Tomorrow is my wife's birthday so instead of the usual Sunday update, this one's on Saturday!
The exterior received some quality time in the paint booth today. I used blue painter's tape to mask off the interior and the detail work already done on the PaK 40 to protect it and mounted all of the road wheels on handy toothpick holders using poster putty and went to work. The rest of the exterior received a primer coat of MM enamel Italian Dark Brown to check all the previous assembly and putty work and provide a foundation to work from for the camouflage pattern.
Rather than apply an overall base coat for the camouflage pattern, I instead applied it over the primer coat one color at a time starting with the green (MM enamel Khaki), then the red-brown (50/50 MM enamel Military Brown/Leather) and then finally the dunkelgelb (50/50 MM enamel Light Gray/Panzer Dunkelgelb). After the pattern was down, I applied a mist coat using the highly thinned remains of the dunkelgelb pass from about 12 inches distance from the model to tie the three-tone scheme together. The PaK 40 is still only dry-fit at this stage.
At the same time as I was working on the exterior pattern, the road wheels got their share of attention as well. They received the same primer coat application and the rubber portions were airbrushed with MM enamel Gunmetal. Using a draftsman's circle template with the appropriate diameter holes masked off, I sprayed the hubs the different colors of the camouflage pattern depending on where they will go on the suspension.
Next up will be working on the tracks and the few remaining exterior details like the tools before heading into the weathering stages.