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75th Anniversary of 1944 Group Build (World at War)

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  • Member since
    June 2018
  • From: Ohio (USA)
Posted by DRUMS01 on Tuesday, March 5, 2019 7:49 PM

This update is a little different as I am skipping throughout the remaining instructions to add what needs to be assembled prior to the camouflage. Starting with step 27 through 35. Without going over every step I will just highlight certain items.

- all the wheels remain unmounted and without tires for painting
- the windshield is not on the frame until the camouflage painting is complete
- items like the shovel and rear license plate holder remain off until after painting
- I decided to fix all of the doors closed, it works for my figures
- the rear cargo hold is glued shut, it will work with my figures
- the rear engine cover was temporarily attached for painting (Elmers glue)
- began work on the kits driver figure (WIP)
- finished painting the convertible top and other canvas tarps (from spares)
- all other small detail items have been added (lights, horn, doors, etc.)

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Here it is, time for camouflage......

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The next update should be with PAINT, till then... comments are indeed welcome.

Ben

"Everyones the normal until you get to know them" (Unknown)

LAST COMPLETED:

1/35 Churchill Mk IV AVRE with bridge - DONE

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1/35 CH-54A Tarhe Helicopter

 

  • Member since
    June 2018
  • From: Ohio (USA)
Posted by DRUMS01 on Tuesday, March 5, 2019 7:52 PM

Hey Bish: how is that messerschmitt coming along? I really like the paint you have on it so far. 

Nuckss: Show us your final on the HMCS Huron, it looks nice for a 1/700 ship.

Eric: Do you have any further progress to show on your camouflage?

v/r,

Ben

 

 

"Everyones the normal until you get to know them" (Unknown)

LAST COMPLETED:

1/35 Churchill Mk IV AVRE with bridge - DONE

NEXT PROJECT:

1/35 CH-54A Tarhe Helicopter

 

  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England
Posted by Bish on Wednesday, March 6, 2019 2:25 AM

Thanks Ben. I am just getting the weathering done, some Flory Washes. Should have that done tonight and i can get the other parts fitted. Still got to finish the base and sort some figures though.

I am a Norfolk man and i glory in being so

 

On the bench: Airfix 1/72nd Harrier GR.3/Fujimi 1/72nd Ju 87D-3

  • Member since
    February 2010
  • From: Berkeley CA/St. Paul MN
Posted by EBergerud on Wednesday, March 6, 2019 3:34 AM
Nuckss I hope you don't mind a critique. You've got a nice build there. But anyway you look at it, ships need to be rigged. You can live without railings (generic 1/700 railings are dirt cheap and actually very easy to put on), but you do need rigging. It doesn't have to be extensive. It doesn't have to be to scale (1/700 scale would be very thin.) A number of companies make special products for rigging line - the most prominent would be EZ Line - I'd get "Fine" but "Large" would work too. It has flex and it takes to CA very well. Regular thread is very hard to get taught. If it's covered with wax and you run a lit insense stick under it it will tighten up well. So does stretched sprue - it's actually not that tough unless it's too thin. If you have a fishing shop around and get get 1 lb test mono for fly fishing leader that will do too. And if you get used to it, you can use any of this stuff to make a biplane - a very neat experience. (If you want basic instruction sign on to ModelWarship.Com - they've got excellent tutorials and amazing builds by amazing modelers.) Get on top of that and you'll find that ships can be very good builds - they have a "wow" factor that's hard to match. You don't need a full scale effect - the amount of rigging carried by ships varied greatly depending upon the situation. But it does need something. Perfection definitely not required. I'm like a lot of ship modelers - a duffer with no illusions about making something perfect - ships are still fun and good history. Eric

 

A model boat is much cheaper than a real one and won't sink with you in it.

