I do like the project Bish. One thinks of big battles in Russia (or ETO for that matter) as being in the open steppe, hedgerows, etc or in cities - Stalingrad, Berlin, Caen. But anywhere you found buildings - small villages, small towns, bigger towns or even farms there was a very good chance for a shoot-out. Buildings are great cover for anything - snipers, tanks in ambush, infantry strongpoints - and the ability of getting the bad guys out of buildings is the operational art of war at a high level. So I look forward to seeing the dio. And that kind of fighting would likely increase dirt on vehicles. I know a lot of people talk of "over-weathering." If you're talking about buckets of chipping, lots of rust, super fading the criticism can be valid. Very few tanks stayed in the field for long, although those that did could certainly look a fright. But unless you're talking the depot, vehicles in the field would have been always dirty. Whether you're going across dry dirt, mud or snow any tank is going to be dirty and dusty. Tank tracks guarantee it. And when a tank was on the move, it was rarely alone, so the guy in front of you is kicking dust right into your face. (I've talked to quite a few tank crewmen, and dust in the interior - and in the lungs - was an unending problem.) Anyway, your tank looks, above all, really blinking dirty. That fits the dio like a glove.
I've decided to do the Tamiya Panzer IVD - and it will be a casualty of the dreadful fighting in the first three months of 1942. (So base building info on dios is of interest.) It came out in 1976 and was built for an electric motor. This is the third early Tamiya tank I've built (my first tank was the ancient PanzerII). It's actually a real step up. Some odd holes to fit electric junk, but no problem, I'm going to be adding holes of my own. I'd say the detail is good - I'd guess the part count at about 140 - high for those early kits. I won't bother with pics for a while - no real excitement about construction. Right now I'm doing road wheels. That's a job I like - one of my favorite tasks in modelling. You only need about 30% of your brain when you're assembling them, so there's a lot left over to listen to Chopin or Beethoven. I'll check in before priming.
Just saw a very neat video build from Andy's Hobby Headquarters (the guy isn't great, but builds very fast and ends up with very nice kits: his videos are great for those learning armor modeling. And he's prolific and his 30 min builds are more informative than a box review.) He just did a new Dragon-Platz Panzer IVD. Get this. Dragon is beginning to understand that as the market ages, and Tamiya is putting out super armor kits with part counts under 300, that they can't stay completely with their super detail kits. Platz is a Japanese firm (they did a series of kits to accompany one of the strangest anime series I've ever heard of coming from Japan - High School Girls and Panzers) and has a good rep. Dragon took the new tool Platz PZIV and added some Dragon touches like their great DS tracks. The part count is 175 - a 1/35 kit from Dragon. (Clearly labeled Dragon-Platz) A few years back they did the same model with battle of France box art and the part count pushed 1,000 (I know they aren't all used, but a Dragon project can be a long one.) I think that's great. My hand-eye coordination is not going to improve with age, and a bad fight with very complex PE for a German battlecruiser proved to me that without a doubt that for yours truly PE is "less is more." I find weathering and making dios much more fun that creating the perfect kit. I admire the people that do pursue fine detail - the best ship and armor modelers set a very high bar. But when I was in junior high, I prefered art over shop - maybe that says something.
Keep things rolling gents - good GB here.
Eric