I am building the Marder 111 M,i and i need info on the ammo storage,knowing me i would probably put the shells in upside down :-) so all tips would be gratefully recieved.
Arthur

Hi Arthur,
If you could get hold of the book, modelling the Marder self propelled gun by Sam Dwyer(osprey modeling NO.18), it has some good photos looking into the back of the vehicle, showingoff the ammo stowage quite nicely, (pages 54,55), I could always colour photocopy them and mail them to you, hope that helps

Jason

Hi Jason,i think a friend of mine has that book,many thanks for the info
Arthur

Hi Arthur,
Ya! more than welcome, any time
Jason

Arthur, the pointy end of the shells is the top, and in your box you'll find a lot of small, round discs. These are not shields, but roadwheels. Can't wait to see it finished in one of your excellent Tartan paint patterns..

:-)

Seriously, good luck with the Marder. What apint scheme are you thinking of doing?

Cheers
Henk

Got you Henk,so the pointy thing go up the way,and the wee round things go round,do the pointy things have a warning on them such as these can be harmfull to your health,as for the paint job,non Tartan,i thought of doing a weathered winter white job,but to set it in early summer in Russia,the figs are on the way to being finished,all info is welcome such as where the armour would weather most etc.
Arthur

Arthur,

If you want to do a winter scheme in early summer, there would be very little of the white colour left. Depending on the year you want to depict, the base coat would have been Panzergrau (summer '42 or '43) or dunkelgelb, with two or three tone camouflage if you want, for summer '44. Reason for this that all vehicles were painted Panzergrau untill 1943, when the order was given to paint all vehicles dunkelgelb.
At the time of early summer the white camo would have either been removed/overpainted by the crew, or worn off to the extent that only vague remnants would still be visible. Possible spots would be hard to reach nooks and crannies such as fender supports, inside corners of the superstructure, and the sides of the crew compartment. The sides of the crew compartment you could do as follows:
Paint base coat (say dunkelgelb)
Airbrush a thin coat of well diluted white paint in a 'cloudy' pattern ( i.e. with the base colour almost showing through in patches, not looking like sheep..)
With the basecolour, well thinned again, make irregular downward passes over the white to simulate downward streaks where the rain water has been wearing the paint down. This should be very thin, as it should look as if the base colour comes through the white, rather than being on top of it. (as one would with rust streaks). It would be a good idea to lighten the base coat a bit.

I think it depends very much on the type of paint the crew would have used to apply the winter camo in the first place. Unlike the Americans, the Germans tended to use good quality paint, which didn't wear as quick as the American ones. When the snow disappeared the crews would either remove the paint or paint over with a camo scheme, as required in the field. It is however feasible that the paint would have worn/weathered sufficiently over the course of winter and spring to leave as was, especialy if the basecoat is dark and showing through well. In that case you should weather the whole vehicle in a rather 'well abused' overall state, and particularly the underside/wheels/suspension etc, which would have seen a harsh winter and a wet muddy spring the likes of which make our winters look like a vacation on the Bahamas...

Hope this is of some help, any other questions, just ask.

Cheers
Henk

Thankyou Henk,a very informative post,most helpfull,i presume Dunkelgelb is yellow,the reason i wanted to do it in faded winter camo is to have a contrast between the off white and late spring,early summer colours,also the crew are in shirt sleeves,by the way i will be painting it by hand i wouldn't know one end of a paint spray from a hole in the ground,if anyone else wants to chip in with hints and help please do.
Arthur

Arthur, yes Dunkelgelb is Dark Yellow. I use Tamiya but that won't be much good for you I presume. I recenctly got a set of Vallejo German Camouflage Colours, which contains Dark Yellow. I must say that a first test piece didn't get me cheering, it looks a bit to dark to me. But I still have to experiment with mixing it a bit, and see if a wash makes a difference. If you brush the camo, no problem. Just use well diluted white paint, and brush it on from top to bottom in thin layers. you can control how much the base coat shines through very good in that way. I did the Sherman with a brush, and if you use thin layers you will prevent the 'running' effect that I was after but you probably are not. After the white is finnished, dry brush the base coat along the edges of the larger panels to simulate the worn/faded effect.

This is my Sherman



I used it quite thick, as mine was not placed in the spring..




Cheers
Henk