Finished...

Nice job Mike!

Well the Pz IV continues apace..
Sorry this one is a little blurry..




This one is totally OOB so please don't expect PE clamps etc..

Isn't it strange that some paints give you a different colour when you paint them on with a brush as opposed to applying them with an airbrush..

I am calling this Panther finished.



Having given it a light dusting of European dust and brick dust.



Although it doesn't show up too well on the photos.







Thoroughly enjoyed the campaign and I am looking forward to seeing all the builds completed.

Cheers
Martin

Mike: One of the best panzers I've seen.

Martin: That is one pretty panther.

Thanks Matt

Martin,I said the Panther was good,the figures bring it to the next level

Many thanks Anthony

nice output chaps...
I´m currently working to get mine done, best thing I´ll be able to achive is a photo finish (pun not really intended )



pre-shading done and back sides of the skirts painted...

Martin, Mike

Excellent works!.Congras from the South

Regards,

Alvaro

Folks are just on a roll (er.... tread-way?)!

@Warren; (Mostly) OOTB is just fine by me! I've gotten older, too, and time is becoming a little more valuable (and money a little tighter!) There's a lot of stuff and detail in these modern kits. And yeah, it does seem odd that sometimes a color out of the AB looks different than off the brush... I would like to offer a couple of suggestions as you go along (and maybe you have already done these, in which case it's all moot and stuff! ) on the panz: Remember that those cleaning rods mounted over the air vent were wooden poles with small metal ends, and that the starting crank had a handle made either of "Tuffnel" ("semi-Bakelite" material and reddish-brown or deep orange in color) or wood, and likewise, those wire cutters also had an insulating "Tuffnel" handle. One of the interesting details us panzer-painters can and should catch with those wire-cutter handles is that the "knob" at the end of each handle is (was) actually just a formed feature in the Tuffnel and NOT some other fitting or (as I used to think, a metal end-cap) - so those ends should be the handle color (red-brown, hull-red, or deep orange?). It will all look very respectable when you've caught up the various bit!

@Martin; NICE kitty! The riders add a lot of life to it - hats off to you, friend! I would like to suggest that you add some slings to those rifles and that MG - a prominent and very visible feature you could easily tart up with some very narror strips of 0.005 styrene sheet or even (gasp!) plain old writing (copy) paper - painted dark "leathery" brown, of course!

@Mike; Fine-looking IV, there, Pard! The scheme is really quite nice and the schurzen look just enough used to be convincing that it's a relatively new tank without (yet) a lot of wear and tear. The one thing which pops out that I would do different would be your exhaust / muffler. These got pretty hot and burned up their paint pretty quickly and became fairly rusty - so applying some very dark wash strategically from / over the top or upper portion would get the early phase burning, and doing some rusing (again upper more than lower) would do wonders for this salient IV feature, IMHO. That, and the actual exhaust pipe ("stack") would likely be rusty outer and black inside?

Fine stuff in the works, gents!

Bob

Here is some work on the figures for my Tiger 1
















I have completed 2 just a little more on a couple, and some detail on the rest.
Sorry for the picture quality, done on my mobile, and not the best.

Pete

Update on the HobbyBoss Pz. II ausf J...

On the way to the paint-shop, I realized that I had not yet done my intended fix-up on those mounted tools - i.e., add some tiny stretched-sprue flip handles onto the various tool-clamps. So a bit of fiddle later... easy fix-up and adds to the overall look, I think. (PS: these handles were actually small pieces stamped and bent from sheet-metal, so PE clasp handles are actually usually very realistic. A semi-good styrene fix is made by stretching sprue to a thin thread, and then rolling that thread with your knife-handle or paint bottle on a hard surface to flatten it - cut and bend a small squared loop as needed and cement on!)



And, hey! Those tow ropes... the kit supplies nice rope-eyes and a piece of soft braided string for the rope. I was going to use copper wire, but decided to give the string a go. Assemble with some CA. The string actually looks pretty good, but it does have those hairs all over - which (I hope) I can matt down with paint or with a dip in diluted white glue befor painting. Who wants hairy tow-ropes, right? The nice thing about the soft string is that it fits easily around those brackets on the rear and can be trimmed to be the right length. The kit supplies some PE "rings" for the end-hangers. Using these would require one to assemble the tow ropes onto those rings and CA the rings to the tank. Blah. So I replaced the PE rings with curved hooks much like those seen on the Pz IV for hanging tow-ropes. Made my ropes removable for painting.



That-all done, it was off to the paint at last. Primed all parts last night using my GoTo Floquil RR enamel (black).



I expect to move forward with a dunkelgrau base-coat some night during this week - not sure yet what paint I'll use... I am thinking of trying my newly-acquired Vallejo "German Gray"... (looks like dunkelgrau, to me.) Anyone have any experience with this one out of an AB? I'll follow the gray with some tan or sand - type camo.

Cheers!

Bob

Here is my finished Stuer Emil, just have to do some minor weathering and replace some missing track. I did create a rolled up tarp for it. Which I am going to attach to it. Need to call it done. I have seen many a fine model crated here, a great representation of panzers at work. A panther needs my attention.

Bob: I think the German Grey is close to Dunkelgrau. I used the Schwartzgrau on my Pz IV D a year ago, and that turned out a bit too dark.

Very nice Sturer Emil, Trevor!

Post-shading on my Pz II:

Nice Emil Trevor!

Lots of excellent work going on here.

