The Ostfront (eastern front) GB 2010/11

An afternoon ahead in time cleaning and gluing pieces while watching startrek reruns:

Suspension is done as well as most of the bits and bobs on the hull. Almost time for that juicy turret

Richard

Looks sharp Richard, is this your first armour build???

Yes yes Richard I like it

Nice Richard! Now you have me wanting to try my hand at armor again. Been about fifteen years since my last foray, and I'm sure I could probably pull off something better now...

Might just have to pick me up something to have on hand for that day when I just get sick to death of masking canopies!

Doogs, Nice looking Panzer IV, 15 years ago i didn't even know what a wash or preshade or pastel powders were..,

WIP

I went and picked up the Tamiya Panzer V yesterday after work and started straight away...This being my first i'm not getting too creative and i'm building it OOB although i did cut up a tea strainer and add the mesh under the engine vents???(whatever they are) to hide the massive void....So after 5 hours bench time here is where i'm at with it.....There's a lot of little bits with Armour isn't there...

Julez, Randy, Doogs,

Thank you all gentlemen. The KV's really build up easy and nicely detailed for a darn cheap price.

Doogs, Your IV looks great to me! My attempts at german camo never turned out that great; mostly because of my near non existant airbrushing skills But that's not the reason i like the russian stuff so much....

Julez,

Well.... armor, compared to aircraft, modelling is......different LOL. It has it's own ups and downs like the multitude of tiny delicate parts and cleaning up all the little roadwheels is tedious and repetitive. On the other hand i really like the fact that armor, for the most part can be built up completely before the painting stage. Sometimes i just like to fire up a movie and be busy cutting and gluing Another thing i like about armor (and ww2 german subs) is the fact that you can really go overboard on the weathering. Some say it is not that realistic but i love the rustbucket tanks myself

My own KV2 has reached the painting stage... All assembly is completed. Will post a little WIP pic before i do that

Richard

Looking good Julez! I think I built that kit once upon a time. Of course, Tamiya probably makes more than one variety of Panther, so who knows. Survived a good long while until our yellow lab ate it back in 2005. Well, ate the barrel, one of the tracks and a drive sprocket...

Heres the WIP's:

Next time you guys see this beast it will be russian green

Richard

Dangit, Richard! You have me this close to buying the Zvezda T34 (I've read great things about the Dragon kit, but one thing at a time...)!

The KV is looking sweet. Can't wait to see it painted up!

Your KV is looking great! 

Richard,

That's quite the target.er..turret on that tank.

My Pkfw 111 Ausf N kit came in and I have started on the suspension. Pics in a couple of days.

Looking for some suggestions on methods of doing a whitewash theme. I've never done anything but a clean build in the past.

Jeff

bouttime

Richard,

That's quite the target.er..turret on that tank.

My Pkfw 111 Ausf N kit came in and I have started on the suspension. Pics in a couple of days.

Looking for some suggestions on methods of doing a whitewash theme. I've never done anything but a clean build in the past.

Jeff

From what I've read of the KV-2, that target's armor was so thick that it took artillery or aircraft to knock it out.

As for whitewash, I'm curious to see what you end up going with. For my second La-5, I'm planning to airbrush haphazardly and use the salt chipping method to break it up. 

Been off playing with the Wildcats for the past few days, but I put in some serious prep work on the VVS planes last night. Spent a good while punching out Mike Grant IP decals, touching up the Yak's IP from where I ripped up the awful kit decal, and cutting the Yak's Quickboost exhausts away from their casting block. Don't know if they're quite as awesome as the Ultracast exhausts I've used, but they still look pretty great. Big improvement over the kit exhausts. 

Tonight's going to be all about IP decals, and maybe some belt work in the Yak if my eyes can hold out that long!

Doogs,

I paint exclusively with MM Enamels. They just seam to spray so easily even for a beginner like me.

For the whitewash I'm currently torn between John Robinson's method in Paint & Weather Scale Models 2 and the method wbill76 used on his recent build - the finished model looks fantastic.

In reaction to the talk about the KV2's armor:

Dug this story up i read some time ago (this particular text is from wikipedia...) when i was building my first KV2. It describes how hard it was for conventional troops and their equipment to knock out the thick skinned KV2's:

When Operation Barbarossa began, the Red Army was equipped with 508 new KV tanks.^[2] So effective was its armour that the Germans were incapable of destroying it with their tanks or anti-tank weapons and had to rely on air support and 88 mm anti-aircraft artillery (flak) or 105 mm howitzers to knock them out. Most of these tanks and the effective T-34s were parcelled out to units in small numbers and poorly supplied, but at the Battle of Raseiniai they were used to good effect. On 23–24 June, a single KV-2 effectively pinned down elements of the German 6th Panzer Division for a full day at the bridgeheads of the Dubysa River below Raseiniai, Lithuania, playing a prominent role in delaying the advance of Panzergruppe 4 on Leningrad ^[3] until it ran out of ammunition and the crew was forced to abandon the tank and withdraw.

Anyways... Promised you guys a green tank:

Next up will be the part i like most: weathering it. Thanks for the comments boys!

Richard

Kermit,

Looks great! I thought you did aircraft fast.....

Rob

Gah. Work and sinuses have been at me hard this week, and I ended up abandoning the bench about an hour earlier than I usually do...but I knocked out my first foray into Mike Grant's IP decals.

Overall, not as grueling as I expected. I punched a whole tone of them out at once on Tuesday night, so last night was just about applying them. I found setting the decal and backing right on the IP, brushing it with water, and then sliding the decal off and into place worked really well. Need to go back and apply another coat of Future to the gauges, but other than that I'm pretty happy with how they came out. Next up - final detail touches. Red switchgear where appropriate and the like.

