Ok here's what I managed to do so far:

Here's what I'll be using in this build:

A close-up of the RB barrel (got it for 6 bucks and it's worth every one of them):

The drive sprockets are assembled, but I still need to clean up some of the roadwheels (the smaller pile is still left):

Photobucket messed up again!

So here's the rest of my post...

I glued the fenders and rear plate in place:

There's a small gap at both plates, but nothing a bit of putty or a piece of plastic sheet won't fix:

And another pic just for the lols:

I ordered a barrel for my Geschützwagen Tiger as well and here it is compared to the Tiger's 88 barrel:

How do ya like THAT gun?

Cheers, Clemens 

You know you want it, Wayne! Join the fun and build a Tiger as well!

SchattenSpartan

 

yep i of the 3 is this one. not committing with it as yet.

Mike/tb379:  Really nice 109.  Keep up the good work.

Dan, SS, and others:  Seems like we have a whole battalion of Tunisian Tigers being built.  Road wheel insanity!!  I really question German engineering with the overlapping wheel design, especially with the Tigers.  Think of the work involved to replace one of the inner road wheels, especially if it was on one of the middle suspension arms.  Doesn't seem to be a very repair-friendly design... 

Don

The interleaved road wheels help distribute the weight more evenly on the torsion bars and reduce the likelihood of suspension damage immobilizing the tank- unlike the Porsche Tiger suspension system. But it's drawbacks include heavy maintenance for replacing damaged components and problems with heavy mud or ice conditions...

I don't think the German engineers worried too much about replacing damaged components. The Tiger was the German "super tank" after all. There aint nothin damaging any inner roadwheels on that one! Just kidding LOL. They changed it a bit on the King Tiger though to make things easier me thinks...

SchattenSpartan

There aint nothin damaging any inner roadwheels on that one! 

Except those pesky lil mines......at the most inopportune time!

pyrman64

SchattenSpartan

There aint nothin damaging any inner roadwheels on that one! 

Except those pesky lil mines......at the most inopportune time!

stikpusher

pyrman64

SchattenSpartan

There aint nothin damaging any inner roadwheels on that one! 

Except those pesky lil mines......at the most inopportune time!

Not to mention that Mother Nature tends to do a number on rubber rimmer roadwheels all on her own. Loose rocks tear them up- especially in a desert environment.

Your not wrong there. If I had a £ for every warrior road wheel I had changed my stash would be twice as big as it is.

Looking at the Tiger road wheels, in some cases you would need to remove 7 others just to get to the damage one.

stikpusher

...But it's drawbacks include ... problems with heavy mud or ice conditions...

Yes, I've heard of that problem, especially between the drive sprocket and first outside road wheel.  Enough of a problem that the outer road wheel was sometimes removed.

Don

That suspension sure was a problem, but it still looks awesome

FROM BISH Your not wrong there. If I had a £ for every warrior road wheel I had changed my stash would be twice as big

we had an alert rollout in germany in '77. routine stuff but i had been trying to get some road wheels for my gun tracks (M106A1 4.2" mortars). one was esc red (a readiness rating) because 2 road wheels had more than 50% rubber missing. as the mortar plt ldr AND co motor officer, i left it in the motor pool.

in the assy area when my co asked where it was i explained. he replied "can it move?" to which i replied "of course". he said "ok you made your point.. go back and get it ." got my road wheels rather quickly after that.

Nice work everyone - more PE details on the 232. Armor86

Hey Clemons, that barrel looks fantastic! Amazing what they can turn out these days, don't envy you on all those road wheels though.

Dan: PE looks good, love the weld seams!

Those roadwheels sure are a royal pain to clean up, but the suspension looks really cool once all of them are in place

Dan:  nice PE work on the 232!!

Others:  building a Tiger I with all of that suspension work and those road wheels is like the Chinese water torture.  I'm just waiting to see who goes nuts first...   Geez, even the wheels of the PzIII each had 4 sprue attachment points to clean!... , and you have 16 more wheels to do!

Over the weekend, I put down some camo on the PzIII.  Not sure that I'm completely happy with it since I think I mixed the color a bit too brown.  But will soldier on and hope to tone it down a bit with a misting of Tamiya Buff and some pigments.  Also put the finishing touches on the tools and mounted them, as well as doing some detail painting.  Finally, sprayed a coat of Future, applied the decals, gave it a pin wash with burnt umber to highlight some detail, then a misting of Testors Dull Cote.  Here's what it looks like now...

Don

Nice work Don - I have seen color plates in reference books with the dark brown two tone camo however with the heavy dust it's hard to see in b/w photos. Armor86

That's looking fine Don. Great work.

