This is the Revell Germany Kanonenjagdpanzer, with an RB Model metal barrel and Friul metal tracks. I decided I was done messing with it yesterday and hit it with the dullcote. I used it to try out a dot filter with oils for the first time and some pigment stuff I hadn't done before.

I know I could have done a better job with the seams along the top of the hull-- there's actually a lot of putty and sanding in under there, but I could have spent a week on it and decided it was time to move on. (I tend to get bogged down in detail so stuff sits on the bench for weeks...)

The decals look pretty new, though, and for whatever reason, even with a ton of MicroSol, I couldn't get the edges to disappear. I think I finally hit them with paint and the dot filter but if you look closely you can still see them. Any advice on getting the decals to look better? Anything else going on here that seems weird? This is about the fourth 1/35 kit I've built since getting back into it a year and a half ago...











(Here's a link to a gallery of full-sized images... http://imgur.com/a/EsUSh )

That's a very nice Job I have seen a few of these in Germany long ago. thanks for sharing.

If I may ask do you know if they still produce this kit/or sell this kit.

again Great Job

Sascha(Ironowl)

Nice job. It looks very nice to me. I like the weathering with the dot filters and pigments. If you had fun doing it, that's all that counts.

Jeff

Hi mate

I've had similar difficulties getting decals to blend in. To me they always look a little too bright and sharp. Now I spray them on using stencils whenever I can. It gives a lot more control and I quite like distressing the markings using a hairspray technique to blend them into the rest of the weathering. To me there's nothing worse than something like a heavily faded whitewash overlaid with sharp, crisp perfect markings.

Nice job though.

Ps did you gloss the decals once they'd set - usually helps

Looks good to me, maybe the mud/rust marks on the tracks are a bit to bright/red, might just be the colour reproduction on the camera though.
The dot filters make a huge difference to the finnish, I tried it for the first time a while back and it was a "Eureka" moment.

Sounds like you ran into a set of thick decals. A friend told me he uses progressive layers of Future and fine sanding to get his to blend in better.

Nice job on the AFV, though.

I like it, looks good to me man!

One of my favorites. I didn't know friuls were available for this so now there's no excuse to start on mine because the kits tracks are terrible!



Jeff

Yeah, I used Future under them, MicroSet and MicroSol on them, and then Future over them, and then the dot wash and some dust (ground-up chalk pastels) and then dullcote. Fine sanding sounds pretty interesting-- I may try that sometime. Thanks.

Thanks!

I don't think they do still make the kit-- I got it from somebody on eBay.

Looks good to me the faults you mention are not apparent on your photos as opposed to what you are eyeballing in general, some stock decals suck,most of them do.I suggest either dry transfer decals or stencil markings.Keep in mind perfect model presentation on Armorama is dependent on perfect photographic skills need to be a pro at photography.

Very nice build. While I doubt any KaJaPz in service would have looked that "old" the weathering is very well done. I like the streaking a lot. One thing I would change if its not too late, the tracks shouldn't have any sag.


Erik

Like Erik I think it doesn't look like an in service vehicle, more like a museum exhibit that has been left outside for many years.

Very impressive model nonetheless.

Cheers,

Christophe

Very nice build!
Thanks for sharing the photos!

Two things:
On the Revell website, the Kanonenjagdpanzer is no longer shown. Therefore, the only ones available are via marktplaats.nl, e-bay and alike. I can recognize your remarks about sink holes and sanding. I just retrieved a raketenjagdpanzer via marktplaats.nl and was immediately confronted with the typical Revell characteristics: sink holes and some weak details. Also, the plastic needs extensive cleaning before accepting any form of paint.

The second thing is that this is a so called NATO cold war period vehicle. Thus being a ' victim' of extensive maintenance and very little 'combat-like' use during manouvres. Therefore, these vehicles most of the time looked spic and span! They were just driven around from parking lot to trains or trucks to be transported to the shooting ranges. In technical shooting training, movement was not as much as one may think! ( Many crew felt therefore very frustrated, hanging around quite some time, waiting for their turn!) Field excersices offered more chanches to realistic use, but, here, the limitations of civil envirments and (environmental) laws would also not create a big change in look.
Rust would never been seen on this extend! Any unit commander would face hard times if even one of his vehcles would show up like this!
And, as stated above, even after a field exercise, which were held, for these vehicles, always in north western Europe, and seldom longer than three weeks, a crew would not turn up from the woods with a rusty look like you depicted.
Also, both Kanonenjagdpanzer or Raketenjagdpanzer never fired a shot in anger. They were kept in top state, waiting for East Block trooops, which fortunately never showed up.
Never mind, we are modellers, aren't we!
The track sag is not normal on these vehicles. Like all Leopard based vehicles, track tension was in such a way that they looked straight! Both jagdpanzertypes came from the same design office and showed same features.
But again: never mind, we are..........................

I hope you accept my comments. They were given with good intentions.

What many Bundeswehr vehicles of the 1980s had was a rather "bleached out" look since the RAL 6014 color used back then turned grayisch-green with some exposure to light.

And I have once seen a Beob with that track tension (Reforger 1899). The Beob was standing at a 45 degree angle to the tracks after having thrown both. Let's just say the S3 was "not amused"

Beautiful work.

Yes, of course! I appreciate it.

Here's some of my photoreference, from a local armor museum that has a couple of Beobachtungpanzers (one nice, one hulk) and a stripped-down KaJaPa in pretty bad shape:



You can see the sides of the hull there, and the condition of the tracks. I see what you mean about track tension-- I had a hard time test-fitting the Friulmodel tracks, and I had to remove a link from each side to get them to fit. I think one more link would have made them too small...



I see what you mean about the track tension there. I'm never quite sure about the museum pieces-- they're either very well-maintained and in essentially perfect condition (they have one of the few surviving Panthers out there, and it's been extensively restored and is _perfect_, and a really great StuG III) or it was towed (or driven) into place years ago and then not touched...

Other than the track, which you can fix, I think it looks great.
I think you might look into MV lenses as well. So many very nice models lose a lot of realism for want of a few more bucks spent on them.
I didn't see the problem with yours, but here's a recent thread on decals. I am a fan of NOT cutting close to the image, as the film tends to taper out and become nand thin, as opposed to leaving a sharp edge which is hard to deal with.

https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/215891#1813839

Here is something on the Kanonenjagdpanzer you might like

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t01UbWq7oCw


Cheers
Christopher

Neat, thanks.

... and this is what the inside looks like:



Cheers
Christopher

That's downright roomy!

Add four crewman at around 175cm/80kg each with their gear and it gets cramped, been there and drove in it (Beob and Belgian KaJaPa(1)). And the pictures are shot from a cut-open KaJaPa (you can see the red-rimmed cut outs) similar to the one in Koblenz.

(1) And I will NEVER do the latter again. Belgian KaJaPa crews made our german ones look sane and serene