Well I got some sandbags set up for the glacis on my M13/40, but no time to get any photos before work.

A bit of progress today, I got the bare metal dry brushing done on the hull, turret, running gear and tracks, plus rubbed the idlers with pencil graphite -- not sure how effective that was.

Object for tomorrow, tackle the decals, and, if the paint I ordered is in the mail, do the touch-ups on the tires then go ahead and mount the wheels and tracks. After that she'll be waiting on a few details, bow MG, paint the lights, radio antenna and stowage.

M/TB379

Hi guys, today I cleaned up a lot of masking, tackled the decals and got into final assembly. The mufflers and grenade launchers are on, all axles are cleaned up ready for running gear, and the declas are more or less done -- I say more or less because I had problems with both the waterslides by Armour Decals and the dry prints by Archer.

The former were fragile and took some coaxing to conform, while the latter were a mixed bag -- the crosses went on fine, the small black DAK insignia refused to part from their backing under any circumstances except far more pressure than can be brought to bare on the model itself.

Here she is as of this moment:

The mufflers were treated with Mig pigment for a rusted, beat-up look, and the idlers were rubbed with graphite. Tamiya slightly mis-cued with the fitting for the small auxiliary muffler, there is no way it will meet up with its hull port connect and sit square behind the main muffler -- fortunately it's not so visible.

The paints I'm waiting on did not come in today, I'm hoping they'll be in tomorrow's post, so I can get the wheels finished and all running gear mounted.

Then the remaining jobs will be fine detail painting, radio mast, MG barrels and stowage (and remount the inevitable couple of parts that fell off during handling...) I'll not attempt the air ID flag in the short term, unless I get a rush of enthusiasm and just go for it!

Cheers, M/TB379

Looks good to me Mike, almost there!

Gamera

Looks good to me Mike, almost there!

That looks really good indeed!

I am gonna put some radios on the right side sponson inside for some visual interest. So I found these in my spares bin. They have a general resemblance to the two different types found in the real vehicle.

and then on Tuesday before work I assembled up these sandbags for the glacis, based upon a photos that I found of one so "decorated"

and this morning I painted them up in Humbrol Khaki Drill

a little drybrushing on them, some pigment dusting and then this build will be fully completed...

Thanks, Gamera and Stik (and great work Stik too!)

Okay, the paint came in and I took a dive at the running gear. With the exception of some oil wash on the return rollers, all's installed at this point:

I'll be away tomorrow, but hope to get the tank completed the day after, plus move the stowage along. T
There'll be a few repairs, and I have some thoughts on the ID flag to go on the turret roof, so I guess we'll see what I can come up with...

Cheers, M/TB379

SP: Again nice work, I really do love what you've got there.

Mike: Yeah I guess she could use a ferw washes but otherwise she looks done other than painting the headlights.

TB, Damn she looks might purty! Very nice!!!

so now onto the home stretch with my little Italian Job... (yeah it's about 99.5% done now but...)
radios for the interior mounted after painting...

sandbags drybrushed...

and how the little beast looks now overall....

and now to get those dang crew figures painted up properly...

Very nice work, Mike and Stik!

Still following along here!!

Mike - looking very nice sir!  Gotta hand it to you, even though the Tamiya kit is an old one and not on par with the newer Dragon and Tristar releases, you really made it shine!

Carlos - wow!  Super job on those radios!!  Too bad they're going to be tucked away in the hull! ...such a shame not to have them out for all to see!  Oh, and the rest of the Carro Commando looks pretty spiffy too!   Darn fine job with the washes and accessories!

Thanks, guys -- I'm trying to replicate what tony Greenland did about 25 years ago, so using the same kits and AMs wherever possible, though many of the items are no longer available -- the dry print decals by AM or Verlinden are long OOP. I've had a poor experience with Archer decals here -- the crosses applied perfectly, no bother at all, but there were black DAK palms to go on the turret and they simply wouldn't release from the sheet! GRR...

She's in the home stretch, I want her essentially complete today, with the stowage well in hand. I did some bare metal drybrushing on the jerry cans the other day, now to get some rust and dirt onto them. I have the crates to look at, plus stick grenades, teller mines, gas mask containers, helmets, ammo drums, packs... I may have to keep scouting for some items and add them whenever they turn up. There was a tool box and a vice in the original fit that I've not spotted in the AM sets so far.

