This is a great case of living vicariously through modeling forums. I remember ogling this kit on display in store windows as a young boy, but never able to get it due to the cost. Watching you build this is a real treat! Of course you're doing a far better job than my grade school age skills would have allowed back then. Not to mention tools and materials available now such as the Vallejo ground stuff and Value Gear resin to kick it up a few notches. The kit shows it's age, but you are sure making the most of this set!  I'm looking forward to your next installment and progress update! 

Day 41,

This afternoon I applied a dark brown enamel wash to the diorama - to add some depth to the colours. The images below show how dark the diorama went shortly after I applied the wash.

However, after the wash had dried the colour returned to what it was like before the wash was applied - but with some darker brown colour in all of the tiny depressions.

I also started working on brush painting the tracks and the wheels for the Panzer IV today.

I have the next two days off work - so I am hoping to increase the rate of progress in the coming days. That will be required, with just three days left until Christmas now.... 

Day 42 - Part 1,

This morning I removed all of the masking from the diorama. I was generally happy with the result. There was a bit of overspray to be touched up, but not as much as I expected that there might be.

I also brush painted the sandbags using Lifecolor paints. Later in the day I applied a muddy brown wash to the sandbags to provide some colour variation and merge them with the surrounding terrain.

Nice job on the dirt, very realistic, fun read, looking forward to more, thanks.

Day 42 - Part 2,

I also completed brush painting the details on the Panzer IV this morning. It was rushed, so it was a relatively basic job. I had applied a mix of dark brown and black acrylic paint to the tracks yesterday and now dry-brushed on some Ammo of Mig Drybrush Gun Metal paint to the upper portions of the tracks. This was followed by a run over the tracks with a 8B lead pencil.

Next I moved onto the wheels and return rollers. I painted them in acrylic black paint, and when this was dry I dry brushed them with a dark grey acrylic paint. Touch ups were then done to the yellow base coat colour. The edges of idlers and sprockets were then painted with a darker metallic colour, followed up with a brighter silver colour (not shown on image below).

Moving onto the exhaust of the Panzer IV, I almost completely painted it in a dark rust colour of Lifecolor paint - leaving just a few bits of the base colour. This was followed by the application of a small amount of lighter rust Lifecolor paint with a sponge. The inside of the exhaust opening was painted in black acrylic paint and then black pigment was applied around the opening.

The decals that came with the kit were for a Panzer IV Ausf. G tank that was part of the Afrika Corps (currently displayed in the Munster Museum). Although the division markings provided with the kit do not match those on the Museum vehicle. The decals were quite thick and did not conform to the uneven surface very well, so I decided to replace them with a set from Armourfast that were for a vehicle in Italy in 1943.

I applied the decals - but three of coats of Mirco Set decal solution were required to get the numbers to conform over the raised details on the turret. I did use the kit decals for the German crosses.

After the decals had dried, I applied a coat of Testors Dullcote from the spray can. This was to protect the paint job and decals from the weathering to come - and it also reduces the outline of the decal film (which can be seen in the image above) to some degree.

Day 42 - Part 3,

I also completed preparing the figures for the 88mm Gun today - and mounted them on cocktail sticks ready for paint.

They were painted with an undercoat of Ammo of Mig Grey Primer and a base coat of Humbrol 67 (Tank Grey) - then all but the deep recesses were painted with Tamiya XF 65 Field Grey.

I also prepared a lot of the smaller items ready for painting. An example is shown below - of the two electricity generators. Two of each type are provided in the kit, so you can choose which you would like. I chose to use one of each type, and hollowed out the exhaust of the one on the left.

Only two days left until Christmas now... I have come to the realisation that I will not get everything done that I had intended - but will do as much as I can in the remaining time available.

Day 43 - Part 1,

The Dullcote varnish on the Panzer IV had dried by the next morning, so I moved onto the weathering. To save time I applied a single brown coloured wash to accentuate all of the details and also represent some desert coloured dirt and dust on the vehicle.

I used an enamel Dark Brown wash from AK Interactive, thinned down with AK thinner for enamel products. I applied the wash across all of the model, like a filter, and wiped off any excess with some cotton buds. I also added some black pigment around the muzzle brake of the gun, and some gun metal pigment to the machine gun barrels. Below is an image of the completed Panzer IV.

Next I airbrushed some red-brown paint onto the 88mm Flak Gun and Searchlight - to represent a soft edged camouflage of Rotbraun. I was relatively happy with how the camuoflage looked as I was painting it, but when the paint dried and I brought the models inside and looked at them under a decent light I realised that it was actually quite terrible. So I decided to hand paint over the camouflage and change it into a hard edged scheme.

Day 43 - Part 2,

Moving back to the diorama, I dry-brushed some light grey-brown Humbrol paint onto all of the rocky areas - to give them more of a stony appearance. Unfortunately, it does not show up very well on the image below due to the lighting when the photo was taken.

