I figured I would try to make a build log post so I can get feedback along the way. This is my first build all the way through, recently I have just been finishing off those kits on the shelf that I have been mucking with for years off and on.

This build is for the APC campaign, so I only have a little over a month to get the thing cranked out. Hope all goes well.

My hope is to gain some feedback along the way as well as entertain us all as I embark on this wonderful endeavor!

Interior assembled


Interior, rear doors and front suspension assembled


I think this is going to be a fun kit to build because it allows for some flexibility. I have never done an armor interior, so that should make this very fun by itself in getting to detail things out. Also one nice thing is the 251 has LOADS of information on it as it is very popular with re-enactors.

Sorry, but red X's here
Rich

Fixed.

Looking good. Tamiya kit?
Rich

Yes sir, Tamiya kit. I didn't realize how cheap the kit was, box was marked 14.99. So far its been a very easy kit to deal with, should be mandatory for people starting. Its quality at a very good price.

Shake 'n bake!

Well, I finally got around to taking some pictures again. The build has progressed a bit slower as I had a long week that left me wore out.

I have decided to try and paint the entire interior first before I fix the upper hull to the lower. While the dashboard and whatnot is not very visible from the outside, I felt that it should play to my advantage and let me practice without the risk of making the entire model look bad.

I am still very pleased as to how easy the build has gone together, I noticed 2 sink marks that I will have to try and fill in on the outside before proceeding, but they should be pretty simple to do. The one thing I have noticed is the interior on the model is very inaccurate, but I want to keep this one simple so I will continue OOB.

Another night, another set of pics. I decided to try my hand at a little pre-shading, never done it before. I chose Tamiya NATO Brown for the color, I see why it is so popular now, it has a great tone to it.

Since this required finer lines and more control, I broke out the trusty old Iwata HP-C for this job. I was very happy with the results. After I took these pics, I decided to lightly brush over the floor with flat aluminum as I am going to attempt some chipping and weathering on the deck.

Until next time...

Decided to go for it tonight and start on the dirty work of the interior. This will end up taking me several days to get the results close to where I want them but I am pretty happy so far.

I started out laying some German Gray over the entire thing, then painting the dash with some Flat Flesh to simulate the buff interior used in most German armor.

After the paint had somewhat cured, I started throwing down some oil wash over some parts I wanted weathered. The wash consisted of some Van Dyke Brown and white spirits. I applied this over most of the buff parts, without sealing them with Future to stain the paint underneath.

I waited about 10 minutes for the thinner to evaporate and went at it with a swab dampened with spirts, which pulled up some of the paint, just like I wanted. After letting everything settle down a little more, I gave a slight drybrush with GW Chainmail to give the exposed metal look.

To take some of the "pop" out of the metallics, I went over everything again with some Tamiya Weathering Master Rust to bring things together a bit more. Finally, I took a broad flat brush and went in all directions to smooth out all of the transitions.

It got blotchy in a few spots, but I was very happy with the way things turned out as this was only the first go at the weathering, there is a few more steps I need to complete.



Hopefully in a day or two the oils will be dry enough for me to do some color modulation with the oil paints so I can clean up some and seal up this interior to begin on the exterior.

hi careos, is this your first? if so then its amazingly awesome. keep it up i would like to see the finshed product.

Thank you very much, Calvin. Yes it is my first complete build in many years. I have done some things here and there, but never really done any weathering.

I have mainly painted alot of gaming miniatures, but never done anything that doesn't breathe like vehicles and whatnot.

Great work so far with this kit...your interior is coming along nicely. One minor question, are there any seats in the kit for the driver & radio operator? Haven't got a Tamiya kit handy to look at, was just wondering...

Thanks, keep at it! Cheers -
Tim

Yeah, the seats are going in soon. I left them out originally to make the dash easier to work on.

Duhh!!! I should have thought of that! All is well, remain calm...

Cheers!

No problem, I'm just glad to hear what people think. I'm really critical of myself and always try to go over my abilities and get frustrated.

Nice work mate. Great build.

I finally broke down and started the modulation dots on the interior walls. It was a little crazy at first, I still can't get them the way I've seen...but im working on it. I found that if I use a little more thinner than suggested, the colors run really nice. For the dots I used Raw Umber, Titanium White and a little Ultramarine. I think the effect came out pretty good.

I also added a little titanium white to the seats, but I have to wait for the thinner to evaporate to feather it out alot more. I know it isn't perfect, but I am pretty happy so far with the progress. I would love to hear what everyone thinks at this point since its my first real try at the streaking.

Tomorrow I will do the inside of the upper hull so I can seal this puppy up and start on the outside. I'm just a little behind schedule on this one, I hoped to have it assembled by now so I can start on the F-16 for the campaign over at Aeroscale.

Very nice work!

Okay, I slacked off on the build log as I was running one at MyBattalion.com and it just took too much to keep them both going...

I was able to get it finished on time and was pretty pleased since I consider it a "first model" being that I started it and finished it within a reasonable time span (no stopping).

You guys may view it here: http://mybattalion.com/component/myblog/sdkfz-251-1-final-photos.html