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Dragon PzKw 38 (t) Ausf. G, 35 scale, kit 6290
Paints: Tamiya Acrylics for base
Weathering: Winton oils, MM enamels, Doc O’Brien’s Pigments
PROJECT
This is the first of two tanks I’m going to put into a
Finescale group build on the Ostfront. It will joined in a couple of weeks or
so by a Trumpeter KV-2. Both tanks were in the middle of the most important
campaign in military history – Hitler’s drive for Moscow in 1941.
I’m not sure how this fool’s errand began but it was too
obvious that these two machines came from different worlds. If a tank can be
called elegant, the Pz 38(t) deserves the term. The proportions are spot on and
the lines clean to a fault: sort of an armored Zero. The KV-2, in addition to
being about 15 or 20 times bigger than the Wehrmacht’s Czech import was also
arguably the ugliest land weapon ever built by man. Both were tanks. Both met
at the nexus of modern history. Beyond that they’ve nothing in common. So I
couldn’t approach building them in the same way.
I’m getting old and much of the 21st century is
not to my liking. (Models are good of course.) We’re living in an era when the
New York and London Times could seriously go broke. A lot of what we used to
call “bad vibes” are flowing around. Just so happened that I bought an old copy
of an Osprey Master Class book on modeling Wehrmacht armor by Tony Greenland.
I’ve never met the gent and haven’t read much of his writings. I’ve been told
that twenty years back he was winning IPMS prizes by the truckload. His style
is refined to a fault and requires an extremely steady hand and eye. I think
it’s safe to say his work can be considered “retro” in our time when the heavy
weather builders like Adam Wilder and erstwhile comrade Mig Jimenez are pouring
on washes, pigments, mud, stains, battle damage, scrapes and anything else that
can attack a tidy tank and are firmly in the saddle. I don’t regret this – the
four tanks I built before this one were influenced heavily by this approach and
those to follow will also. (I plan on trashing the KV-2 in every possible way:
it does deserve it.) Greenland didn’t join this parade. He simply claimed he
modeled German tanks and not the mud they fought in. His critics have accused
him of building models that are “too pretty.” He pleads guilty. That’s not to
say his work lacks complexity – as we shall see, far from it. Just to look
backward, below is one of Greenland’s wonderful models from the 90s:
I knew I couldn’t possibly build a kit to rival that of one
of the best modelers in the world. But if there was ever a time to try to see
if I could understand and put to use Greenland’s approach (I had a 120 page
book of his let’s remember) this lovely little tank was just the ticket. So
thus I started on my retro tank project. It was a humbling experience.
THE KIT:
If I was going to take a walk down memory lane while
building my fifth tank, I was in the firm hand of Dragon. First, let me
dispense with an obvious point. This kit included a full interior. (A kit
preceding it was the Marder III: judging on the huge number of extra parts, the
tank was a kind of after thought.) Unless I wanted some kind of cut-away, the
crew compartment was going to be nearly invisible. I could have exposed the
engine. I’ve got a Marder and a couple of half tracks. We’ll get to that in
good time. This time around, I wanted the Pz 38 going down the Moscow Road, not
sitting in the tank park. It did simplify the build but when dealing with
Dragon that’s not necessarily bad.
Dragon and I are developing a “working relationship” that
will remain strictly professional. They do produce splendidly detailed tanks.
And as I’ve just finished working on a genuinely bad model, one has to admit
that Dragon has important strong points. But any way you dice it, these kits
are for experienced modelers that enjoy a challenge. I believe this kit has
been out for a while and may not be “state of the art.” The part count was not
astronomical, but it kept me busy. (Dragon has an astonishing number of little
plastic knobs stuck to almost everything on the sprue tree – no idea why. The
parts themselves are very clean.) The problem with Dragon, I think is
unavoidable. They build a complicated model – that gives both the builder and
the maker many opportunities to screw things up. I found this one a fight from
beginning to end. The fit was not as good as my Brummbar. There were a lot of
pieces that required sanding and there are a lot of pieces. The instructions do
not tell you why things are optional are optional but I can’t claim they were
defective. Not Tamiya mind you, but they had enough diagrams that if you looked
around you could see how things were supposed to fit together. There were three
bad moments in the build and two were because I was an idiot. The third was
Dragon as I know it – when they screw up, your heart rate goes up because they
specialize in making “mission critical” parts dicey. In my case it was the
superstructure. It fit the front hull pretty well (no putty: Gator Glue served
for handle a few seams) but put up a little fight in the rear: then in snapped
into perfect place. Unfortunately, it clicked loudly and this was a dry-fit on
an unfinished piece. To get it out, I came close to lifting out the rear superstructure
along with it – not good. But it worked.
