i must say that this technique is gives very impressive results!! but 10 psi seems soo low! i usually spray at about 30...

great job so far by the way, this is an awesome looking model

charles

Man i'm luvin this SBS good clean build and seeing the paint go on excellent , it looks great Bill i like your technique it's very similiar to my own keep up the good work !!

Charles,

I use a straight compressor, no storage tank, with a moisture trap and a regulator valve and on a good day the highest pressure it will deliver is 25 psi. :-) I work with enamels so not sure if higher pressures are better with acrylics, but depending on what I'm painting or doing, I've dropped the pressure as low as 5 psi. All depends on your AB, compressor, paint, etc. on what works best.

Doug,

Glad to hear someone else uses similar methods! My approach is a conglomeration of things I've picked up here and there from reading about others' techniques, the Internet is a wonderful thing! Everytime I read about how someone does this or that effect or result, I immediately start thinking about how it relates to the way I do things and whether or not it's another bit to try out when the opportunity presents itself on future builds.

Bill once again great work and your paint guide is excellent awaiting the next installment with baited breath.

Its nice to see how the paint layers build up, normally you see a naked tank then next pic it has all its paint on.

Have done (and still doing) 1/72 link and length but not tackled 1/35 links yet, soon I'm thinking after reading this.

Heres to your great guide

Ciao
Luciano

Luciano,

In the IT world this is referred to as the "miracle" step....i.e. someone posts details of everything they are doing and then bang! a "miracle" happens and a great leap forward is depicted. :-) I admit I've done that many times myself and that's something I'm consciously trying to avoid here...it's tough though, there are times when I have to remember to stop and take a pic when ordinarily I'd just keep right on rolling along.

I cleaned up another 40 or so links watching the Monday Night Football game last night, only another 80 to go!

Since today is the final day of Daylight Savings Time and it meant an extra hour of modelling time, I determined to make the most of it and get both of the tracks installed.

All of the cleanup work on the links had been completed throughout the week, I had 113 links from last week plus another 90 that I cleaned up on different days, 8 links had been broken or were casualties along the way, so that left 29 on the sprues for the grand total of 240 kit supplied links. I figured roughly 95 were going to be needed for each side but had a few extras cleaned up just in case.

Before I could tackle the tracks I needed to install the roadwheels in a permanent arrangement along with the return rollers. And before I could do that....I had to weather up the underside areas while they were still accessible. For a dark finish like this one, I'll start by dry-brushing MM Steel in areas that would likely get wear from dirt, rocks, abrasions, etc. from the normal functioning of the running gear and tracks.



The intent here is not to show bare shiny exposed metal but to just give the hint of metallic "weight" and to serve as a base for the next step, which is to drybrush MM Burnt Umber to simulate the red oxide primer exposure from scratching, heavier dirt accumulation, slight rusting from exposed metal, etc. This too is just a preliminary set up for the full weathering later on when the lower hull and running gear receive their washes and dirt/dust treatments. Much of this will be layered or hidden underneath that but will "peak through" when I want it to at that stage.



Next came the delicate task of mounting the return rollers. Just as with their StuG kits, DML chose the hollow post mount arrangement for the return rollers but the mounting pin on the roller itself is very short and doesn't provide much of a counter to the weight of the wheels. To get them to install properly requires some support help, conveniently provided in this case by the same toothpicks I'd used to hold them for painting.



This of course has to be done on both sides and the wheels need to be set up pretty solid before the tracks can be installed. I let that sit for about 1 hour before installing the other side and also let it sit for another hour while I ran some non-model related errands.

Upon returning, it was now time to face the music and get the tracks on!

My method for handling DML indy links that are non-Magical is pretty straightforward. I will assemble the links in short runs of 5 links each and then set them off to the side until I've got 3 runs of 5 and then join the previous 2 runs together and so on like a daisychain approach, adding alternating new runs of 5 links to the front and back so that the entire length stays flexible instead of one end setting up before the other and causing problems later on. I use 2 6" metal rulers that I picked up at Office Depot that have a cork backing to keep the links and runs straight as work progresses.



Since I wasn't sure how long the total run of track needed to be, I assembled the first one out to 100 links and then test fit it to see how close I'd come. Turned out only 94 were needed so some quick subtraction and the first track run was ready to go.



Now this is where my particular method of indy link track assembly becomes a race against the clock. I use the regular Testor's black bottle glue so it has a little longer work time than the thin stuff for example, but it's only good for about 1 hour max before it starts to set up hard. Assembling the track run took about 30 minutes, so the next steps have to go in fairly rapid progression to get it all done. But then, I knew that going in since I've used this method before but I thought I'd throw that note of caution out there for others who might try it.

