No comments!...just wonderfull vignette!

Matthew,

Your "Panther in a mud puddle" looks superb! The muddy water and how you "textured" it is totally eye-catching. I can fully relate to your feeling of never knowing where or at what point to stop, a modellers curse. The figures also look much better now and in my opinion the grass is more than fine. It might just be the angles of the photos but the side skirts don't appear to have much "wetness" on their bottom portions? Not a critique, just curiosity.

Cheers,
Jan

Matthew,

Really great job and I also think the water effect is super. The figures also look great and I still can't get over how you painted the details like on the collar. Thanks for sharing!

Regards,
AJ

Fantastic piece of work, my congrats!!

And it's not even a ''proper'' model having no glue and all.

You really took this one sky-high.

P.A.

Hi Mathew, Just found your blog I read it through in one hit, facinating,you have done a fantastic job on that kit.I like the dio base too what did you use for the water I think I missed that bit.any how, great build Im inspired to dabble in 1/72 again.

Thank you so much for the positive feedback on this one, it is really good to know that there are those who appreciate the product of one's labours. Family of course just take a quick look and say "oh yeah..." - or my daughter says, "but why is it in that white box?" To which I say, what, am I meant to place it on a scale model of planet earth?

Jan, it is just the angle of the camera and lighting that doesn't show up any glossiness on the side skirts, though there is only a small amount in patches - earlier in the thread there is the Bundesarchiv pic of the PzIV in a stream, and that was the concept, that the stream is only shallow, so the skirts were never submerged, though I pretended that the nose had a bit of splashing as it tipped forward over the rise into the water.

Glad you think the figures and grass are OK!

AJB, the pink collar patches and cap piping (and the iron cross) - a brand new paint brush, and inevitably one patch I got right first time, and the other was never right even after 10 attempts, I think the collar wasn't smooth, so that's a lesson for next time - better figure preparation. The figure in the back definitely has an over-sized head, the two of them would look very odd standing next to each other.

Alexander - yes, I almost forgot by the end that most of the original plastic kit is unglued. Of course all of the running gear is firmly embedded in the base, but the wheels and tracks only had one dab of glue at the sprocket. The nose join is cemented, and the Black Dog details and figures were glued, then the turret was glued on, but the exhausts, gun, mantlet, lights, tracks, all tools etc. are all, I think, just snapped in place.

John, the base of the water was the Das air dried clay, some texture came from some epoxy car filler (David's Isopon) which packed it firmly in place and filled the gaps. The water itself was several layers of Liquitex "Gloss Medium and Varnish" coloured with burnt umber, a final untinted coat and then very lightly sprayed with thinned Tamiya dark yellow, and finally a bit of the gloss varnish sprayed over especially around the water's edge. I had toyed with buying special water effects gels and resins, but in the end I'm not sure that the level of transparency and flatness they can provide was necessary for such a shallow muddy stream. Hope you are inspired to do a 1/72 kit and hope to see it on here.

Dani, thanks for your compliment, I'm happy with that!

Eddy, thanks! - and as to your question, I still have that Roden Vielfachwerfer on the back burner and may be inspired to start it up again by the recent purchase of the Nuts and Bolts book on the subject.