I used Karl Logan’s methods on Magic Tracks and almost got
them to work. (I mistimed the set time a little on both runs, putting them on
too soon on one side and too late on the other. So repair work on one side and
not the best sag on the other. I didn’t sweat that though because from looking
at photos it appeared that a lot of 38ts had very minimal sag.) But it was
still several hours for more detailed tracks. Maybe it was worth it here, but
if Dragon and Tamiya’s latest one-piece are anywhere near as good as I’ve
heard, I won’t miss Magic Tracks. But overall, it did fit. And actually looked
okay after construction. Might add that I tried to use the PE. I got a couple
of major pieces in place pretty well I think, but was baffled by PE belts for
the tools. As the texture of trimmed Tamiya tape was closer to leather, I saved
myself a lot of bother.
Weathering:
Greenland is not an outright reactionary like ship wizard
Jim Baumann who doesn’t normally use an airbrush I’ve been told. That said, you
have to clear out mentally a lot of things you think normal to do things his
way. Before starting up the compressor the entire kit should be done. (I fudged
on the tools and antenna.) You then airbrush the whole shebang a base color –
in my case Tamiya German Grey. This was followed with a coat of Future and
decals. (Dragon decals appear to be very good.) You end up with a very dark tank. Greenland is a great believer
in scale effect and, as he predicted, that changed. Here’s the buggy after the
base and Future:
Then you create your best possible match of the base color
with artist oils mixed with a tad of extra linseed oil to keep the finish
satin. Mine was 40% Paynes Grey; 40% Black and 20% white. (A satin
superstructure is central the Greenland process.) You begin by dry brushing the
entire model. Then you do it again, this time with the color lightened and
progressively small areas. You want the various zones to meld but to have
distinctly different shades – his style of color modulation. With patience it
works. It is good for those new to this game that oils are forgiving. And as
Greenland assures you, things that don’t look so hot will get better. But there
was a lot brushing involved. This pic (a bad one) is in the middle of dry
brushing:
Altogether I did five coats of oils. (Because so little
paint is on there, it’s not required to wait in between coats but Greenland
wisely insists on a new and dry brush on every change of color.) At the end I
was using a off-white. Once this is done you airbrush the substructure an earth
color. The wheels on the 38T are look a little Panther’s so I tried to leave
them a distinct grey. Then you dry brush the wheels, tracks etc an ever
lightening earth color. At the end, instead of going to an off white, you break
out an oily silver enamel (I used Vallejo oily silver acrylic) and drybrush tracks, tools, angled points on
both the sub and superstructure. After that’s over, you break out pigments. I
can’t swear to it, but I’ve been told that Greenland was one of the first major
modeling authors that got on the pigment band wagon. He used artist pastels of
course – MIG etc weren’t there. Black on top, brown on the bottom. (Along the
line you drybrush the exhaust rust color and dust that too. That way I was able
to get my lovely Polly Scale oxide primer which is the perfect base for rust.)
Here is when you begin to see why Greenland was indifferent to washes. He wants
you to grind dark pigments into every nook and cranny. With Panzergrau it’s not
easy to see the panel lines in a photo, but it does work. I know of aircraft
modelers that use pigments on panel lines. It works and it does blend together
the various shades of drybrushed greys. Almost done. The last shot is to get
out Tamiya acrylic Chrome Silver and drybrush it very very gingerly along the
turret edges, sides of tracks etc. Amazing how just a little bit on top of the
oil silver pops out at the eye.
The last decision was kind of up in the air. Greenland wants
a satin superstructure and a dead flat substructure with a blended zone
between. He wasn’t really specific about whether he wanted the pigments sealed
– although he did remark that they stood up to handling very well. I was very
surprised that the superstructure (which had gone from quite light to a really
sweet “scaled” Panzergrau after the black pigments) had enough linseed oil and
Future in there to remain distinctly satin. And gloss wasn’t intended. So I
left it alone. I finished the project with a 2.5/1 mixture of Future/Tamiya
Flat Base and sprayed it underneath. That’s a terrific matt medium and lacks
the tension involved with Dullcoate. And the satin/flat distinction is quite
evident in person.
Well, I can understand why Greenland won lots of prizes and
I can understand why other methods are used today. Although greys are really
tough to photograph, I think some of the complexity comes through. There’s more
color modulation in that kit than anything I’ve done previously by a country
mile. However a good modeler could get to the same place a lot more directly I
think. And the model is “too pretty.” My wife likes it, which says something
(she asked me when I was going to make it dirty?). Maybe on a bad day Wilder or
Jimenez go overboard, but there’s no doubt that if you want to model a front
line AFV they were very heavily weathered. What would be interesting would be
to take a Greenland model and then weather the devil out of it. It would work
I’m sure but take a lot of time that could be spent elsewhere.
There’s one other problem with Greenland’s procedure.
(Beyond the fact that being very good really helps. Greenland points out with
validity that weathering can hide a lot of sins. No fig leaves in his kits.)
All of that hand painting requires a lot of handling. And going over and over
every bit of your kit is just begging for things to come off. And they did a
couple of times, but I caught them.
It was fun. Doubt I’ll ever do another one, but I can see
now that his techniques might have real use in the ship world. And who’d want
to get such a cute little Panzer dirty?
Eric