Its coming along nicely Dustin.

Thank you Robert!

Another coat of matte clear. Almost ready for mud.

Looks better with every step.

Thank you sir. It was e much to update, but I figured I'd keep the thread alive. Lol

Hi Dustin,great job on the kit. Love the outstanding weathering you have done. Best regards....Dale

Dale,

Thank you very much for the kind words, sir!! It's much appreciated.

A fine job right there Dustin! The patience and layers are paying off!! Keep it going!

Thank you, Todd. It's much appreciated.

Mud applied. I hope this turns out properly.



Cheers,
Dustin

Maybe a bit too uniformly applied. Heavier near the bottom, lighter as you go up. Some bare spots here and there too and maybe not such a thick application.

This is where the artistic side comes into play. The trick is to apply the mud in a deliberate fashion yet make it look like it is random and happened naturally.

Well dang.. No turning back now. Lol! I was going to dust some lighter pigments over it. Maybe that'll help a bit.

If you used an oil/enamel based product it might still be possible to work it a bit by applying some thinner/spirits. Alternately, you might be able to "chip" some off using a sharp blade. Just options to consider.

Ill see what it looks like with the tracks on and go from there.

I did some more work. Used lead penil on the return rollers and the edges of the lower and upper hull in different areas. I also added some slight soot to the gun and the muffler.

I sprayed the drive sprocket and idler with clear today. So after they cure I'll weather and install them along with the tracks. Probably one more good evening left on this one I think.









Cheers,
Dustin

Overall it looks really nice. Nothing glaring stands out. Finish and weathering looks consistent. Well done. Anxious to see everything finally together.

Thank you very much! I also cleared the Tiger today. So progress should resume on it shortly.

Can't remember where you are on the Tiger but remember to apply what you have learned while doing the PzIV. I know you will, but it's sometimes easy to forget when you are eager to finish a project. I know because I have done that more often than I care to admit, even after all my years of modeling!

Lol! I sure hope the Tiger goes smoothly. I have to weather, road wheels and tracks. The clear future went on nicely. So in a couple days it'll be ready to weather.

Ahhh. Good to hear as I am also very anxious to see the Tiger finished as well.

Thank you, it's long over due for some attention. I've been pondering my next build. I'm not sure what I want to do yet, even though we talked about the King Tigers. I'm thinking the next build I want to do a winter camo scheme though. I have a 1/48 Tiger 1 early production that may be good practice, but I want to do something other than the Tiger 1. Like Tamiya's new Nashorn. I really like that kit.

Open top vehicles have their own set of challenges. Not that they are inherently more difficult, but it takes some care and planning when it comes to painting and weathering. This is so because there is an interior so to speak(the fighting compartment)that in many cases is difficult to get to once everything is assembled, and also because the main gun is usually a major subassembly that is part inside and part outside of the fighting compartment. Also unless you are doing a single color scheme, the interior is not camouflaged like the exterior. The Tamiya Nashorn is a very nice kit and I am sure you would do it justice. It's always important to pick a subject that you are interested in and really want to do and not just pick one because you just want to model. Ahhh, decisions decisions.

I understand what you're saying and that would be one more notch in my learning belt with the fighting compartment. The real issue is.. I have so many kits currently.. I really can't justify buying more until I build a few handfuls of the ones I currently have.

For what it's worth, don't get caught up in buying lots of kits, there will always be more. Some may go out of production for a while but invariably they resurface sometime later as a re-release by the same company or reboxed under a different label. Nowadays especially, there is no shortage of subjects to choose from and new releases come much faster than when I started building back in the late 60's, and even the 70's.

Ya I understand. I kinda just wanted to get a handful of stuff that I liked while I had the extra money. There are only a few kits that I want currently that I don't have, Tamiya Nashorn, StuG IV, JagdPanther, JagdPanzer and the two new kits the MENG are going to release, their M1A2 and the King Tiger. There are some others that I like, but not as much as I want of these. I also would like to do a 8.8cm flak diorama. Lol.. Who am I kidding. There are tons more that I want! Lol!!

The weathering is coming along nicely I can't wait to see it all together.