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

Nice work on the pit Arki.  I've got the pit on my Spitfire almost done so we can compare notes.

Regards,  Rick

Tamiya 1/48 scale Universal Carrier

Dan - No concern of the AM parts. The Tamiya kit provides all running gear in one part with separated suspension arms. The track replacements are made in the same way (tracks + road wheels together), so you only have to add the Tamiya suspension arms to complete the whole thing following the original assembly plan. The new tracks are very well made and the Tamiya parts just fit on it perfectly. 

Rick - Thanks!

Arki - Yes, I agree and would go for a darker wash to highlight all the small details on that office.

Fortunately I could start the paintwork already. I am not good at color chips and would rather using my intuition to get one convincing  shade so base color is painted by spraying buff and desert yellow alike. The fact is that I did not make any mix with those colors, and overlapped them separatedly over the entire model until I got something up to my taste. My intention is to get one plain but NOT uniform base color that also gives me some advantage for weathering effects later so the final combination of lighter/darker areas helps me to highlight the shapes of the vehicle in some grade since this very early stage. Also note paint has glossy finish that will really help for some other tasks later.

Once dried I applied all decals for this scheme. I do not like to wait longer for decaling as I consider decals are part of the base color too and must recieve same weathering treatment from now on because it does not make sense to me to have to rework over decals later. The glossy finish of the base color and the use of specific liquids helped a lot to avoid silvering and decaling went well and fast.

Nothing special until now, so lets see what I can make in the following days.

Lu

Looking great Lu.  I totally agree with you that decals should be on before any weathering is started.

Regards,  Rick

Changing sides & moving from ground to air .

Started the Hasegawa 1/48 Spifire Mk.Vb.  Got the pit done at this stage.

Pit is made up of the kit parts, some leftover bits from a True Details resin set & an Ultracast resin seat from the spares box.  I didn't have any PE for this one & I didn't feel like painting all the fiddly dials on the IP, so I used the kit decal.  Not great, but acceptable.

Regards,  Rick

Thanks for the comments Guys .

Regards,  Rick

rjkplasticmod wrote:

Started the Hasegawa 1/48 Spifire Mk.Vb.  Got the pit done at this stage.

Have you ever used Mike Grant's instrument panel decals? These are fabulous, but you have to cut out each instrument, which can be a little tedious if, like me, you don't have a suitable punch and die. OTOH, it's not TOO tedious, and the instruments look very realistic.

Also, just re-looked at your pictures, and I'm a little dubious about the sutton harness attachment point. I *THINK* it attaches not at the rear of the seat, which is made of bakelite, but at a location at the rear of the cockpit.

Thanks Brews.  I've never tried the Mike Grant Instrument decals, but I've heard good things about them.  I prefer to use PE for the IP whenever possible.  The Seat belt doesn't attach to the Seat.  It runs down the back of the seat & attaches to a reinforced section of the floor.  I didn't model the attachments, since they won't be visible in the finished model.

Regards,  Rick

Tamiya 1/48 scale Universal Carrier

Rick - Good work on the Spit and glad to see aircrafts and AFVs run simultaneously in this GB because although I am one armor modeller basically I love making aircrafts from time to time too, so I appreciate both subjects alike.  As for the IP the decal is not a big concern to me meanwhile you get one compact and impacting Pit. Actually I also use decals for IPs at times and I do not regret it to say true.

I follow working on the Universal Carrier. After decaling I made a dark pin wash to highlight all small details all over surfaces. As for the dark wash I more like enamels than oils because faster drying time and matt finish. Recently I am using the new MIG production washes which are enamel based and proved to be very efficent product because works pretty well directly from the bottle -you only have to shake it well before using- and the mix is odorless totally, something I also appreciate to work comfortably. As usual the important point here is to make wash very selective and to avoid darkening the whole model, not mention to you can retouch and remove the excess easily with one pointed brush wet in clean thinner. Also notice I also started coloring some details from this stage (ammo boxes, seats or exhaust, etc...).

In paralell the running gear is recieving its respective treatment and road wheel ruber bands and tracks are primed with acrylics and one pointed fine brush. For those who might wonder if it is hard to paint those details on the assembled running gear truth is it is not so hard to make it if one takes care and time to go litrte by little.  

