Hi all, this is one of my latest pieces i have been working on, so figured i would take a couple pictures of the progress as of tonight.
So far its just been primed with mr surfacer, pre shading and base coat done with tamiya shot through iwata hpb plus, and dot modulation with windsor newton oils. tools painted with vallejo and the kit decals applied with micro sol.
The winterketten tracks are friul and have been treated with blacken it. This was my first time finishing these tracks and a tip to all who havn't worked with them.... don't blacken them after they are fully assembled with CA because each link has a shiny spot where the CA covers the metal and doesn't get treated. Fortunatly this is in the inside of the run and a quick pass with the airbrush will cover this learning experience, a good thing with two other sets that have been built but not glued on kits in the stash.
once i shoot some flat coat over the decals i am going to give the hairspray method a try for the winter white wash. i wanted to combine that method with mig's method of "mapping" he did in ospreys modeling the T-34 any suggestions or comments on that idea? as well im still kinda battling what colours of pin wash i should use on the white since i dont want to darken the finish due to the zimmerite.
I will appologize in advance for the quality of the pictures since they were just taken with my phones camera under overhead lighting on my kitchen table.

thanks again guys
cheers!
Jon

Jon;

NICE start! I have this kit and it's always pretty informative and very interesting to see how folks do it up.

Firstly, I know nada about the "mapping" or much of the other formal approaches and "schools" either.... so cannot comment to nor endorse, or not, any such! I do go with the pre-shading and some panel-fading, etc., and washes are a way to go (IMO).

Couple of ideas:

From where I sit, I'd be thinking of adding more very thin van dycke brown oil wash in the shaded areas to pick up some additional contrast. The zimm and the fender texture would, to me, pop out a little more with more wash down into the holes. (And... When you apply your white wash over, keep that light and don't fill into those zimm holes - which would not likely have been filled in with whitewash on the real thing anyway - unless the crew was really really liberal with that wash and dedicated to doing so!).

I'm not sure where this might fit into your scheme, but maybe do some wear and fading on the yellow coat to age it - maybe some chipping and wear-down on edges and corners before going into the white? This could capture a seasoned vehicle getting a white temp coat for the winter - naturally, the gelb coat would be the older, so it should be a little worn. The fender surfaces could gain, I think, from some dry-brushing with dark grey or a steel colour to hi-lite the diamond plate pattern where paint would naturally and quickly wear away.

I'd skip the hair-spray on this vehicle _ I don't think you'll gain much desired variation in your whitewash coat over the zimm - now, if you were going onto a typical smoother surface, yes... Here, I think you'll get good effects by either careful spraying modualtion, or by actually brushing on some thin white (this could do what you want if you are in fact thinking of emulating a brushed-on or broomed-on finish, as versus a sprayed - on one).

Do some more pinwash and use something like well-thinned burnt umber.

Depending on how used you want it to appear... maybe dirt and scuz-up those tools some. Yours look really good so far as I can tell, but maybe consistent and newish in appearance? Shovels, etc., get used and the blades could likely be variably mudded and maybe even partially rusted (hey, my garden shovel does that!). Your jack block looks good, too - And there's been some interesting thread elsewhere these - I like the wood look. As this one is large and in the open, it could gain some by some mudding details to make it pop up a bit?

For numbers and balkankreuz.... I almost always spray these with stencils. I have never had good luck with decals on anything like zimm, and found the spraying-on to give nice realistic representation of numbers which were sprayed on... Of course, that's me and I happen to have some stencils, so...!

Of course, these are just my opines and suggestions - I am hardly the expert on either the Stuh 42 or modeling!

Overall, I really like it! Way to go and I'll be watching for your finished posting! I am sure it will be quite nice however you go!

PS: On blackening Fruils.... I encountered that same issue with a set for a Hotchkiss 39 - I had placed a complete run into a jar with Blacken-It and let it stand around for awhile. The colour was amazing! And I did get those "silvery" holidays where links touched and blackener did not get in.

The easy solution - worked out for the next run - turned out to be simply sloshing it around several times during "steeping", making sure to move links and flex the run a bit. Also, pretty much like the acceleration in passive chemical plating obtained by agitating the plating solution, the blackening of the second run went much faster! And no holidays, either!

But your tracks sure came out looking pretty good, however you handled your gaps in plating!