Cheers
Warren

Bob: I agree with Vegard. Tamiya's German Grey is the closest match.

That'll be XF-73 like what I used on thiis 'ere Panzer IV Ausf.D..





That's it for now. Got it finished in time...

Good luck to everyone else.

Cheers
Warren

Matt, Warren;

Uh.... perhaps a bit of crossed signals, here!

I fully agree with you as to Tamiya XS-73 being a good dunkelgrau. That has been my usual go-to "acryl" base for dg (albeit I often add in a few drops of deck tan or buff to "warm" and slightly lighten it for some fade) - and I'm always pretty happy with it as a reasonable oob representation of the color - and I love how it generally sprays on.

But my original question, and the one I THINK Vegard was answering, was about whether the VALLEJO "German Grey" (a name attached to a otherwise not-to-distinct darkish-gray color in a translucient white bottle) was pretty much their representation of dunkelgrau! This question on account of I have recently acquired some of that Vallejo acryl paint, know NOTHING about any putative color-fit between Vallejo names and other's colors/names, and aim to try it out on the Pz. II J build I have going here. And it's hard to get a good visual comparison of colors in those white Vallejo bottles to what one sees in the Tamiya or Testor's ModelMaster glass things.

PS: That IV looks proper gray and German to me, Warren! I do see that it looks like you still have not done those wire-cutter handles in red-brown or orange-brown... "BAD"!

Cheers!

Bob

And the next step in the HB Pz II ausf J WIP...

Last night saw the next paint step; did the boxy Tiny Tiger in Vallejo "German Grey" for the base "dunkelgrau" coat.

Diluted that seemingly rather thick Model Color paint about 60:40 filtered tap-water:paint, sprayed on at ca 15psi.

There were a few hiccouphs with the Iwata (some small clog issues and maybe some pressure reg issue...) but it went on very nicely over-all.

I'm not sure but I MAY be becoming a convert to Vallejo! The coat is super fine and gives a slightly satin finish right as handled - something I am looking for, as tanks were actually NOT generally dead-flat in finish (I've taken to adding a little Future in with my Tamiya to gain a slight satin finish from that...) - and the clean-up was super easy.

Next up; a camo coat of tannish or beige blotching, I think. It being later 1942 and such being seen on German armor in the Russian theater.



Looks a lot like some other folk's gray panzers and such, right now! One could, I think, be fully-forgiven for thinking that we modelers somehow think that the Germans marched easterly with a dark gray mob of tanks (as evidenced by some dark gray steps and builds)!

Cheers!

Bob

I'm amazed you managed to spray Model Color with only 60:40 thinning. That stuff ain't meant for airbrushing.

I was referring to the Vallejo German Grey, indeed. I do think it's a bit too dark though. My Panzer II was airbrushed with the AK Interactive "Dunkelgrau" from their "1937-1943" set.

Bob - Vallejo 71.052 GErman Grey is the one I have used for various kits (including the StuG I used for this campagn)... to me it "looks" like a grey you could paint a german tank in - if its accurate or not is a different question. I also have 70.862 "Black Grey" but that is more like Tamiya NATO Black - good for interiors, chipping and tyres but too dark for overall german tanks

Vegard;

I have read elsewhere that some thin that Model Color even more - my going with 60:40 was mostly a conservative take on the thinning, and yes, it may well have still been perhaps a tad thicker than my Iwata liked

At least I stayed away from using my usual IPA as I do to thin Tamiya! THAT may have been a fatal mistake for the Vallejo, or so I've heard!

Yes, I understand that the Model Color was not created as an airbrush product from the git-go - but folks apparently have enjoyed it when thinned down, Having gone that route, I'll probably thin it a bit more next go and see whether the AB performance is better. The paint on the plastic panz worked pretty well and has a nice finish.

I'm 50:50 on the darkness issue - it IS a bit darker than either Tamiya or ModelMaster "dunkelgrau", which I have often used and like, but there is that school who argue for the gray to be darker than that often used by us panzer-modelers. I will be fading it slightly with some neutral gray wash, and (after the camo addition) adding some dirt wash and chalk dust, so the over-all darkness will decrease quite a bit.

@Rob W.;

Yeah, I thought that you might have been around with this stuff on your StuG. I agree with the notion that it "lloks like a gray a German tank could have been painted in". I am not wrapped up in the accuracy question and will willingly accept it when folks generally endorse a paint color as being pretty close to right. Knowing how my cars have changed colors over years with weather exposure... claimed exact color matches to "official swaths", etc., mean about nada to me! "This paint will accurately match that of a panzer painted by Alkett on or about 02 AUG 1942 and exposed to the sun and rain for not more than 2 weeks"

Bob

Actually Bob my StuG was painted by Freda Baumgartner, July 3rd 1942 - thats why the grey is different ;-)

anyway I like how the model air sprays so will get more when that runs out

Looks like Frau Freda did a darned good job! But Man were you lucky!

03 July 42 was a Friday! On most Fridays, ol' Frau Freda was typically all tuckered from a whole week with the other zombies all zoned from paint-fumes, emotionally wrecked by the improper attentions of Herr Oberseer (whose myopia and "needs" led to him fixating on a bag of turnips dressed in a daisy-print smock as being the sexiest thing since...), and dreaming of the coming weekend down at the Stube!

Bob

Panzer grey is a difficult situation. The early war/prewar grey was anthrocite which had more blue in it. Just adding fuel to the fire.