As is often the case, the amount of work I had left to do was deceiving and I didn't quite get to the paint stage as planned. I did however get everything done that was needed prior to paint so there shouldn't be any delays in getting to that next weekend. I rounded out Step 14 by installing the roof plate for the casemate using liquid glue and careful finger pressure to get a good join all around.

The next order of business now that the gun and casemate were installed was to revisit some of the earlier steps and complete some of the missing items. I added the external portion of the gun barrel as originally called for in Step 10 and also installed the Bosch light, fire extinguisher, and triangular front schurzen mounts from Step 8. I added the Bosch light conduit wiring using 0.5mm solder after drilling out the connector end on the light base and a matching hole into the glacis with a #72 finger drill.

I also added the base supports, parts K14, from Step 8 for the spare road wheel box and assembled the box as called for in Step 11 but left the road wheels out for the time being. At some point along the way, perhaps in shipping, one of the support arms for the box got snapped off and lost so I had to rig a replacement. On sprue A there was a very close part in the form of A46 that was the right width so I glued it in place and the cut the length down to match the other arm and allow the box to sit properly. The box was installed to the casemate side with the base of the box glued to the supports using CA gel since the base was PE.



I also applied a little bit of Silver paint to the backs of the driver's periscopes so that once painted the silver will still show in the clear face. The faces themselves will be masked with small amounts of blue tack poster putty prior to paint to preserve their look. I left off all the other tools which will be detailed off the vehicle and installed after painting.



That brought me back to Step 13 which deals with the commander's cupola and the loader's hatches. The opening for the loader's hatch was masked off before installing the hatches themselves to make it easier to work in that space and still protect the work done on the interior. The rear half of the hatch was added first since the front half needed to align properly with the raised MG shield to sit at the correct angle. The instructions for showing the hatches open and the shield raised have an error, the arrow that points to part K40 should really match up with the front half of the hatch and not the MG34 as shown so you have to pay attention to not make a mistake here. K40 is a tiny part that needs to be added to the MG shield and is the small pin that hooks to the front hatch in order to properly support the shield. The shield can't stand up on its own and depends on this support to hold it upright so it's a very important, if small, detail to get right under the circumstances. The small tab on the front of the hatch that connects to this pin has a hole molded open in it but it was too small so I very carefully opened it up with the tip of a brand new #11 blade. Then in a careful bit of choreography, I added the shield and the front hatch together using liquid glue and small adjustments to get them both lined up properly and let it set.

While that was setting up, I constructed the commander's cupola. This is a multi-part assembly also covered in Step 13 and the most important part is the PE inner ring, part MA31. This is a PE strip that has to be curved to provide the backing for the 7 mounted periscopes. The strip itself is very thin PE and flexible but still has some spring to it so I carefully annealed it over a gas flame and after gluing one end to the back of the cupola, used a paint brush handle to gently shape the required circular form. Once shaped, I used small amounts of CA gel to secure it to the supports between each periscope. The periscopes were then added using the clear parts provided. The commander's hatch and the top ring were added last and I opted to close-up the commander's hatch and didn't mount the "rabbit ears" scope due to the fact that the kit part was damaged and missing one of the "ears".

I also noticed that I hadn't caught two rather prominent ejector marks on the back of the mantlet before I installed it so those were carefully filled with putty and sanded down to eliminate them.



All that was left was Step 15 which calls for the mounting of the schurzen rails and the schurzen themselves. I decided some time back that I would do this one as a vehicle in Normandy so wasn't going to fit the plates but the rails were assembled and installed as directed in the instructions. The supports had small mold seams on both the outer and inner surfaces so these were carefully sanded down on the outer surfaces and removed on the inner surfaces with some careful trimming with the #11 blade. I did check to be sure before installing them that it's still possible to add the shovel and gun cleaning rods in their mount points on the sides of the air intakes. The space is tight but workable so that will make it easier to detail them separately and install after painting vs. detailing in place on the vehicle.



Now I can truly say that the next step will be paint...it just won't happen until next weekend!

