Bull Moose all the way!

Nice progress jibber.

Yes, very nice.

You guys are blowing me away! All of you are doing excellent work! It's way too much for me to comment on everyone's work individually, but I love all of it!

Here's a couple of pics with the camo paint on it:

The paints are MM/ACRYL panzer schokoladenbraun and panzer olivgrun.  The Stummel was painted using a fine Microbrush.

Now for the unit markings, numbers, etc.  And then I need to complete the interior....

I like the scheme Greg, this is coming along nicely.

Bish: thank you!  I was going for the hastily applied camo look.

Now I have the vehicle numbers on.   

Once I get the rest of the markings on, I'll complete the interior and then weather it inside and out.

Now it's time for bed

Well I think you got the look right. Its nice to see something other than the neat airbrushed camo, I think many of us are afraid to good for the brush on scheme, forgetting that it was applied with anything to hand. You have done a great job.

Greg: That does look like an actual Wehrmacht paint job- good work!

Bish and others: Sorry, the Churchill is ALMOST done, one of the figures is holding me up, shouldn't take too long though.  

Wayne - that ground work turned out really good.

jibber - cool work on the interiors

Greg H - at first glance, thought that camou was applied with magic markers.   The pattern is very characteristic of German vehicles, and should look even more convincing at the weathering stage.

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Most of the front detail is now done, just one more shackle to make.

I've reworked the major  weld lines, masking the edges off with Tamiya tape, brushing on a couple layers of surfacer, and then scouring with the sharp end of a knife before it completely cured.

The spring on the hatches was made by twisting speaker wire around a small drill bit.

The Hauler brand front fenders are very nice, but still required some scratch building.  The inner detail was just some brass sheet strips cut to size and shape, relying on the appropriate  walk around from PrimePortal.

regards,

Jack

thank you. i am working on an article on how i build that specific one for a club article but will somehow post it when done. go with to do a FLAK 43 37mm towed and do a small base for it too. may make sandbags for that one and will add some crap to the 150mm so it obviously is a vignette. had regular saturday breakfast the denver boys and the IPMS head judge who is a good friend and we discussed model vs model and base vs vignette vs diorama which will be part of the article.

Jack that looks great! Nice to see you adding all that detail in teeny 1/48th scale that I never put into 1/35th!

Gamera, no worries. Its ready when its ready.

Jack, nice work. Hatch springs isn't something I have thought of before. To be honest, I am not even sure if German armour had those. Going to have to check that one.

wayne, look forward to seeing that article if your able.

German armor had no hatch springs AFAIK.

Jack: Thst's some great detail work!

Thanks guys.

Off the top of my head, I think the only springs I've seen on German armour are those located on the side of moveable fender flaps, such as the Panzer IV.

regards,

Jack

I think you guys are right about German hatches, I have never noticed them. But then I had never really looked.

If a kit instructions says unit is unknown, whats the chance that the camo isn't correct?

I always assume that they take schemes from photo's. Though often I haven't been able to find a pic of a certain scheme. Its not un common for kits to be marked as un known unit. It could be the vehicle wasn't carrying unit insignia, or the pics they have don't show it. I think we have to just take it on faith that they have taken the scheme from a photo source of some kind.

Which kit are you referring to and do you have a pic of the scheme your doing.

I'm doing this one

www.tamiyausa.com/.../ger-pzkw-iv-ausf-j-32518

For the camo it has brown spots all over it, no green. But I haven't been able to find any pictures of any vehicle with just brown spots on them.

The website is down, I will have a look tomorrow. But its not unknown for just one of the camo colours to be used.

Here www.tamiya.com/.../top_450.jpg

Another possibility with Tamiya's Panzer IVJ , the camou is right, but incorrect theater?

The zero in 806 indicates this a HQ vehicle of the 8th company.  I've looked at the three main German tank divisions present at Normandy during June: (12SS Hj, 21st Panzer  and Panzer Lehr Div.).

The SS unit has in it's roster only 804 and 805 listed, so that might take it out of the equation.

SS numbering system

  Also found a photo of 805, but must be regular Wehrmacht unit as the crew do not have sleeve eagles.  http://www.armourworkshop.ca/viewtopic.php?p=1839

Interestingly, Bison decals has a Panzer IVj set,

http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/reviews/48/bison/bd48002.htm

and one of the subjects have a white 809, but is of the 12 Pz.Div. eastern front.   One picture found of 806, and it has been identified with the same 12 Pz.Div. located in Lithuania.

www.network54.com/...

As for stand alone brown camou, note the Bison set linked above, those of the Normandy examples all have green included.  I believe this in keeping with the region we are dealing with, so here is one more final link, monthly average temperatures in the area of Caen (give or take a few degrees if you're into the global warming stuff):

http://www.holiday-weather.com/caen/averages/

regards,

Jack

Bish, Gamera & Jack: thanks for the kind words on my 251/9's camo.  Unfortunately, I won't be able to do any work on it until friday.

Bish, guys, in doing research into different German units, I'm trying to match vehicles and paint to particular units (a hunt I'm sure we all share). Heres what I find:

-Almost all are in black and white

-Sometimes you can pick up subtle variations in the grays

-Bish I really liked the color enhanced photo of the King headed to Normandy. I was able to get close to the camo theme and number.

Thats what I'm looking for all types of vehicles

Questions;

1. Is there a good source for color enhanced pics

2. A written account for units and the particular paint themes and numbers.

3. Most camo on the builds tend to match the box art, but in fact there are many variations.

4. Any where to find them.

5. I have books but most are incomplete.

6. I've saved many web sites mostly from some very smart people here, but I'm looking for more.

Thanks, Terry

For example; I've researched all Flakpanzer IV wirbelwinds and Ostwinds.  What I find is a lot of the same 3 color camo pattern and not much else. Were they numbered? One photo had white bars outside of the turret I assume for confirmed kills? Were there any in just plain dark yellow? Any other unit numbers etc.

I enjoy the research before the build but the people on this site have more knowledge collectively that I could find in months.  

Thanks, again.

Do we have a research area on this site?

Maybe I'll have to stick with the half track for this GB then.

Got my paint today! Now I can finally get down to finishing it!

I did some checking in my references tonight and I couldn't find any with markings like either of those Ausf J's. They certainly don't look like the ones worn by Pz's of the 12th SS. I will leave it upto you ww2 if you want to keep it in the GB.

BlackSheep, look forward to seeing some pics.