wilted and dying?), so I removed them and gave a light spray of olive green paint. The main branches too, received a light wash application of umber brown.

www.joefix-studio.be/producten.asp

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The reed green uniforms were coloured based on this photo which is suppose to be original, but as they say, internet has been known to be wrong.  I have though, seen on other forums, stating this material could be found to have a turquoise look to it:

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Yes, there is definitely something not right with the scenic photo backdrop. I'm certain it's an issue of lighting - the figures were shot with light source directly in front of them, while the photo utilized from google has it's light source from the right side, as noted by the ground shadows.  So I took another stab at it by adding shadow to the figures, leaving only some portions of the original in the 'sunlight' :

regards,

Jack

I really like it,and the figures look great also !!

Oh my ! Fantastic work

I don't know about "something not right with the scenic photo backdrop"! It sure looks good to this untrained eye. I was blown away when I first saw the pic. Wonderful work.

Beautiful work!

Thank you Tojo72, Raualduke, M1GarandFan and udel09!

@ KnightTemplar5150 - my techniques for painting figures is nothing new.  If you don't have it, Shep Paine's method of painting figures is a must have for a laying a good foundation and understanding on how to approach this subject.  

The Marion Ball tutorial found on youtube is also recommend - great low down on how to paint faces with acrylics.   At 1/35 scale though, I don't bother with shading, and rely on a final sienna wash for that, as well as bringing back some colour after applying highlights.

I don't know who started it, but using an airbrush as a light source to create highlights on the uniform saves a lot of  time and work.  This aspect is the only one I've photographed during my work in progess postings in the ARMOR IN THE WEST (Defense of the Reich) GB.

Figures were sprayed overall Tamiya German Grey.  This acts both as a primer and for the shadow colour of the uniforms.  Base colour of the uniform is then sprayed from up top, like a light source. Another  round is sprayed slightly lighter in shade,  the beginning of highlights:

Further highlights to folds and details applied with paint brush, suspenders painted.

Decal insignia added.  Some precise dark washes applied to uniform details and equipment. Same can be done to shadow area of the folds in the cloth, but I found for the most part the initial German Grey was still holding out to good effect.

A final comparison shot of before and after application of some pigment powders to simulate dirt and dust on the uniforms:

regards,

Jack

Glad to be of help.  Yes, depends who's version of 'zenithal' you observe on youtube.  I just watched one where they had a  black primer coat, followed with a blue and then a final light blue - basically what I did.  Just build up slow with low pressure.  Really don't want the airbrush wide open, as the spray takes on a cone shape.  That results in less control if you move down the figure on an angle.

regards,

Jack

Sweet build!! Great work on both the tank and figures!

Steve

Beautiful work, everything looks great---figures, model, et al.

I would suggest blacking out the interior with some flat black paint, Looking down into those gaping hatches and seeing "empty plastic hull" is a little strange.

Also, the "greenness" of the foliage struck me as a bit off. I would actually dust the foliage with some dust-colored airbrushing, or even some yellowish-brown. You actually should have a little bit of yellowy leaves on them if they've been cut and stuck to the vehicle while traveling on a dusty road.

Lastly, the uniforms are spot-on. I've done a fair amount of research on uniforms, and that reed-green denim uniform with the big leg pocket can be any number of weird shades of bluish-green. Your color looks totally inside of the expected color palette.

I haven't tried that method yet. I think I will. Thanks for that short tutorial!  :D

Steve - thanks kindly for that

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Karl - thanks, always look forward to your comments and suggestions.

  The foliage, indeed I would have done exactly as you have described, but I was depicting an earlier point in time.  There is a reason why the shrubbery is a lively green, and  the crewman is holding an axe - hint, he wasn't chopping firewood.

The interiors, for sure, a full blown depiction is better than a partial.  I honestly thought the scratch building I did was decent enough to convey something was underneath the open hatches.  Duly noted, go big or go black.

regards,

Jack

Jack,  that's some nice work,. I didn't realize you had put that in there. The photo angles didn't capture it. Looks pretty cool, actually! :)

Wow!!! Incredible build!! Those figures are outstanding!!!

Thanks again, Karl, and thank you jetmaker.

regards,

Jack

jack, just been reading your explanation on figure painting. I think I might have to give that a try, my figures still could do with some improvement. But I do have one question. How do you deal with uniforms where the top is a different colour to the bottom in regards to using an airbrush in the way you do.

Hi Bish,

If it is a large scale, say 1/16th, then I would probably do the pants first, followed by masking. In 1/35 situation,  I'd  just focus on the jacket colour,   Once done with the airbrush phase, brush paint the pants, and then go back  to the jacket with final details and any required touch-up if the pant colour accidentally hit the jacket.   This is what I likely did with this Italian traffic mover: 

If it's camouflage fatigues (which I've yet try with airbrush), I would go with the most prominent of the lightest colour.

regards,

Jack

Thanks jack. Not sure I would want to try airbrushing an Oak leaf camo in 35th,but I think I will give it a try on the next German AFV crews I do.

I gave that Chromatic thing  try and I really like it a lot. The battery died in my camera before I could get a better picture than this however. I apologize for the bad pic, but it's all I've got for now.

Just as you are describing above, I sprayed the lightest color on the jacket first, then blocked the pants, masked the jacket off, and then sprayed the highlights over the black.

I deviated from your instructions however by adding the camouflage pattern to his jacket before spraying highlights and shadows. It worked out quite well, but the picture doesn't do it justice.

Instead of using multiple colors for the highlights and shadows I used 90% clear flat with 10% white for the highlights and then the same mix with black for the shadows. A sort of short cut that worked out in the end.

That may be the answer for you to try with camouflage in the future.

Thank you for sharing this idea. I really like it and it saved me countless hours doing this by hand with my pallet lol.

Hello Mike - yes, what you have displayed here is another option.  Just have to be very light and careful with the airbrush, because if you go too far, the highlight or shadow layer must be removed and tried again - so a protective clear coat beforehand would be most prudent.

This idea though is not new.  Portrait painters of old would use broad application of coloured glazes  to create both shadow and highlights when dealing with cloth that is multicolored or patterned.

regards,

Jack