I'm also aiming to get the base coat onto my Jagdpanther today as well, so here goes...

M/TB379

Well, you can see them thru the open top hatch... The side hatch is also not glued in place so I can pose that open at well.... now I have a wild idea to add some other stuff in there... I'm raiding my spares bin now to dig up stuff that resembles my Semovente's interior... at least in general appearance instead of just a big open white space... I really need to learn to govern my impulses...

Ooops....I hope I didn't amplify those impulses with my comments Carlos!!  Maybe I should just...!!

Hi guys -- I should have been posting an update but sometimes we make oopsies...

I was adding a third cross to the tail end (best guess assumption that it was there on this one) and instead of dipping my brush in setting solution, I dipped it in -- liquid decal film! Ahem -- it lifts paint instantly. I ended up with a patch under the rack that is clearly compromised, and I'm thinking of shooting a touch-up tomorrow (it's a good job I kept the last of the mixed 8020 batch...)

In other news, I've done the small repairs needed, painted and applied the spare track links; they may have been oversprayed in 8020 on this one, but I'm not sure, so for visual variety I did them in dark metallic and then brushed them over with oil wash, which doesn't look too bad. The tools are painted but I'll let them dry through til tomorrow before mounting them, I used enamels for brushability and the metallic is taking its time going off. I also did some extra wash detailing in a few places, painted the MG barrels, and started dirt/rust work on the jerrycans.

M/TB379

Ernest, it is all me... I look and see empty space and think, "gee, I oughtta make somehting to go in there to fill that..." Well, I did do that today. I'll get some photos up in the morning tomorrow.

TB, I am looking forward to seeing your next batch of photos. Intersting about the interaction between decal film and paint. I made that same mistake once myself. I presume your using Microscale products which look nearly identical in their blue labeled bottles?

Exactly, Stik --  they both have blue print on the bottle, and it was standing next to the red MicroSol, so I didn't look, just dipped the brush -- ARGH!

The good news is the tools are dry to the touch now, so I can go ahead and mount them before I call it a night.

Pics coming soon,

M/TB379

That's why I keep the two widely separated on my workbench since that incident ;)

Well, as usual I got one of my silly ideas to make things better. Since my Carro Comando has some nice open hatches to see into, and I added the radios on Friday, I decided to come up with some interior details for this baby. I used my Tamiya Semovente as reference and set about raiding my spares bin. I spent more time sifting thru there for items that looked about right than anything else. A few hours later I have come up with this. Not perfect, exact, or whatever, but no longer just empty space...

and what you can see of it thru the open hatches...

[ime]http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i181/stikpusher/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zpse7227302.jpg[/img]

now for those Miniart crew figures and a base....

SP: Looks good to me, sometimes it helps to just have something in there- anything to fill up the empty space.

Okay, guys, she's nearly there! I forgot to paint the headlights, tail light and convoy light, plus drybrush the outer edge of the tracks, before I took these pics, but you can get the idea.

I spot-sprayed the trouble patch under the rack where I did the oopsie, and it's an invisible fix -- I was even able to use the same decal I had already wetted on the day! The MGs are mounted, the radio mast is on, carbon round the muzzle, some extra wash in a few places, minor repairs done.

Next is the stowage and I'm thinking of soldiering on with the air recognition flag. Here she is at the moment, plus the page from TG's book showing what I'm working from. She looks fairly clean, but the original did not feature heavy weathering as far as I can see, so that's what I'm following.

Cheers, M/TB379

Mike: As usual looks good! I'd guess a tank in the desert would be mostly dusty so she seems to look 'right' - wouldn't think you'd get a lot of mud in gunk where it's arid and dry.

And oh gosh yeah, I wish Superscale would go with a different colour label for their bottles- I've done the same friggin' thing!!!

Looks real good so far. I think the weathering you are shooting for is good, but I would not follow that stowage too closely. I seriously doubt any tankers would leave loose grenades, landmines and MG ammo drums laying about loose like that. Helmets are usually seen handing from lifting hooks and grab handles by their chin straps rather than left on the top deck where they will vibrate off in travel.