  • Member since
    February 2010
  • From: Berkeley CA/St. Paul MN
Posted by EBergerud on Wednesday, March 6, 2019 3:47 AM
Bish, I like the ME-410 - a very sweet plane, even if the wrong plane for the time and place. I just found out something about the Messerschmitt designs. According to the Tamiya instructions for their jaw-dropping BF-109-G, that plane had a kind of recessed channel down the back and bottom of the fuselage - that means you don't want to fill the seam. Just for kicks, I've checked plans for the other BF-109s - all had the same. So do the BF-110s. And, unless the plans I'm looking at are wrong, so did the ME-410. What a pity that you really can't use a natural finish on that plane. (The Tamiya Ki-61 has a separate piece going down the seam line - almost as good. The plane was based on German plans of the BF-109E). Eric

 

A model boat is much cheaper than a real one and won't sink with you in it.

  • Member since
    February 2010
  • From: Berkeley CA/St. Paul MN
Posted by EBergerud on Wednesday, March 6, 2019 3:48 AM

 

Thought I'd check in with the Korsun Pocket Panther.

 

 

I haven't been taking as many pics as I should have. The last one I loaded showed the kit, with black primer, being mottled with lighter versions of German Dunkelgelb.

 

 Mottle2 by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr

 

The result when the base coat is applied - highly thinned put on very carefully - is a mottled and irregular base. That is what happened, and it's what I didn't take a decent picture of. No matter. I added hand sprayed green and red-brown camo. Then came a gloss clear coat and decals. I hand painted more gloss clear over the decals because I wanted the finish smooth. (Should note that during the build, I applied putty/glue on the armored surfaces and then dappled it with a paint brush - this amplifies the textured armor. Tamiya's texture is fine - on plastic - but not when covered primer, paint etc. So I do this on every AFV model - German kits just get less of it.)

 

I applied the first pin wash over the gloss coat - which works very nicely. I use an acrylic paint called Iwata Com.Art that's really designed for fabrics. (Luckily many railroaders like it for weathering and I bought a weathering collection - called - Com.Art Real Deal Weathering Set - and was an instant convert. Most of the colors I use are transparent - which makes it very good for a subtle pin wash (I like it a lot for aircraft panel lines which are, to my eyes, often badly over done). Then I did a salt fade. I sprinkled the tank (and the skirts - the wheel are off again) with kosher salt after spraying it with water. When the salt dries - just a few minutes - I gave it a highly thinned tan-gray blast with the airbrush - almost a kind of filter. (You can tell you've got enough when the salt starts showing the paint.) Rinse off the model and repeat this process with a brown-gray blast. The result does not so much emulate paint faded by light - but a finish that has picked up a kind of dust/dirt patina which pretty well removes the overly bright and clear base/camo. Do note the mottled surface - this is from both the black basing and the salt fading. There has also been the pin wash which is over all details and hard lines of the tank's structure. So the result is a faded surface that is also, in a way, more clear because of the wash. It's a little clearer in the detail shot.

 

 salted by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr

 

 SaltDet by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr

 

This last detail shows a wheel done with the Com.Art Wash. I think this shows the effect well - it also shows the kind of grime texture that this paint leaves.

 

 ComArtDet by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr

 

If this was a Kursk build, I would have added filters and would be thinking of deploying pigments. (I also would have given the surface an oil dot filter to dampen the salt fading - and then oil rendering.) But I've got at least two white wash coats coming, and I think that detailed weathering would get lost in the white. To be honest, I'm not really sure how to handle the white washing, white wash erosion and oils. So we'll see. I've spent real money on books by Adam Wilder and Mike Rinaldi - let's see if that will help. And then I still want to make a base. I'll report in.

 

Eric

 

 

A model boat is much cheaper than a real one and won't sink with you in it.

  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England
Posted by Bish on Wednesday, March 6, 2019 5:02 AM

Cheers Eric. I knew the 109 had that channel down the spine, i didn't know other types had it as well. From what i can gather, its not really worth trying to replicate in 72nd, though does work in larger scales.

Nice work on the panther, really interesting approach to that.

I am a Norfolk man and i glory in being so

 

On the bench: Airfix 1/72nd Harrier GR.3/Fujimi 1/72nd Ju 87D-3

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • From: AandF in the Badger State
Posted by checkmateking02 on Wednesday, March 6, 2019 12:31 PM

Nice-looking effect, Eric.  Well-done!

