Panzerjager GB (March 1st - June 30th, 2011)

Eric (taps)-nice work on the Emil-love the wood effect.  And I agree with Eric regarding the streaking-looks great.

Eric (tigerman)-your little project is making my back hurt just reading your post.

Well, I went and re-primed the Jagdpanzer earlier today-I just wasn't happy with the camo scheme, even after some additional work.  Will be out of town until late Sunday so hopefully I can chip away at a re-paint next week.  Will post pics once I have the new scheme on.

I feel your pain Carl. I do have some grass in the front. On that one side we planted vinca minor. It was a lot of work and beautiful when it bloomed, but the clover just continued to choke it off. We finally pulled it all out and started over again. I spray the area once a week with roundup and that helps out a lot, but that is an expensive alternative too. The yard is the only thing I hate about my home and would someday like a smaller home and lot. Good luck on your project.

Bob, i understand about camo jobs. It seems like I respray on every vehicle that I ever painted it on. On my Panther, I redid it 3 times! I'm pretty picky about it on my tanks and have never been 100% satisfied.

Here is the offending pieces. 

Love the pin marks on the FRONT of the poles. What were they thinking? Like I said, I'm in the process of ad-libbing these pieces.

I did a lighter wash on a few items last night, including the wood on the platform. This morning, I added some lighter "mud" to the front of the hull (still wet) I know the track sections, for upper protection, look too "metallic" I'm hoping it will tone down, with some pastel chalk, when applied.

I also did a very light wash, on the main gun assembly. I just wanted to get some dirt, in the corners, before more detailing. Don't mind my big hand

Tonight, I will start the wood grain, darker wash:

I threw this one in, just so you can get an idea, of where I'm at. The upper armor has a coat of clear finish, that's why it looks sort of glossy, I can't wait to start the wash on it:

Looking forward to your technique on the planks Eric. You're making great progress.

I love the streaking effect you've achieved on the side armor. I've got to try that on a future build!

Nate

tigerman

Here is the offending pieces. 

 

Love the pin marks on the FRONT of the poles. What were they thinking? Like I said, I'm in the process of ad-libbing these pieces.

Wonderful placement for the pin marks  . What is this, an Italeri kit ?

I cant make out what went wrong with the rods and i havent dug thru my junk parts yet .

Could you substitute them with styrene rod ?

That was suggested to me Carl. I made a mess trying to drill holes and they broke through. Of all the gallery shots in forums, nobody used the cables.

Happy Easter!

I've been plugging away at my Marder III build, and have made enough progress for an update. After painting the whole thing Tamiya German gray, I applied MiG's filter for gray vehicles which has a slight bluish tint to it. Next, I applied a dark wash to the lower hull and roadwheels. I painted the Friuls with a 50/50 mixture of Tamiya flat black, and flat brown. I also smeared the hull bottom and sides with MiG's dried mud mixed with alcohol. I replaced the kit decals with Archer transfers. Finally, I applied Tamiya's weathering powder white to come up with a worn winter white-wash.

Somehow, I managed to break the bar that goes across the gun mount. I will wait until last to glue that back together. Still have a bunch of detail painting left to do on the vehicle, and figures, but it's getting close to the end for this one. Comments welcome. Thanks for looking!

Nate

Kewl !!!

Nate the weathering looks great and the figures ...........they give me a chill !

Thanks Carl. They DO look cold, don't they?

Nate

Nice effects on the Marder Nate. I Like the whitewash and the dirt on the lower half of the hull. The figures are quite appropriate for the vehicle.

Thanks Eric, I appreciate it.

Nate

Nate-Great job on the Marder.  The weathering and figures are first rate. 

Rob nasty thing with the mount, personally I'd go ahead and see how it looks with gun and all other bits in place.Taps the sturer is coming along grand looking forward to seeing how you progress.

Terry.

Nate,

I really like the detailing and weathering on you Marder. Are you putting it in a dio or just as a stand alone? It really looks like it needs to be crossing a frozen field.

Awesome!!

Thanks Taps88.

Because of the way my display case is set-up, there isn't a lot of room for a diorama. I also have been building my way through the entire Marder series tank destroyers, and had planned on displaying all seven (when I finish them!) as one.

However, I may just have to make a small base with snow on it for this one, as it would look pretty good crossing the frozen steppes of Russia!

Nate

NATE - Super job with the white wash!  Really looks NICE!!  Wouldhave to agree, would look good on a small frozen dio but I understand, I had also planned on putting al my Marders displayed togther.  Was going to use the Panzerjager I as the first one in tha display.  Not a true Marder but it is like the father of the Marders.

TERRY - Going to try your suggestion and see how it goes, but if I dont ike it will have to move some of the interior around.

