War in the Desert - African campaign GB - 12/9/07 to 5/13/08

I'm looking forward to checking out the finished product Dupes

I started playing with a Dragon Valentine last night. I also have Eduard etch with which to decorate it.

10 of the 120 individual track links are glued together.

the drive sprockets are assembled.

One of the four bogies are assembled (minus wheels)

This kit is a re-pop of a Russian manufacturer (VM) - the fit is quite reasonable.

I didn't do any on the bishop. It was too dark inside with the lights on.

Whoa, you guys are progressing nicely.

Rick.....that lower hull looks great, nice weathering

Dupes.....not only speedy but lookin real sharp

Ernest......looks like you have your work cut out, should keep you plenty busy. Looking forward to more progress

Darren.....that build looks great, beautiful job

And if I missed any other progress here, I'll catch up with my reading!

And this is where I'm at, needs a little more painting and sandy stuff...........

And Arki30, not a very big target here

Thanks for the comments Guys.

Darren:  The road wheels were sprayed Desert Yellow 79, then Futured & given a wash with Burnt Umber oils.  That was followed by a spray of Polly Scale Flat.  The rims were brush painted with Vallejo German Grey.  Finished off with a dusting using MIG pigments African Earth & Desert War Sand.  The tracks were sprayed ModelMaster Gun Metal, then given a thin wash of Vallejo Flat Brown.  I used a Silver Prismacolor pencil to hi-lite wear on the cleats & then finished off with a dusting of MIG pigments, same as the road wheels.

Regards,  Rick

Rick the painting/weathering on the road wheels and tracks looks excellent, would you mind spilling the beans on your painting and weathering technique?

Cheers

I made some progress on the Bishop over the weekend. It's a fiddly little beast.

Also, I was wondering if an S-Boot would fit into the North African GB :)

Thanks Dupes.  The Tamiya 1/48 kits all come with molded Link & Length tracks.  Each side is made up of 14 separate moldings.

Regards,  Rick

Ho ho! Looking very tankish now! Good stuff.

Do the Tamiya 1/48 kits come with indy link tracks? 

Made some more progress on my little Panzer.  Lower hull has been completed with tracks & wheels installed.  All painted & weathered.

If you look close, you'll see the rearmost road wheel on the port side looks crooked.  I hadn't noticed it until I looked at the pic.  Examination showed that the outer wheel had disengaged from the inner, probably from handling while installing the track. I thought they were all glued securely, but obviously this one wasn't.  Fortunately, it was an easy fix.  I decided to post this pic rather than re-shoot as it's a good example of how digital photographs can alert you to problems & make corrections before it might be too late.

Regards,  Rick

Glamdring,

I use white on the interior then wash it with straight black (no future coat).  Focus on the details/crevices first then hit the flat sections.  Move FAST and coat every surface, then quickly grab a q-tip, dip it in mineral spirits, dab on paper towel but keep nearly soaked.  Rub it over every surface, removing the excess, it's O.K. to press kinda hard.  What's left will seem darker than you expect but it's O.K.  Let it almost dry then grab another q-tip and repeat.  Finish all the additional detailing on the interior then lock it down with dullcoat.  The interiors are in shadow anyway and I think the black has nice contrast and seems appropriate considering the amount of grease the crew would have on their hands.  Go see my Stug III in the armor posts,  "more photos of my completed Stug..." I have a photo from a higher angle, you can see the interior pretty well.

Good luck!

...as I understand it...panzer interiors were of an off white color. I would start with Tamiya white and add Tamiya buff at a 80% white to 10 to 20% buff and season to taste....others will chime in I'm sure.

Good luck.

I've a question.  I'm chugging along with my Panzer IV and have gotten shockingly far over the last 5 days.  Pics to be posted someday, but I don't have a step-by-step sequence going on.  Anyways, Dragon recommends white for an interior color.  Is that accurate for the African Theater or should I be using a buff color?  If it is white, I'm assuming that a wash would be needed, perhaps Burnt umber.  Or would that be too dark for the theater?

Sorry for the noobish questions, I'm an armor modeler in training here.  Floaty things are my usual forte. 