 

 

 

 

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • From: AandF in the Badger State
Posted by checkmateking02 on Wednesday, March 6, 2019 12:32 PM

The highlights and shading are particularly effective, Ben.  Good job!

 

 

 

 

  • Member since
    June 2018
  • From: Ohio (USA)
Posted by DRUMS01 on Wednesday, March 6, 2019 5:12 PM

Two steps forward, three steps back. Angry

All of my airbrush experience is with enamels. This round I tried my hand at airbrushing Vallejo and after looking on-line at the mix ratios I thought I had the consistency right;...... that was a big NO. Most on-line information indicated a 50-50 mix of paint and thinner. I am finding a mix more like 10: 2 paint to thinner. Super Angry

I adjusted the air pressure up from 10 to 20 psi which helped a great deal. I was hoping to run low pressure with a thin mix  and very light flow to make the smaller green lines. Now at 20 psi it came down to adjusting the paint flow, which I think I got figured out. 

Now, after trial and error, my kubel is mainly green. I think I got it figured out now and I have Vallejo earth, which is a more accurate color than the desert (dunkelgelb) for north Italy. So once I spray the flat earth over it to adjust the fat and ugly green lines I will have to put another wash over the paint.

Perhaps this is good in the long run (a more accurate color), but looking at it now has me feeling pretty bad. I'll post what it looks like after the german earth tone color fix..... I hope that will tidy it up....

Ben 

 

"Everyones the normal until you get to know them" (Unknown)

LAST COMPLETED:

1/35 Churchill Mk IV AVRE with bridge - DONE

NEXT PROJECT:

1/35 CH-54A Tarhe Helicopter

 

  • Member since
    November 2014
Posted by Nuckss on Wednesday, March 6, 2019 9:42 PM

EBergerud
Nuckss I hope you don't mind a critique. You've got a nice build there. But anyway you look at it, ships need to be rigged.

Hi Guys,

Thanks for your comments. Very much appreciated.

I agree it needs rigging. I'll give the ez line a try. I'm not looking forward to it but it will be satisfying if it works out.

Do you have any specific suggestions regarding 1/700 scale railings for cheap?

 

Cheers.

  • Member since
    February 2010
  • From: Berkeley CA/St. Paul MN
Posted by EBergerud on Thursday, March 7, 2019 1:34 AM
Nuckss If you're interested in ships, you need to check out FreeTime Hobby (freetimehobbies.com). It's a very well priced model vendor, and they specialize in ships. Search "1/700 railings" - you'll get quite a selection. Generics are popular and a lot of them are out of stock It doesn't matter much what kind of railings you get - each navy had a slightly different style, but at 1/700 scale, anything will do. A perfectly good selection would be Eduard 1/700 IJN railings (Edu: 99006) for $8. There's Five Star IJN railings for small ships (FS710034). There are several others. There are also some generic US and RN destroyer PE sets (those will be about $10) - but they include a lot of stuff outside of railings - radars, funnel masks, davits - very fiddly stuff at that scale. Good brands are also Flyhawk, Tom's and White Ensign - just avoid anything that says "Extra Fine". Depending upon when the rails were released the price varies. In general Eduard are the easiest to work with because they're thicker - but some of their stuff is also very costly. If you get them go over to Modelwarship.Com and check their railings tutorial. Railings are easily done really. Just cut them in small sections - never more than 1". Get some Aleene's Tacky Glue from any craft or hardware store (smaller the bottle the better - all glue declines in quality with age) and put a very small amount of that glue on the deck. Apply the railing piece with tweezers - the glue will "grab it" - when it's set right, just put on a small dab of super glue. Less is more. And you can always paint over any slight errors. And paint the railings first - whatever shade of gray you need. FreeTime also sells EZ Line - 100 feet for $10 and that will last forever: I'd recommend Fine, Large is a little easier to work with but not much. EZ Line is very good for antenna on airplanes too. FreeTime is one of the most helpful places to use out there - they have a help phone # and I wouldn't hesitate to use it. They also respond quickly to email. It's not that tough. I didn't rig the first three ships I built and they're still here on a shelf - looking naked. It will look a lot better. And, as noted in my first message, you don't have to do a lot of it - 6-10 lines rigged between the masts and the mast and hull will make a huge difference. As you get used to it, put on more. Eric

 

A model boat is much cheaper than a real one and won't sink with you in it.

