Tamiya Panzer II Ausf B - COMPLETE! (19.09.12)

Hi guys,

If you recall last week I reported on struggling to be able to get much build time of late so with things slowing down at work for a bit now and being on the eve of the start of Tigerman's GB this weekend, which is all mine as well as the Monday which is a UK Bank Holiday, now is the time to really get things moving!

UPDATE:

So, last weekend the basic assembly was complete and all ready to go (tools to be painted and fitted following the completed cammo scheme - stowage near the end).

Keeping it brief, I primed the entire build yesterday afternoon with airbrushed Vallejo grey primer and painted the main grey basecoat this morning. I decided to not bother with an attempt at a pre-shade as I'll be trying my hand at some post-highlighting etc. and my pre-shade attempts usually fail miserably anyway!

I basecoated the build with Tamiya German Grey with a dash of Medium Blue and the added some Tamiya 'Neutral Grey' to my basecoat mix and applied some highlights. Unfortunately my Camera batteries had been pinched by Dad so I had to use the camera on my phone. The basecoat grey came out lovely but the colour looks washed out in a few of the pictures but it honestly looks really nice. The highlights look great but the phone photos let them down. You'll see them better tomorrow when I apply the chocolate brown to complete the scheme. The barrels were painted with Vallejo Model Color Gunmetal .

Tomorrow I'll apply the brown and the decals and carry on with the fiddly Friuls.

Photos:

Everything after last week:

Photos taken outside that looked waay too bright! You get the idea though!

Photo taken indoors which is a little bit better:

The turret  (the paint blocked up all the holes in the muzzle brake so they had to be cleared)!

I picked up some AK stuff to help with the Panzer Grey scheme

As you can see she's coming along nicely now. I'll get the Chocolate Brown part of the scheme done tomorrow followed by the decals. Then onto the tools once the Friuls are finished.

I'll get some decent photos taken tomorrow for you too!

Cheers guys,

Ben

Cheers guys!

Ben, i just checked the photos in my PT 2-1 and there are a couple that show the extra armour nicely. And they are very tight fitting. They even appear to have welded where one piece of extra armour joins another and where it joins the hull. The pics are from the front and side, none from above. But it seems they did a proper job.

I know what you mean about work getting in the way of building. I am curently on 2 and a half months leave before i am out, so hopeing i can make the most of it with some decent bench time for once.

Yes, Bill is very guilty of influencing others to buy kits.  I lost count how many kits I had to buy after watching his builds.  I think he works for Dragon as an undercover agent.  But I still always forgive him but I don't think my wife does.

I brought same bottle from AK but I haven't tried it yet.  Can't wait to see you try it on your build.  Looking forward to your update!

No worries Ben, I've been accused of influencing other builder's stash acquisitions in the past, so it's no surprise to see you're suffering from similar effects! Appreciate the kind words, don't sell your own abilities short...you've come a long way in a short space of time yourself!

I echo Bill's comments. The weathering really can affect the colors.

Cheers Bill and everyone else for looking in,

I've tried my hand at most basic Cammo schemes but am yet to try this one - being a BIG fan of these early war machines I thought it be best to get this colour spot on (or as near as dammit anyway)!

Bill, as-ever your own site continues to aid in my work. We obviously share a taste for similar builds! Hopefully one day we'll share similar talent too Your work of late has been truly impressive!

I've really struggled for build time in the last couple of months due to work, work, work and oh, more work! People off sick, no-one to cover shifts and as a result I'm shattered at the weekends (when I'm not working and have build time I find it hard to get really motivated to build as I'm so shattered)  >:( AAGGHHH!

I'm not meaning to sound ungrateful in any way as I know there are so many people that need work but it's the sheer number of hours and the build time that is eluding me that is really getting me down at the minute. Ho hum! This bloody hot weather doesn't help as I HATE it!

Anyway, on a positive note. It won't last long and overtime will be down to two extra shifts a month. The Friuls are nigh on complete and next weekend is totally free (and we have a UK Monday Bank Holiday on the 27th August) so I'm hoping to make an impact next weekend.

