Thanks Bill and Ant, appreciate the comments as always.

Very nice Bill. I hope to get some work done this year. I got my new compressor last night. Haven't set it up yet. But hopefully it will help me get some work done.

Good job Bill, as usual.

Tell me please how will do the antenna? Is it in the kit or you are going to use some aftermaket set? This is the thing I'll have to sort out in my Pz.III, because I concentrated on the painting and forgot about that small detail before...Tamiya part is useless and the model will look much better without that part than with it so I'll have to either scratchbuild it or find some aftermarket.

Jim, thanks for the comments and it's great to hear you got your compressor. Ought to really enhance your capability for sure.





Michal, thanks for the comments as well. For the antenna I'm using the kit supplied base and adding a Lion Marc 2m brass antenna to it. Simple and easy to add by just drilling out a small hole in the kit part.

I made a lot of progress with the weathering stages but didn't quite get this one across the finish line. Work started with an overall wash of enamel Raw Umber applied with a round 0 sable brush to the entire vehicle. This darkens the finish at first but provides a nice foundation for the additional steps and layers to follow.



The next step was the application of dot filters. I chose enamel Light Gray, Armor Sand, and Raw Sienna and applied small dots with a pointed brush to small sections at a time. The dots are then blended together with a square tip brush that is dampened with thinner, a condition achieved by dipping into clean thinner and then touching it several times to a paper towel to wick away the excess thinner and avoid "flooding" the surface where the dots are.



As a kind of "before and after", you can see in the pic below that the front part of the turret has received the filters while the cupola and storage bin are still in their unfiltered state. This process was applied to the entire model, working slowly one section at a time and all while wearing a breather mask due to the high concentration of thinner fumes.



Next up was the application of a pin wash of enamel Burnt Umber using a pointed detail brush. The pin wash was applied to all the raised detail and panel lines. I then went back over the same areas with the same brush and clean thinner and removed or adjusted any excess wash as needed.



At this stage I took a series of walk around photos looking for any problem areas or unblended dots from the filter stage. The camera sees things far more clearly than I can with the naked eye and a couple spots were cleared up and some adjustments made before I applied an overall coat of Testors Lusterless Flat in the spray can.

Once that had dried, I applied a wet mix of Mig Pigments Gulf War Sand using regular tap water mixed with a drop of liquid dish soap to break the surface tension. This was allowed to air dry and then the excess pigment carefully removed with stiff bristled brushes. I made further adjustments using wet and dry q-tips to get it to this point. I also used the dry q-tips that had accumulated pigment to apply a light dusting to the upper surfaces and fenders. I'm about 95% done with adjusting the pigments on the tracks and lower hull as I still see some spots where it's a little heavier than I would like...but will have to make those adjustments along with a few other small details later before I can say this one is done. Almost there!

About time Bill! I was waiting for this one!Looks fantastic, it looks the the MIG pigments work very well. Looks like i may have to get some when i get better at this . Did you dull cote the model? Looks very flat compared to before. The fading effect is something I'll have to try. Hope you dont mind me saving some pics, for future inpiration / ideas.

Almost there and looking mighty fine, Bill! Great idea with the dish soap.....never thought of doing that with wet pigments, thanks for the tip

Looks great as usual BIll. Keep it going.

Calvin, thanks for the comments and no problem at all stealing inspiration! I did use a flat coat after I had applied the filters and washes. I use Testors Lusterless Flat in the spray can to seal it all in before I applied the pigments.

James, I stole that same idea from someone else even though it's something I should've remembered from high school chemistry classes about the properties of water! Guess that's just one more thing in my past education that didn't stick too well.

Jim, thanks for the comments as well!

I made a few adjustments to the pigment treatment applied yesterday and installed the missing radio antenna. I also fine tuned the tracks for the sag and it was off to the photo booth for the final shots.

Another one nicely done Bill. I am glad folks like you take the time to post their work for all of us to learn from. it sure helps NEWBIE'S like me!

VVVVVVery nicely done

Jim, my pleasure as always and thanks for the comments! Everything I ever learned about model building (and still learning) I picked up from forums and reading about how other modelers approach things. Glad to know I'm able to give some of that back.

California Greg, thanks as well!

Nice!!!! Very very NICE!!!!!

Big John resurrects an old zombie thread,but yes it is one of Bills classics for sure.

Now there's a blast from the past! One of my all-time favorite projects for sure.

Some great work Bill. What have you been up to lately?

Wow, its a shame I didnt notice this project before. Great work !

Howdy Guy! Been staying busy, bouncing around on different subjects here and there for the year. Biggest project was a 1/350 scale USS Texas. (here's the link if you're interested http://www.bpmodels.net/Model/Album/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=670 )

Thanks Naseby! You can be forgiven for missing it. After all it was completed over 5 years ago.

5 years ago! And Dragon now hafe newer and better versions of the pz iiis and StuG iiis now, although I picked up tge old Imperial Dragon kit for a song, added some spares from left over newer Dragon kits, and it turbed out really nicdcactually, so if you get one cheap enough, its still worth while building.

Very true! The older kits can still be built up nicely with a little TLC and patience. At the time, the Imperial kit was the only option for a G and I had a blast working on it.