  • Member since
    February 2010
  • From: Berkeley CA/St. Paul MN
Posted by EBergerud on Thursday, March 7, 2019 1:56 AM

Ben

Vallejo is a water based acrylic and works very nicely once you get the hang of it. You just can't use it like an acrylic/lacquer like Gunze or Tamiya, much less an enamel. You didn't specify which Vallejo you use. They make Model Air - which is thinned for an airbrush and has a pretty high pigment load. Depending upon your brush, Model Air might not need any thinning. You can add a bit of water. Vallejo Airbrush Thinner for Model Air (clear) is better - it's mostly water but with flow improvers and drying retarders. You'd never want more than 20% thinner with Vallejo Model Air. Model Color is thicker and is made for hand painting. (Something called Panzer Aces is the same). You can airbrush Model Color very well, but you need something called Airbrush Medium from an art company like Liquitex or Golden. Vallejo still makes something they call "Thinner Medium" and it's the same thing. All the stuff is a liquid polymer that's white in color. With this stuff you can thin the paint more - up to 50%. (If you know this kind of paint more, you can thin it even more than that with stuff called Airbrush Extender. But if you're not "painting small" like for black basing, I doubt it would come up.) The reason you have to do this is that when an acrylic paint is in the bottle the pigment is bound with a polymer agent. (Stuff like Tamiya is a solvent - see warnings about flammeable and poison - or their absense on Vallejo). If you water that polymer too much, when the paint hits the surface the polymer molecules get too spread out and won't reform. That gives you a bad surface, and one that will be extremely fragile. A little water (or water based Vallejo Thinner) in Model Air won't hurt - the paint will reform. It's just a matter of quantity. Vallejo is pretty happy at 15-20 psi, but a lot depends on the brush. If things are working right, you'll want to build up the coat. If you cut it with water, you do risk tip dry on the brush (Vallejo Thinner has retarder in it for sure) - just keep a damp paint brush handy and wipe the tip every couple of minutes or as soon as the spray seems a little off. Vallejo does make a "Retarder" medium that delays dry time and works against tip dry. Liquitex makes a better brew - but you don't want more than a couple of drops of either. Too much and the paint won't dry. (Glycerin would be the ultimate weapon against dry tip - but the paint doesn't dry at all - still wish I could figure out what to add to that stuff.)

 

Bish:

I'm not suggesting that you'd have to do anything to a Messerschmitt kit to emulate the channel - you'd simply ignore the seam. I'd like to have a dollar for every person that's modeled a BF-109 and worked on getting that seam off, when you should simply leave it alone. (Must have been some aerodynamic trick of Messerschmitt - he was apparently very hands on and very detail oriented in his designs.) It takes a company like Tamiya to explain something so obvious - Eduard and ICM make BF-109s and maybe they note it, but I'd be surprised.

Eric

Eric

 

A model boat is much cheaper than a real one and won't sink with you in it.

  • Member since
    November 2014
Posted by Nuckss on Thursday, March 7, 2019 6:02 PM
Thanks for the detailed advice Eric. I’ll check out those vendors you mentioned. $8 for railings is totally within the budget. Cheers, Nucks
  • Member since
    June 2018
  • From: Ohio (USA)
Posted by DRUMS01 on Saturday, March 9, 2019 11:49 PM

Thanks for the input Eric, it is appreciated. I found that part of my problem was also a split tip on my old airbrush. I am looking now for a replacement as the one I have is over 15 years old (getting worn out). I also had a problem with the brush regarding the air/paint mix (regardless of the paint consistency). 

Hey Everyone, well now the dunkelgelb base is fixed and the Vallejo German dark green and German red/brown has been added. I also washed back in some of the defining lines after the camouflage. Then I began the wear and tear of war on it by showing some scratched or removed paint areas; fender wear, rust in spots, etc. The tires were sanded to remove the center mold line and are now ready for thier washes and paint.  

