I am about to start my first armor kit, a Tamiya 1/35 German Pz.Kpfw.III Ausf.L w/ Panzer Grenadiers.

I have seen builders that glue everything together, including photo etched pieces, and then dry brush the entire kit....and others that follow the kit directions.

The survey at this time is helpful but what parts do I put together before I paint?

Any suggestions on how to build the kit?

Thanks for any help!

If it is your first kit I would follow the instructions. But first study the instructions sheet . Make sure that you know what will be happening in the following steps. This way there are no surprises.

What I do is build most of the model, and then leaving the wheels of the tank off, and also the tracks, I paint it. Either by hand or by airbrush.

Dry-brushing is a form of "weathering". You don't dry-brush until mostly completed with the model (or at least thats what I do).

So what I would do would be to build most of the kit, and then excluding the track and wheels, paint it the color you want.

Then I would paint the wheels, and the track, and then add to the model.

For the figures, your on your own. I hate figs, but do them if really really needed.

Hope this helped some.

~Chip

what i do is build then paint.
here is a tip.
glue the uper half of the hull to the bottom of the hull.
then when that drys u can add all your small parts.
cause if u glue all the small parts on they could break off.
i also leave the raod wheels and teh racks off till ist ready to be put together.
you should get a book called modeling tanks and military vehicles bye sheperd paine.
i read this book before i built my friat tank and it helped me a lot,
your hobby shop should have it or u can get it from barnes and noble

You really need to plan it out as you're going. If there are parts that you won't be able to paint once the assembly is complete, then you'll have to do them first, and mask them off when you do the overall paint job. I usually do the bottom of the vehicle first, since I don't want to lay the model upside down once all the delicate little parts are installed on top. Then you can usually mask off that area once you're ready to paint the top. If there's a subassembly that you can easily scrape away a bit of paint in an area that won't show (for glueing), then it's much easier to paint it seperately so you can get in behind it with the paint. If that's not the case, then you have to use your best judgement.

Hope that's of some help

A lot of it is to study the instructions first and paint in stages I think. Dry brush the peices that you will not be able to get to later on in the project because it will be difficult to paint some areas that are small. I lay out in my head what I want it to look like and then set it up in stages. what gets worn and what gets muddy and weathered. But you will learn from every one you build they are all kind of diffrent . I guess it just depends on what you want from the peice you are working on. I think it is a continues learning process and that is what I like about it . Every new project I learn something new! Good luck!

I kind of do what Chip does. Everyones advice on follow the directions is of course how you go about it. I build the entire tank including PE. I leave the tracks, cables and tools off because I airbrush, and they don't go to well with German Panzer yellow of US Olive drab. I paint the trackscables, & tools separately and add them after I put the base on the whole tank. Then after I get decals on, I weather it up.

Thank you for all of the information!

I really appreciate it!