I had to travel out of town Friday and Saturday but got back in last night and decided to make the most of my Easter Sunday and get the paint work done. Weather was beautiful, just right in terms of temperature, so I went straight to work.

First up was the primer coat of Model Master enamel Italian Dark Brown applied by airbrush. This allowed me to check all the putty work done with the zim panels in particular and I touched up a couple of spots that the primer showed needed a little extra attention.



This was followed by the base coat which is my own custom mix for Dunkelgelb using a 50/50 combination of MM enamel Panzer Dunkelgelb and Light Gray. This is applied in multiple thin passes over the primer coat until it's built up to the level needed vs. single heavy thick coats that can obscure detail in the process.



When I started on this kit I had looked at the various finishes presented on the guide in the instruction sheet and I settled on the pattern for a vehicle with the 17 PzGrenDiv, "Gotz von Berlichingen" in Normandy, 1944. The pattern is Olivgrun in a cross-hatched/fishnet disruptive pattern and I applied this freehand using MM enamel Khaki. The Aztek has an adjustable needle that works with the double-action and I used that to my advantage in applying the pattern. I cleaned up a couple of areas using the base coat color and then thinned down what was left in the cup to roughly a wash-like consistency. This mixture was sprayed from a distance of about 12" from the vehicle to blend the two colors together and provide a slight fading effect overall.



I also painted up all the road wheels, sprockets, idlers, and return rollers. These were primered just like the hull and the road wheels received their rubber portions via airbrushed MM enamel Gunmetal. The hubs were painted by airbrush with the same mixture as the hull using a draftsman's circle template to mask the rubber portions.



This will now get a chance to sit and cure up thoroughly before the next stages. In the meantime, I'll be working on all the details that go on the fenders and hull and start adding those as well.

A very interesting camo scheme to say the least! Any tips on how you painted it? Like how you started?

looking forward to seeing this in yet another issue of FSM I always smile when I see your name in that mag.

Your model looks great Bill, can't wait to see more. I really like your way of going through the building steps and explaining this and that. Makes the Bblog very intereting.

Cheers

Bill

Very interesting and a great build - I will be printing this one off as I have intentions of making one of these for the Italian theatre at some time in the future. If I might be so bold as to make one small suggestion - it would be a good idea to drill out the exhaust pipe to thin down the walls, as they currently appear far too thick.

Regards

Rob

Looking good Bill. Thanks for posting an update.

Matan, JimZ, thanks for the comments!

Rob, the muffler/exhaust is still going to receive some additional work in the paint/detail department and one of the areas on the list to-do is to thin down the exhaust a bit. I agree with you that it looks too thick and on previous Pz IV Smart Kit builds I've done the same thing with it, just haven't gotten to it yet. Thanks for pointing it out though, if left as-is the scale thickness is the equivalent of armor plate vs. sheet metal and definitely needs some help to be more accurate.




Jon, I started at the front of the hull and worked my way back and along the hull sides to the rear. The pattern is really just a series of Xs or diamonds that connect up to each other and I tried to keep in mind the limitations of the arm reach of a scale Stug crewman in terms of how long I made the stripes as opposed to the "hand of god" approach of my 1:1 scale eye and airbrush. That and patience was all that was really needed to create the pattern as I just kept extending the x/diamonds up and over the various features until I had the complete pattern done. One of the reasons this pattern was so appealing to me is how effective it is in breaking up the general outlines of the vehicle...something I'm sure the crewmen had in mind in the operating environment of Normandy.

Thanks as well for the kudos regarding FSM.

another great build Bill, your builds always inspire me when building my own kits, but i always fall into the trap of losing patience and moving onto another build then going back! though i'll be having a weeks holiday from work soon the first since xmas, so hopefully i should get some quality building time in that and if i can remember how to post pics on here, it's been a while lol. but can't wait to see this build finished. will you be publishing it in one of the monthly mags? Ant.

Excellent as always, Bill.

