Steel Cats (Sept. 2012-Aug. 2013)

Eric , good idea when you get the time my friend .

Marc , must be a bigger lug than yours in 1/72nd ............... . Glad you brought that up . I went back and looked at my ref pics and there they are ! I never even saw them the first time .

Jack , your cat is coming along nicely .  That bolt and tab held a pin in place that locked the gun muzzle into position .

Steve , hey man thanks for the comment !  Looks to me like Marc is a lot faster at putting out the details than i am .

SMJmodeler

deafpanzer:  Love that StuG close-up!...Is that a recent build of yours???  I think I recall that one...it was really weathered nicely overall if I recall correctly

You perfected that eraser technique but it feels a bit too perfect IMO.  You pushed every slot down versus a "here-and there" random method.  Just my ...take it for what's it's worth

SMJ- Thanks!  Appreciate the compliment about my StuG.  It was built for my Pz III GB earlier and it is still my favorite. LOL Like your feedback about here and there random method.  Will keep that in mind. 

Marc- Thanks!  Glad Carl posted your picture of Panther because it was great looking at it again.  Hope mine comes out as good as yours when I build my first Panther hopefully next year.  

Ben- SMJ has answered your questions about clasps.  I had good look at those clasps at WWII museum and many of them lost its paint showing bare metal color.  I like to use pencil #2 on the edge of clasps too. But first I drybrushed MM 'steel' on area where alot of contacts would occur such as handles and edges.  Thought you'd like to know how I do mine. 

Not that hard... just take your time and have fun!

Dupes- You know I am deaf but I actually am hearing this... 'Bergetiger!  Bergetiger!  Bergetiger!' Maybe its all inside my head... LOL  Am looking forward to your WIP! 

Carl- Thanks my friend!!!  I used aftermarket cable... I can't remember but I think its from Eruka.  The StuG was an old Imperial kit that the steel cabled were terrible so had to get a replacement.  

Yes, I learned something about the racks holding spare tracks. Even my panzer bible 'Panzer Achtung' has confirmed.  The lower rack didn't have bolts as they were welded solid onto the hull.  Then top rack had bolts to hold the spare tracks securely.  It means the crew had to use tools to unscrew the bolts... crazy?  No wonder they lost the war... 

Nice work on the lugs by the way! Yes they had lugs on the exhaust pipes. 

Dave- Love the figure you have chosen for your Panther!!!  Is it from Alpine?  I am trying where I have seen it before... 

deafpanzer: YEP!...that's the one I remember, the winter tracks are one of the highlights that I recall about that one, she's a winner!  

Thanks SMJ!  Maybe you should remind Carl he still owes me some beer... it is way overdue. LOL

Marc & Andy - yep, the figure is from Alpine Miniatures. It is one of their newer releases. (Don't have the number handy.) I was inspired by Andy's commander for his Pz. III Ausf. K. Not sure I'll be able to paint him as well as you did yours, Andy... but I'm gonna try.

Great replies to my questions guys!

Cheers SMJ - most helpful matey!

Ben

Hi guys, I have nothing but excuses for now. I've been working a lot of OT lately. Started with 10 hour days and 5 on Saturday, now working 12's and 8 on Saturday. No fun but hey, Christmas is coming. My last post concerned not receiving the parts I bought from the fellow in Poland, sk1968sk. I gave it a few more days and then contacted him. Seems like a really nice fellow and he assured me that sometimes delivery takes a little longer to the US than others but that things never get lost. He also gave me a tracking #. I didn't figure it would work with the USPS Tracking but it did and it said that my package was at the PO. He sends his packages as Registered Mail so you have to sign for it. Went to the PO and sure enough, there it was. I guess the local mail carrier dropped the ball and didn't put a notice in my mail box. Which was strange because he left one a couple days later for my decals. Anyway, this gentleman shipped my items two days after purchase and attempted delivery was eight days later. There's been a lot of places and people that I've bought from that are in the continental US that can't do that. So, I highly recommend him.

I have managed to get the roadwheels snipped out, trimmed and cleaned. Same for the larger parts. I've taken pics and soon as I have time to resize and upload I'll add them to the thread. Progress is going to be slow but I will be plugging along and post updates when I can. There is a 4 day weekend coming up and after the first of the year hopefully the OT will drop off.

In the meantime, I'll be enjoying watching your builds come together. Keep up the great work!

Tony

Wingman , good to hear from you . My recent order from RB models in Poland also took 8 days ...and i live in Washington state ! Impressive .

Very good then. I'll post completed build pictures on the first page.

Carl, if you'd be so kind as to save them and then we'll post them in the armor section when the GB concludes.

tigerman: Get my page ready, my tank & base are done but I'm taking forever on the !#$%& FIGURE!!!  Man do I feel inept...I'm like a fish-out-of-water when I try to paint those guys!  I Actually like how it looks but thank God he's in winter gear because with the amount of friggin' layers of paint I've added to correct things it WOULD LOOK like he's wearing a parka!!!

