David. Bob,

Appreciate the comments. As a way to kind of set the stage and avoid disappointment for some, while most people assume that all North Africa vehicles should be treated rough in terms of whitewash-in-the-desert style chipping, damage, etc., the reality for most vehicles is very different. Those vehicles that were sent to the theater in 1942-1943 for example were painted in their "Tropen" scheme prior to shipment vs. the vehicles that were present in 1941 that used hasty field-applied paint or even smeared mud as their means of camoflage. As a result, the weathering on this one will not be in the pattern that some might expect when they read "Afrika".

Good point about the weathering. Dan

Well i can only say that its great looking.
It means taht i still need a lot of training to get that far..
It really looks great.. imm looking foorward for the next chapter

This is shaping up nicely.
Great paint job.

Thanks DreeBree and Jeff, appreciate the comments.

Made some good progress today but didn't quite cross the finish line as it took a little more time than I originally thought to achieve the results I wanted but better to go slow than rush through and regret it in the end.

The first step today was to apply the decal markings for red 07. All of the decals were applied and given a light dose of Walther's Solvaset to get them to snug down tight. Everything went great except with the left turret side...I had the decals perfectly in place and the Solvaset on and managed to somehow drop the turret...causing the 7 to crinkle just a bit...was able to fix it for the most part but it wasn't perfect so later on in the weathering process, I got a little creative but more on that later. Once all the decals were on and set, a 2nd coat of Future was applied to seal them in.



After letting that sit for an hour or so, I started by introducing variation to the base color using the "dot method", employing dots of Italian Dark Brown, Afrika Braun, and Afrika Khakibraun. A 0 round sable brush and clean thinner was used to blend the dots and produce some subtle color shifting in combination with the previous base coat and shading.





This was then followed with a pin wash of Raw Umber to bring out the details. The excess wash was removed with a small pointed brush and clean thinner.



Some of the tide marks that showed up in the photos were followed-up on and I also dry-brushed some of the Afrkia Braun onto the turret numbers and balkenkreuze. The left side turret numbers were weathered just a touch heavier due to the decal damage mentioned previously.



Weathering will continue with a dull coat up next (have to go to the LHS as I discovered today I was out) followed by a pigment treatment.

Looking good Bill nice finish so far.
I think on my Hetzer I might of gotten a little heavy on the "Dot technique"
Coming along nice.

Thanks Jeff! The "dot method" is something that has to be used carefully I admit, very easy to go over-board with it! That's usually why I will just work on a small section at a time and take small breaks in between finishing one and moving on to another and even then still have to practice some restraint.

I decided to do a little bit of experimenting with this one since it's a monotone scheme and add another layer of weathering to see what effect it might produce. I applied an additional coat of Future to seal/protect the work already done and let that sit for an hour or so before starting in on the next layer. This layer consists of a more traditional approach of the "dot method" using primary colors on top of the previous work. Small dots of Flat Red, Flat Beret Green, Flat Yellow, and Flat White were applied and then blended with a brush dampened with thinner. In the pic below, the front half of the hull deck has already received this treatment while the rear engine deck has the dots applied but not yet blended to give a sort of contrast.



And how things look after the rest of the vehicle received the same treatment. I also added the neglected PE strap for the jack block that I'd somehow overlooked before and gave the spare track link runs another dose of Raw Umber wash since they'd also been sealed with Future to provide some deeper tones as well. One unintended side effect was that the previously dry-brushed effect on the turret numbers was removed...that was another experiment to see if it was possible to dry-brush in between Future coats and have it protected...the answer is no. Normally I dry-brush after a dull coat has been applied and I'll put that back in once the dull coat is on to restore them to the desired faded look.

Nice job! Maybe I missed it but what kind of paint do you use for the dot method? Oils, enamels....?

Martin

Looks great Bill. Thanks again for showing that picture for me. What are you using for weathering paints? I assume you are using oils?

Jim

Martin, James,

I'm using Testor's standard enamels, the little square glass bottle types for the Red, White, Yellow, and Green. So little paint is required that the smaller bottles are ideal (and inexpensive) for this IMHO.

for the "dot method" are you using tamiya paints or oil paints?
thanks

I agree. I love them for detail painting. Can't beat the price. I've never seen them used for DOT painting. I've only ever seen oils used. But hey if it works.

Another remarkably clean build. Well done.

-Matt

looks great bill good job.

Thanks Ethan, appreciate the comments.

Ollie,

Must have posted at the same time as I was answering the others. The paints are Testor's enamels.

Matt,

Added advantage vs. oils is that the enamels dry much quicker without the need to use any sort of accelerator or other process. While enamels are not quite as fine on the pigments as oils, the goal here is to just create a tint/filter effect anyway, so they work just fine.

So are you saying that Future must be applied before the Oil dot Stuff?

To late anyway.

Steve,

I do that only because I use enamels for the base-coat and it needs to be protected to avoid problems with the thinner when blending the dots. If you use acrylics, you don't need the intervening Future coat unless you want the benefits of the gloss surface. I put down a 2nd Future coat to preserve the earlier dot work I'd done to vary the shade of the basecoat so that I had an alternating enamel dots-acrylic (Future)-enamel dots layering.

So who the Heck is Steve???

Thanks for the answer Bill.

Steve, you know, that guy who bears a striking resemblance to you and has the same avatar...yeah, that guy!

Sorry for the mistaken identity Jeff

Hey not a problem with me Bill.
Just a little rib hitting
Why don't you look at my Hetzer and see if I can get that one line out.
If you would not mind.
https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/113364&page=1

Near the bottom.
Thank you.

Jeff,

Unfortunately by creating only a "rectangle" of Future for the decals, there's a demarcation there in the layers that the Dullcoat is going to pick up everytime, especially on an angled side like the Hetzer has. Generally speaking, if you're going to apply Future for decals, it's better to give the whole vehicle a coat vs. just the areas the decals are goin on to avoid this...unless you can be very targeted with the space the decals will occupy vs. a large rectangle/square area like you did.

Before you had sealed it with the Dullcoat, if you'd taken a q-tip moistened with some Windex and gently feathered the edges around the rectangle, it might have been possible to blend it in and lessen the demarcation, but now that it's sealed, you're stuck I'm afraid.

Final steps were completed today with the weathering. First up was to apply a dull coat in the form of Testor's Lusterless Flat lacquer in the rattle can. Once that was dry, it was followed by an application of Mig Gulf War Sand mixed in with ordinary water and applied by brush to the suspension, lower hull, and tracks. This was allowed to air dry before moving on to the next step.



In order to avoid breathing in the fine pigment dust, I donned a sanding mask and went to work with a series of stiff bristled brushes and removed the excess pigment. This is a time-consuming step due to the fact that there's lots of little nooks and crannies and, of course, a lot of surface area on the tracks to deal with. It's worth the effort though and I worked on one side at a time, taking breaks now and then in the process.



Next up was the rest of the hull and turret. I used a highly diluted water/pigment mixture of the same Gulf War Sand used on the lower hull. This was done to create a light dust accumulation on the rest of the vehicle and once it had dried, adjustments were made with the same set of stiff brushes where needed. I also went back over the tracks and lightly dry-brushed some Steel to the high points and pins to bring them back out a bit.



Then it was off to the photo booth for the finishing shots.











More photos to come in the Feature.

Nice finish, Bill, and as usual thanks for all the tips and tricks. What's up next?

Thanks James, up next will be a kit-bash special I've been wanting to do for a while involving Alan's Bison I and DML's Pz I-B among other things.