Eddy - I checked the sprues and sure enough part D23 is there but marked not for use. If I can pry part B13 off the rear location I'll replace it with D23. Thank you for pointing this out.

On a different note, I wanted to ask you (and any other viewers) about two corrections the turret requires:

1. Vane sight - I know this needs to be moved to the commander's side of the turret. Do you have any close-ups that show this part? I'm interested to see how the vane (included as a bent wire in the kit) was attached.
2. Cupola - The weld bead at the base of the commander's cupola needs to be removed. Any recommendations for doing this? Only thing I can think to do is scrape it away with the tip of a sharp hobby knife, add Mr. Dissolved Putty, sand it down, and pray it doesn't come out mangled.

Hi everyone - Seems like it's been a long time since I posted anything. Work has been kicking my butt lately. I'm 90% done but I've got a question about the turret. The instructions show part H17 sandwiched between the gun housing and the turret, but I can't find it anywhere on the sprues. I also don't see it in photographs. Does anyone know what this is ... and where I can find it?



While looking for part H17 I noticed the instructions (correctly) show one of the two telescopic gun sights plugged. The part isn't called out in the instructions and I didn't even think to look for it ... I just puttied it. Does anyone know if this part is included in the kit?



I assembled the Aber barrel this morning and I'm very impressed with the detail (even though you can't see half of it with the naked eye). Rifling in 1/35 scale? Yikes. The kit barrels are good too, but I needed the earlier style muzzle brake for this vehicle. The following photo shows the difference:



Thanks for looking. All comments welcome.

I think I understand what Dragon did with the instructions. Part H17 is the plug for the telescopic gun sight. Dragon confuses you by pointing to a different part of the model. So that resolves both questions ...

@:)

@BillGorm – Bill,

Yes, the instructions are incorrect in that respect.






From this photograph I cannot tell if you’ve filled the seam on the brass part with super glue or not? Super glue will polish out almost transparent after sanding with very fine grade wet and dry sanding paper. I use Flexi-file sanding strips on rounded surfaces. Nice job so far.

Happy modeling,
-Eddy

Eddy - Thanks for the confirmation. Just to be clear, part M is the turret reference for kit 6312 (no zimmerit). That part is not included in kit 6302 (zimmerit) and is marked not for use. Instead, you are directed to use part P (which is the only turret in the box). Still, this clarifies that I'm not missing a part.

Can I ask you again how you use CA to close seams? How long do you let it sit before sanding? What grit(s) do you use? Would a Home Depot / Lowes carry wet sandpaper? And how do you use the wet and dry sandpaper together (i.e. why do you use both)? Sorry for all the questions ... just don't want to ruin the barrel at this point

Hi Bill, seems like you managed your Tiger II well so far. The etch and Friuls look amazing mate, the barrel is sweet either ^^

I think you can add the CA glue using a small piece of wire and let it flow using capillary action. I think it's best to wait a couple of hours before you start sanding

I'm no real expert but I think it's best to use sanding paper with a very fine grit

Keep it up

Cheers

Magic!!

@BillGorm – Bill,

There are several types of super glues available at most hobby shops and on the Internet that I am aware of. There is the clear cyanoacrylate (super glue) extra thin, thin, medium and thick gap filling grades. Clear cyanoacrylate gal and white acrylic glue – Gator’s Grip. For general gap filling, and what I would use on the brass muzzle brake, the medium grade super glue would work the best. The thin stuff could easily find its way where you don’t need it through capillary action. I almost always use an accelerator with the super glues and a Microbrush to apply the accelerator.

Bill, I usually place a small drop of super glue on a small sheet of wax paper this way the glue won’t set up and should lasts one session of modeling depending on the humidity. As Wouter aka, ‘GewoonWouter’ suggested you could use a thin piece of wire. Round pointed toothpicks would also work. I use the cutting edge of a No. 11 X-Acto blade as this gives me better control for adding the smallest amount of glue directly to the thinnest seams, such as on your brass muzzle brake. Add just enough of the super glue to the seam until you have a slight bead of glue rising above the surface of the seam. Then apply an tiny amount of accelerator near the bead with a small Microbrush and allow the accelerator to flow over to the super glue this way you don’t shock the glue into reacting to the accelerator and forming a foam like porous texture, fizzing or both. Once the accelerator has been applied you only have to wait a few minutes until the super glue has dried and hardened to the touch before sanding. Super glue won’t shrink once hardened like putties do, they take on an almost plastic like texture. However, don’t allow the super glue, once hardened by the accelerator, to sit for more than a few hours or the glue will become harder than plastic making sanding a chore.