Ant, thanks for the comments and glad to hear you will get some time in at the bench soon! I hear you about the trap of starting another kit, I always work on a "one at a time" rule to avoid that potential temptation especially when a build enters the "hurry up and wait" stage of the painting/finishing process. As for publication, this one will likely end up in SMMI depending on how things work out.

Bill, thanks for the kind words! Have you decided on whether or not this one will join your stable of future Stug efforts?

Bill... have you decided on whether or not this one will join your stable of future Stug efforts? [/quote]
Between the Zim and the good kit, definitely. I'll wait until the price comes down in a few months, then start looking for a bargain. I don't have enough Normandy items in my stash right now, so it's a real keeper. Your excellent build makes it very attractive.

Bill,

Good deal. I follow a similar strategy in terms of waiting for kit prices to come down after initial release. Either that or a good sale!

Looking great. Ive never tried pre cast zimmerit. But now I will great job

Thanks Mike! The chief advantage of the Atak set is a time-saver vs. doing it yourself by hand. The thin resin also offers the opportunity to damage or chip it if you are so inclined but you had to do that carefully of course! [;)]

In an effort to make up for the lost day last weekend, I've been working on some of the details a little here and there over the course of the week. First up were the road wheels, I assembled all the halves together and then glued them in place on the suspension. The return rollers had their steel contact surfaces painted with non-buffing Metalizer Gunmetal and then were dry brushed with MM enamel Steel before they were installed. I also started picking out some of the other details like the gunner's sight and the periscopes for the driver and the commander's cupola. These were also painted with the non-buffing Metalizer Gunmetal using a fine pointed brush.



The next round of effort focused in on the remaining details and gear for the fenders and the spare tracks for the hull nose and glacis. This meant a return to Step 8 in the instructions and a quick check to make sure I had all the tools taken care of. For the left side fender the long and short crow bars were added along with the idler tension wrenches, wire cutters, and the gun cleaning rods. All of the metallic portions were painted with Metalizer Gunmetal and then lightly dry brushed with enamel Steel and the clamps hand detailed using the base coat color for the hull. On the wire cutters I used Italian Dark Brown for their Bakelite handles and enamel Gunmetal for their rubber end caps.

The gun cleaning rods had their wood portions detailed starting with a base coat of my own tan-ish "wood" color mix followed by a wash of MM enamel Leather. Once the wash was dry, I applied some burnt umber artist pastels with a soft brush to deepen their look and add more variation. The threaded ends were detailed with non-buffing Metalizer Steel and the brush cover painted with a 50-50 mix of Panzer Schwarzgrau/Russian Armor Green to simulate a field gray canvas color. For added detail, I drilled out the threaded ends on the top rod that's visible from the rear as well as the lower two ends on the front. Last but not least, the two spare road wheels were also installed into their stowage box and the top retaining rod added as called for in Steps 11/12.



For the hull nose and glacis, the two C hooks were detailed the same way as the metallic tools and installed into their holder and the PE top bent to shape and locked down with the wing nut. The glacis spare track run was assembled as called for in Step 5 and I glued the links together with regular glue and used the open holes in the Atak resin plate to hold the links in place while they dried. Once the glue had set, I removed the now solid run and applied a base coat of MM non-buffing Metalizer Gunmetal followed by a heavy dry brushing of enamel Steel, a wash of thinned enamel Rust, and a final 2nd dry brushing of MM enamel Burnt Umber.

I applied this same treatment to the spare track run of 10 links for the hull nose. I added some additional detail by drilling out the first and last track links with a #76 finger drill to show the missing pin openings for those links.



The right fender got its due as well with the addition of the crank starter, axe, track joining hook, jack block, and heavy wrench as well as the casemate side-mounted spare links and shovel. The metallic portions were painted the same as those on the other side, ditto for the wood portions. On the jack block, I used the sharp tip of a brand new #11 blade to scribe in a wood-grain pattern which showed up beautifully with the application of the Leather wash. I also detailed and installed the MG34 in the splinter shield. The only remaining detail for this side is the jack itself which I will finish and install shortly.