I also did a lot of work touching up all along all of the edges of the grey, red and sandy brown areas. While the masking worked quite well, the more I looked the more areas needed touching up - and this process took quite a bit of time in the end due to the size and intricacy of the diorama. This included brush painting the four sets of stairs leading to the upper level. To paint these stairs and touch up all of the light grey coloured rooms I decanted some Tamiya Primer (Gray) paint from the spray can into a paint tray. This enabled a perfect colour match to be made with the light grey coloured base coat that was sprayed with the spray can. The paint was thinned with Mr. Color Thinner for lacquer paints as required.

Next I applied a coat of medium brown acrylic paint to the wooden retaining walls around the external emplacements for the Panzer IV and the 88mm Flak Gun. When this had dried I applied some light brown oil paint to these areas using Ammo of Mig Ochre Oilbrusher.

Then, after waiting about an hour, I brushed off most of the oil paint with a wide brush moistened with white spirit (i.e. mineral turpentine). When removing the oil paint, I brushed sideways for the wooden panelling and upwards for the retaining posts. The image below shows part way through this process, with the oil paint partially removed from three of the panels. You can also see tide marks at the base of the wall - created by white spirit spreading across the diorama - which needed to be removed as I went along.

The image below shows the retaining walls once the oil paint had dried. On reflection, I should have painted the walls in an ochre colour to start with, and then apply a coat of dark brown oil paint (e.g. Burnt Sienna) to be partially removed. It would of given a much better wood-like appearance.

Day 43 - Part 3,

Throughout the day I started brush painting some of the items that were to be placed inside the rooms of the strong point.

The image below shows the ammunition box, which was painted in a dark grey acrylic colour and then dry brushed with a lighter grey Humbrol enamel paint. Once the enamel paint was touch dry I glued the ammo box into place using super glue (i.e. cyanoacrylate glue). At the same time I also attached the sign warning of explosives with Ammo of Mig Ultra Glue, which is an acrylic glue. The sign was provided on a small paper sheet in the kit, along with a few maps and other signs.

I also completed work on the four external doors and two internal doors. These were metal, so I painted them using a similar method to the ammo box. However, I dry brushed them with a bluish grey acrylic paint instead of a light grey enamel paint.

The metal ladders were also painted in this way - but were dry brushed with Ammo of Mig acrylic Gun Metal.

The radio equipment, which is only about 2cm across, was also painted in dark grey acrylic paint and then lightly dry-brushed with acrylic Gun Metal paint. Afterwards, an enamel black wash was applied to accentuate some of the details. Lastly, the switches and dials were painted with red, blue, yellow, white, black, crystal red, crystal green and silver coloured acrylic paints.

Day 43 - Part 4,

The last thing I did, at 11:00pm at night, was spray the diorama with Tamiya Flat Clear from the spray can. It was an odd time to do it - but necessary due to time constraints. I did this outside on the balcony, and it was very humid at the time. As the spray started to dry I noticed frosting appearing on the surface of the diorama. DISASTER!!! It was probably due to the high humidity or the fact that the spray can was several years old (or both). Whatever the reason, it was a bad case of frosting - and I thought it would take a lot of time to fix.

I brought the diorama inside, with the air conditioner on and set to dehumidify. Before the clear coat had set hard I sprayed the affected areas of the diorama with Testors Dullcote inside. As the Dullcote began to dry I saw that more than 95% of the frosting was gone. Another quick spray to the remaining affected areas and it was all gone. Disatser averted!

I went to bed and left the diorama to dry overnight, and could sleep much easier now with the frosting gone. Although, there was now only one day left until Christmas....

Day 44 - Part 1,

Christmas Eve today, and still much to do. I started by brush painting the Rotbraun camouflage on the 88mm Flak Gun and Searchlight. I also did the detail painting on all of the Flak guns with acrylic paints.

Next I did the detail painting and camouflage on the Pak 38 anti-tank gun. The spotted camouflage was painted with a grey acrylic paint, while the tyres were painted black and drybrushed with a dark grey colour.

Next I painted the details on the Kubelwagen and Schwimmwagen, mainly with Vallejo acrylic paints. The lights were painted silver - and later on I added a drop of Ammo by Mig Crystal Clear paint to the lights to represent the clear glass.

I also brush painted the base coat on the furniture that was to go inside the rooms of the strong point. This was done with a buff coloured acrylic paint. A couple of examples are shown in the image below.

Day 44 - Part 2,

Once the base coat on the furniture was dried, I applied oil paint and immediately streaked it in one direction with a wide brush - in order to imitate the wood grain. The image below shows a table before and after the oil paint was applied. In this example I used Burnt Sienna oil paint to imitate a darker wood.

On some of the furniture I used Ammo of Mig 'Earth' coloured Oilbrusher, which is a lighter brown colour. This was in order to imitate a paler coloured wood, as in the example below.

