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Dioramas
Do you love dioramas & vignettes? We sure do.
1/35 Hunting Hetzer
DrChopp
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Victoria, Australia
Joined: August 16, 2016
KitMaker: 116 posts
Armorama: 107 posts
Posted: Saturday, April 06, 2019 - 08:06 PM UTC

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Hi, Steven!

There's no such thing as "perfect", not even in real life...

Don't give yourself a nervous breakdown over a few "spots". Anyone who is going to count the spots or criticize their shape, color or their placement on your figures' camo clothing, needs to get THEIR heads examined...



Thanks mate, its not bothering me too much, but I'm one of those people who looks right past all the good and can only see the mistakes in my own work


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Enough lurking, time to de-cloak – it’s a beauty Steve! Great PE work too & I don’t care if the odd spot’s out of place on the camo jacket, you’ve got that authentic hunch on the guy which is far more important, quite Rutmanesque. Although that MG34, are you sure the barrel’s aligned - it looks like it’s pointing slightly north of true? Any decisions on the dio yet?



G'day mate! - thanks for the kind words! As Mark said, its actually the whole gun in that pic - the whole gun wasnt glued into the cradle at the time...


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Really shaping up nicely! Great detail for this scale.
J



Thanks J, much appreciated!


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Nice work Doc , fig is cool man don't sweat it , gotta agree with Tim about the long dog look on the mg tho .....



Cheers mate, much appreciated!


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To me, the barrel looks like it's aligned okay; it's the fact the whole gun is mounted at a slight angle to the cradle that creates that appearance, I think. The back end of the gun is sitting just a tiny bit low in the cradle. My $0.02...




Bingo -whole gun was a bit off in the pic. I was gonna do the gun and mount separately, but decided to glue it for paint at the last minute. As is the was, she took a tumble and the whole cradle snapped. Got it back together, but the cradle is a bit bent now! Should be okay though as there will be an MG shield covering them -



The main focus of my attention lately has been the crew. This dude looks a lot better in person (dont they all?) but the pics came out okay:





And the commander, with his autumn camo pants:







Glad they turned out so well, they'll look very nice INSIDE the bloody tank!

Anyways, I should have some ambush masks arriving tomorrow or Tuesday, so should be able to move forward with the Hetzer...

Thanks for looking!
~ Steve
Dioramartin
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New South Wales, Australia
Joined: May 04, 2016
KitMaker: 1,476 posts
Armorama: 1,463 posts
Posted: Saturday, April 06, 2019 - 10:39 PM UTC
Yep after exhaustive laser/satellite triangulations I can now report that the MG…looks #$^*4&!! excellent! Nice figs too Steve, what’s the prep on the faces made of, am I seeing texture or should I go back to Specsavers again?
Namabiiru
Staff MemberAssociate Editor
MODEL SHIPWRIGHTS
#399
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Rhode Island, United States
Joined: March 05, 2014
KitMaker: 2,888 posts
Armorama: 1,920 posts
Posted: Sunday, April 07, 2019 - 12:25 AM UTC

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Yep after exhaustive laser/satellite triangulations I can now report that the MG…looks #$^*4&!! excellent! Nice figs too Steve, what’s the prep on the faces made of, am I seeing texture or should I go back to Specsavers again?



The poor guy suffered from a pretty bad case of smallpox when younger. Was not uncommon in Europe at the time....

Tank1812
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North Carolina, United States
Joined: April 29, 2014
KitMaker: 1,112 posts
Armorama: 886 posts
Posted: Sunday, April 07, 2019 - 01:43 AM UTC
The build and figures are looking good. Where did you get the seated figure?
DrChopp
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Victoria, Australia
Joined: August 16, 2016
KitMaker: 116 posts
Armorama: 107 posts
Posted: Sunday, April 07, 2019 - 10:34 AM UTC

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Yep after exhaustive laser/satellite triangulations I can now report that the MG…looks #$^*4&!! excellent! Nice figs too Steve, what’s the prep on the faces made of, am I seeing texture or should I go back to Specsavers again?



Cheers mate! I think the white was too thin. so created the speckled look which then appears to be textured (like on the boots too). It was on the whole figure but after the first glaze it goes away - at least I hope!


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The poor guy suffered from a pretty bad case of smallpox when younger. Was not uncommon in Europe at the time....




Aww poor guy


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The build and figures are looking good. Where did you get the seated figure?



Thanks mate, all 3 are from TANK, set number: T-35003
jrutman
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Pennsylvania, United States
Joined: April 10, 2011
KitMaker: 7,941 posts
Armorama: 7,934 posts
Posted: Monday, April 08, 2019 - 01:21 AM UTC
Nice progress on the figs and everything.
J
pnance26
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California, United States
Joined: January 22, 2016
KitMaker: 766 posts
Armorama: 518 posts
Posted: Tuesday, April 09, 2019 - 07:12 AM UTC
Fun progress to watch!
DrChopp
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Victoria, Australia
Joined: August 16, 2016
KitMaker: 116 posts
Armorama: 107 posts
Posted: Friday, April 12, 2019 - 07:38 PM UTC
Alrighty, well I got the J's Work pre-cut masks, and they were very good. BUT - here is how it currently stands:





As you can see, it is entirely ruined, not because of the masks, but the paint I used was the utterly atrocious garbage water Mig bottles. This is the second time I've had this issue and so the second model ruined by it. The first time i was able to sand it back as it only developed orange peel texture on one small flat section, but on this one it has happened on almost the whole model, and across all the red and green layers.

To make matters worse, I did the skirts separate,and when removing the mask the ENTIRE layer of paint came off with it revealing a clean brass panel..

