Man, do I ever have some catching up to do. And I am not only referring to posting, which I will catch up a bit on.

Dave - I think your Zimm job is looking excellent. Not to mention your overall work so far on the Panther is downright fine.

Jack - That weld seam you applied looks good. Who would of thought, so many different avenues for recreating weld seams. Our hobby is indeed a marvel.

 I would be happy to post some progress pics if I had any. My rate of production has been sluggish at best. Too many distractions from the holidays on. I hope to kick it up a notch yet the gloom of despair seems to be setting in on me that I overestimated my ability to crank this out in 8 mos. But, I will overcome and keep on giving it my best shot. I've got one more set of wheels to paint the tires on and I've masked another set to ready for the dunkelgelb. This leads me to a question to any of you that have used the Eduard wheel masks. Do they normally have only one set of vinyl masks that you reuse on the rest of the wheels?  Just wondering. Anyway, I do appreciate all the simply magnificent builds each of you have shared. That may be the source of this sensory overload I'm experiencing.

Andy, looks great, figs too.

Marc, words fail me.

Dave, I feel your pain, but your work looks great.

I promise, upon pain of, well, pain, to take soem decent pics, suitable for "finished" pics. I did manage to score a bag of old Warriors German T/C figs the other day, but they look kinda small. I'll have to assemble one and compare to the Tammy guys.

Wow Andy, That looks fantastic. You have certainly have achieved an excellent level of realism there.

Looks awesome Andy.

Andy: That looks great! Question though, what do you use to chip away the whitewash? A stiff brush, toothbrush, toothpick? And the bottle of chipping fluid said I think to slightly moisten the model before trying to chip way the top coat?

Guys- Update on the Tiger... streaks applied on the turret only using AK Winter Streaking Grime. 

The hull is next... thanks for looking!

Guys- Thanks for taking your time to make comments.

Hasen- Zimm looks pretty good!!!  Have several Zimm sets and I can't wait to use them later this year...

Jack- Thanks for another tip.  I completely forgot to highlight the nose. LOL  Those resin welding seams look pretty good... I never knew they make those.  That's something I want to buy! 

Jack: Those do look really good! I've thought about picking up some of their rivets decals to replace some on aircraft I sand off.

Just wondering do any of you guys order from Red Frog Hobbies? I ordered the AK Interactive items Friday and it was here today!

Thanks guys...

Yes, I think the Archer weld  beads will look even better once under paint.  The only problem with this type of detailing is certain areas, like the main weld along turret top edge should be recessed, and not sitting on top.  I just did not feel that adventurous to cut out a trough for the weld to sit in.  Granted, now in hind site, the way the kit is constructed, I could have sanded/filed the turret roof edge all around.  Then glued it stepped back from the turret walls, thus creating the required spacing for the weld.

As mentioned, getting the resin to curve was the only problem.  I'm thinking the other type, perfect arc weld beads, would be easier.  There is space between the resin 'humps' to allow crimping, thus bend more easily.

regards,

Jack

Dave,nice work on the zimm

Jack,details look real good

I would have liked to have gotten some progress pics up, but I didn't. I toned down the camo with a light basecoat. Working on weathering the wheels and then they will be installed. Also working on the tools. Hope to have some marking on her by the end of the week when I intend to build the tracks.

Andy: The figures look excellent!

Dave: Nice work, the zimmerit looks good to me. Did the kit come with an engine there? I'm kinda impressed, my second armour kit was the ancient Tamiya Panther A and the Italeri kit despite it's age looks much better.

Jack: The weld beads look good to me, I don't see where you had to cut the Archer stripe. And the bead around the cupola looks perfect. 

Dave: your Panther's coming along nicely.

Jack: your tiger's looking good...how'd you like the Archer weld seams?  I still have a sheet of the originals from 10+years ago.  I used them on a Wirbelwind - looked great under the paint.

Marc - I like the look of the cobblestone.   For some colour ideas, have you done a google image search for the particular country or maybe even the city?

Andy - the weather effects are looking right on.  Figures look great - I know the diagrams didn't show this, but being a winter setting, adding a hint of the same warm red to the tips of their noses would work well here.

Dave -  wish I had some answers for your questions... but have to say what you've done so far is looking rather swell.

So this weekend was able to finish construction of the turret.

First time trying weld beads, so I gave Fine Archer's product a go.   The set was a variety of sizes - no set scale, your choice on the width that you deem fits best.  

They have an instructional video on youtube for the application of these.  It is basically resin on decal film, and is applied with Micro Sol setting solution.  I tried doing the bead around the copula first, but could not get it to curve.   So opted for the stretched sprue here.

The turret itself faired no better.  The straight stretches worked great.  The curved portions, even though not as acute, was problematic.  I tried adding future, waiting for it to become tacky before laying down the resin, but even this did not help.  I eventually had to cut the bead into 2-3mm segments.  I don't know how they did in the video, maybe it being winter here, room temperature/humidity played a factor.

regards,

Jack

Andy, sweet results from the AK. Figures are delicious.

Dave, your on to something there bud, just keep on plugging along, because it's looking real good.

Well, quick update from me... it's been awhile. This Italeri kit is a bit more challenging just given the fact that it doesn't offer a great amount of detail, so you're constantly trying to come up with ideas to add it. There are other little annoying things that have to either be corrected or lived with. Some I'm gonna live with, mostly because I don't want to spend a massive amount of time correcting it.