Lu

Excellent painting Lu.  Hard to believe that the running gear is just one piece.

Regards,  Rick

Hi All

Sorry I have not kept up.  Been busy with work and all.  But I did get some build time in this last weekend.  Got all but the tracks built.  Still working on those yet.  Also started the painting and weathering.  First sprayed the entire tank in dark gray.  Followed up with sand brown.  I then spray sand yellow for the fading effect.  I also left some areas light on the top two colors.  I tried to represent the sand blasting effect. Don't know if it came though on the pics but will try for next time.  I also put a good amount of chipping on it as well.  I figured that the desert is extreme and reading that the sand colors where not that durable.  Still have the pigments to add.  that and final assembly.  Like mufflers tracks and antenna. 

Well here are some pics.

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Looking good Moose.  Nice work.

Regards,  Rick

panzerkampfwagen wrote:

if its not too late put me down for the tamiya panzer II kit and i may do the figures for this as well :-D. will give me a reason to build this lol.

Sure, can't have too many Panzer II's.

Tamiya 1/48 scale Universal Carrier

Guys - Thank you all so much for your encouraging words. I am glad you are enjoying my evolutions and as for the explanations I know my english expression is limited so I am happy if you can get what I mean and believe one image always helps because modelling is universal language for modellers.

Moose - I think yours Pz IV is going well and no fear when it comes to weathering. As you well say desert is one very hard environment for one tank so you are free to go so far as you want, but please bear in mind not all models can receive all treatments at same time and that is up to service condition. I would not concern so much as for chipping or dusting up a lot, but as for paint not all desert schemes wear off in the same grade and those very famous super battered german desert vehicles showing the original panzer grey base coat were not all repainted in fact. I guess the popular images of early models of Pz IIIs and IVs in the desert belong to tanks which received a temporary desert camouflage just after arriving Africa made with fuel and sand that wore off very quickly and that may not be the case of your tank seeing the version you are making. Bear in mind both axis and allied forces quickly developed specific colors for desert warfare to fix this problem. Please do not get me wrong and I recomend you to follow your references regarding this point because I am not one expert in this theme and I may be wrong likely.

PzKwgn - The Tamiya Pz II is one excellent candidate (shoud I say victim? ) to try new things I think.

The Universal Carrier is going well and reasonably fast. In the past  days I had time to paint some chipping and scratching on the model. With one dark acrylic mix and one fine brush I went adding small dots and chips here and there. To me the important points here are (1) to make chipping small to scale and (2) to reproduce those effects in reasonable areas to achieve one convincing look. Actually I am not adding chipping and scratching only but also other small dark dots/stains that appears due to use, but at this small scale is impossible to make one visual difference between one type and others. It is advisable to add chipping little by little to decide how much the model needs, so not all of them were painted in the same session and this required following applications until I got the look I liked. Also think some of those small chips will fade away later under following weathering treatments.

The running gear received its respective dark wash and chipping and before continuing I made a very light drybrushing with one metalic shade to gain track links definition before adding earth and dust to tracks, so surely I will need to add more metalic shine after completing weathering.

Lu

Looking better at every step Lu.  Excellent work .

Regards,  Rick

moose421 - Looks great to me... i like the layers of color... look forward to the rest of the build!

panzerkampfwagen - good luck in your build!

mokei/Lu - Language is not a problem! I follow your explanations without a problem, your descriptions are very clear. I again thank you for taking the time to write about your build in such depth! Love your pictures.. not to mention the model! I specially like the weathering on the step-up.

Well everyone here is my finished mark IV.  Man! I've got to tell you the tracks were a pain in the .  But, I got them done.  Only came apart 3 times.  All the final parts came together remarkably well.  I then weathered the entire vehicle with mig pigments.  I used Veitnam dust on the tracks.  I then used the African dust pigment over the entire thing.  I do plan on painting a figure to ride in the commanders hatch.  I wanted to give the impression that the vehicle had stopped during a road march and was covered in dust.  I am very happy in the weathering and painting.  Thanks for the tips on the template method.  Also a thanks to those that pointed out errors, so as I could fix them. Well here are the pics.

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Thanks.  It was  a fun GB that you hosted.  Tried new things and learned alot.