Italeri Group Build Sept. 1, 2006-Jan. 15 2007

Whew! Cool to know the build goes on!

My wife will be heading out of town next weekend. 

She leaves for a business trip for 2 weeks so I am hopeful to finish in 3 weeks! ;)

 I'll post something this week!

 Cheers, SJD

Awesome sjd!  Trust me, I know what you mean.  When my wife and kids aren't around, I can get sooooo much done on my models. 

Well, all 6 of the main grill screens have been attached, including 16 infinitely small PE bolts.  Man, those were tough.  Way too small for tweezers..... you basically have to dab your finger on one, and hope it stickes to my finger tip long enough to make it over to the grill.  Then you have to flip it over if necessary to make sure the bolt head is facing up, scootch it over to where it's supposed to be, all the while they snag on the mesh, go flying off, flip over etc.  Then there is the issue of getting the crazy glue to hold them down with out issues.  Man, talk about a learning experience.    After about 4 or 5 of them I started getting the hang of it, piece of cake now

Needless to say, after getting the bolts on I was ready for a beer or two...... or three..... or.... LOL  I wanted to post my pics last night but the battery camera had died.  Once the battery was charged the beers had taken effect... heh heh

I just have one or two more things to attach, then off to the spray booth.  I should have some pics of the initial camo coat later tonight. 

Yes, I'll never not put them on again. Sadly I skimped on my son's KT. they really add a lot IMO.

SJD, glad to have you back. Hey, I know how we all get sidetracked.

Cruising right along!  The engine compartment interior has been sprayed, as well as the white innards of the turret/hatch. 

Gotta run some errands with my lovely wife now (to include a trip to Guitar World, need to replace the strings on my electric guitar ).

Edited: Base Coat goes on in the morning, going to go watch the UNR game at Bullys (a local sports bar) with our oldest son and his wife. Good beer, and great food!  The Bully burger is the best! 

Here's a few pics after a wash and drybrush. I'm still not quite done and please don't ask for pics of the rear. Yuck to the interior and I should have weathered it before I constructed the gun. Hopefully it looks less cartoony. LOL

Nice work Eric aka Tigerman, your Marder looks great! 

p.s. woo hoo!  Go UNR!  another win! 

Looking sharp Eric!

How did you do the wash?    and the tracks? They looks great!

I am still fooling around with that gun shield......

Well I finally have pics. It's primed and awaiting first paint coat. There have been numerous setbacks like not enough track pieces and lost pieces and such but it's Italeri isn't it?

Hope you enjoy

TM, the Marder is looking great... you've got a good eye for subtle shading and such that I simply can't pull off (as you probably could tell.)  I hear ya on the interior and gun... I left mine off.

YGModeler, looks great so far... only thing I can see (which it sounds like really isn't your fault) is the big funky looking gap bit on the one side track... I assume that was where you were short a link, but it might help if you either hide that gooey looking segment with some mud or try and sculpt some basic bits of the detail on there.  The rest of the build looks fantastic... what scheme are you going to do? 

Looking good ygmodeler4! 

The basecoat has been sprayed on everything now.  I had a few minor mishaps with the paint cup, but fortunately none spilled on any of the model parts, well, at least on the outside, a bit spilled on the inside, but I was able to wipe it up before it did any harm.  It's a miracle that I didn't get covered with the stuff.....

Tomorrow I'm going to try to do some post shading, i.e. lighten up the base color a bit and erratically spray it on just the upper surfaces that would have had the most exposure to the hot sun on the Eastern Front. 

I just noticed a problem with the round grill screens that go over the fans, it seems a bit of super glue got into some of the mesh... hmmmm, I hope I can fix that with a sharp pin or something. 

Thanks guys and Looking good espins1!!

As for the paint scheme I don't know.  I'm thinking about doing the plain Panzer Yellow thing. I don't think it's panzer yellow but it's some kind of tan color. Any other ideas?

ygmodeler4 wrote:

Thanks guys and Looking good espins1!! As for the paint scheme I don't know.  I'm thinking about doing the plain Panzer Yellow thing. I don't think it's panzer yellow but it's some kind of tan color. Any other ideas?

I'm thinking late war scheme, mabe even an ambush scheme. Looks cool so far.

Looks good Scott.

Thnans for the positive comments.

Everything is looking so great guys! Keep up the great work!

Espins, if the sharp pin idea doesn't work, try weathering that area a bit more than usual to reflect dust/dirt caught in the screens. Just an idea...

Looking forward to seeing more progress! 

Duke Maddog wrote:

Everything is looking so great guys! Keep up the great work!   Espins, if the sharp pin idea doesn't work, try weathering that area a bit more than usual to reflect dust/dirt caught in the screens. Just an idea...   Looking forward to seeing more progress!

Excellent idea! 

Well, unfortunatly I'm going to have to live with the super glue issue on my round grill screens, they're too fragile to try and poke it out, so I will have to put some twigs and leaves or other debris to help hide it.

I did some post shading tonight, it's very subtle and hard to see in the pictures, but I've learned that it's better to be to subtle than to over do it.

Oh, and I painted the engine plumbing and parts of the engine.  Tomorrow I'm going to try to tackle painting the rubber on the road wheels as well as the exhausts.  I'd like to be at a point where I can attach all those parts before the weekend so I can spend the weekend weathering.

espins1 wrote:

I did some post shading tonight, it's very subtle and hard to see in the pictures, but I've learned that it's better to be to subtle than to over do it.

I don't blame you about taking it easy. Better safe than sorry and you can always add more. Panther is starting to waken. 

Thanks guys, even though this is an old kit and the plastic applique zim is not up to modern standards, I'm really enjoying building this little gem.  Thanks again for everyone's patience, I just never seem to have as much time as I'd like for modelling. 

I'm going to paint the tools and other tidbits today so I can get them attached, in fact, I'm leaving work a couple hours early which should help.  I'm anxious to get the Future on this puppy so I can put on the decals, and get the oil wash and weathering going. 

Nice! It's really coming along. I like the look of the pre-shading. Looking forward to seeing more done here.

I started a new kit for this. It's Italeri's re-pop of the old ESCI Italian M13/40. I'll be making it into a captured Australian vehicle. The main hull is more or less done. I'll post pics when I can.