Experiences gained from the building the Rakete:

General

You need some pictures of the "real thing" (or it's sibling the KaJaPa) to build a unit "in the field". The Revell instructions will build a unit "in the museeum"

Some fine details in the instruction (missile hatch, optics detail) take careful study of the plan. Again a real world picture or three is helpful

The tank builds into the mid (HOT) or late (HOT and night fighting) version. Not the early (SS-11) or the Austrian "command" version

The model itself

Decend fit with some filling needed where the upper hull and the sidewalls meet. The most tricky part is the step down from the frontal hull to the engine deck. Make sure you have filled and sanded that part properly before adding the engine grills

The Missile tube itself needs some filling and sanding in the seams. Depending on what photo source you use it also needs a rim added to the tubes end(s). This may be only present in exercise tubes (The tube in the model is a live one)

The mirrors are fragile (one of mine broke of). And the kit only allows them in the "up" (In use) position. Most pictures showing vehicles in the field have the mirrors folded down against the hull. So I cut them off where the mirror stalk meets the plug on the hull

The hull maschine gun needs to be drilled out on the muzzle to look real

The rear "mounting aid" (a small, grilled plate) needs his grills cut open carefully. It is easy to break and a very small piece to repair.

The tank offers two options for the front "basket" (Used to stow the cammo net when not in use). Only the one with the round railing seems to be in use in germany.

Remember to fix the tracks before you mate the hulls. Unlike the Kanone you can't do so afterwards

Painting

NATO black is NOT black. So using "black" to mark out the camo pattern is a bad idea

Mascol (liquid masking) to mark out the cammo pattern didn't work for me. Trying to pull it off didn't work (after 24h of settling) so I had to use an old brush. That took of some of the paint

I overpainted the model with heavily thinned (30-40 paint to 70-60 thinner) Tamiya paints. Single stroke in one direction, allow some drying time.

After almost two years my 15€ "comes with the compressor" airbrush has died during the build. Damn, I expected it to hold up at least 10 years

Changes and third party stuff

I replaced the towing hooks with resin pieces from Perfect Scale I had. Not a "must have" but I had them around from my "Luchs" build where I managed to loose two of the pieces and PS delivers 8 in a pack for 3€

Replacing the commanders maschine gun should be considered. PS has a better one (Compare the KaJaPa pictures in the BW campaign) than the kit piece (2 for 7€). The Revell one is decend and since I used my last one for a Leopard build (and my dealer is out of stock) I fixed that

PS has a etched/resin set out that replaces the front/rear mudguards, tools and tool holders and rear lights. Designed for the KaJaPa but the two share a common hull. I opted against it since I plan to use heavy cammo netting and I am not sure if the tool holders fit with the changed mounting of the snow grips. This one would be costly (around 17€)

I wouldn't replace the tracks since most is covered by the skirts and the rest will end up in "mud". For a "during presentations" model or a Kanone your milage may vary.

Tominizer,

Are you sure you took a 20-year break from building? That SU-85 is awesome! I'll be proud to award a ribbon. And you're dead right to say the main goal is fun - too many folk lose sight of the personal satisfaction when faced with all the conflicting info & advice you can find in public forums.

Tom

MBR,

Thanks for the detailed look at the Rakete, which I will file away for reference! (I'll build one eventually, but not til I do a KaJaPa...)

I find Maskol tends to eat into underlying paint, especially acrylic, so removing it fast is a must. I tend to use it only on clear parts for that very reason, and I usually embed a bit of paper as a "handle" to use when pulling it off. Mostly it's when I paint passenger coaches for my model railroading, and have loads of windows to mask...

Tom

Tominizer,
Looks great after 20 years. I just recently got back into building after more that a 25 year layoff. I never did any weathering or stuff like that until a few months ago still trying to figure out the chipping. If you don't mind describing your technique I'm sure I won't be the only one to learn something. Again great job and Thanks.
Sal

Hi all Started on my Fujimi 1/76 88mm and crew last week, will post photos in the next couple of days.
The molding is slightly off centre and there are strong seam lines and flash everywhere!
The crew are very poor so will only use 2 and replace the other 4 with converted DAK infantry,hopefully!
Very nice looking builds being done.
mmeier: i've never seen a Rakete before so was great to see one built.
barkingdigger: the detail on that M36 is amazing!
tominizer: Nice work on the SU-85 the paint chips and rust look great,just discovered washes and pigments myself so wanting to learn more about using them.
Cheers,
Tim

After so many superb entries it's time for my Achilles Mk.IIc from AFV Club:

Thanks for the comments. I appreciate the feedback.

Tom, I've found that fun IS key and that if you are willing to put your work out there in the public realm, be prepared to have it shot-up.


Ok, here's a simple explanation on the rust/chip work I did. And right up front, I'm not the creator of these methods. Someone else smarter then I came up with this stuff..... although executing it has it's own issues as well !! Here's what I did.

The small chips:
Basically taking your dark rust medium in a small flat plate and letting it start to just dry out..... and yet it's still a slightly wet paint (if that makes sense). Then with a piece of small steel wool, rub the steel wool in the paint medium and gently dab the area to be chipped up (fenders and areas of wear and tear). It took me a few attempts to figure out how this process works well (for me). The consistency of the paint medium is important and hard to describe. Also, the steel wook should be fairly loose and "hairy"!! What you're trying to do is put a whole bunch of tiny specks (chips) of paint on the surface of the model. Too much paint on the steel wool makes a mess. A few times I applied the chips and took them off immediately as it didn't look right. Practice is key !! Often I found that after loading up the steel wool with paint, my first (and possibly second) "dab" would be on a piece of paper and then I'd proceed to the model if the effect looked decent......... or the amount of paint coming off the steel wool was to my statisfaction.