There are many grades of wet or dry sanding paper available at most hardware stores that range in textures from 1200 to 60 grit. The larger grit numbers the finer the texture. The advantage to these sanding papers is there ability to be used with water without having the paper disintegrate. The water helps in keeping the removed material from building up on the sandpaper and acts like a cutting fluid speeding up the sanding process. I use a Flexi-file with their attached sanding strips that I purchased from my LHS. You can find these online too. The Flexi-file is handy for sanding on compound and rounded surfaces. I believe the sanding strips are a Mylar material that comes in different grits and colors to help you in choosing the right grade of strip for the sanding job. The file is a U-shaped tool that holds the strip across the ends of each of the points thus keeping the sanding strip flexible enough to sand on rounded surfaces without creating any flat spots that you would have if using a sanding block with the sandpaper.

Start out sanding with a brown 400 medium grit strip and proceed with the finer grits until you have polished the super glue to a transparent finish. You could then use a #0000 steel wool pad to polish the brass back to new again. Using the steel wool will give you the advantage of keeping the primer and paint on the brass as this leaves the brass with just enough bit on the brass to hold the paint. When your done the muzzle brake will look just like on the posted photographs.

Before doing this to your brass muzzle brake try the above out on some rounded plastic surface for practice first! Oh, I almost forgot to mention lighting. A good light source is your best friend when working with these small projects. The more light the better.

Hope this helps,
-Eddy

Wouter - Thanks for sticking with me through this build. You're right about the Friuls ... I've gotten into the habit of adding them to just about every model I make (unless it's a Sherman). The Aber barrel is a sight to behold too. You can't see half the detail once it's assembled, but it's nice to know it's there.

Eddy - Thanks for explaining (again) how you use CA to close up small gaps such as the one on the muzzle brake. I gave it a shot and it looks good ... I'll know for sure once I apply the primer.

Here are some shots of the model as it stands now. I've addressed most of the missing / incorrect items called out above. In at least one case (e.g. mushroom shaped ventilator on the engine deck) I left things as they were rather than risk damaging the model. If I've missed anything, please let me know ... otherwise, it's on to primer.











As always, all input / feedback is welcome.

@BillGorm - Bill,

That looks outstanding even without paint yet!

I am wondering if your planning on leaving the rear fenders off? If so you could remove every other hinge section leaving it look like what you did for the front fenders. Also I believe you'll need to fill in the recess, preferably with an approximate thickness piece of polystyrene sheet, where the kit fenders were to be attached.

And could you tell us a little about your setup for photographing your build?

-Eddy

That's not a bad idea ... I could stick a fork in this thing and call it done. Seriously, I like the idea of leaving one model on my shelf unfinished so that family and friends can see what it is I do down there in the basement.




You don't miss much! I'll be using the plastic fenders. I've thinned the plastic and have them off to the side for now so that I can get the tracks on and off more easily.




I use a piece of white poster paper as a continuous background and snap the photos on my washing machine (which is in a room that gets good diffused light in the afternoon). My camera is an old Canon PowerShot on a tripod I picked up at Target. Once I download the photos to iPhoto I just crop them and adjust the exposure / sharpness until they look good.

@BillGorm - Bill,

Thank you for the reply. I have an old Kodak camera and I have been wanting to replace it with the latest Cannon PowerShot. I am unable to shoot photographs with a white backdrop with my present camera. The photographs come out looking dark and I can't bring them to an acceptable quality using either Photoshop CS3 or Photo Elements 8.

-Eddy

Hi Bill

very nicely done mate, seems like you pulled it off adding those etch fenders. Looks nice and neat.

About leaving the model as is: I don't know how it goes in the States, but currently in Belgium there's a new competition category at shows: naked kit: I won a price or two with my naked models, especially because it seems juries like a lot of 'bling'. If there are such categories at US shows I suggest you enter comp

but in the end, it would be good to see some paint and weathering on this baby ^^

Keep up the good work I'd say!

Cheers

I posted this on the Painting forum, but figured I'd post it here as well:

I need some help getting the camouflage on over the zimmerit. Base coat is dark yellow and the camouflage patches will be olive green. Borrowing from Mike Roof's Panther build, I mixed the olive green as follows: 20 drops XF-58 + 12 drops XF-60 + 2 drops XF-55 and thinned it roughly 50:50 with Tamiya acrylic thinner. My air pressure is about 10-15 psi and my brush is a Grex Genesis.XG. Even moving in close and angling the airbrush in toward the center of the area to be sprayed I find that I get overspray. Any suggestions?