One question regarding the additional armour (bolted on plates around the drivers visor). I've seen some models with the tiny gaps between the plates all filled. Should I really be filling these gaps in or leving a little visual gap between each plate. Surely WWII tanks with bolted on armour would not have perfectly interlocking plates like the woodwork of a master craftsman?

It's no problem to fill the gaps but I'd like to read your thoughts on this subject? Pictures from the time are 'difficult' to read!

Many thanks,

Ben  :)

It's good that you're "thinking ahead" to how the weathering will impact the final color. Pick the one that you think will give the best pallette to work from and go with it.

Hi Bish,

The Tank Brown is a useful colour but isn't ideal. Imo the Chocolate Brown looks A-OK!

Tank and Chocolate Brown seems to be the general favourites.

It's definately not a shade that would be suitable for a late war Tri-scheme but for the early war grey/brown needed for my Panzer II either will do. I've looked at the colour cards posted on here and it's not far off perfect - definately a very close match. Under the weathering and dust it will look fine.

I don't know myself, that tank brown looks darker. I have a bottle of that, un used so far, and its darker than i expected, looks to dark for the late war tri colour scheme to me.

Hi guys,

Still slow progress due to my workload plus we have soooo many people off sick with a stomach Flu I'm having to work 2pm-10pm today so the day on which I'd wanted to get the German Grey basecoat on I'm restricted to assembling Friuls. In theory manning the emergeny work phone from home on Saturday is notoriously quiet there's always the risk of being stuck on a 60 minute phonecall with someone - a call that will no doubt come when my airbrush is fully loaded and in use - not good!

On the plus side it's double time now so the offer of this shift was not to be sniffed at

Like I say I'll be doing Friul assembly during work time today now and I'll start painting tomorrow.

I have just had a delivery of two brown colours and have just taken a sheet of plasticard which I can wipe down later with Cellulose so it's not wasted

The below photo:

In the centre is a quick squirt of TS-4 Tamiya German Grey rattlecan spray that I had and around it is a cemi-circle of some browns that I have, you can see their names and colours quite well.

After looking at Bills website link to his Pz II here (I hope you don't mind me doing this Bill) http://www.bpmodels.net/Model/Album/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=38 

Scroll about halfway down to see the painting stages on the link.

I think the Vallejo Chocolate Brown is ideal and I'm sold on it BUT would like you chaps to look and see what you think - the colours go from very dark browns to light browns (there are several photos):

I'm not going to start mixing colours - close enough is fine as it's going to very dusty.

I like the Vallejo Chocolate Brown? You?

Cheers fellas,

Ben

Maybe i will try my xtracolour Schokoladenbraun and darken it slightly. I have the PT 1-2 now, finally, so i can do some comparisons with that.

Bish,

Testors designates its Schokoladenbraun as being part of the '43 Panzer scheme (the three tone) but I find it to be much too dark for rotbraun and mix my own lighter color. It is, however, a virtually perfect match when I hold it up against the color chip for Dunkelbraun in the '38 scheme. Go figure! HTH!

Ben i have been doing some checking useing the vallejo paint guide and the numbers given on the site i found don't seem to correspond with the vellejo RAL colours, so i am not 100% certain.

Bill, is the Schokoladenbraun you use the same you would use for a 3 colour scheme. Origionally that was the colour i was thinking of.

Ben,

I can't offer any advice on acrylics unfortunately. All I can do is point you to the actual color chips of the Dark Brown used and then it would be up to you to try to find a close match either with an existing paint line or by mixing your own. FWIW, I use Testors Panzer Schokoladenbraun (enamel) straight out of the bottle for when I'm applying a 2-tone scheme. It's a very dark brown to begin with so if you start there with that tone you may wish to lighten it depending on the weathering you apply afterwards.

Of course if you apply lighter shades in your weathering vs. darker, you work in the reverse. That's what I did with my Tamiya Polish Campaign Pz II and it ended up like this.

Cheers Bish,

Obviously I'll be laying the Panzer Grey basecoat down first so I'm going to paint the base of the tank and use that as a test bed. I'll try Tamiya Flat Brown, Tamiya NATO Brown and Vallejo Chocolate Brown.