Bringing up the rear, literally, were the rear hull details. The three spare links and their mounts were detailed and installed as called for in Step 7. The lenses of the Notek light were picked out with Tamiya Clear Green and the rear reflector painted with regular Testors enamel Flat Red. The exhaust received some detail attention prior to painting in the form of drilling out the pipe on the top a bit with a drill bit and then carefully thinning it out further with a #11 blade to get it to a more in-scale thickness vs. what the kit part had started out with. The exhaust was base coated with MM Non-buffing Metalizer Gunmetal and then given 2 successive thinned Rust wash treatments. This was followed by dry brushed enamel Burnt Umber and additional treatment with black artist pastels to the exhaust pipe mouth for a slightly sooty appearance. I'm going to add a tow cable to the mounts later on after weathering so that was left off for now.



Next up will be the tracks and their installation.

Progress this weekend was good, everything is now ready for the weathering process to start next weekend so the focus was on clearing up the remaining odds and ends in anticipation of that.

First order of business was the tracks. I test fit the MK tracks along with the sprockets and idlers and determined that 99 links gave me just the right look, so 3 additional links were added to the runs I'd assembled back at the beginning of the build. The runs were given a primer coat of MM enamel Flat Black by airbrush followed by an airbrushed application of MM Non-Buffing Metalizer Gunmetal. I'd read that the lacquer-based paints need 24 hours to cure properly so I decided to see how they would handle if I did this...and let them sit overnight before continuing. I applied a dry brushing of enamel Steel followed by a wash of enamel Raw Umber and I think the added cure time for the Metalizer has a benefit as it seemed much more durable vs. my previous experiences. Something to file away for the future.




In preparation for the tracks' installation, I dry brushed the sprocket teeth with Steel and Burnt Umber and also stippled some Burnt Umber on the lower hull and suspension elements to show some wear. The tracks were fed in place over the return rollers and idlers and then the sprockets added and glued into place on the final drive housings. Once the sprockets had set a bit, the ends of the track runs were joined with the MK pins and that was that.

Since I was working with the Burnt Umber, I also added some slight scratching/wear along the "teeth" of the schurzen rails by lightly stippling and dry brushing them. Even though the plates aren't fitted on the finished build, they likely were at some point prior to removal by the crew so a little wear made sense to me visually speaking.



The next step was the application of an overall sealing coat of Future acrylic floor polish by airbrush. This was allowed to sit for about 1-2 hours and thoroughly dry before I added the decal markings. The markings are very simple, just the three crosses and a two-band kill marking for the gun barrel. These were added using Solvaset to insure they snugged down tight to the painted surface. The crosses in particular needed careful attention to conform to the zimmed surfaces, so multiple applications and a little gentle coaching here and there with a wooden toothpick did the trick.







I applied a 2nd application of Future over the decal areas and in a couple of spots where the first coat was a little thin in order to insure the finish is adequately protected during the weathering phases. Since this vehicle has a zim pattern, this is even more important due to the dramatically increased surface area I will be dealing with. The Future will be nice and fully cured by next weekend when I expect to start the final leg of the journey!

Bill,
Not a fancy camo job, but I believe it worked well.
Dan

Looking very nice. Can we get some close up shops during the weathering sequence?

Dan, yep would have to agree about the camo scheme. Thanks for the comments!

Brett, thanks as well, let me see what I can do in terms of pics during the weathering phases.

This one is almost to the finish line...but not quite there after this weekend's efforts. I had to spend most of the day yesterday working in the yard to clear some weeds and take care of various odds/ends before the summer heat got here so today was really the only day I could devote to the build.

The weathering process began with the application of an overall wash of enamel Raw Umber. I used a round 0 brush and applied the wash in a mostly horizontal fashion section by section.



Once that had dried, I followed it with the application of a dot filter using enamel Raw Sienna, Flat White, and the 50-50 hull base coat mix. Small dots of paint were applied to the model surface and then a square tip brush lightly moistened with clean thinner was used to blend the dots together. In order to avoid "flooding" the surface with thinner, I dip the square tip brush in clean thinner then touch it 2 or 3 times to a paper towel to wick away the excess. When the brush starts to get too loaded with paint, it would get dipped again the in clean thinner and wiped clean then the process repeated. In the next two pics you can see the "before" and "after" using the casemate roof as an example surface.