Is overspray inevitable or am I doing something wrong?

Thanks for any help.

@BillGorm - Bill,

Tamiya has a lacquer thinner (yellow caped bottle) formulated for there acrylic paints. With this thinner you'll be able to reduce the air pressure down to where you almost won't have an overspray issue. I've used this thinner and won't be going back to using the acrylic thinner (blue caped bottle).

Hope this helps,
~ Eddy

Eddy - A few guys helped me out on the Painting forum by suggesting I adjust the air pressure (since one got good results at 5-7 psi and another got good results at roughly 25 psi). I think I got the camo on OK, but I had to go back with the base color and touch up overspray here and there. Definitely not a perfect job, but I've got to keep moving ...

I think your lacquer comment is on the mark. It's the same advice I received from Mike Rinaldi when he looked a few photos: try using the lacquer thinner rather than the acrylic thinner because it's better for tight camouflage schemes. I stick to acrylics because my basement isn't vented, but if the lacquer thinner makes a real difference I may have to look into it.

Here's where the model stands now:

Impressive paintwork! I`m following this till the end and i hope that we will see full weathering process.

very nice work Bill

I really like that camoscheme I must say, seems like you figured out the overspray issue well. Even if you would have some overspray you shouldn't worry because in reality there was some overspray as well.

Anyway, this is an excellent base for weathering I'd say

Cheers

@BillGorm – Bill,

You must have spent a long time alone in your basement just looking at what you did with that camouflage scheme, because it looks outstanding and matches the black and white photographs of the real vehicles in that unit that wore that scheme and in MHO much better depicted than on any of the available color plates.

Because these vehicles had the Olive Green paint applied on the field by the crews and not at the factory, in most cases everything attached such as the tools, tow ropes, barrel cleaning rods, etc., would have also been sprayed over. You captured that detail too!

Happy Modeling,
~ Eddy

@ Bill:

I use a 50:50 mixture of Tamiya X-20A and laquer thinner (the ordinary hardware store variety) to thin Tamiya paints for spraying.

I also add about 5 to 7% Tamiya clear to the total paint / thinner mixture. This gloss clear retards the drying time just a bit so the reduced paint sprays better and it also helps to compensate for the reduced binder in the color paint in the mixture.

Sorry the mixing formulas I gave weren't clear. There are ratios for mixing the thinner, and then there are the actual color mixing ratios.

However, your cammo looks really good. Spraying over the Zimmerit is a tough problem, and the trick for angling the head of the airbrush is hard to use because of the ridges and valleys.

Sorry I missed your question in th painting forums. But it looks like you "cracked the code" anyways!

I've been admiring this build ever since you started it and I'm looking forward to seeing the final product. Thanks for sharing, Bill!

Seems like forever since I posted an update. It's only been a week or so but I had to hunt for my own build log. I found it back on page 11 ... not good, not good.

Stefan - Thank you for the kind words and good to have you along. I'll try to take photos as I move through the weathering process. I prefer more heavily weathered models, but in this case I may have to show restraint because the vehicle I'm modeling was manufactured in May and destroyed in August of 1944.

Wouter - Good point about the overspray that would have occurred in real life. It's noticeable on the model if you look closely, but I'm betting the weathering process will conceal it.

Eddy - I'm actually relieved to hear you say the camo looks more or less in line with other vehicles from this unit. I've tried to be accurate with this build and it would make me cry if I had to repaint.

Mike - Thanks for clarifying the ratios you're using with your paints. I'll have to try adding Tamiya clear gloss to the paint next time to see how it works. I'm also eager to try to thinning with lacquer thinner as a number of people have commented how much better it works than acrylic thinner. Got to get the basement vented first, though.

So, not too much to report beyond the fact that I've added the markings. I agonized over whether to use the decals that came with the kit, dry transfers, or stencils. Each seemed to have pros and cons and all I knew was I didn't want to screw things up. I took a chance on dry transfers for the turret numbers and they snugged down pretty well. The rear turret numbers are the kit decals cut up and applied individually. The middle "3" looks a bit funky due to the pistol port not being perfectly aligned. Any thoughts on using a sharp knife to cut the decal so that I can display the port open? The national insignia on the hull sides are decals as well since I didn't think I'd be able to get in there with a dry transfer. The glossy sheen you see is the Future I brushed on to seal the decals.









And just for fun, the P-47 I threw together over the weekend. Haven't built an airplane since I was a kid, so I figured it would be a nice change of pace. I'm going to paint it with my kids this weekend.



