FINISHED! Page 7-the doog's BEST? Sdkfz 251/17 Ausf. D w/2cm Schwebelafette

Wow... That's... great.. I want, it is... interior like.... map, panels. the can.. like, you... wow..  awsome

*Gasp* 

    Doog slow down and smell the plastic, lol.

  The interior looks great. Again one of the first things that draw's my attention on one of your builds is the ammo racks. Glad to see that the dash decals didn't get the best of you like mine did.

Wow, Karl.

 I need to get a thesauraus, I've used all the good adjectives, and you haven't painted the exterior yet.

Very nice, well-thought out as usual.  I find myself thinking more about building than actually building these days, I think it's making me better just to watch you work.

Bill   

Love the dash board....nice shading. The usual DOOG good modelkeeping seal!!

Rounds Complete!!

Would any of these 251's have had a heavy whitewash for winter?

Probably...

The usual excellent work, Doog! Gonna add some baking soda mud?

Hans von Hammer wrote:

Would any of these 251's have had a heavy whitewash for winter? Probably... The usual excellent work, Doog! Gonna add some baking soda mud?

Run for the hills!  He said the dreaded BS word hopefully Doog won't foam at the mouth at this one.

I figured out one thing with the fuel tank and transmission if you were going to do a maintenance diorama you can remove the floor plates to access them.

Thanks, stick man, Huxy, panzerguy, Mike, and Bill! I appreciate your kind comments!

Panzerguy--you gotta get some Solvaset for your decals! It's a miraculous porduct for laying down decals!

Ron, thanks, too--you know, I'm still unsure about the gun color. It does seem to figger that the gun would be all bare gunmetal, but I'm still unsure; looking at Manny's version there, I kinda am second-guessing it now? I may repaint the gun and see what I like best?

Tony--the short answer; sure--why not? Who really knows? Go for it!

Hans--you know whatthey say--"Once burned...." You're playing with fire, my friend! LOL!

Mike--that's a good thought; however, you'd be in for a whole lot of conjecture and scratching if you went that route. I'll wait to see yours, to decide how it loooks first!

Thanks again, guys--I'm painting the exterior today; more pics later, I hope! 

the doog wrote:

Thanks, stick man, Huxy, panzerguy, Mike, and Bill! I appreciate your kind comments! Panzerguy--you gotta get some Solvaset for your decals! It's a miraculous porduct for laying down decals! Ron, thanks, too--you know, I'm still unsure about the gun color. It does seem to figger that the gun would be all bare gunmetal, but I'm still unsure; looking at Manny's version there, I kinda am second-guessing it now? I may repaint the gun and see what I like best? Tony--the short answer; sure--why not? Who really knows? Go for it! Hans--you know whatthey say--"Once burned...." You're playing with fire, my friend! LOL! Mike--that's a good thought; however, you'd be in for a whole lot of conjecture and scratching if you went that route. I'll wait to see yours, to decide how it loooks first! Thanks again, guys--I'm painting the exterior today; more pics later, I hope!

Hi guys,

Well, here we go with another update--finishing the exterior, and painting camo.

First of all--boy, you guys weren't kidding about test-fitting! The side panels are really a pain to get sitting correctly. I had to do a lot of scraping and testing. I also added a wire to the light here, and also want to point out the front lifting lugs here--they are only "2-D", so I wanted to open them up, because they're going to be of use to me later.

I carefully cut under them with a photo-etched microsaw...

Drilled them out...

...and then bent them carefully, away from the body.

Satisfied with that, I then painted some preliminary stuff--the insides of the wheels and the body panels got a coat of primer red. This is Tamiya Hull Red + Red.

The body and wheels then got masked, and the base coat of Dark Yellow + Black added...

Next, the body was given a coat of regular DY, then a greatlyy lightened coat of it (about 85% White added) was sprayed on the insides of the panels.

Note how the insides of the wheels show primer. This mayor may not be correct, but I got an idea from a pic of a PZ IV in coor that I have where the drive sprockets were Primer red inside .

I also repainted the framework of this pesky little bugger after finding some more close. clear photos in a Concord publication.

Rare, battle camera shots of a doog in action! Here I am actually airbrushing the camo. I went with a spotty tri-color camo; here you can see how close I'm actually spraying the paint. I simply regulatethe air with my finger; the paint is not excessively thin; actually, it's a little on the thicker side...

EVery 20 seconds or so, I spray full-bore to clean the nozzle; every minuteor so, I clean the tip of the airbrush with TEstor's model cement.

whistle while you work,....

And here's the red camo coat completed! 

So I do the same thing with the green--Tamiya Field Gray once again, (weird, that they put their arguably only real "accurate" Panzer Green color in this label, but it really IS "panzer Green"!) and here's my result so far!

So, onward to the weathering phase--I'll try to remember to photograph that a little more, if I can....I'm off!  

Holy dunkelgelb Batman! It started out brownish, then went to a muddy white/gray and then add some kick camo spray and and... it looks like dunkelgelb! Very cool. Love the camo technique- looks like you took your Hornisse and just sprinted with it!!

Looks awesome, can't wait for some mud!

Beautiful! I like that camo scheme.. I wasn't too sure when I just saw parts of the brown-red   But that looks awsome!!

-Huxy 

Love the "on the job" photos of the Doog hands. Nice camo job

Rounds Complete!! 

Coming right along Karl! This is just my observer opinion but I would suggest perhaps tinkering a bit with some of the patterns a little more, particularly on the right side and the right side half of the nose top-deck? The left side of the vehicle looks like it has more continuity (if that makes sense) in terms of the squiggly-type pattern hastily sprayed on in the field vs. that on the right side. The right side seems to have more discrete "dots" vs. squiggles and doesn't "match" the pattern/method applied to the left...to my eye the pattern on the left side makes more visual sense vs. that on the right as the near-perfect "roundness" and distribution of the spots that appears on the right sides seems more uniform like you just sprayed, well, dots, instead of a pattern.  