The ammo boxes were painted in a similar way, but I used a different coloured base coat for variety - instead of a buff colour it was a pale khaki brown shade (i.e. a little more green-brown in colour).

Other smaller items such were also painted today. The fuel drums and jerry cans were painted dark grey and dry brushed with a bluish grey colour. The wood of the rifles and machine guns was painted Vallejo Mahogany Brown, and the metal was painted Ammo of Mig Gun Metal.

Day 44 - Part 3,

Decals of german crosses, which were included in the kit, were applied to the Kubelwgen and Schwimmwagen.

Later on in the day I applied a brown wash to the Kubelwagen, Schwimmwagen and Anti-aircraft Guns. The process I used was similar to that for the Panzer IV. Usually I would do this after protecting the models with a matt varnish - but there was no time for this. The paint around the spare tyre of the Kubelwagen was lifted and crumpled slightly by the enamel wash, but it mostly settled back into place as it dried (one small imperfection in the paint can be seen in the image below).

Later that evening, once the wash had dried, I placed all of the guns and vehicles on the diorama. They were not glued in place - so that the diorama could be played with by my nephew. The image below shows the Quad 20mm Flak Gun in place - and clearly shows the hollowed out gun barrels.

I left all of the smaller recently painted items to dry overnight - particlularly the ones with oil paint applied ot them. Our family Christmas get together is nearby, at lunch time, so I will have a few hours in the morning to complete the diorama......

Day 45 - Part 1,

Christmas morning..... I started filling all of the rooms with the furniture and other smaller items. The furniture was glued in place, while the smaller items such as the fuel drums, jerry cans, ammo boxes etc. were just placed in the diorama - so they could be moved around as wanted.

The image below shows the power room, with the two electricity generators glued in place. These were painted black, then given a dry brush with gun metal, and finally some Ammo of Mig Fuel and Oil Stains was added here and there.

Next I moved onto the small bedroom, which has two beds. I also glued a propaganda poster on the wall using acrylic glue - it was a paper item which came with the kit.

The mess room was done next, which has a table with bench seats and a pot-belly stove. You can see in this image that the oil paint is not dry - and the finish was damaged slightly as I handled some of the items while gluing them in place.

Day 45 - Part 2,

Next to the mess room is the store room. I glued four of the rifles onto the gun rack and then glued the gun rack into place with super glue. I also glued the ladder onto the wall, which can be used by the occupants to access the upper level. Lastly I placed the fuel drums, jerry cans, and a couple of sacks of supplies into the room. There are actually several more of each of these items provided in the kit - but I just did a few of each of them due to the limited time available. 

Beyond the internal door is the war room - the largest room in the strong point. As per the instructions, I glued two bookcases along the walls. In the centre of the room a table and six wooden chairs were fixed in place. There are several seated figures included in the kit that fit in the chairs quite nicely. Lastly, two paper maps that came with the kit were glued onto the walls with acrylic glue.

Beyond the second internal door is the radio room. Into this room was glued a desk, a chair and the radio sets. As can be seen in the image below, the radios are actually a bit large for the desk.

All of the rooms of the strong point are now populated with furniture, and Christmas lunch is less than an hour away.....

Hi,

Thats turning out great.  Can.t wait to see more.

Day 45 - Part 3,

The photos below are of the completed diorama. These photos were taken 15 minutes before I left for our Christmas get together - so I finished with very little time to spare.

There are a few obvious things that I did not get completed as I would of liked. Firstly, I had hoped to add some desert-like foliage to the diorama to add some realism (i.e. a few cacti and some tufts of dry brown grass here and there).

The main things that are missing are the figures and the motorcycle with sidecar - I did not get them painted in the end. Atlhough I did have time to take the figures off of the sprues and clean them up. I gave the unpainted figures to my nephew shortly after I handed him the present. These shortcomings did not seem to concern my nephew, who was very happy with his Christmas present - and quickly populated the diorama with the unpainted figures.

I also had a great time making the diorama, except for the rush to complete it in the last week!! The kit does have quite a few problems to fix, and is short on detail in places, but the guns and vehicles look the part when they are finished. I would of loved to have been given this kit as a kid, even though it would have been difficult to fix some of the issues when I was young.

Hope you have enjoyed my first build discussion. Happy modelling!

Looks friggn' amazing to me!!! I'm glad your nephew was happy! 

Thanks for showing off your work for us!!! 

That looks great Taron. I like it. You did a great job detailing it with the time that you had to do it in.  I think you did an awesome job on it. Glad your nephew liked it. 

Well done.  What a fun build.

Agree with Keavdog, it was fun to watch you build it.

I must of missed the part where you mentioned it was to be a gift to a younger person - knowing that I think leaving the added realism of dried grass and other foliage out was a good call.

Great job