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Elefant hunting

Those of you who look at the Battle Damage campaign will already have seen this, but for everyone else here is my take on the "preserved" Elefant tank destroyer as it appeared at the Aberdeen Proving Ground collection in the tail end of the 20th century. I rushed this for the Tankmod show at Bovington's Tank Museum on 7 October, because of course this year (2017) they have the real thing on loan for a "Tiger family" display, and I couldn't resist having a model on our club's table.

I used the ancient Italeri kit because a) I had one in the stash, and b) it was based on a careful measurement of the broken-down heap at APG. Thus, its many flaws often reflect the actual state of preservation of the real thing! I replaced the tracks with a set of HobbyBoss indy-link plastic ones, and added a few minor details from Evergreen plastic (mostly welds), but by and large the kit was build OOTB.

Painting was based on that iconic "ghost grey" that APG used on many of its German exhibits - presumably to obscure the unpleasant nationality issue and focus the viewer on the vehicle as a development of war machinery in the abstract sense. I started with a base coat of Chaos Black spray from a Games Workshop rattle can, followed by a coat of red-brown Tamiya acrylic mix to simulate the red primer seen where the paint has worn away. (Images on the web taken over the years show an almost time-lapse effect as the grey paint wears off...) I then applied a very uneven thinned coat of Tamiya's Sky Grey. Dry-brushing with burnt umber, raw umber, light grey, and a little earth followed, until I had the desired effect. Oh, and there are several pin-washes of the umbers, as well as a bit of black, to pick out details and shadowy crevices. For those who don't like taking this odd care-worn approach, the folks at APG repainted the beast a few years back into a natty camo pattern...