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Greetings from the Eastern Front


Painting
Admittedly I did not adhere to the rule 30% tinkering, 70% painting, since otherwise this project would have been finished by next year. As so much has already been written about the " correct " painting technique, I can drop exact specification.

Only as much: I used the so-called pre-shading-technique, that is applying a base coat of dark brown, followed by spraying a light cover of dark yellow basic tank color. One should be careful, not to let the darker spots disappear by extensive spraying. Subsequently, I applied several "filters". This is a technique that is intensified up to masterlyness by Miguel Jimenez, a Spanish modeler (see Internet-reference for more information). Old and new engagement damages and lacquer wear were represented with micro painting before and after the different filters. Slight drybrushing and applying pastel chalks (usually I scratch across the pastel chalk with a medium hard brush and paint this onto the surface, sometimes I make a mix with scratched pastel powder and dull varnish) the basic weathering is completed. By means of aluminum color (Humbrol) and a pencil, used grasps and worn places at the tank surface were obtained. The kill rings developed by means of a spray gun after previous masking.

Dirt at the tracks and the lower hull can be represented very realistically with a mash made out of earth, sand, white glue, food soda, cut off brush bristles, static grass and brown acrylic color (or at least water-based color). After drying, this mass was drybrushed with a brighter brown dithering at selected places.
A veil strongly diluted drab (70% thinner, 30% color) sprayed onto the lower vehicle portions concludes painting. Only a sealing with silk matt lacquer remains to be done. Nevertheless I forgot to tell you, that still the markings have to be applied in advance!

The emblem of the StuG Abt 191 is self made: After scanning it from the booklet " tank colors, part 3 " of Bruce Culver it is scaled down and printed on decal foil with a color laser printer.
 

About the Author

About Viking
FROM: WIEN, AUSTRIA

Starting with aircraft models in 1:72 scale, I soon switched to armour and figures. But only since 1998 IŽm seriously concerned with the topic of diorama-, tank-, vehicle-, and figure construction. Running my homepage: "Wikingers Panzermodellbau" also tak...


Comments

That is great work. Very, very nice and richly detailed. Love those well used road wheels.
APR 08, 2002 - 07:29 PM
What a masterpiece you did! I specially loved the battle damages and the painting techniques. Keep up the excellent work (and don't mind to take about half an year to complete such beautiful pieces! ) Cheers!
APR 08, 2002 - 07:45 PM
Simply outstanding work...marvelousness! :-)
APR 08, 2002 - 07:52 PM
Modeling at its best. George, you have me torn between giving up the hobby (since I will never be able to produce such beautiful pieces) or kidnapping you to my basement, where I will make you show me exactly how to reproduce the wonderful techniques you used. You really should be proud of what you accomplished. And, thank you for the terrific article. I know it's good when I find myself saying "Shit, why didn't I think of that" over and over as I read how you did it. I hope we see more of your work on display here. Mike
APR 08, 2002 - 08:28 PM
Wow!!! Great work there! The painting, the figures, the tank interior. The little details like the damaged road wheels. It's the little details that make a great model better. I can relate to the builder when he says Heh, I've been reasonably upset when a model I was building just wasn't turning into what I wanted! YodaMan
APR 08, 2002 - 08:29 PM
Well, I'm sure everyone thinks that about their skills. The trick is to just keep trying! This is precisely the reason Armorama exists! And if George dosen't want to give us a how-to at first, I'm sure someone will bug him until he does! YodaMan
APR 08, 2002 - 08:32 PM
Thanks Yoda, for the vote of confidence. I know practice makes perfect, but man, people here produce some really high-grade stuff. What I meant by the second part, about watching George do his thing, is about how people learn, I guess. In grade school, given a project to make paper Thanksgiving items, others would make lovely Pilgrims, turkeys, etc., and I was the guy in the back with one thumb glued to his eyelid, and the other up his "blo-hole". I just have a little trouble visualizing instructions off a written page. But, if I see something done once, I can usually duplicate the effort quite nicely. For instance, I read a number of articles on painting and weathering aircraft. I played around with a few techniques, but wasn't real happy with the results. Then I found some Video Workshop tapes by Charles Davenport, who covered the topic. Just seeing how others did it, improved my work considerably. It was the same material, just basic painting/weathering techniques, but seeing it done made all the difference for me. I do appreciate the written tips and techniques, don't get me wrong. They get me thinking and trying new things. But sometimes I think how nice it would be to actually watch a master at work. Mike
APR 08, 2002 - 10:40 PM
Yeah I know what you mean. Sure it's easy to tell people how to do stuff, but it's a lot easier to learn if someone's there with you. YodaMan
APR 08, 2002 - 10:47 PM
Outstanding work! Museum quality stuff. Look on page 10 of the article and you will find a link to more of Georges work. It's worth a look. Good stuff George. :-)
APR 09, 2002 - 12:02 AM
Hello friends! Thank you for your positive reaction to my dio! As "mj" stated: I played around with a few techniques, but wasn't real happy with the results. it was also on me to "play". Sometimes I try two month to finish the colors of a vehicle in the desired way and on the way to the result it sometimes looks as if IŽd better throw it into the waste basket... So my painting sometimes also consists of "recovering" bad stages of paintwork. One must knock his way trough this problems to get to a somewhat acceptable result. The problem is: how to tell others about the growing of the paintwork? My next item will be an Afrika dio about the L.R.D.G. (next year?) In the meantime visit: WikingerŽs Panzermodellbau or: Die Luftwaffe im Modell (German "Luftwaffe" in models)
APR 09, 2002 - 05:51 PM