Tried out a different method of texturing a muffler. Muriatic acid. Etches the aluminum quite quickly but stinky. I had windows open and fans blowing. Added on some Mr. Surfacer 500 on the piping and started the painting/weathering process. Still have a little ways to go with weathering.

I like the looks of your Panther. Be real careful with that acid, the fumes can harm your lungs.

These would have been handy at Arnhem.

A short video update on the Sturmpanther II and the Panther II (Early).

Experimenting with a mottled rust effect I saw on a channel earlier. Using multiple layers of different toned red/browns airbrushed through a thinned scotch bright pad. Hull is in just Tamiya XF-10 flat brown. Turret has successive shades of lighter reddish browns with a final coat ofXF-68 NATO brown with some red, yellow and white added to it. This will dry for a few days, then I'll seal it, use the salt chip method and over spray with a custom mix of RAL 8012 (red primer).

Hey Bob,

I was curious to see if you've made any filter her progress on this? You work always sticks out in my mind and has me tempted to try my hand at doing some stand off armor.

Paint looks good btw.

Sorry, no. I've kinda lost my mojo for a bit. Trying to get the Panther II early dio done as it's so close to being done you can taste it. I've got a Miniart dio base assembled and partially painted as well as a completed Miniart Societ lumber ready to go for the scene. Trying to get the appropriate figures sourced as well. Hope to have something coming up soon.

Ok, back in the saddle. I managed to get the Panther II Early project done and can go full steam on this one. I've got the rust undercoat done. Ièll let it dry for a few days before sealing it and then doing the top coat of green and then chipping.

Looking killer.

Paint is on. 60/30 mix of Tamiya NATO Green and Buff. Once the paint dried for a few hours, I painted on some water, waited it to soak through the paint to the hair spray, then scrubbed with a toothbrush. Lower hull took maybe three minutes of scrubbing to get to this point.

Got the rest of the tank scrubbed. Guess I didn't layer the Dull coat on well enough in some spots as the over, base and primer coats all came off. The armoured shield on the back will just be bare, rusted metal.

Very nice project. Looking very good.

Finally got some time to work on the articulated suspension and groundwork started. Because of the articulated suspension and the fixed heavy armored skirts, the groundwork has to be done first to make sure the suspension matches it. Once that's done, the tracks can be fitted, then the upper hull attached to the lower. The sidewalk side of the suspension was done first. The swing arms lock in to the lower hull with a pin to keep them all level. Turns out, placing the swing arms on top of the pins makes them the right height to be level on the sidewalk. Once those were set. I figured out where I wanted the debris pile the other side was to be on to go and cut the pins off the affected swing arm points completely and leveled them to the pile while leaving the front and some of the rear swing arms in the stock, pinned position.

The groundwork is a "clay" made by Crayola called "Model Magic". It's a soft, non sticky (not so much) modelling clay like substance that is supposed to air dry in 72 hours but it was still soft after a week. Some of the bricks were made with this stuff while others were from a batch I got off eBay from Russia. Those turned out to be some type of pressed paper. The wood is just snapped up bits of balsa that'll get painted when done and the little chunks of debris is cat litter glued down with watered down white glue. The broken brick panel was made from a bit of Styrofoam. I saw the technique on a YouTube terrain makers channel. The two piles without the cat litter were just set up. Once they're dry, they'll get the litter treatment as will the rest of the road and sidewalk. The litter is still a bit damp in the picture but I also mixed a little Tamiya Buff in the glue mix to see how the color would look when dry.

Lookin great!

Seriously great looking build, I love what if builds.

Moving on, Did dot filtering on the hull sides using white, yellow, blue and green artist oils and a wide flat brush dampened with paint thinner. Just drag it down and off until I got the effect I wanted. When dry, I'll seal and then do the same with a rust dot filter.





Going to the Miniart ruin. I scratch built a floor from balsa wood and Popsicle sticks. Painted with an array of Vallejo Environmental Effects. Then figured it was missing something. A ceiling! Added old school lathe & plaster starting with some Evergreen 0.10 x 0.40 strip for the lathe, glued on with CA. Once done, I painted quickly with Tamiya XF-57 Buff. Once that was dry, I put a thin coat of drywall mud, let that dry and put on a second coat. Once all that had set up over night, I lightly sanded the dried mud, "damaged" the exposed sections with tweezers, pliers, fingers, etc., to get the effect I wanted. Finally, staining it with various concentrations of tea and coffee.










And, finally some additional shots of the finished suspension with the upper hull and tracks fitted. Still ots of ground work to do.

Just an FYI, I'm still alive, just been really ill. All better now so I've been working on the figures and hope to have a update later this week. Thanks for your patience.

Glad to know you're doing better, and that you are still working on this. It's a cool subject, as far as I'm concerned. I'm not a big fan of every Paper Panzer, or projected, but not manufactured tank...but I like what you've done with this one.

I second that nice project, I also like the construction of your building.

Goodluck & kind regards
Steven

Looks fantastic. The tank really fits the scene well after the weathering. Great job on the scenery too, very realistic.

WE WANT UPDATE!

Sorry for the delay. The project was put on hold while I waited for some silicone brick moulds and insignia decals to arrive. To date, neither have despite multiple ordering attempts. I just finished making my own brick moulds this last weekend and finally have a tracking number for the decal so I hope to get this off my plate soon!

mean looking bugger... really like it