Just received the decals for the kubelwagen and figures. Since I am adding new figures, I am planning on making this into a mini diorama. My thoughts are to make it look like a northern Italy high ground looking down into a valley. Wish me luck as it has been many years since I created a diorama with leafy thingys, and such. It will be enclosed in a clear case when done.

Ben

"Everyones the normal until you get to know them" (Unknown)

LAST COMPLETED:

1/35 Churchill Mk IV AVRE with bridge - DONE

NEXT PROJECT:

1/35 CH-54A Tarhe Helicopter

 

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • From: AandF in the Badger State
Posted by checkmateking02 on Sunday, March 10, 2019 8:36 PM

Good looking wheel, Ben.  Nice effect.

 

 

 

 

  • Member since
    October 2009
Posted by JacknewbIII on Wednesday, March 13, 2019 12:09 AM

The wagon is looking really good. I have major progress on the P-38 and just need to upload some pics. A new job has had me tied up the last two weeks.

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • From: AandF in the Badger State
Posted by checkmateking02 on Wednesday, March 13, 2019 12:20 PM

Good to hear, Jack.  Looking forward to seeing the photos!

Hope the new job is going well for you.

 

 

 

 

  • Member since
    October 2009
Posted by JacknewbIII on Friday, March 15, 2019 12:34 AM

Thanks Check! I made the prop cover from miliput and I think it worked out ok. The blue is Vallejo acrylic and I did what I could with the superchargers and added some paint chipping effects. I will be back with completed pics.

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • From: AandF in the Badger State
Posted by checkmateking02 on Friday, March 15, 2019 2:50 PM

Spinner looks good, Jack.  Congratulations!

That's going to be one colorful Lightning!

 

 

 

 

  • Member since
    June 2018
  • From: Ohio (USA)
Posted by DRUMS01 on Monday, March 18, 2019 1:05 AM

Just popping in to let everyone know that I am still alive and working on the 1/16 kubel. At this point it is assembled but I am still determining the extent and type of weathering. The camouflage is finished along with the battle wear. Still determining the extent of mud, dirt, etc. to put on it. I think I will figure that out as the base is built. I would like to show the progress but it would steal from the reveal.

I am also looking into a small (at least small for 1/16) diorama showing the kubel with four figures sitting on some terrian. I am still waiting for the figures to arrive but I have built the kits driver just for practice. The kit driver was switched over from a desert uniform and soft cap to the European gray/green with helmet. I am also working on the small amount of detail items provided in the kit like the machine gun, canteen, potato masher, gas mask canister, and other stuff that would belong to the driver. As for Romell, he will be a separate figure on a stand which will be finished sometime down the road. 

I hope to have something to show soon.

Ben

 

"Everyones the normal until you get to know them" (Unknown)

LAST COMPLETED:

1/35 Churchill Mk IV AVRE with bridge - DONE

NEXT PROJECT:

1/35 CH-54A Tarhe Helicopter

 

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • From: AandF in the Badger State
Posted by checkmateking02 on Monday, March 18, 2019 2:15 PM

Sounds good, Ben.  Keep at it!

 

 

 

 

  • Member since
    August 2015
  • From: the redlands Fl
Posted by crown r n7 on Friday, March 22, 2019 4:31 PM

It’s time to start up the king tiger ....

 

 

 Nick.

  • Member since
    June 2018
  • From: Ohio (USA)
Posted by DRUMS01 on Sunday, March 24, 2019 4:40 PM

Crown, Lets hear that Tiger rumble. I hope Jacknewbill has been able to move forward on the P38 and Eric on the Panther too. And Bish, how is the ME410 coming along?

Here are some teasers for the Kubel. I do not want to show everything as it will ruin the presentation to come. I tried to represent the look of a very quick spray over as the unit migrated from the southern Medeteranian to northern Italy. 

This driver will not be with the build but I thought he looked the part for this photo. The strap is lead foil. These pictures also shows some of the wear on the kubel.

Here is the kit driver glossed for decals on the helmet, shoulderboards, sleeve, chest, etc.