Mark Joyce wrote:

Lots of great work on the armor, guys.  You're providing plenty of targets for Arki30's and my 'Kittybombers!' Now that I've just finished up my previous group build, I can start concentrating on this one. Regards, Mark

Muaahahaha!  Fish in a barrel.

Lots of great work on the armor, guys.  You're providing plenty of targets for Arki30's and my 'Kittybombers!' Now that I've just finished up my previous group build, I can start concentrating on this one.

Regards,

Mark

dupes wrote:

arki30 wrote: Next is to cut the tail off the fuselage halfs for the resin replacement.  Demolition! Ooooh...major surgery! Never a big fave of mine. Good luck!

It's done.  Easy cheesy .  Today I'm finishing up the chin radiator intake in preparation for fuselage assembly. 

Dupes, the detailing is really starting to give some nice depth.  I suppose the crummy weather is good for something

Looking better all the time.  Nice work dupes.

Regards,  Rick

arki30 wrote:

Next is to cut the tail off the fuselage halfs for the resin replacement.  Demolition!

Ooooh...major surgery! Never a big fave of mine. Good luck!

JGeratic - not to worry - I'm not nearly done weathering this baby! Made a bit of progress yesterday (when I wasn't Christmas shopping with the wife) in the form of a couple of enamel + oil washes:

She's getting there. Might even be finished by tomorrow if the timing goes right. Still have some drybrushing, chipping, dust/pigment coats to do, but the forecast today is a blizzard followed by freezing rain...I ain't going anywhere.

jgeratic,

Thanks for checkin' in.  The soft-skins were the definate favorites.

Joe,  darson, bufflehead - sorry I didn't provide any specifics about the three panzer III pics - photos had no captions.  The middle wartime photo I would guess is a reworked Ausf F upgunned with the 50mm KwK L42 canon.  It could be the quality of reproducton, but the main gun looks a bit bent, perhaps a wooden dummy, which would make it a command tank.  The third photo, I agree, most likely another F.  Yes, the tracks are backwards - you guys did your homework but can't say as much for the museum curator.

dupes - great progress!  Do hope you add some sand/dust weathering on the lowers and crevices & such.  At the moment the finish looks at odds with itself.  True, vehicles arrived in their panzer grey colour, but unless you are modelling a vehicle that just came off the Tripoli docks (the grey would be much darker) then there should be seen the effects of kicking up dust from such a sun bleached vehicle.

SMJmodeler - my vote would of been for either soft skinned vehicle.  I'm not sure if the Stug G saw action in North Africa, but please do enlighten me if it did.  There were three Stug Ausf C/D with the special unit Sonder Verband 288.  Have also seen a photo of the Ausf F/8 in Tunisia.

Jack 

Looks good so far arki.  Good luck with the surgery to fit the resin tail.

Regards,  Rick

A couple of progress shots.  Cockpit is finished in all it's OOB glory, or lack thereof.  I'll be going with closed canopy on this build so I wasn't too concerned with spending a lot of time on the cockpit.  It looks like one, moving on.

Next is to cut the tail off the fuselage halfs for the resin replacement.  Demolition!

Got the major painting done on the Pz.III.  Started with a dark grey primer, then overall with RAL7008 Grunbraun.  Followed that with a thin spray of Desert Yellow & topped it off with Floquil Depot Buff, sprayed in a cloud pattern & mostly on the horizontal surfaces.

The pics were taken with flash which tends to hide some of the more subtle color variations, but the overall effect looks pretty good when viewing under natural light.

Now ready for a coat of Future & decals .  Comments welcome. as I'm a relative rookie Armor builder.

Regards,  Rick

Hermesminiatures,

...the votes are in (minus any hanging chads)...and the winner is...the DUECE-AND-A-HALF.

I'm in this G.B.!!! Put me down for a Tamiya 1:35 U.S. 2-1/2 ton 6 x 6 Cargo Truck.

O.K....anyone know how the to replicate a washed out wadi with a truck stuck in it...dostacos this means YOU!!! Anyone know if it ever rained in the desert!!!

Seriously though...any of you WWII effcianados know of any soggy battles in N. Africa I would surely appreciate you sharing them with me.. Fee to be paid upon receipt of verified evidence. Need to start my research, ASAP.