Hi everybody,

In order to break a bit the weathering routine I've gotten myself in, I started a new project for diversity's sake.

This is Cyber Hobby's Orange Box Pz.III Ausf.G from North Africa. In order to spice up a bit the work on all stages, I decided to go for a battle damaged tank. The time frame is Operation Crusader from Nov./Dec. 1941. The goal is to depict a Pz.III damaged during the British offensive which nevertheless got patched up by the crew and is limping slowly back home. As Crusader was primarily a German retreat, many of the crews fought defensive/delaying actions with their belongings strapped in to the tanks (unlike offensive operations when the bulk of the external loads was left behind at the staging areas).

The damage inflicted is primarily on the left side of the suspension and fender. It is to represent the result of an anti-tank mine detonation under the tracks (or, perhaps, medium-caliber shell explosion in a very near miss -- still wondering what back story to have in my head ).

I started the basic assembly of the model. Besides the kit itself, I used 50-mm KwK L/42 metal barrel, turret MG metal barrel, and hull MG barrel from RB (I'll also use an antenna rod from RB). I used some of Eduard's photo etch for the needed areas -- with the exception of the lifting hooks. I am very happy with Part's German lifting hook two-piece set, and prefer these over Eduard's. For the damaged fender, I used a mix of Aber and Elephant: Aber for the framing, and Elephant for the plates. The damage to the fender was done by much cutting, bending, and twisting in the corresponding directions as to indicate clearly the velocity of the explosion blast (used a few reference images to get all the twisting right -- or so I hope ). Finally, I'll use some assorted pieces of external storage stuff as well as the big bulk of resin at the back which is from Black Dog's Pz.III set.

Here are a few pictures of the initial assembly:



















Then, I sprayed the whole model with Gunze's Mr. Surfacer 500 to homogenize the look and make the assembly errors to pop out in order to do some additional sanding/filling wherever needed. This is the current stage of the project:







Will keep you updated on the progress as it goes.

Thank you very much for your time and any comments you may have!

Ivan

Sorry, forgot to add:

One of the left side road wheels is clearly blown off together with a part of the supporting arm -- and so is the middle support roller. As I'm planning to use Friul metal tracks (never used them before, looking forward to the challenge), I hope I'll get a nice good track sag in there. Decided to go for the Friuls because I am quite disappointed by the Pz.III/IV Magic Tracks provided in the kit -- every single one of them has two nasty pin marks on the inside, and for the sake of my mental health I refuse to clean these up on 200+ track links

Ivan nice work my friend, looks very good indeed.

Pete

flippin heck thats battered... i dont know enough on tank mechanics but would that still be able to get about? not sure they would;ve loaded it up so much either - maybe when moving from rear area but during a moving battle/retreat?

having said that, liking it a lot so will be watching (also nicking tips on battle damage for my StuG - not that it will be anywhere near as bad as that ;-))

Your build looks awesome! The fenders turned out very nicely. May be a small problem, traversing the turret. Looking forward to the running gear and tracks.

The fender is outstanding work. I only use Friuls if you need any tips on the tracks let me know. As a tank commander in the army I would never have cargo that would interfere with my turret movement. The cargo seems to take away from the tank.

Ivan-- really nice work on the fender
DJ

Looks good,looking forward to the paint.

I did the same kit in the old Imperial Series,try cutting 200 links off the sprues,and tthen cleaniing them up,not fun,but I got it done.

Nice work and a great idea, Ivan, but ...

I'm with Matt on the fender. While it may have been blasted into that condition originally, the repairing crew surely would have beaten it down (or removed that section) to avoid fouling the turret's rotation.

I'll also have to agree with those mentioning the amount of stowage on the back. Being on a defensive retreat, with the possibility of an enemy vehicle coming up from behind, I sure wouldn't want stuff piled up blocking my main gun from firing rearwards.

Lastly, here's something to ponder. If the force of the blast was enough to tear off the supporting arm and upper idler, why isn't there damage to the arm stop and mount? It seems unlikely that it would have survived.