Spent all day yesterday building the gun.  Talk about small fidley pieces!!  There was 50 pieces that went into the gun so far.  Still have some clean up to do on her but here she is.

This first pic is just to help show the small size of this thing.

Getting her painted is next, then the shield.  Half way to the completion.

Looks great !

Now that's detailed, for the size Rob.

I really like your chipping technique, on the interior, how did you go about it?

Haven't had a chance to get too much done...I did however apply a surface rust wash, just waiting for it to fully dry. The short track sections, on the upper armor, are just loosely hung there, I know they're crooked..just for show

Crooked is good ................but they dont look crooked to me .

Rob: for such a small vehicle, that sure is packed with detail. It looks great!

Taps88: I'm really liking how your Emil is turning out.

Nate

Rob & Eric-you are both doing a great job.  Can't wait to see more progress pics.

My repaint is complete and decals applied.  My plan is to add a dab of Future to cover the decals tomorrow.  I hope to work on the road wheels (painting) and track assembly tomorrow night.  My plan is to start weathering early next week.....time will tell though..

BOB - Now that is some great looking camo, it doesnt get much better then that, the pattern is right on   What tracks are you going to use?  Will you have any problems getting the tracks on behind the skirts?  Are the skirts still rmoveable?  Look forward to the weathering.

SHELLBACK, NATE - Thanks guys.  There is a lot of detail / parts for the interior of this kit, really that is what makes up this kit.  I've thought about leaveing the shield off or badly damaged in order to show the interior / gun but I may just get another of this kit to do that to.

TAPS88 - Your progress is awesome.  Still really liking how you did the gray!  This is how I did the chipping on this one:

Used these brushes to do this

First one is an old frayed 10/0 - used to apply the chips, Next is a 18/0 to touch up more pronounced chips, last is a #2 chisel for dry brushing.

The most important one is the frayed 10/0

I first spray the base color then apply the chips randomly with the frayed brush by just dabing at the piece with different pressure, that will make different sizes and shades of the chipping.  You can also wipe most of the paint off, like you were going to dry brush, and just scrub it into the part your painting to get a light blended color.   Used MM Engine Gray and Chestut for my color.

Next comes the wash.  First in select spots were heavy is wanted, use W&N Raw Umber oil after dry go over the whole thing with Raw Umber Hue water color.  The water color is easy to push around were you want it using straight Wendex on your brush.

After all of that, drybrush were desired for highlights.  This was my end result.

Still may put some chips on the gun itself but not sure yet, here she is for now

Rob-Great job on the weathering & the tutorial.  I'll be reviewing this one.

Thanks for the encouragement on the camo.  I'm happier with it this time.  I still plan on a light coat of buff to 'soften' it a bit.

The schurzen is removable so attaching the road wheels & tracks shouldn't be a problem...I'm sure there will be other 'challenges' though.....I will be using the kit supplied Magic Tracks...unless I get really frustrated and grab a set of rubber band tracks out of a Tamiya Panzer in my stash....it's always good to have options.

Hey guys,

Ther's some really amazing work appearing on here now! Top notch stuff

I wish I could have knocked that Marder III M out for this GB but I was getting nowhere fast with that. It's still very much on hold.

Everything on here is looking great - the Sturer is a big old beast ain't she! WOW!

The little 'original' Panzerjager is looking really good as is the paint job on the Lang

In the meantime I've built my StuG III B (again) and that is going really well. Andy Deafpanzer and I are also looking into putting the feelers out for a Panzer III 'all variants' GB or something similar to be started soon.

Keep up all of the good work guys - this is excellent stuff!

ATVB

Ben

Bob, I really liked how the camo came out..it definitely looks tighter now with the weathering.

And...thanks for those tips Rob, They will really come in handy for my Emil. I appreciate the step-by-step pics too

Thanks Ben & Eric.  For some reason, when I compared Before & After photos, the photos don't seem to show as much difference as I can see in person.  Oh well, I'm happy with it.....looking forward to starting the weathering process.  I printed out Doog's tutorial that he used for his Hetzer....that's gonna be my guide.

Left side of the tracks are complete and on & drying.  One important lesson learned....assemble the tracks before gluing the upper & lower hulls together.....it would have been a lot easier that way.  For this build, I attached the road wheels with rubber cement, assembled the magic tracks with Testors glue, let them dry for a bit and then managed to get them over the upper idler wheels and under the fender without too much trouble.  I used a few extra links (instructions called out for 97....I added three more when I couldn't get them to mate up....then after some adjusting, I may have a bit too much slack between the upper idler wheels.  However, I have the option of leaving the schurzen on so no one will notice.  Hope to get the right side done tonight...don't know how much time I'll get tomorrow-weather is supposed to be good and I have a lot of yard work to catch up on.