 

While waiting for my figures to arrive, I've started on Romell in a European uniform. Still much more to go,... like arms (smile). I do not like the Tamiya stripes on the legs and will most likely paint over them.

I just received the replacement figures and will be assembling them soon. Until then lets see some progress on these builds(please).....

Ben

 

"Everyones the normal until you get to know them" (Unknown)

LAST COMPLETED:

1/35 Churchill Mk IV AVRE with bridge - DONE

NEXT PROJECT:

1/35 CH-54A Tarhe Helicopter

 

  • Member since
    June 2018
  • From: Ohio (USA)
Posted by DRUMS01 on Tuesday, March 26, 2019 12:02 AM

I noticed on the Tamiya paint guide for Romell it was for the desert or gray jacket. I have a photo that shows his collar being black behind those red insignia. Checking into it more, they also show a jacket colored collar, a dark green, and one that is black with red piping around the edge. Another thing I noticed was sometimes the visor trim and the eagle above the right pocket change from silver to gold. Most the time his buttons are silver but I have found a couple showning gold buttons. It makes you wonder if they are all legit, or if gray photos were colored over time and people took the liberty to change them (?). They also show him with a second Iron cross on his left pocket along with other badges (panzer assault, wounded, and 1939 spange of the Iron Cross first class, etc.). I am going to try and make my figure appear as the photo I'm referencing and leave it at that. I think I may have some of those medals and badges to add already. 

The replacement figures I am adding will be Panzer Grenadiers with cold weather gear. After hours of research I find a great amount of variation in the pants and heavy jackets; sometimes a mix of two different colors or camouflage on the same soldier. Even the fur in the parka hood is different being brown, tan, gray, white, and even an OD looking color. I've printed several from on-line and have some in books as well. From what I see, most always the heavy parka is a solid color, but the pants can be in thier stippled camouflage. I hope to make them somewhat authentic in color and variation (time will tell). 


For the base of the display I bought some foam board that I am cutting, stacking, carving, and then covering with milliput terra-cotta. Once it is cured, I am adding vegetation, stone, paint, etc., etc. My hope is to have a convincing display once complete.

Stay tuned....

"Everyones the normal until you get to know them" (Unknown)

LAST COMPLETED:

1/35 Churchill Mk IV AVRE with bridge - DONE

NEXT PROJECT:

1/35 CH-54A Tarhe Helicopter

 

  • Member since
    April 2006
  • From: ON, Canada
Posted by jgeratic on Tuesday, March 26, 2019 11:04 AM

Ben, great looking stuff you got going on. 

The study of German uniform insignias can be quite consuming, such that books have been dedicated to just that subject.   Can't answer all your questions, but a few things from my reference library:

I believe gold would be proper by 1944 on items such as buttons, edging/piping and chest eagle for any ranks Generalmajor (brigadier general) and above.  Book in front of me states November 1942 as the introduction of gold on general officer's caps, but the link below gives it at the beginning of 1943:

http://moebius.freehostia.com/hatsofficers.htm

The dark army collars, usually referred to as dark bottle-green, was a pre-war design, and was supposed to be phased out by 1940 with introduction of the M-40 tunic.  Dark collars were still popular though, and many officers continued to wear them right up til the end of the war.  It's possible some higher ranking officers went with black collars custom tailored just for them, but I don't recall reading this as being official.

regards,

Jack

 

  • Member since
    October 2009
Posted by JacknewbIII on Tuesday, March 26, 2019 9:18 PM

Ben the wagon is coming along nicely! You did well with the camo from what you have shown us so far. I am just starting into figures myself and have found them to be a challenge.

 

The P-38 is finally done so I will get pics up asap!

Jack

  • Member since
    June 2018
  • From: Ohio (USA)
Posted by DRUMS01 on Wednesday, March 27, 2019 7:21 PM

jgeratic, thanks for the information as it did help a lot. Based on your information which supported my findings, I have completed the figure. You can check it out in the figures topic in this forum. Here is one shot

Jacknewbill, thanks for the kind words. I have done other figures in the past, but each one brings its own challenges. I like how figures add a whole dimension and life to a model kit. Not to sidetrack this GB, but here are others I've done to add more to a kit.