Gentlemen,

Thank you very much indeed for both the kind words, and the constructive feedback -- much appreciated!

@Rob: yes, the tank will move -- limping and slowly, but it can move. The torsion bar suspension and the remaining roadwheels can support the overall weight of the machine. The absence of the middle support roller means an additional constraint on the speed as track twisting at higher speeds will result in throwing it off. On the luggage -- I did refresh my memories of Operation Crusader, and in fact the two Panzer Divisions of DAK fought most of the time on the offensive, in spite of the end result which was a retreat. This totally makes your point correct

@Matt: Even though the vehicle survived the hit, it is a total TKO unfit for battle. Besides the tank itself, such an explosion must have rattled and bounced around the crew severely inside. The only goal of the crew is just to get the hell out ASAP and limp back home to a field repair base -- and maybe a field hospital. Turret rotation would not really be their priority as they won't head back in battle.

@Bill: you're absolutely right, and actually made me remember -- this rear hull stowage is in fact from Black Dog's Pz. III Ausf.N set. The Ausf.N being armed with the short 75-mm L/24 gun won't have issues with 360 turret rotation in spite of the luggage -- but this Ausf.G can't. Even though I have quite a few images from both North Africa and the Eastern front with Pz.III's loaded up beyond recognition and turrets clearly unable to cover the rear arc, I'll remove this stowage and will go for something more modest and combat-ready

@Anthony: you're a better man than me, I just don't have the patience needed to do this...

@Bob: there is good logic in what you say about the fender. My excuse is that the crew, after being shaken and stirred by the blast, have focused to get the hell out as soon as they can, not minding the implication to the turret rotation. Knowing the metal thickness of these fender sheets, most likely the turret will just screech over them and rotate anyway. And perhaps most importantly, I'm taking a bit of an artistic license here to make the model a bit more unusual -- and practice some more extreme weathering (if one would qualify blast damage as "weathering, that is ). On the arm stop and mount, you're very right, an omission on my end -- will be taken care of shortly

Thanks a lot again, I hope I'll have a bit of an update from the upcoming weekend!

Have a nice day,

Ivan

Hello Ivan You are right too about the panzers being loaded down with gear. Don't change your panzer if you like the way it is and I must say it looks great.

It looks good so far and the story you posit makes sense to me. If they are just gettin out of dodge,why worry about combat readiness?
I have seen horse drawn arty limbers in pics from behind the lines that were unbelievably loaded up.
J

It looks awesome to me I can't wait to see it painted up.

Cheers

Todd

Looks good Ivan. I'm intrigued as to how you're going to paint the damaged area. Can't wait to see it.

I'm wondering how you use your Mr Surfacer. I've used it thinned with lacquer thinner at about 50:50, then sprayed it through an airbrush using two coats. After the second coat I find I end up with a primed surface that is the texture of sandpaper. This requires quite a bit of sanding to get smooth. I don't feel like I'm spraying it too thick. Do you have any tips?

Thanks

Thank you very much guys, I didn't manage to do anything modeling-wise last weekend, but I am firmly determined not to skip this one

Andy, on Mr.Surfacer 500, I'm afraid my answer will be disappointing: I use ready-made Mr.Surfacer from a can spray. Due to a number of reasons I have given up on the idea of preparing the mixture myself -- 99% of the reasons are linked to my inability to get it right. I stock up with a few spray cans at all times. One spray can is usually enough for me to cover three models in 1/35. I usually go for only one coat, as with the very limited pressure control of the spray can you can very easily just put too much of it on the model. Mr.Surfacer is absolutely fantastic as a base, no matter if you spray on metal or plastic, and yet is not too difficult to overspray and lose geometric details (the tiniest ones) in the surfacer.

The other thing I like about the Mr.Surfacer 500 is the fine and nice surface texture it generates -- it is not absolutely smooth (like what you'd need for an airplane) and somehow imitates a bit the rougher armor plate surface of the real tanks.