Two questions for anyone still reading:

1) How much chipping do you think this vehicle would have experienced, given it survived all of three months? I'm not an expert on the subject by any means, but it seems to me that chipping would have been minimal and restricted to the most heavily used areas of the tank.
2) When it comes to the tools, cables, etc., what should I paint versus leave in dark yellow / olive green? My understanding is the base coat would have been applied at the factory and the tools, cables, etc. (likely) would have been off the vehicle at the time. However, the olive green camouflage was applied in the field and went over everything. So my thought is to paint what is dark yellow and leave what is olive green. Does this sound right?

Thanks for looking and all comments welcome.

I have the Small Shop PE rolling set and it comes in very handy, especially the aluminium plate that comes with it.

Coming along very nicely. Bill!

In regards to the decal question, I think you could easily cut the decal with a new knife blade and display the port open or even closed and slightly rotated. If the decal was completely dry, the film should cut cleanly along the seam line. After you cut it, maybe apply a bit more decal setting solution to snuggle down the newly exposed edges.

Your question abou the tool colors is a never-ending debate. The only firm rule, IMHO, is to use a photo of the vehicle you're modeling. If that photo isn't clear enough to determine how the tools were finished, then the field's pretty wide open to any common-sense interpretation.

There are photos of German unit personnel in the field camouflage painting vehicles with the tools both on and off the vehicle (although it seems to me that tools-off is a bit more common than tools-on). Actual colors of the tools is another debatable issue.

Most tools seem to be finished in either Panzer gray or dark yellow (depending on the vehicle's base color). But again, there're plenty of photos that suggest at least some tools were finished with raw wood handles and black metal parts. The fire extinguishers seem to always be finished in the base vehicle color, tho. Tow cables seem to be either the base vehicle color or black.

(Raw wood, ie unpainted but possibly coated with linseed oil, handles on shovels and axes is the "farmer's rule" since the paint tends to cause blisters whereas smooth raw wood is better on the user's hands. And in fact, German WWII entrenching tools had unpainted handles.)

There's been some spirited debates over the color (and material) that the cleaning rods were in. One school of thought is that the rods were wood with brass screw ends. Another (based on a single vet's memory) was that the rods were aluminum with brass ends. Still another school of thought is that the early war rods were aluminum and the late war rods were wood (based on assumptions about aluminum being a critical shortage material), and yet another is vice-versa of this - early wood / late aluminum (based on a product improvement assumption). The only surviving museum examples that I'm aware of are wood with brass ends.

FWIW, I'm in the wood rods with metal (either brass or aluminum) ends school, probably un-painted to avoid leaving paint chips in the bore of the cannon. Having said that, I wouldn't be averse to painting a set of cleaning rods in raw aluminum (and even with aluminum ends) if that was the "look" I wanted for the finished piece.

So, again, FWIW, I think you could go with pretty much whatever makes sense (unless you have a good photo to go by).

For appearance, I generally tend to paint my tools in the base vehicle color, un-camouflaged with raw wood handles, as I think this makes a nice visual contrast to the camouflaged vehicle. However, I have done all of the above from time to time, to include camouflaging over the tools and spare track (based on a good photo of a near-new Tiger I moving to the front!).

Hope this didn't confuse the issue, and maybe someone else will chime in with their opinions to give you more options to mull over!

Looking forward to the next up-date here!

I probably should have asked this question before brushing Future over the decal to seal it. Do you think a sharp blade would still cut it cleanly or best to leave it alone at this point? I was so relieved to see the decals snug down on the zimmerit that I sealed them before anything could go wrong.




The only pre-wreck photo I have of turret 133 is on the Tiger im Focus site and, unfortunately, it's too small for me to make details. There might be more photos out there, but my Tiger II references are limited.




Didn't know this, so thank you for the detail!

What do you think about chipping a three-month old vehicle? I know it's common practice to show it these days, but do you think a tank - evenly badly used - would show chipping?

Hi Bill, you got the decals to sit right on the zimmerit, which I find isn't easy. I'm a month or two further with my initial Tiger II build and after several Sol/Set sessions they still don't sit 100% good

About the chipping: I wouldn't go too heavy indeed. I suggest to use a light yellow color (e.g. I use Vallejo Iraqi Sand) and chip lightly around the hatches and other parts where the crew passed. I defenitely wouldn't use the primer red chipping colors since like you stated these beasts didn't become old.

What I did chip a bit more heavy was the running gear since I think that got a bit more of a battering (and even if it's maybe not realistic, I think it looks great LOL):


Your wingy thingy looks mighty fine too btw

Cheers