 

 

"Everyones the normal until you get to know them" (Unknown)

LAST COMPLETED:

1/35 Churchill Mk IV AVRE with bridge - DONE

NEXT PROJECT:

1/35 CH-54A Tarhe Helicopter

 

  • Member since
    February 2010
  • From: Berkeley CA/St. Paul MN
Posted by EBergerud on Friday, March 29, 2019 2:23 AM

 

OK gents

 

 

I've been busy weathering the Korsun Panther. Every model I do I try something different - don't want to get bored. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't. My models always have a "good side" (which gets most of the photos) - that's the side that has fewer mistakes and that often means the side where an experiment worked.

 

The idea needed to get a Panther D without zimmerit into a 1944 build is to put it into the retreat toward the Dnieper that began after Kursk, and in the case of AG South led to the very armor-heavy battles culminating in the "Korsun pocket" in early 43 (late February-March) which proved a mini-Stalingrad for the Wehrmacht. The Eastern Front was so huge, that battles like that - which would have been huge in the West - are almost lost in the wash. And the fighting in that period is really the kind of thing that led Hitler's divisions to utter ruin - lots of Russian tanks and infantry destroyed, but the Wehrmacht grows ever smaller when the dust cleared and also closer to the German border. After Bagration in June 1944 the Reds shattered the Ost and turned it all into a kind of series of pockets from the Baltic to the Crimea. That's why only about half of the German Army in the East was available for the battle for Berlin - the rest of it was isolated in Courland or even more broken up in Romania, Hungary and ultimately Austria. And then the allies broke out of Normandy and were near the Rhine in November. 1944 was a very bad year for the Wehrmacht. It was also the most violent year of WWII by a huge margin. (I've got a Tamiya SU-76 to dress in Bagration garb for the next build. That offensive not widely known but it was a much greater Soviet victory than Stalingrad or Kursk. Essay time in a couple of months.)

 

Early 1944 obviously means a winter build. I've done it before but not the way used this time around. I took a page from Mike Rinaldi's book - he's very keen on "layering" and oils. I've looked a few zillion winter-camo pics and there about a zillion effects you could try to emulate. As I understand it, some German winter camo was done with proper white paint - which would leave you with a dirty white tank. (That sure would have been easy - might look neat too.) But I put a three color camo scheme on the tank and wanted to preserve it. I went on the assumption that the crew applied white wash and not paint. German tanks came with a Dunkelgelb base from the factory - the olive and red-brown was applied in the field and were intentionally fragile so they could be quickly changed. I took a common option of assorted thin stripes of olive and brown with the tank mostly Dunkelgelb. In retrospect this was a mistake. Many German tanks had large sections painted one of the secondary colors - usually olive and red brown splotches. Darker colors would have made much better contrast for whitewash than the Dunkelgelb I put on. (It looked pretty good before weathering.) I wasted time on the base coat. I employed "black basing" instead of modulation and it gave a nicely irregular tonal variation - but all was lost once the whitewash went on. Just a simple base would have worked perfectly well. In Rinaldi's book "Tank Art" V. 4, he spent a lot of time on winter camo. He argued, I'm sure correctly, that a German vehicle would have had several applications of whitewash and it would deteriorate in an uneven manner. If you use layering, you don't mess around with whites and make it look as though it had been done more than once. With layering, you give the model two or more paint jobs. So, I gave it a full coat of Com.Art white to start with. Com.Art, if not sealed, is very fragile and can be worn away with any acrylic airbrush thinner. This leaves a worn whitewash effect - you don't get big chips. But over the Dunkelgelb I didn't want big chips - they wouldn't have shown up. (If there had been big olive green patches, I would have used more aggressive chipping.) After the Com.Art was hand brushed away, I got oils. I used them to put on washes, pinwashes and a lot of shadowing. Then I applied hair spray and put Mission Model white over it. MM paints are very nice - but if you don't use their conditioner they're also pretty fragile. (I added a bit of light brown Com.Art to dirty it.) Next step is hand brushing the Mission Model layer off with water. After that I employed what Rinaldi calls "mapping." You use white oils (I used titanium and Wilder white cut with buff - the shades are actually quite different, and there's also still a lot of whitewash there) and brush them on very gently with a long and thin brush. The idea isn't to really paint as much as tap the stuff on. It's a very good technique and it builds up opaque white areas because if you've done the hairspray correctly most of the acrylic white will be gone. Rinaldi is very keen on keeping things irregular and I couldn't agree more (that's why I'm so keen on black basing.) Then I applied another layer of oils - pretty much the same thing, except you might vary the colors a little. I stick to earth tones, but Mig Jimenez likes to throw in some brighter hues like blue or orange to liven things up. Mig is a great modeler (so is Adam Wilder, and a lot of many small steps comes from his very good book "Adam's Armor: Painting and Finishing) but I'm willing to live with the idea that war is the enemy of art and take a crack at making a small plastic object look as much as possible like a big metal object.