Bigger Chips/Chunks:
Pictures 3 and 4 show this type of damage well. For the bigger chips, I lightened the base color substantially and painted out areas that would have seen heavier damage with this color. Then ontop of that lightened base paint, you carefully paint in the rust colors you want to use........ dark rust being the primary. The trick (I think) to pulling this off to make it look right is that the lighten base color has to only show as a VERY thin line around the rust patch. The thinner the line is of the lightened base color, the better the effect comes off. This took me a while to execute to my liking and some of the spots still........... how shall I say.......... looked suck-ish !! Those I didn't show in the pictures !!


Streaking (no, not down the street !!):
Off all these rusting points, I'd use an oil base paint to dab a tiny spot of rust colored oil paint and then draw that paint down the surface to try and pull off a streaking rust effect to finish off the rusting damage. Not going too crazy with this effect was key for me as too much of it ruined how I wanted this piece to look. This means I had to often take OFF the oils in places where it was just too much.

Anyways, I hope that gives out some ideas for others to try to pull off rusted "chipping".

Tominizer,
Thanks for the explanation. When I can walk again, had ankle surgery yesterday, I will try some of these techniques on paper or scrap plastic first. I Just finished a LVT-4 Water Buffalo that can use some rust streaks. Thanks again.
Sal

Marcin, nice Achilles! (I have a half-finished Academy effort in storage somewhere...) I like the subtle road dust a lot.

Sal, hope the surgery went well, and they get you on your feet again real soon!

Tom

A bit of an update on the JagdPanzer Kanone.

Basecoat done, decals applied and a bit of detail painting done - some more detail painting to go

I need to add the Aerials and then weather the beast after I've finished the detail painting.

The track color will be toned down / blended and I'll dust the beast up






Cheers

Paul

Hi Guys,
Tom thanks for the well wishes all I can say is thank god for pain killers.
@Paul that JagdPanzer Kanone looks great what color is that?
Cheers

Hey Sal !

The JPK is Gunze Hobby Color H78 base and H78 with some H313 for the shading.

Cheers

Paul

Hi all,
here is my LAV III TUA WIP link:
https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/144109&page=1#1204418

@Tom:

Great KaJaPa. And thanks for the color info, looks like a good match for "Gelboliv" after a few month of use.

Now all one needs is a small city in germany, a few over-eager tankers, bunch of M2 Bradleys and the mayhem can begin

Hey all,

I've got a real problem with the M36B1 build - I won't have enough time. (I will be fairly busy for the last weeks of the campaign, and it really needs attention to keep up the standard of the work.)

So, I am thinking of a swift build of a Revell SU-100 from my stash, to be done completely OOB as a monument tank! I've been surfing for pics of suitable prototypes and I rather like one with clean white wheels and waxy green paint. Of course the tracks will be "hammerite" black, and there might be a little bit of rust and broken parts to add to the fossilised effect... I should get the construction done in a few days, and paint by the weekend. (Eventually I'll build a plinth for it, and see if I can copy a cyrillic name plaque to put in front of it on a post! There is a tank in Minsk that sits on a raised curb in the middle of a car-park that looks like a neat dio...)

Of course I will continue to plug on with the M36B1 and continue to post on it, but this way I can still qualify in time for the ribbon...

Thoughts, anyone?

Tom

Hi all, just a quick progress shot of the'88. Crew and dio progressing slowly.Forgot how annoying trying to clean up seam lines and flash is on 1:76 scale plastic figures.
Tom:sounds ok to me.I'd be interested to see a monument tank been built,like to see how you'll get that "museum" finish they always seem to have
Cheers
Tim

Yes the Color is a perfect match for Gelboliv out of the bottle, but the highlights add some good contrast also.

I used PaintAssistant 3.0 to find the best match

No tankers this time as I don't really know of any Nato type troops that would suit (early 80's). So after the beast is weathered that'll be it. Hopefully this weekend

Well, Y-Modelle has a few Panzercrew 1980 figures

Same for Elite, the difference between these and a Jagdpanzer-Crew would be the headgear color, panzer kombis where standard gear all over the Bundeswehr (unlike WWII). The second set needs a different paintjob but IIRC the combination did not change.

Oh and sorry for mixing up names

Thanks for the links mate

Maybe next time for a Crew, I need to finish this one this week, complete my Canadian C2 Mexas for another Campaign, then the LVT-4 for the Pacific Campaign

Hi guys! I have finished my entry, a Tamiya Pak40. It is a first for me doing a piece like this and I have also used some new weathering techniques. I plan to do a little diorama at a later date when I complete the figures for another camapign. Any and all criticism welcome.

Blueheeler,

Nice AT gun! It would look good poking out of the scrub at the edge of a clearing, waiting for a victim...

Tom

Nick,
I 'll have to agree with Tom, looks good, weathering looks good too, sometimes people go crazy with that stuff, but needs a crew or some brush around it may be a tree behind too.

... and of course a burning Sherman in front of it!

Tom

Or maybe set up in a small french village, waiting for Robert Mitchum to drive his tanks into the trap.

Thankyou very much guys for looking and commenting, really appreciate it! I tried hard not to over do it but thought I would try and keep it simple. It was also the first time I had used Tamiya weathering kit and a charcoal pencil. Always learning new tricks on here!
And I was thinking about a little diorama with a sherman and maybe another Pak40 hidden in some hedges? See how that one goes, with my luck it will sit on the shelf for many years to come!