Bob

I don't know why everyone does that StuH barrel dark gray or primer, it was unusual.

It does look very good, however.

thanks so far guys

Panzerbob- appreciate the comments and suggestions. again this is just the progress so far. still lots of work to get it where i want it to be. i will go ahead and fade some of the pannels in perticular the armored engine louvres? on the rear deck since this area went a little darker than planned with the oils. some minor chipping will commence once this is done. again that was my plan to have a field applied whitewash on a fighting vehicle not one fresh from the factory. as for your comment on the whitewash about it not settling into the recesses of the zim. this goes agains what i thought would have happened whether it is sprayed on or applied by some other means. i would expect it to settle into the recesses and the high points of the zim would get the most wear and the dark yellow would be most prominent there and would do that by drybrushing. as for the tools and such they will be weathered accordingly since i havnt decided if i want this vehicle to be placed in the middle of the winter in the deep cold and snow, or have it in the spring with more mud and such.
I read that thread about whether or not the jack block should be painted or not a little while ago. i think it looks better as wood and the method i have taken to paint my wood tools is a base of tan yellow with sunny skin tone as a base then brown leather to paint the grain finish with several coats of sepia wash depending on the depth of colour im looking for.
as for the tracks the issue i had was where the ca fixed the pin to the track that pinhead drop of ca prevented the track from blackening there but again that can be touched up with the airbrush. i did shake and tumble the tracks in the solution so thats not much of an issue.

lukiftian- I agree most photos show the barrel painted dark yellow but i think it adds a bit of interest and contrast to the base colour and should be even more prominent with the white wash. again thanks for the kind words though.

colin26 thanks for the PM i will keep that in mind. guessing thats the opel thats on migs blog? if so it is outstanding. thanks!

here is a small update on the Stug
I highlighted some of the panels with a lighter version of the original base colour, then i sprayed diluted sepia ink to outline each panel, create shadows and streak the zim to add some variation to the otherwise unexciting dark yellow. following this i brush painted paint chips using a Vallejo mix of german camo orange ochre and white. then on top of this i painted the bare metal using german camo black brown. its a little bit stark right now but i don't think its overdone and the following white wash and weathering will tone it all down. I have the next couple days off now so some serious progress should come along this week.
Cheers

Jon;

It's looking pretty good!

Suggestion / comment on your chipping:

You have some nice looking larger chips done in various places - but I don't feel that they "paint a consistent picture"! Chips come clustered in and on exposed edges and the like. And if there are larger ones - such as many that you have, there will be loads of smaller dings around. I think you'll get a better depiction of wear if you augment some of those larger chips with small dings along the near edges, etc. And maybe think about where crew might routinely climb and stand... these areas, and access hatch edges and frames- might get substantial wear. I personally find larger numbers of tiny scrapes and edge-chips more convincing than fewer, large distinct chips - but that, of course, is only my opinion!

Some of your exposed edges, such as around hatches, might benefit well from something like a light application with a black pencil, to depict the paint being worn off those most-exposed surfaces.???

Have you considered adding some faint scraping marks on the bare metal / non-zim faces? One thing I've seen done and tried a little myself is using colored pencils to draw in faint scrape marks - sort of "discoloured" lines, as versus depicting scraped-off paint. So, using some tan or lighter mustard yellow pencils could depict scuffing which scrapes off only the very surface of the paint, revealing a less-oxidized paint layer beneath. Just a thought!

Again, LOOKING GOOD! And I do like that barrel treatment - good contrast and interesting-looking finish!

Bob

panzerbob- I agree what your sayin bout the chipping needing to be a bit more varied. as for the smaller scrapes and such going back to your original posting about drybrushing wear and such on fenders etc would better be represented after the whitewash is applied instead of doing it before and after (excessive layers of paint in my mind) i have a set of prismacolour pencils from my school days. i have used them on previous projects and agree the effect is quite pleasing but feel that at this point in the weathering process all that work will go unseen once the white wash is applied again
thanks again for your thoughts. so far i am quite pleased with the progression of this model and value the input i have received this far. i have a t34/85 im working on i will post some pictures of tonight as well.
thanks
Jon

Jon:

I look forward to seeing your T34! Built one oh, perhaps 40 years ago... An iconic beast and simpler than most German builds! I'll bet your's will look pretty good, given what you are doing with the StuG.

Bob