Hi guys, I made some progress on the Tamiya StuG IV today. As the hatch will be open I needed to box in the sponson and provide the suggestion of an interior -- not a proper one, I'm not reaady to do that, mounting radio boxes inside the flank hull and such -- with a rear fighting compartment wall and such blown into Panzer Beige. I mixed the shade in Tamiya Acrylics, glosss white and flat buff 1:1 and sprayed it on. Here the locator for the strip of plastic which will close the sponson is unmasked:
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I masked the interior of the hatch area and touched up the outside with some dark yellow to create a clean demarkation between interior and exterior colours on the rear wall. Next I mounted the strip to close the sponson, and this is what's visible through the hatch:
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Then I went on to mount the sighting systems and the gun. Before I could mount the gun I gave a quick oil wash to the area into which the mantlet sits (plus the mantlet itself) as it's hard to get to after gun installation and main painting. This is just a rough job as it'll be barely visible -- it's absence would be more visible.
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The next step was to mount the gun:
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The underside of the fighting compartment is pretty busy now. I added the pedastal for the figure, recreating the correct height with styrene as the new arrangement meant the platform had to mount under the new rear wall:
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At last! Clear to close the hull! I proceeded at once and this is the stage she's at tonight:
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A few externals now, the spare wheel holder, the driver's periscope protectors, the schkurtzen hangers, and she'll be ready for the paintshop. With luck I'll be getting some paint on her in a few days, though this heat down in Aus means acrylics tip-dry awful fast. And I need a run to a hobby store for acrylic thinner, liquid cement and some paints for other projects, so we'll see what I can do and how soon.
Cheers, Mike/TB379