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Tigerman, here's my completed Panzerfunkwagen, if you need additional shots please let me know. I had serious thoughts about building the antenna at full extension that's almost 12" off the ground but I wouldn't know where to store it.   

Thanks, Bish and SS!

Today's progress: Antenna deflector added under the barrel cinch; grab handkles over the turret hatches added from formed .020" rod (more accurate than the kit parts -- not in love with the starboard side one, I might replace it); and the welded laminate armour added under the bow from .020" sheet.

The rack is underway, with the six metal uprights now superglued to the base, but the fit is not terribly strong, they fall off if you breathe on them. I might have to do a bit of artistic-licence work under the rack to make things more secure.

More tomorrow,

Mike/TB379

Can't believe we have 2 completed builds already, great work guys.

Jester, nice work on the Bison, I'd like to get one of these myself, so nice to see one coming together. Give your wife our best regards.

David, never seen my namesake being built before, its looking good.

Alan, some really nice work there, love the dashboard.

Mike, looking good. I am rather getting addicted to scratch building myself (I never thought I would be saying that).

Yeah, looks good Mike!

Eric: Looking really nice. I'm sorry about your wife.

Mike: Some nice scratchbuilding going on there!

I had a fair day on superdetailing, I got more done than I expected to. The barrel cinch is done, with the exception of bolt heads on the raised lugs, and I also made some good progress of the jerry can rack. It came together quicker than anticipated. I cut and bent the six formers from etched steel, made the base of the rack from .020" card and edged it with strip. One more piece of strip will form the top rail about half way up the uprights. Tomorrow I'll mark up the back of the base with the locations for the verticals. I'm unsure if the original would have been steel sheet or timber, but as the stowage will completely hide it, it's no big deal. I also assembled the Italeri jerry cans which will ride the rack. Here's today's work:

Tomorrow I'll install the barrel deflector under the cinch, and hopefully complete the rack.

Updates as work occurs...

M/TB379

Today I measured up some of the superdetailing and sent away for some Plastruct hex rod. It's a long weekend here, but I'll get the order for the AKI paints away in time to ship Tuesday. I also ordered some decals from Archers, providing the helmet insignia for the "coal scuttles" among the planned stowage. I'll probably start the extra detailing with the barrel cinch, and get the mast deflector into place.

M/TB379

Wow, I have a lot of catching up to do!

Greg, I guess the color is kind of chocolate brown. Its Tamiya XF-10 flat brown.

Thanks Jack,Eric,Gamera,Spartan,Don

caslenova, Your panzerspahwagen looks great!

Alan, Keep up the good work. Same goes for you Mike on the PZ.IV

Jester, Hope you wife recovers quickly!

David

Thanks, guys! There's certainly a lot to do and I'm looking forward to bringing it together. I need to get some fine hexagonal rod to represent bolt heads, I need to ring the LHS and see if they have it in their rack. I'll use the Chopper II to cut it so I'll hopefully end up with slivers that are regular in angle and thickness. Then it's 1mm and .5mm sheet stock for laminate armour additions, some stripstock for the cinch round the barrel, and so forth.

AlanF -- I usually spray gunmetal or a darkened silver, then drybrush with silver and use a dark wash on the details, but all the methods mentioned will give a very realistic look. I love working with graphite, too!

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Mike/TB379:  Your PzIV is looking might fine.  Sounds like there will be a lot of extras added to this.  I'm curious about the AK products and how they perform. 

Alan:  For painting MGs, I have used Tamiya Gun Metal acrylic, which gives a finish that probably looks very similar to painting black, then dry brushing with steel.  I have also used Tamiya metallic gray  which gives a lighter metal color.  Really up to your preferences. To illustrate the difference, in the photo below the jack mounted on the back plate was painted with Gun metal, and the cupola MG with metallic gray.

Don

Alan, I pretty much do it like Gamera, except I drybrush steel over the black.

Jester: Looks good! And best wishes for a swift recovery for your better half too!

CN: Congrads, I'll be looking for it!

Alan: Lots of different ways to paint machine guns. I generally go black and then rub a little pencil graphite/lead on them to get a metallic look, add this after you add the flat/matte coat though since it will kill the metallic sheen.

Thank you all for the comments on the build but moreso for the wellwishes for the wife!

Castlenuovo, she broke her fibula at the very bottom. It broke clean through at at angle from top to bottom, outside to in. Luckily there wasnt any surgery required and the doctor just put her in a removable hard boot!! Oh, and congrats on getting published in FSM!

Mike, your PzIV is looking nice! I too am looking to order some AK stuff and give it a try to hopefully move my weathering to the next level. Can't wait to see all the additions you are fixing to add to it.

Armor86, tigerman, SchattenSpartan, Gamera, Pordoi, Jgeratic thanks for the kind comments.

Armor86 - Nice job on the lights.

Jester75 & Thunderbolt379 - nice progress.

Quick question. The Scout has 3 mounted machine guns. What is the best way to realistically paint these? Any favorite paint colors for them (acrylics if possible).

Thanks in advance.

Jester, that goes for me too, so sorry I didn't spot your comment about your wife last time I was on!

Okay, promised progress pic time:

Apart from two tiny parts on the rear end that I always leave off until just before painting because they are too fragile to stand handling, every last part is on now that can be there at this point. The axles and locator holes for tools not overpainted are now treated with rubber solution. Next comes scratchbuilding -- the rack on the tail, applique armour under the bow, laminated armour in front of the driver's position, a few dozen missing bolt heads, wire grabhandles over the hatches and a cinch around the barrel that holds the antenna deflector.