First - where I'm at... I have 90%+ of the zimmerit applied. (Cavalier) In fact I think I only have the front/lower hull to go, which will be done after the upper/lower marriage. I still have to clean up the edges (where the zim part didn't fit exactly) and the corners. The gray bits are parts that I've scavenged from the CH kit I just finished in December. Nice to have so many left over parts.  I added periscopes to the loader (turret), driver and radio operator positions. It took a little effort to get them to the right spacing/position, but will be a great addition to otherwise open holes. The cupola was also a left over form the CH kit. I don't have periscopes, but it is still a big step up from the Italeri part. You boys have any ideas here? Since the close defense weapon was an early 1944 addition, I added that as well. Weld seams were also added to the turret roof using stretched sprue and liquid glue. 

Here's the rear plate. I drilled out the exhaust and added a little detail to the base. The support for the engine crank is woefully out of place. This I think is due to the Cavalier part. The caps and covers are part of the zimmerit mold. All detail was removed prior to applying this and I think they molded it too low. You can faintly see part of the filled in hole above the main cover plate (white crescent). This is gonna be one of those things that I leave as is, just letting it nag at me when I look at it in the future... 

You can also see in this pic the terrible gap between the turret and hull. I do plan on making this better in the future. More to come on that. There's also a sizable gap on the plate where the driver/RO hatches reside.

And finally, I added a ring inside the muzzle brake. I lost the one from the CH kit when I was messing around with it then. I had it in there, and next time I looked - not. The hole looks kinda out of round in the pic... way more so than in reality.

I may also have to come up with a solution for the ball MG. The design looks completely wrong to me. I may also need some suggestions on what I could use for the ball portion that I could drill out and add a MG. (The Italeri design has the ball inside the hull and the MG sticking out of the slat - Ausf. D design - and then through the bump housing on the hull.) I'll have to figure out a way to make this right...

Now thats nice deaf. The effect you have got with the worn paint looks excellent.

I haven't got the AK chipping stuff yet, it looks pretty good.

Figures are completed!  That diagram was very helpful...

Tools have been painted.  Metal parts will be highlighted later...

Tiggy has been chipped with AK Chipping product... it has the color of primer dark red brown.  

More to come...

Marc, i like the look of those cobbles. I like the shiney look as well, looks like it has been raining.

Love the Panther, yet another stunner.

Marc, which KT are we talking about?

Marc: Kinda hard to tell while it's wet but looks good to me!

Guys: Thanks, I went ahead and ordered the Worn Effects fluid and well as their weathering and modulation sets for olive drab vehicles plus a few other items. Dragging out an old paint mule to test the stuff when it gets here.

Thanks all so much.  

Eric, if the PE I ordered form China ever gets here, I 'll be doing a 1/35 version of the braille KT.

This is about a 3x4" test piece of the cobblestone I am gonna make for the Panther.  What do you think.?. The shiny bits are form the oils still being a bit wet. And I know the trailer is busted but wanted to see what the scale looked like. 

Another stunning build from Marc's factory... this is a beauty!  You will love those AK products especially the streaking... I ordered many more recently.

Marc: Another winner there! Great job! I guess it's a minor thing but I love the tools, the slight sheen of rust looks super realistic to me.

Marc - That is simply outstanding. I am in no position to critique while I'm sitting here in jaw dropping astonishment at your ability to achieve such realism. You really are an artisan at this armor stuff. and I am grateful that you have shared your work with us as the benefits are to my modeling most welcome. Please keep it coming.

Marc - that is just simply amazing!  Funny Eric should mention we need more badges for you, I was thinking exactly the same thing.

If I was to question anything about the finish from a realism point of view, it would be the darkness of the horizontal and vertical lines created by the zimmerit pattern.  The lower area looks fine, particularly the rear, but  I'm wondering if dirt would collect so uniformly in all those recesses, and instead maybe have some of the white wash  still visible here and there?

Again, top shelf work.

regards,

Jack

Wing Nut -- that's a beautiful, beautifful job, and embodies the thrill of realism that reminds me why I'm in armour modelling! Top job, sir! I only wish I could do as well!

Mike/TB379

I left comments in the Armor Forum, but again, it's a beaut!  Love your whitewash and weathering.

I can't wait for the 4th! Holy Moly, we need more badges just for Marc.

Anthony the chipping looks a treat.  I may have to break down and tyr that AK stuff.

RBaer... That's a sweet little kitty.

A86... The anticipation of seeing that thing with paint on it is killing me.

SFM... Good start.  I like when the kits hove the torsion bar suspension   If nothing else it helps keep the axle that are pinned it the outside of the tub from weakening and breaking off form getting to much weathering solvents on the glue joint.

OK Eric, my maniacal GB running friend... limber up those cut and paste fingers cuz #3 is done.

All you eagle eyes out there... if you see them... shout it out so I can fix it.

 I am going to take a stab at a homemade cobblestone roadway for a base.  Thanks to all that have followed along.

Jack, thanks for posting that. I really need to improve on my figures, i think this will help a lot.

Tojo, nice work on the wheels.

armor, that is looking hot, great PE work.

Streetfightingman, great start. Roads wheels, every modellers favorite part.