 

After that comes the pigments. I haven't built a base yet so the pigments are only on the tracks and wheels. I like acrylic fixers with pigments - they work great, don't change the color and don't smell. (Figure a watered down acrylic matte varnish. The railroad emporium Scenic Express-a much better place than Wooland Scenics for most things, even if a bit more costly - sells a watered "Matte Medium" that works great and is dirt cheap. (Be a cinch to make your own - if you wanted gloss for some reason, Future would be a fine adhesive.) I made three shades of pigments employing Sennelier and Gamblin products. (Sennelier and Gamblin make some of the world's best oil paints and the pigments they sell to artists is used for the hard core to make their own paints - so it's very good and costs about 25% of something from Mig or AK. Art supply stores should be on every plastic modelers list - we pay a huge premium for the things we buy. A tube of Windsor Newton series 1 oil paint goes for $7.50 and is twice the size of Abteilung. The more I use the Rinaldi method of applying very light coats of unthinned paint the more it becomes obvious that an art brand with a high linseed oil content is actually what you want - so little is used that it dries quickly regardless. The thinner I use is Gamblin Gamsol which is flat out the most benign spirit on the planet - zero smell, zero tide marks. You do use washes for panels - but they're almost like filters. Rinaldi puts straight oil paint on things like bolts - ditto for shading. I didn't overload the pigments below - most winter tanks look to me like they're more clogged with dry mud than wet. I also haven't decided what I want on the base - I may very well decide to set the tank in a kind of a "thaw" and have wet and dry mud interspersed with snow. If so, I'll adjust the pigments and put on some wet mud. Some will go above the hull regardless.

 

Also, after the base is done the tank is going to get it's last snow storm. I've some goodies from Krycell, a Brit company that makes super artificial snow and a terrific snow wash. (They have neat videos on YouTube - Precision Ice and Snow - check them out if you're thinking of a winter theme. Their stuff isn't cheap, but you don't need to use it on the base - just the tank itself. The crystalline effect is very impressive - I know nothing like it. You poor souls might not either - I know it's really hard to photograph. They make broken ice that's amazing: I've got a 1/350 Dragon Z-28, a vessel that became icebound in the Baltic - that would make a fantastic dio. If the kit was 1/700 I'd do it for this build. We'll see.) I've bought some debris junk (barbed wire etc) that I hope will make a desolate late winter in the Ukraine atmosphere. When things get settled, I'll put on rest of the tools. Then the last dust of pigments. If I'm lucky.

 

Pics below are adequate - although too light. I'll poach my wife's iPhone when things are done. If you click one and get more resolution the weathering becomes considerably more clear.

 

 Compbld3 by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr

 

 CompRear by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr

 

 CompBld1 by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr

 

 Compbld2 by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr

 

 

 

 

A model boat is much cheaper than a real one and won't sink with you in it.

  • Member since
    July 2014
Posted by modelcrazy on Friday, March 29, 2019 9:42 AM

Check, I have it. I'll be building the Trumpeter 1/350 USS North Carolina. I have been getting the AM ready for my US ships build iand will start it n Aug. It should take a while but I have till 2020.

Steve

Building a kit from your stash is like cutting a head off a Hydra, two more take it's place.

 

 

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