This process was applied to the model as a whole except for the lower hull sides since those will be weathered with pigments. For the areas that had zim, I applied the blending strokes in the direction of the zim pattern in order to keep the effect consistent in those areas and also add some depth to the painted zim surfaces. While working with the clean thinner, I wore a breather mask to avoid fume exposure and also had the fan going and the window open for maximum circulation as a safety precaution.



This was followed up with a pin wash application of enamel Burnt Umber. This was applied using a 10/0 fine tip brush to all the various panel lines, weld lines, screw heads, etc. to bring out the details. Using the same brush and clean thinner, I carefully removed any excess or "blooming" of the wash.





I'll let this sit overnight and will check the details with a fresh set of eyes tomorrow to see if there are any additional adjustments that are needed. Then it will be on to the lower hull for the pigment treatment.

Very nice Bill. I always enjoy your build logs.

Thanks Jesse, always encouraging to hear that people are enjoying the blog along with me.

Bill,
As always, Amazing work. I love watching your work. it just seems so effortless. A few questions if you don't mind?

Don't have an airbrush so it's all rattlecan & brush. I use the Krylon Matte acrylic clear & when I try doing the dot method I've noticed the thinner sometimes attacks it & eats through it. I use the testors enamel thinner & since you're one of the few I see who uses enamels for for their washes & dot weathering what enamel thinner do you use?

Also, if it's possible, can you post some more pics of the post dot weathering? it's hard to see the result in the pic you posted & it's very helpfull in comparing the results I get (which are mixed) to what you get.

Last question, can you give a little more detail on how you dot weather your zimmerit. I tried it once & found the colors pooled in the recessed sections & it just failed on an epic level. i'm guessing I had too much thinner on the brush or was trying to pull the colors in the wrong direction. thoughts?

Sorry, last question, why are you leaving the schurzen skirts off? just to show more detail or are you not a fan of them?

As always, keep up the inspiring work! You're one of the guys us newer hobbyists watch for inspiration and guidance.

Sean

Thanks Sean, no problem with asking questions, let me do my best to answer them.




I use the normal Testors Model Master enamel thinner. They market this in the red 1/2 pint can as "Universal Enamel Thinner" since it's designed for youse with Testors/Model Master/Aztek/Floquil paints/systems. If this is the same thing you are using, then the problem is probably with your choice of the Krylon acrylic coat. From your description, since it only happens sometimes and not all the time, it may be a case of the acrylic coat either not having sufficient coverage over the spot in question and/or not being fully cured before you apply the thinner. I've never used Krylon for anything so can't comment much more than that on your particular issue.




Let me see if I can get some closeups that are a better angle...the problem of course is that you will see it "post" pin wash too since I already completed that step so bear that in mind.




The trick here is to make sure you aren't using a lot of thinner when doing the dot filter. The brush should have virtually no thinner on it, that's why I touch it 2-3 times to a paper towel first to insure it won't transfer thinner to the working surface. From what you describe, too much thinner is the culprit and that's why you get the pooling. I always apply the blending strokes in the direction of the zim as well as trying to do it cross-grain yields less than satisfactory results IMHO.




Of all the marking options provided in the kit, only one showed the schurzen fitted. Since I chose to do the Normandy vehicle and it was quite common for crews to remove the Schurzen due to the potential for snagging in the hedgerows, I opted to leave them off. I have nothing against Schurzen per se and have used them on other builds, they just don't work for this particular vehicle.




Kind words indeed, thanks for that. Always glad to hear that the build logs and work are helping to encourage others. It's how I learned everything I know and how I continue to learn so it's all good.

Sean,

Here's a couple of closeups, one that shows the roof at a better angle and also one of the casemate angled zim patterns so you can get an idea of how the technique looks on both a smooth and irregular surface. HTH!