[Imgur](https://i.imgur.com/MnUZVqY.jpg)

My goal this year was to finish every build I start, as I tend to go through ups and downs with my motivation and inspiration as a build progresses and I would end up with many unfinished kits around the house which is what I was avoiding. Unfortunately I will not be able to meet that goal, as I will be calling this build finished.

I'm happy with how the figures are going, so they will easily be able to be used on another build.

I really appreciate all your kind comments, and it is this community that keeps me going when I struggle with motivation - I will be back when I decide on what I wish to do next -

Thanks for looking!
~ Steve
Jmarles
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British Columbia, Canada
Joined: November 02, 2008
KitMaker: 1,138 posts
Armorama: 953 posts
Posted: Friday, April 12, 2019 - 08:03 PM UTC

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Nice! Was it this kit, or the earlier release?



It was the Testors/Italeri kit released in about 1980.

vr

Tim






Oh nice, Revell still sell that kit!

I've had a decent weekend of work, and am nearly ready for paint!









I'm pretty pleased with the dented effect on the muffler, just done with a round file.

The shurzen are just barely hanging on from some small rods drilled into the side, but when glued into place should sit flush against the hull.

The wheels have been super-glued into place so can be easily snapped off for paint, but will hold strong enough to get the tracks done. I've kept the hull in 2 separate parts to make the track assembly easier:



I've added a small power conduit to the notek light and assembled it to look like it has been knocked slightly to the left as can be seen in many pictures:



The jackblock supplied with the kit seems to have the metal straps indented, with the wood swollen up over them. I have seen this in some pictures caused perhaps by moisture getting into the block but it looks very wrong to me. I used the PE upgrades and some balsa to make a new one:





I've left a few of the small details off for painting:



I've also put the tool box together, opting for the PE option and I wanted it to be partially open and Tamiya doesn't give that option:





Thanks for looking, hopefully with have some paint on it soon!

~ Steve



The Italeri Hetzer is from 1974
M4A1Sherman
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New York, United States
Joined: May 02, 2013
KitMaker: 4,403 posts
Armorama: 4,078 posts
Posted: Friday, April 12, 2019 - 08:03 PM UTC
This is a real shame, after all that work... Let me just say that I can empathize with your situation. All is not lost though. With some careful wet-sanding, you can get your model smoothed out enough to take new paint. This will be a tedious and laborious process, but if you have patience, a reasonable new painting surface CAN be achieved.

I would suggest re-spraying a new primer-coat onto the model, using an AUTO PAINT PRIMER. These are usually formulated of petroleum-based compositions. After all has dried properly, (at the very least, 48-72 hours), re-spray your camo-scheme by USING PROPERLY-STIRRED AND THINNED ENAMEL PAINTS...

Yours is a CLASSIC EXAMPLE of what can go wrong with ACRYLICS, which is why I don't use them, except for my LIFECOLOR Figure-painting sets... I DON'T LIKE ACRYLICS, and I absolutely HATE THINNED-DOWN OILS for creating those messy "overall washes" that can also RUIN a well-built model. I've been building, detailing and painting models for over 61 years, so I think that I can speak from EXPERIENCE...
GazzaS
#424
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Queensland, Australia
Joined: April 23, 2015
KitMaker: 4,648 posts
Armorama: 2,248 posts
Posted: Friday, April 12, 2019 - 09:28 PM UTC

Sad result, Mate. I do understand.

Gaz
Dioramartin
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New South Wales, Australia
Joined: May 04, 2016
KitMaker: 1,476 posts
Armorama: 1,463 posts
Posted: Saturday, April 13, 2019 - 02:34 PM UTC
Bummer - but if you consider the paint-job a total write-off, before trying to remove it I'd experiment with remedial measures first in case they work. Maybe patch the worst bits & then thin fading washes to see what happens. The real thing's paint job wouldn't have got into an art gallery either.
dannyo
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United States
Joined: October 02, 2010
KitMaker: 11 posts
Armorama: 11 posts
Posted: Saturday, April 13, 2019 - 03:20 PM UTC
If I may Add my 2 cents worth,Your paint has a fighting chance. With a light over-spray of lighter colors & an overall wash of the battlefield, oils & stains it would look killer. No armor I ever saw was perfect. 4 years in the marines 76/81
PanzerKarl
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England - North West, United Kingdom
Joined: April 20, 2004
KitMaker: 2,439 posts
Armorama: 1,980 posts
Posted: Saturday, April 13, 2019 - 08:02 PM UTC
Don't know why people keep on using Mig ammo paints there horrid.
cheyenne
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New Jersey, United States
Joined: January 05, 2005
KitMaker: 2,185 posts
Armorama: 1,813 posts
Posted: Saturday, April 13, 2019 - 08:56 PM UTC
Doc , I'm here to talk you down off the ledge .
You've put a lot of work into this build and it deserves a shot at redemption , which in itself is a learning experience .
All these fine people here have given you suggestions on how to remedy your situation , why , because I'm sure like myself we've all screwed up a build or two in the past .

Do your very best to correct this , take your time you can do this !!
As far as the paints go , I can't comment on them because I've never used them , ........ however I have used a " last resort " modeling tool to deal with products that don't live up to their name ......................

Namabiiru
Staff MemberAssociate Editor
MODEL SHIPWRIGHTS
#399
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Rhode Island, United States
Joined: March 05, 2014
KitMaker: 2,888 posts
Armorama: 1,920 posts
Posted: Saturday, April 13, 2019 - 10:28 PM UTC

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If I may Add my 2 cents worth,Your paint has a fighting chance. With a light over-spray of lighter colors & an overall wash of the battlefield, oils & stains it would look killer. No armor I ever saw was perfect. 4 years in the marines 76/81



I'm with Danny on this.

 _GOTOTOP