Hi all
Here are some „in progress“ photos of my 10 years on & off work: the A7V (540) in 1/25 scale. Now I've finally finished building this beast. It was a labour of passion and I learned a lot in scratchbuilding technics. Casting the tracks (Silicon rubber forms and Resin) proved to be the greatest problem for me, as each piece of the track consists of three parts. That was one of the reasons to build the tank in 1/25. In smaller scale the tiny parts would have been too small for me. Annother reason were the hundreds of rivets. Each one was formed with a Zippo from Slaters plastic rod.












The weathering process will keep going. Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
Best regards, Peter

It looks like a beautiful piece of scratchbuilding. My only comment would be that the colors seem a little vibrant, maybe an overspray of thinned buff or some work with miG's pigments?

Matt

Wow! That is quite impressive. I'd love to see some more "before paint" pictures....the metal work, rivets, and drive gear/tracks look great!

The A7V is in my top-10 favorites for tanks.

Many thanks for the viewing pleasure...and I/we hope to see more.

Mike

hi peter
from the pictures you have shown us so far this looks stunning
well done & please keep the pictures comming.........
neil.

When this is finished Peter make sure you send a feature to us, I really like what you have done with this so far, and we don't get many WW1 models.

Stunning! Absolutely marvelous work. Wow! Great colors, nice rivet details, great patience you've got.

Thanks for sharing! Cheers -

Tim

Bravo.
Definitely more photos please. Particularly 'in progress' shots.
Thanks
Cheers,
Charles

Hi Matt

Thank you very much for your comment about the colors. If I understand the word vibrant correct, you would tone down the colors in overspraying them with thinned buff or pigments.
I don’t have a lot of experience in painting techniques (after that long term build) and would like to ask you: If I would overspray the camo with tinned buff: Isn’t it so, that the entire vehicle would look like loaded with plenty of dust (Sorry about my English). As this tank was abandoned in October 1918, there must have been a lot of mud, but not that much dust. Any ideas?

To Mike, Neil, Darren, Tim and Charles

Thank you for your kind words. Here some more 'in progress' shots:








Cheers,
Peter

Peter- outstanding workmanship. A true piece of art. Keep those pictures coming.
Great job!
DJ

Peter -
What a masterpeice! You are very talented indeed - must have taken a lifetime to make....

Chris

Hi all

Thank you very much for your comments. Matts constructive approach was very helpful and I am intensely thinking about the look of the camo-colours. An element of uncertainy remains although I did a lot of research before I scratch built my A7V No 540. The question of the colour scheme is indeed a difficult one, as the question of the accurate colours never will reach a final conclusion. Therefore the so called ‚Buntfarbenanstrich’ of the A7Vs was widely discussed with THE expert in A7V: Rainer Strasheim. In trying to come to the real colours as near as possible I also made a trip to the Army Museum in Bruxelles to examine some surviving examples in ‚Buntfarben’.
Nevertheless I think, I will try to tone down the colors a little bit. Here some recent shots:





I apologize for the poor shots.

Cheeers, Peter

And here the result after toning down the colors a little bit on the front.



In the last few days I have been busy with loading the bogies with plenty of dirt as all the weathering had become a little bit boring …

Wow your tank looks great very nice paint job and weathering!

What did you use as dirt on your bogies?

Clay pebbles from one of my wife’s hydroponic pots, crushed depending on the necessary grain and finally mixed with MIG pigments. The advantage of that clay powder: It is soaking the acrylic resin up like a sponge.

Cheers,
Peter

Peter,

As a fan of WWI armor I love it. Very nice job indeed. I am looking forward to seeing the finished project.

Keep up the good work.

HARV