Hope this helps!

Have a very nice day,

Ivan

Thanks Ivan.

I think I'll give it one more try to see if I can get a surface I'm happy with. I'm thinking I might go for a much lighter coat, even if it's still transparent. As you say I love the way it shows up the surface defects so they can be corrected.

Thanks again

Hi everybody,

As intended, I managed to spend about 3 hours on Saturday on this ongoing project. Here are the results

First I painted the tank in Panzergrau, as it should represent one of the earliest arrivals in North Africa, and was hence painted in desert yellow in field conditions. I went first with the mid-tone value (Tamiya XF-63 straight out of the bottle) of the Panzergrau over the whole model. Then using XF-63 + about 30% white (I am doing this by eye, so the percentage may be just an approximation) I focused on the highlights, while using Tamiya XF-69 Nato Black for the shadows. I needed several rounds of highlights/mid-tones/shadows to get something I like as an end result, and here's what came out of this:

















Then, I left the the model aside for about 15 minutes. The paint was solid after this period, so I grabbed a hairspray from my wife's cosmetic stash and sprayed well the model. Gave it about 15 minutes more, then went forward with the painting of the yellow. I used Tamiya XF-53 Desert Yellow as the base mid-tone, and used XF-53 + some white for the highlights (no shadows). As the white both lightens AND desaturates the yellow pretty strongly, I decided to use the base color as the shadows, and finally made one more pass with XF-53 + white + extra white for the most highlighted areas. I also made sure that I did not cover the whole model with solid coat of yellow: the Germans experienced a pretty severe lack of yellow paint in the desert and used it sparingly -- by both just not painting certain parts of the vehicle, as well as not having a solid coat everywhere I used the yellow.

Unfortunately, in my dumbness I forgot to take some pictures at this stage. Trying to take advantage of what little time I had for modeling, I moved directly to the chipping of the paint using the traditional hairspsray approach -- a mix of harder and softer brushes (and a wooden toothpick ) and water.

I wanted to make sure I peel off enough of the yellow coat for two reasons: reference images show pretty severe dilapidation of the yellow paints applied in the field due to the inferior conditions compared to factory painting -- as well as really extreme weather. Secondly, from a purely modeling point of view, I wanted to be sure I have enough contrast zones between light and dark paint, so some of it will still be preserved after the weathering which is to simulate heavy dusting. I am aware that right now the model looks a bit over-exposed in terms of contrast, but this is by design (rational, I hope ). Here are a few pictures of the result:





















And the next steps would be, in this order so that the proper "chronology" of the weathering accumulation is kept, putting on the decals, chipping the paint down to metal, then streaks of assorted type, pigments and dust imitation, and finally the blast damage from the explosion.

Thank you very much for your time and attention -- and have a great week!

Ivan

And, dammit, I just noticed that I have failed to identify two nasty sink marks on the gun mask Seems there's a value in making these pictures even for the modeler himself I'll try to figure out the least painful solution to these.

Looks great, to me! I can't discern any sink marks on the gun mask.

Thanks a lot Matt,

The sink marks are on the two sides of the barrel (as it thickens and joins the mask, between the four bolts).

Hi Ivan
As we say here in New Zealand."Choice".

(English: slang synonym for "cool", "nice" or "good". "That's choice!")

Can't wait to see her finished.

Chris

Looking good Ivan ! I look forward to seeing more of this.

Really liking this Ivan.
Shame about the sink marks, having said that, I only noticed them after you had pointed them out! How are you going to blend in the turret numbers with this effect? Just a thought, if the Germans were short of paint and didn't paint some bits, wouldn't they leave the chassis, as this would get pretty dusty anyway? According to Panzer Colours, the main reason that paint on DAK vehicles got so worn was because it wasn't paint in the first place but liquid mud. This dried and sloughed off on the edges to leave the effect you are aiming for.

Good work on the chipping.what happened to the left side turret lifting hook?

Looks like it is where it should be, to me.