I'll be ordering up paints and thinners from AK Interactive, including primer, and some extra decals from Archer (helmet flashes and other insignia). Hopefully the Verlinden crates will show up in the months ahead too, and if I can find a few kitbags I'll have the stowage complete.

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Jester, hope your wife makes a quick recovery, so you can get more bench time in.

Gentlemen, thank you for the kind comments re panzerspahwagen . I am also happy to say that my Katyusha will be published on FSM website in the next week or so . I guess I am doing something right.

Best wishes for a quick recovery to Jester's wife...As a physio student I can't resist to ask what is broken?

Cheers...

best wishes for a speedy recovery for your frau, i think i have a mulit media one of these in my stash.

Jester, looks good! I'll be comparing these photos to the Alan kit as you go to make some objective kind of choice on it...

I think I've worked out how to do the stowage rack on the Pz. IV, I have some appropriate strips on used etch frets that can be pressed into service with some plastic sheet and strip to assemble what should look okay -- and it's getting buried under stowage anyway! I have no idea how the rack was attached, but reinforced L-brackets are a fair guess. I'm working with minimal information, that's for sure. The problem is that there seem to have been many different rack designs, my guess is that they were field-lash-ups, thus designed and built by vehicle mechanics in-theatre. The rack Tony Greenland built for his IV D supports far more gear than the stock rack in the kit or indeed most I've seen in browsing images so far, which suggests it was a design based on experience. I'll do my best to reproduce this one.

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Got a little bit done on the Bison. Forgive the terrible pictures and cluttered background please. The misses broke her leg a week or so ago so any build time I've had has been done at the kitchen bar and not in the man cave...

After finally getting all the suspension and wheels cleaned up, and yes there were quite a few mold seams there, work moved on to the hull. So far the fit of everything has been cherry!!

The rear superstructure is just dry fit in those last two pictures.

That's funny Don - I had the same problem with the figure too! I put him on a diet (trim) so he would fit inside. No the bed rolls are aftermarket stuff. Armor86

jgeratic

...regarding the Aves putty..., The stuff is pretty tacky...

You're not kidding!  I rolled out a small bead of putty and it came close to being a permanent addition to my work bench.    Will try using talc next time.  Thanks.

Don

Alan, looking good, and as others have commented the dashboard is awesome - I take it the kit provided the decals?

Don - regarding the Aves putty, I've been using some on a current build, but been mixing it 50/50 with the green stuff brand (kneadatite).  The stuff is pretty tacky, so to roll out a thin section I shake some talc powder into a plastic baggie followed by the lump of putty, and then roll it out to the desired thickness.  Remove it from the bag and cut a section to make your tarps, bedrolls, etc.  You can use superglue to attach, since the powder does interfere with it's adhesive qualities.  To make it easier to peel off the cutting surface, you can use wax paper, or sprinkle some more powder underneath.  Some also use vaseline.

regards,

Jack

armor86

Dan, did you make the bed roll from epoxy putty?  I picked up some Aves two part putty last weekend and have been considering trying to make a few items like that.  Any tips or tricks that might help before I begin?

Also, that figure looks liike the one I was considering using in my PzIII, but I couldn't get it to fit in the cupola.  Go figure.  I ended up just closing it up.

Finally, if anyone considers using enamel based paint, White Ensign makes a line of products that include RAL8000 and other DAK colors that look pretty accurate.

Don

Alan:  very nice work on the Scout.  Really nice detail.

Castelnuovo:  Congrats on the 2nd completed build of the GB.  Nicely weathered 8 Rad.

Greysnake:  Making good progress on the Bishop.  I've wanted to try masking with Silly Putty; just haven't yet gotten around to finding the stuff locally.

SchattenSpartan

Bob: Awesome work on htat Pz.III. I'm sure you mentioned it already, but would you mind telling me what sandbag set you are using?

Not sure if this is a question for me but if it is, the sand bag armor is from Panzer Art; 35-140 is the product number I think.

I might be on hold for a few days;  was hoping to get a primer coat on the PzIII, but the fumes from the lacquer based primer prevent me from spraying inside and it's just too dern cold to do it in the garage (high temps this week in the low teens).  Might resort to assembling the Friuls.

Don

Alan and Dan: Really nice work guys, great work on the little details there.

Hi all -- great work happening here in all builds! Just doing some work on the Pz, IV, all extraneous holes in the lower hull are now bogged up and sanded, the hull is joined and I'm adding all fittings which are overpainted in the main colour. The axles are also masked ready for paint. A few more parts and I'll be onto the scratch built modifications, which will probably take up a fair bit of time, which will bridge nicely to the new paints arriving. I have an accessory set (Verlinden crates) still to arrive as well. I'll post a pic in the near future...

M/TB379

Don: Awesome work on htat Pz.III. I'm sure you mentioned it already, but would you mind telling me what sandbag set you are using?

Cliff: Your Crusader looks great!

David: Nice looking Bishop!

CN: Fanstatic work on the 8-Rad!

Alan: She's looking like a scout car indeed. I love the dash!

Dash looks good Alan. Keep up the good work.

AlanF - Dash looks great, nice finish Castelnuovo on 232 RAD 8 - what did you use to assemble the light fixtures. Building same kit for another GB currently working on the lights. Armor86

Use aluminum foil, clear glue and Eduard PE fitings over the lamps.