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

Thanks Eric and Scott! I really wish my painting skills are up to the challenge   I spent 2 years getting better at building, but did not airbrushed until a few months ago. That will be my second one.

I still need to find a way to mask and protect my interior.......

Don't feel bad Jean-Michel. I've been building small armor for 30+ years and I've never airbrushed on a camo pattern to any tank, except to add brown spots to a KV I once to see if I could do it.

As for protecting your interior, try leaving the top hull unglued form the lower hull. Then, when you have all the details on it, spray on your camo pattern and then seal it when it's dry. Then, all you have to do is glue it to the top of the vehicle. Any sandiong of joints or anything that needs doing can be hidden with weathering.

If you have already glued the top to the bottom hull, then I'd suggest taking paper towels and cutting/tearing thm to a size that you could stuff in the hatches and openings until they are snug and no gaps are in the openings you are stuffing. Do this carefully so as to not damage anything inside. Then you can airbrush the tank and when it's dry, remove the paper towels.

Hope this helps. 

ygmodeler4 wrote:

Wow Jean-Michel that is awesome.

Thanks buddy, I really appreciate        I hope to not screw up on the paint job

Ditto on that. I got the right side tracks on and boy were they a pain in the butt. Both sides were to short. So I had had to improvise. I had more of one type of track than the other. but with everything like the cab on yu can't tell unless your looking.

Secondly I've been dry fitting and and i discovered that there is going to be a huge gap between the cab and the back were the missiles are stored. oh well it's Italeri right?

Alright, finally done making excuses:  here's my Marder IIIH in all its..er.... 'glory'

The hosting site (voidgamers.com) seems to be on the fritz right now, but in a little while I assume the images will be working... if not, I'll find somewhere else to stash them...

Ben 

Prometheum, that is incredible! Awesome work on the wash and weathering. I also like the added touch of a 'five o'clock shadow' on the crew! That is great!

Gee, I thought you were horrible at painting too, I sure don't see it in these pics!

Duke Maddog wrote:

Prometheum, that is incredible! Awesome work on the wash and weathering. I also like the added touch of a 'five o'clock shadow' on the crew! That is great! Gee, I thought you were horrible at painting too, I sure don't see it in these pics!

Love that 5 o clock effect

Ok, it's now time for a last update before masking and painting

I added the Notek light wire, gun craddle lock nuts, exhaust holder, the antenna is made but will be glued after masking (boy did I learnt that the hard way ) , rear chain for the pintle and the gas mask containers are cleanned.

In this picture you can see the tarp anchor points on the shield's top. Also of interrest, my scratchbuild towing cable

Here's a 2 more pics of the cable. Really hard to get a close up picture.

I sent a reader's tip to the magazine a couple months ago on how to build one. In this case though, I couldn't use the kit's ends as they were innacurates (too short). So I had to scratchbuild them with aluminum foil and the ring is made of solder.  (I am to cheap to buy a aftermarket towing cable) Tell me what you think about it.

All there is left to do is a bit of scribbing on the plastic gun shield and masking.  The end is coming soon.

Looking sharp Jean Michel

What camo pattern are you going for? 

treadwell wrote:

absolutely top notch, Jean!!!-- a very clean and meticulous looking build-- the tow cable looks awsome!!  could you elaborate on how you made it or tell me what issue you had your cable details published in??-- excellent work dude!!-- thanks --- tread

Thanks Tread!          It was in the last November issue. But let me get into more details here    I took some cable that is used to hook up stereo speakers. There should be 8 tiny brands twisted in 2 goups of 4, running side by side. I took a bit longer than what I needed, and stripped the insulation. That's the tricky part as these individual brands are really fragile, and if one is slightly damaged, it will snap later. I then tried to separate each of them as best as possible. After this, I took 2 pairs of small locking pliers. I clamped down both end, making sure the brands are side by side, as close a possible to each other. I then started to twist one end until it looked like I wanted, trying to keep a constant tension.

I noticed that by varying the tension when you twist, it gives different results  

I made the end clasp by forming the loop with the help of a drill bit, folding the cable back to were I wanted the steel thingy (on a real one) to end. I glued it together a this point. I made the renforcement steel points in the loop by cutting a strip of aluminum foil of the desired width. Not the foil that is use to cover food, but more like the one for a pizza. I used the drill bit again.

The steel thingy was made from a band of the same aluminum foil, slightly longer than the perimeter of the surface to wrap. I then used my drill index, again , to bring it to the best tight fit as possible. The rest is just a matter of sliding it into place, rolling it in on itself and shape it to the desired form.

I will probably go in the techniques section and start a tread to share the knowledge

Thank you both Eric and Glyn !

I will probably go for a complex pattern of ..........  german grey  

I will depict a French campaign vehicle, and will try to work a bit more on my weathering skills. That will be my second one.

Good to hear Scott!    I just finish masking my Panzerjager. I tried to be very carefull of leaks, but the thing looks like a tower . Really, it's 3 times higher than the model!    At least, no paint should get in. 

Can anyone point me to an image or give me some guidance on what colors to paint the engine on a Panther Ausf. A?  The kit instructions give very simplistic painting instructions.... black.

Edit: psychoblue23 found me this picture.  Can anyone confirm that this green is the original color of the engine?

My wife is heading out of town as we speak, so I'll have several hours of modeling time tonight!

Made a fair amount of progress tonight, not as much as I had hoped however.... can you say "ejector pin marks"?    I'm not kidding, there were ejector pin marks on even the tiniest of parts, like the little hooks that go on the engine hatches (that I would assume you'd hook the chains from a hoist onto in order to lift these heavy plates off for maintenance)  Those hooks  are about the size of the head on a picture nail.  Very tedius to trim, scrap, file and sand.  I guess it's more an indication of the age of the kit than anything else... if I remember correctly, that was the "state of the art" back then.  They really could have placed the pin marks for some of these parts on the other side for example, instead of on the top where it's totally visible. 

Anyway, it's coming right along.  I need to get the tool brackets and a few other tid bits attached.  Once all that's done the painting and weathering will be a snap.  The particular tank I'm building is painted overall in dark yellow.... doesn't get any easier than that. 

I'm getting tired so I'm going to head upstairs and watch some military channel stuff on the DVR before bed.