But yes, in the desert- dust, dust, and more dust...

Stik: That's some nice interior detailing work you got going there!

Mike: I love your Pz.IV! In my opinion it actually looks quite a bit better than the one you based your build on!

Thank you Sparten. I think that it looks the part. With the holiday madness now upon us, I hope that u can get back on my projects on Christmas Day, or the day after at the latest!

Thanks Gamera, Stik and Clemens. Dust is the ticket, I guess, thus the sprayed dustcoat on the tracks and the shade colour behind the running gear. I have a Mig pigment for deserts too.

Re the stowage, it seems to be a tour of the sort of things available 25 years ago, and it's one of only a few models in TG's collection with stowage as a principal element. Re the helmets, in that area of the turret there is a hinged flap with a bullet splash guard around it, and a ventilator to the right, and my guess would be that the engineers tacked on some tie-down loops to pass the helmet chin straps through, or bored them through the splash guard. TG's research used to be exhaustive so he would have made the best choices on the available data, and likely saw this configuration somewhere, though I admit I've not seen it in primary sources myself. In several of his other models you find helmets hung from hangers in other locations.

I sprayed the helmets and gas mask containers today, after cleaning up the resin stubs, and would have gone on to clear coat them in prep for the decals but the AB needed a clean, so I'll try to get to that tomorrow afternoon, as Christmas lunch is digesting. I should do some oil dry brusging to bring up the grey content.

The large crate I have is clearly too large for the available space, so I'll be on the lookout for something smaller, as well as some kitbags that might do service. I'll get the jerry cans done in the near future too, then there's a bucket to sort out, it hangs from the rack upright on the left. I'll try to make it look reasonably busy!

Cheers, and thanks again,

Mike/TB379

Hi guys, a little progress to report -- I've been working on stowage, I sprayed the mines and MG magazines and such, and have done some oil drybrushing, and have worked on the crates in oils also. The gas mask containers are drybrushed to bring up the grey, and we'll see how they look when dry. The jerry cans are now washed for rust and into the rack, so another session or two and I might be calling the stowage done. re the flag, I think I know where to get the right textureless heavy absorbent paper -- the hand-towels in the bathrooms at the hospital where I change busses might do the trick! I'll check them out when I'm through there next.

I've been working on my Jagdpanther for the Hunters II GB, there's only a few days to go but I've got her into base DY, sprayed the tires and hubs as far as base colour, sprayed the tracks and just did some wash work on them. I have a smidgeon of air left in the tank and might be able to do the shade coat under the sponsons before I'm out. I'm really wringing every last bit of work I can get out of it!

Cheers, M/TB379

I didn't know people were still working. Very cool Stik and TBolt.

Haven't checked in here in a while. Thats looking really nice there Mike.

Thanks Tigerman... I need to get one more thing finished before the year is out...

stikpusher

Well, as usual I got one of my silly ideas to make things better. Since my Carro Comando has some nice open hatches to see into, and I added the radios on Friday, I decided to come up with some interior details for this baby. I used my Tamiya Semovente as reference and set about raiding my spares bin. I spent more time sifting thru there for items that looked about right than anything else. A few hours later I have come up with this. Not perfect, exact, or whatever, but no longer just empty space...

and what you can see of it thru the open hatches...

[ime]http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i181/stikpusher/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zpse7227302.jpg[/img]

now for those Miniart crew figures and a base....

stikpusher

Well, as usual I got one of my silly ideas to make things better. Since my Carro Comando has some nice open hatches to see into, and I added the radios on Friday, I decided to come up with some interior details for this baby. I used my Tamiya Semovente as reference and set about raiding my spares bin. I spent more time sifting thru there for items that looked about right than anything else. A few hours later I have come up with this. Not perfect, exact, or whatever, but no longer just empty space...

and what you can see of it thru the open hatches...

[ime]http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i181/stikpusher/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zpse7227302.jpg[/img]

now for those Miniart crew figures and a base....

Looks great their SP, nice effects around those rivets and edges. Looking forward to seeing your base.