Great idea and execution on opening up the lifting eyes on the nose...they look substantially better as 3-D parts and you'd never know by looking at them that they weren't parts added vs. molded-on modified.

Doog - don't know HOW I missed this thread until page 4...that paintjob is spectacular.

I know you're not a big fan of GB's, but MAN do I wish I had been able to get you in on the 251's build!

wbill76 wrote:

Coming right along Karl! This is just my observer opinion but I would suggest perhaps tinkering a bit with some of the patterns a little more, particularly on the right side and the right side half of the nose top-deck? The left side of the vehicle looks like it has more continuity (if that makes sense) in terms of the squiggly-type pattern hastily sprayed on in the field vs. that on the right side. The right side seems to have more discrete "dots" vs. squiggles and doesn't "match" the pattern/method applied to the left...to my eye the pattern on the left side makes more visual sense vs. that on the right as the near-perfect "roundness" and distribution of the spots that appears on the right sides seems more uniform like you just sprayed, well, dots, instead of a pattern.   Great idea and execution on opening up the lifting eyes on the nose...they look substantially better as 3-D parts and you'd never know by looking at them that they weren't parts added vs. molded-on modified.

You know, I'm actually "behind" on painting this vehicle, as I wanted to do a scheme that was both eye-catching, but realistic as well. I was honestly torn between several ideas. To help me decide, I took every volume of Concord, Squadron, Osprey, and other publications books that I have (quite the large collection!) and carefully perused them with my trusty reading glasses, carefully looking at camo schemes on halftracks and support vehicles.

I was surprised somewhat by many of the really crappy camo schemes and some of the downright unattractive renditions of some of them; truly, a lot of these guys would never have made it as modelers! LOL! Some vehicles hadgenuinely unattractive patterns; some had schemes that, if you modeled them accurately, would unquestonably bring howls of derision or questions of your grasp of painting skill!

However, it convinced me that too much uniformity can sometimes NOT be the best thing for a camo coat. If you notice, I did this scheme free-hand, going strictly with a visual balance of color. I will say this--I seriously went over to the bench and looked it over, and "in person", it doens't look uneven or unbalanced, color-wise. A lot of this is going to be faded down pretty seriously, so you won't be able to see the colors in such sharp relief as it is now.

I do apppreciate your opnion on it, however; please continue to pick out anything you see as needing a redress! And thanks for the 's on the lift eyes--I''m gonna string some tracks from them on the front there! 

Thanks too, to all who've sent "props"!

dupes--thanks; I appreciate the thought, but again, we come back to that issue of how much exposure that would get this WIP tutorial? The MAIN reason I don't do GB's is because I want to reach the widest possible audience. not for the "ego reinforcement", honestly, (get enough of that in my job, LOL!) but for the didactive aims and goal of "giving back" to this forum and reaching new members, many of whom probably never set foot in the GB forums?

I appreciate the thought though, honestly!

I like it very much.

I know this is out of character for me, but I have a question:  Why clean the tip of the AB with modeling cement, and not thinner, a rag wiped in there, a q tip, etc?  I've never heard of this.  Don't get me wrong, it's simple curiosity.  If you told me the E100 tracks would turn out how they did using the recipe you gave me, I'd laugh, but I am now converted.  I just would like to know the "why" of the cleaning technique. 

WOW !!!......I agree with Karl on this one.....you really need to update your workspace Tony...or at least get a bigger desk !....and I thought my workbench was bad

Looking forward to seeing more Karl....Always learn something new from your posts !

Citadelgrad87 wrote:

I like it very much. I know this is out of character for me, but I have a question:  Why clean the tip of the AB with modeling cement, and not thinner, a rag wiped in there, a q tip, etc?  I've never heard of this.  Don't get me wrong, it's simple curiosity.  If you told me the E100 tracks would turn out how they did using the recipe you gave me, I'd laugh, but I am now converted.  I just would like to know the "why" of the cleaning technique.

The cement makes it disappear, even if it is dried--the Tamiya thinner wouldn't do that--and plus, the thinner is more expensive, to be sure.

Mikeym_us wrote:

What I'm thinking about the gun is that the paint would have came off due to the extreme heat generated by the gun firing. Guns with a high rate of fire like the Kwk38 would have the barrel going red hot to white hot so paint couldn't stay on.

Yup...

Great looking build, doog.  I am doing a /4-C and your work has given me a host of ideas and inspiration.  Thanks man!

the doog I'll second those comment on the gun, think it took me about an hour and in the end i had to fix it so it doesn't elevate. That interior is amazing, almost makes me wanna throw mine in the gardage. But not quite.

I had a first look at mine on Wed after getting back. I had used Tamiya XF-61 for the green, but am not very happy with it, way to dark. After seeing yours, think i might go over it trying 65 instead.

Brillant work there, and to some respect i understand your reluctance to do GB's. While i do enjoy them, individuals work can get lost in the crowd, and WiP's really allow us to concentrate on one persons methods and build.

the doog wrote:

dupes--thanks; I appreciate the thought, but again, we come back to that issue of how much exposure that would get this WIP tutorial? The MAIN reason I don't do GB's is because I want to reach the widest possible audience. not for the "ego reinforcement", honestly, (get enough of that in my job, LOL!) but for the didactive aims and goal of "giving back" to this forum and reaching new members, many of whom probably never set foot in the GB forums? I appreciate the thought though, honestly!

I fully understand...although no reason you can't do a GB and have the corresponding WIP thread going in the armor forum. At least the way I look at it!