I'm just going to group the builds with the names of the builder underneath.

tigerman: Sorry,  I wasn't assuming we all would get a separate page.  In fact I've viewed GB pages with one build right after another with no text in between (except the name of the modeler) and it's great! 

TMan... why don't you just putthe pic under the person name inthe list of particianpnts.  Or is that what you are already talking about dojng?

And now for something completely different.. a man wth 3 bolXXXX... I mean tooth paste maksing.

Back on one of my peanut butter panzers someone mentioned either he had done, or heard of, using gel tooth paste as a mask for the 144th tanks.  Lots of photos of the vehicles from Pz Abt 501 had hard edge camo.  Figured this would be a good place to try that.  

Here is the progression with the tooth paste mask.  Since the 1:1 progression is the green and red brown applied to the yellow, that had to be reversed.  So that meant changing the base coat color. So does that make the yellow a primer coat

The final yellow coat is drying as I type this.  Once it's dry i will wash off the TP with water and a paint brush. I am already getting antsy to see how it all works.

Marc , now that is just weird looking man !!! Besides , i cant imagine brushing my teeth with olivgrun or dunklegelb toothpaste . Is that what the Nazi's used ????

Well Marc, at least your kitty will have clean teeth and fresh breath... 

Can't wait to see how this turns out!

Dave

Marc:  Now that technique is a breath of fresh air..LOL...Ahhh, I kill myself..LOL...

TOTAL DISASTER...

But it does smell nice

Washed of the paint and it was looking really great... until the paint started washing off too.  3 layers down to the plastic in spots.   As I was moaning... "Why, why, why... Oh the humanity..."  I was thinking the only thing it could be is there is some alcohol in the toothpaste.  And then I remembered when the other guy talking about it he did say  "kids" tooth paste.  I am guessing no alcohol.  Chatting about it with the owner of my LHS and he thought off ready made cake icing in the aerosol can.  I checked... no alcohol.  But there is oil hat may stain he paint.  I got a tube and will test on ...."not the tank"

That gel toothpaste stuff didnt work for him either .................................

Ahhh crap, cavities!

+BIGGGGGGG cavities !

wing_nut

TMan... why don't you just put the pic under the person name in the list of participants, or is that what you are already talking about doing?

Hmmm, interesting idea. 

Actually, I was thinking of posting them under the list of particpants, but I'll think about that one. It has some merit.

Bummer about the toothpaste masking. What will modelers think of next?

Marc - That is indeed unfortunate that your paint was marred in such a manner. Yet, you have given me hope in that I have been contemplating the exact same technique except using silly putty. It works great on my aircraft. I was hesitant only in the respect of painting the dunkelgelb last. But, it seems from your work that that is an alright succession to take. I have all the confidence in you that a miraculous recovery will be achieved. Don't forget to floss.

And on another subject the moose are back . They come in when the snow starts and feast in / on my fruit trees . It snowed last night and this morning here they are right on cue .

                   Awfully kool builds goin on in here ,but I do not see any interior work !! And no I will not be joining as I to date have DNF'd three G.B.'s lurking suits me just fine.The Ersatz M-10 interior is coming along slowly as is the Tiger initial started well over a year ago. An addiction I suppose,this AFV interior thing but not so bad. I check in at least twice a day so hopefully tonite I will see some more progress,see ya later gang.

                                                  Greg"Detailfreak"Rowley

Will miss seeing your build Greg.

Shellback

And on another subject the moose are back . They come in when the snow starts and feast in / on my fruit trees . It snowed last night and this morning here they are right on cue .

Hey Marc... given you made this comment about my Panther not so long ago... "Dave, that's so sweet my teeth hurt", I find it some sort of ironic foreshadowing with your recent toothpaste removing disaster. Your teeth probably hurt more from gnashing them together while watching the layers of paint and hours of work wash away with the goo.   I'm sure you'll do an excellent job of salvaging though. 

Was also thinking about that technique... wondered if putting down some future on top of the paint layers before toothpaste would have made any difference? (paint/future/paste/paint/future/paste.. etc.) It really does look like a mess though... you are very brave indeed for even trying. 

I don't know if you fellas have come across this stuff in your internet travels...

www.militaria-archive.com

reibert.info/.../foto_album

I find the photo albums absolutely fascinating.

Hmmmm... I wonder if I hadn’t made that comment about it being so sweet would this have worked. I did some experimenting with some different toothpastes and it was definitely the one I used that was the problem.

As far as using silly putty... I have always had a problem with it not sticking very well. I like to use poster tack but this was going to be a problem with all the delicate little detailing on the hull. The paste was a perfect () solution to get in between all the little bits and bobs. I think I am going to go with brush painting with Vallejo since they brush so beautifully.

Speaking of details on the hull... you know that question that comes up now and again... Do you do the detail separate or paint them on the model? This is the 1st time "on the model" and will if at all possible be the last.

Here is the KT soaking in some Windex.

And then it déjà vu all over again. It has already been "déjà vu'd" again with the dark yellow.