Bill is a source of good knowledge re this shade so hopefully he'll help.

I think it need to be very dark brown which really rules out the NATO (unless I add some black to darken). I have Gunze Wood Brown which also looks like a 'possible'?

Update for yesterday:

Just quickly I assembled and teste fitted the Jack and toolboxes, fitted the headlights and added some basic fuse wire conduit runs to the headlights - basic but look fine.

Friuls have been started and are damn tricky being so small!

Hope you like her so far (sorry for the slow build rate) and painting commences next weekend!

Cheers guys,

Ben

I found one site which suggests for Tamiya useing XF 10 and XF 1 mixed in a ratio of 5:1. They also suggest Vallejo 822. But i have no idea what vallejo range that is. I will be very interested to see what you come up with as i have been trying to decide what to use for this as well. I don't think any of the Xtracolour range will be suitable, so i will have to go Acrylic.

Cheers guys,

Can any of you give me a final pointer on the brown to use. I have Flat Brown and NATO Brown (Tamiya) and others which are waaay off.

The was going to try some Vallejo Model Colour 'Chocolate Brown'?

Have a good week guys - I'm now halfway there with the Friuls and painting starts next weekend!

Ben

Got to love the RB stuff, I'm a big fan of what they have to offer...nice work Ben!

great work Hinksy. i'm with you on the RB barrel, i get them every chance i get. and stop builds till i get them. again AWESOME WORK.

Clay

Thanks guys,

The RB stuff is so cheap it's a no-brainer if you want this kit to look a little better. The kit barrels are fine and slide moulded so have open barrels but are lacking detail In particular the cannon only has dimples and no holes on the pepperpot muzzle brake. The antennae, of which I have several in 1.4m and 2m lengths are only a pound or so each. If you are crap at strectching sprue (like me) they are perfect and have the required taper to the tip like these German vehicles would have had.

I'll be working from home this afternoon so will only be starting the Friuls. If it's not busy I cann see a few areas that need a tidy-up and some filler.

I might prime her too but depends on time. I'll post an update later.

Ben

Nice work Ben, ye, those barrels deffinatly do add that little bit extra.

I was quite happy with the original Tamiya gun barrells but those metal ones really do add a real finesse to the model which looks great. I look forward to the rest.

Hi guys,

Cheers for the comments. I've been looking at shades of Brown and think that Tamiyas NATO Brown looks perfect? I have about 2 bottles unopened in the paint drawer and it looks ideal.

Any thought chaps?

Anyway, making great progress. I've not had masses of time to expend on this build recently so it's been nice to get this turret out of the way - it was an enjoyable assembly and I'm looking forward to getting some colours on this now.

I know I had planned to have the turret interior visible but have deided to keep it simple.

As you can see the tools remain unattached as do the two large tool boxes, antennae and antennae trough. I'm going to paint the basic assembly and wheels as you see her now (the antennae can be painted off the tank to be fitted later to prevent damaging the Brass RB antennae getting bent) then I'm going to decal her and handpaint the tools and trough - the trough has a woodgrain effect that might benefit from some tidy brushstokes.

Following the grey and brown scheme I'll put the tools on and weather it as one. There are two large toolboxes that I plan to paint with a bare metal finish to add some visual interest.

Anyway, the replacement barrels look great and dropped straight on - you obviously just need to snip the plastic barrels off and drill a small hole in the gun breeches to drop the new barrels in.

Tomorrow I'm working from home so I'm going to be pressed for time. I plan to fit the two main headlights with the blackout covers on them and also fit the wiring to them and I'll lay down a layer of primer to harden up nicely during theek. After that I'll start on the Friuls - hopefully next weekend the build will be ready for some paint.

• Some photos:

Upgrading the barrels: 

The build, antennae and antennae trough. Also the wire for use on making the headlight conduit runs:

Looking good I think? The new barrels definately do the trick!

Cheers guys,

Ben

Looks great Ben, I build the TAM Pz.Kpfw II Ausf.C Polish Campaign and it was an absolute gem.  For the brown, I just used some Lifecolor Signalbraun and added a couple of drops of black as the original color was quite dark from my understanding.  