Doogs,

What are you using to punch out the decal dials?

Rob

Micro Mark's micro punch set

http://www.micromark.com/MICRO-PUNCH-SET,8603.html

Maxfax,

Thanks I guess i just put in more hours each night....i dunno. Even after a tough day i just really like to be busy with the plastic. It is relaxing and you get to watch tv or a movie at the same time. Who said only women can multitask??

Doogs,

Amazing work. I just keep drewling at the IP's that are done using this technique. Should try it myself but i kinda like building OOB and making the best out of what is inthere.

Been busy drybrushing the KV the last 24 hours. First lighter green, then white and lastly gunmetal. Next up will be some washes using black and rust:

Hope you guys like it sofar. It's gonna be alot more dirty

Richard

kermit

Doogs,

Amazing work. I just keep drewling at the IP's that are done using this technique. Should try it myself but i kinda like building OOB and making the best out of what is inthere.

I like OOB myself (though I really like resin seats and exhausts), but the OOB approach is lacking in these kits. 

The Zvezda kit takes a two-prong approach. Either you can use flat pieces and decals, or you can paint up and drybrush the textured IPs. But there's no gauge detail whatsoever. 

The Eduard Yak combines them. Textured IP, but no gauge detail and a full-panel decal. The decal is also terrible. Extremely thick. So thick it wouldn't snuggle down with Solvaset. Honestly, it has me worried about the main kit decals. Fortunately Soviet birds weren't big on panel lines since they were mostly wood laminate.

I'd be tempted to go with the "scratch up the gauge faces with silver pencil and apply Future" approach like I did with the Wildcats, except the IPs are very noticeable in these planes, particularly the Yak. And I had the decals sitting around, so figured why not?

I built this one a while ago. It looks massive and mean.

Cheers...

Richard, looking good buddy, your deformed dalek is coming along nicely

Doogs, As always very impressive work, i'll be looking forward to seein some more Wip picsI know what you mean regarding sinus pain, it's headache season here in Bris as well....

Yeah........ lots of wheels The panther is in the paintshop and i'm hopeing to get a preshade on it tonight.....

Morning Gents,

I've spent just a little time on the Panzer and I must say the fit so far is perfect. Only a couple small spots for filler and I probably could have left these as I don't think they can be seen when finished. Here are a few pics I quickly snapped. I'll shoot better ones next time.

http://i931.photobucket.com/albums/ad154/bouttimemodels/Panzer%20111%20Ausf%20N/DSC01446.jpg

http://i931.photobucket.com/albums/ad154/bouttimemodels/Panzer%20111%20Ausf%20N/DSC01444.jpg

http://i931.photobucket.com/albums/ad154/bouttimemodels/Panzer%20111%20Ausf%20N/DSC01441.jpg

Wrong link let's try again............

Richard - the KV is looking nice, but it's waaay too shiny. Looking forward to seeing it properly abused.

Julez - Built a Panther when I was a kid (Tamiya Ausf. G I think). The thing has a ridiculous number of wheels! Best of luck with it!

Bouttime - Saw that exact kit at Hobby Lobby on Tuesday selling for $50, but without mention of PE or the aluminum barrel. Looking forward to seeing it come along.

No progress on the La-5 or Yak last night. Spent my bench time decaling one of the Wildcats.

But...the numbers/letters sheet I ordered turned out to comprise of a gazillion numbers in all shapes and sizes, and only two sets of letters. Which aren't enough for me to do up both Wildcats. Since they're for the kids, the wife suggested I just order some more...and while I was ordering this thing fell into my cart:

What can I say? It's got a solid reputation and it was on sale for $15...

Man $50. They really rape us here in Canada. The list was $72. Thank Christ my best friend owns the LHS and always gives me a discount.

Kermit & Julez72 my mouth is watering looking at your < gulp> very nice tank builds I am so tempted to run out and get one for this build and join you, guess I better stay away from the LHS for the next few days.

Doogs I was going nuts when I had 3 builds going at once I dont know how you do it and so well too.

Richard man you have to be one of the fastest builders on the forum, just amazing.

vetteman42

Kermit & Julez72 my mouth is watering looking at your < gulp> very nice tank builds I am so tempted to run out and get one for this build and join you, guess I better stay away from the LHS for the next few days.

Doogs I was going nuts when I had 3 builds going at once I dont know how you do it and so well too.

Come on...you know you want to throw a tank into the mix! I'll be adding the T-34...just need to figure out which tracks I'm going to get since I've read the vinyls are the one massive weakness with the Zvezdas. Not sure I want to drop the coin for Friuls but this is my first modern foray into armor so outside of them, Model Kasten and AFV Club, I don't even know where to look!

As for the multiple builds...dude it's stressful! And I don't feel particularly productive...I mean I haven't even broken out of cockpit stage with the VVS birds yet...

Funny, I'm the opposite, I almost always have a 1/2 dozen projects going at any one time. I bounce from one to the next as the mood strikes. If I get frustrated by one, or have to wait for something to dry, I just work on another one. If I get really frustrated or just lose interest I have some plastic bins about the size of a shoe box that work great to store everything until I'm in the mood to deal with it. I think that is what keeps me from just chucking a really bad kit, like some do, I just wait until I'm in a particularly forgiving mood so I have the patience to fix the problems.

A nice simple kit like that Hobbyboss MiG-3 is great to balance out a fiddly kit like the Special Hobby F3F-2 I'm also working on.

This Zvesda P-40 is on the verge of spending some time in a box, there are huge gaps between the fuselage and wings which is going to take some serious work to fix. The only reason I don't just toss it and build an Academy P-40C is because its from Zvesda and it seems more appropriate to build a Soviet P-40 from an Eastern European kit.