Don: Looks fantastic to me! If the colour is a little off it will change after weathering and filters and that good stuff so I wouldn't sweat it too much.

my TIGER is sitting in the pile in my study staring at me. it's on top of a pair of 1/24 UNIMOG 4x4 emergency and a couple of 1/24 german fire trucks.  in the eveing when i am on the computer and the lights are low it whispers to me. but i digress. here is to date on BEDFORD 4x4. chassis is done except for some touch up weathering that got knocked off in handling.

and this is the last time i leave off a single piece exhaust system until the end. easier to paint than try to work around braces. this has more pieces than your TIGER suspension (not counting the track) i primed in gray and washed with heavy raw umber sludge and texturing with artist oils and pastel mix which doesn't stay on well. some pin washing with umber and black and MMA dirt

overall painted in MMA sand which was really thin so it took a few coats. will pin wash the cargo bed and cab exterior after it's built.

Don -- it looks GREAT! the sandbags look uber-realistic now they're painted, and the overall paintwork is quality!

M/TB379

PS: had a couple of days away, will resume the Bf 109 today, last round of work before she hits the paint shop. Still no delivery on my hex rod to get back to superdetailing the Panzer... :-(

Don I love the camo and I agree with Armor that it's very difficult to make out camo shades from all these B&W photos, but I do think your camo theme is how I've tried to paint many of my builds. Although, some of these museum pieces are totally different from the photos and maybe its because they're clean up and painted over????

Wayne what a job on that frame, just outstanding. Another great build.

Don, very nice. I really like the sandbags.

wayne, really nice work there as well. Great builds guys.

Liking the work on the cab there Wayne. Off to a great start.

Hi guys,

I've been away a couple of days but got back last night and got back to work on the 109 today. I've restored a panel line or two, assembled the tropical filter, masked the oil rad and pitot locator. The only parts left to add are the aileron mass balances, which I'll do tomorrow. I got the plane into preshade before I left, and did the hinge line down the cowling in .005" plastic. Here's he evidence:

Next, canopy into interior colour:

Then onto preshade, done with NATO black and the #1 size tip and needle:

This evening I painted the white theatre markings and spinner and will let them dry overnight, so my job in the morning will be to mask all white areas, add the mass balances, then mix and apply the RLM 78 to the underside. I plan on allowing it overnight drying also, and am going to take a crack at soft-masking the long edge between colours. I'm hoping to be decaling by Saturday -- I won't say actually finished over the weekend, though that would be great!

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Wayne: Looks good, love the dirty grimy look you've got on the chassis there.

Mike: Nice work on the pre-shading- she's coming along great.

Gamera

Wayne: Looks good, love the dirty grimy look you've got on the chassis there.

Mike: Nice work on the pre-shading- she's coming along great.

  Great weathering work on the chassis Wayne.  So much effort for something that will be hard to view on the completed model.  But that's why we take in progress photos... regardless of whether it's visible or not, we all know that it is there...

Also looking forward to seeing the trop scheme on the 109.

And thanks to everyone for the advice on the PzIIIJ.  The overall color tone of the model is about as dark as I want it.  My concern is that doing additional washes will darken it more, which I don't want to occur.  My plan then is to try to blend and weather with highly diluted sprays of base coat and Buff and weather only with pigments.  We'll see how that works...

As an aside, has anybody ever done a wash that lightens the base coat?  In my experience, washes always darken the base coat, even if by only a small amount. 

Don

More progress to report. The white theatre markings were masked and today, instead of the RLM 78, I decided to spray the RLM 02 details -- it simply makes masking easier to tackle in this order. First masks in place:

And 02 grey sprayed:

So, drying time for this one (MM Acryl) and I'll aim for the 78 tomorrow. Maybe even tonight, we'll see!

Cheers, M/TB379

Dan - neat PE work on that wagon

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Wayne - very detailed weathering on that frame, looks great!

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Mike - textbook application of the pre-shading, but really like how you've varied it with the airbrush.

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Don - PzIII looking great, and nice workmanship on the scratchbuilt fuel rack.  The brown camou you've applied is not the colour prescribed by the tropical scheme directives, but you never know, the crew (or field workshop) might have found some other paint to use instead.

If you are looking to apply a wash to lighten colour, you might have to look at a concrete colour or light sand/dust.  If you don't have any of the Florys wash products, you can mix your own using a light coloured weathering powder, a drop of dish soap and water.  The added benefit of doing this "dust" wash is it accumulates around recessed detail.  

I'd suggest practicing on some scrap first.  You can also wipe off before it dries to get a sort of streaked effect, like I did here with my Tiger build:

regards,

Jack