There was a thread that talks about the brown color here

Looking good Ben, i must get those RB barrels next month.

Hello folks,

A quick update:

The entire lower hull is now complete and looking spot-on. What a simple build - after several mind-bending Dragon assemblies this was a nice break!

As I've mentioned before it has no interior but there is a basic interior in the turret and I'd like to leave that visible via open turret top hatches so some off-white will be needed for the turret interior plus the seat will need to be made to look presentable.

My Friuls from my friend are here now and ready to go so next weekend it's Friuls and turret assembly (plus I'll have to lop of the kit gun barrels and put on the RB metal ones.

I've left all the tools for hand painting and fitting after the basecoat is on. The plan is to basecoat and I'm going to try some modulation plus I'll be attempting the grey/brown early war German Panzer scheme. Decals can go on then tools then the usual washes and weathering etc.

The thing which I really like about this kit is that all of the road wheels, the idlers and drive sprockets are fitted via polycaps so can be popped on and off at any time.

A lovely little kit let down by them solid headlights - I think I'll just put the blackout covers on them!

Here's a few photos - nothing great as they were taken quickly using my phone camera:

PE Muffler Heat cover and Smoke candle rack which will need some chain adding for pulls:

All wheels fit via polycaps - very handy!

Friuls! Yeah!

RB barrels ready to swap for the kit ones (antennae too):

Thanks for looking guys,

I'll be hoping to get the turret completed next weekend and the Friuls assembled too which just leaves the painting and weathering.

All the best folks,

Ben

Cheers fellas

Generous comments  much appreciated guys!

I've looked into shades of Brown and apart from the various shades that I already have in my rather large collection of Tamiya and Gunze Acrylic colours and apart from a basic Tamiya Flat Brown nothing really takes my fancy.

I've looked on a website that I use for my Vallejo Colours and they do a shade called 'Chocolate Brown' that can be found in their Model Colour range so I reckon a bottle of that might be a wise investment - especially seeing that I have another Panzer IA variant in the stash to be built after Tigermans 'Steel Cats' GB.

Not having seen the actual colour in the flesh can anyone say if this would be suitable or do you know of a Tamiya colour that would be an almost perfect match. After weathering this Brown is going to be really toned down anyway so perhaps a Tamiya Flat Brown would be ok?

Onto the build: The Panzer II/Wespe Friuls that my buddy swapped with me for some Hetzer Friuls arrived yesterday so with the aftermarket Brass RB antennae and the replacement RB 20cm cannon and MG34 barrels we are rocking and all set to go!

It's been one Hell of a busy week at work so I'm using today to just chill and watch some Olympics and You-Tube Tank Footage etc as I want to do some Pz II research for my build. I've got Monday booked off as holiday (YEAH! ) so today the most I'll be doing is assembling some Friul links. Tomorrow I'll completethe hull assembly as there isn't much left to do in regards to the main hulluand on Monday I'll replace the kit barrels with my RB ones and get the hull built up in sub assemblies.

There is, of course and unfortunately, not a hint of any interior detail but the Turret has a bit (gunner seat, gun breech detail and detail inside the turret hatches themselves). I'm planning on posing them open with the pads fitted of the insides of the hatches so they'll be exposed and painted with Vallejo 'Leather Belt' colour. The Turret interior will be painted Off White and the seats again in the correct shade - something I need to look up on the web when I do some research. Padded Leather maybe???

The tools will be left until after the basecoat has been applied. I'd like to show some additional stowage too. There is limited space but the nice flat section on the rear deck ofers some useful opportunity. I recall seeing a Pz II build that was detailed in a magazine recently where the modeller had assembled a small base with low sides in which sat three Jerry cans - he'd used PE or Foil to make a convincing strap to hold them in place. I'll be doing that and will probably also try to find a good spot to stow some spare track links too.

Finally, as for the spare roadwheel that is usually seen on the Glacis I'll make up a small tow-cable to sit there instead as I haven't any spare wheels. Tbh the cable will probably look better anyway.

Wip update and photos to follow!

Cheers guys,

Ben

looking good so far!

Thanks Carl!

Ben