I don't like to "pre-form" runs for installation but instead will mount the entire track in one go, meaning assembly, painting, etc. are all done in one sitting. The assembled track is first brush painted with MM Non-buffing Gunmetal Metalizer with a medium sized brush. I wear a breather mask while using this stuff as it's pretty powerful and normally meant for AB work but can be brush applied just as easily. It's great stuff, dries very quickly (5 mins or less depending) and serves as an excellent base for a metallic finish IMHO.



In the background, you'll see a separate unpainted run of 15 links, this is from the leftover spare links and will serve a very important function in coming steps, more on that later.

Next step is to drybrush MM Steel over the Gunmetal to produce the desired steel track appearance. This is done a little on the heavy side on purpose as a preparation for the next step. Here you can see what one side drybrushed looks like vs. the un-brushed Gunmetal.



Once the drybrushing is done, I separated the single run into two almost equal runs to facilitate final assembly onto the vehicle and also to make the final pre-installation weathering step a little easier to manage.



This final step involves a full wash of MM Rust slightly mixed with MM Gunmetal (not the metalizer) that I mixed up ages ago and periodically refresh with more thinner. Since many times a "wash" is referred to, I thought I'd show a pic of what this really looks like in the bottle. This is what it looks like after it's been sitting for a while and you can see how the paint-to-thinner ratio looks like, I just shake it up real good to mix it up before applying.



Because the Metalizer is a lacquer based paint, it's very sensitive to thinner and will strip right up if not careful with the wash. That means that one pass with the brush is all you get, if you try to come back on it with a second pass, the entire painted surface strips right down to bare plastic faster than you can blink! Takes a little bit of practice but the end result is worth it IMHO. I use a 0 round sable brush and this allows for wide coverage in the single pass and also will blend the wash in along with the Steel drybrushed earlier since it's "dry" but isn't cured.



Just like with weathering up the lower hull, this isn't done, just prepped as a base for later weathering. Track installed smoothly with just a careful bit of alignment needed on the idler and sprocket to prevent the track from "toeing out" as it sets up. Both were glued in place and the ends of the track connected up over the middle return roller. Toothpicks once again pressed into service to insure the track lays flat on the return rollers and produces a slight "sag" effect. The 15-link run is placed under the roadwheels on the other side so that the vehicle will sit level while the installed track sets up.



I left that to set up for about an hour, left to get some dinner with my lovely wife, and upon my return to the bench, the same treatment was given to the opposite side track.



She's all shoed and ready for the detail work tomorrow for the tools and other add-ons before getting a coat of Future. For some reason I now have the "Song of the Volga Boatmen" humming in my brain...



Final extra link spares count came to 53 out of the 240 supplied, so quite a few will end up in a drawer in the spares bin for potential future use.

It looks Awesome so far!!! Im pretty confused about those tracks though. Did you say you glued them, then painted them, then put them on? I dont see how you got them to form around the wheels post-glued. And take them apart for painting...

Cant wait to see some more. It looks so good this far..

-Charles

Charles,

Sorry for the confusion, but yes, that's the steps. Glued them together with the Testor's glue because it's slower working meaning the links remain flexible, even to the point of being able to separate links or split into sections, and can be formed into shape around the wheels, sprocket, etc. Others will use a technique where they will form the links, let them harden, remove and paint, then reinstall along with the wheels, but I prefer to do it all at once as a personal choice.

As for seeing more....here you go.


With the progress made yesterday, today was all about the details. First up were all the pioneer tools with the biggest decision being which of the kit supplied jacks to use. Due to the "alphabet soup" of kit sprues there were no less than three different jacks with varying degrees of detail included in the box. The instructions tell you to use A41 but this had two problems...first being a nice sunken depression in the very middle of the body and second being soft on detail. The second one was for the StuG sprues and it wouldn't fit properly on the fender along with the fire extinguisher so that meant the 3rd choice was it. It was on the Pz III J sprue and had the best level of detail and the right dimensions to fit in the designated spot on the fender, so it got the nod. I've no idea if it's the "correct" jack type for an E, but it was the best of the lot.

There were some duplicates for some of the other tools as well but they were all of about equal quality so the rest were used as indicated in the instructions. The usual cleanup of mold seams and sprue points and a quick check before painting to make sure everything fit in the right spots was in order.





I started by painting all the metal areas with Metalizer Gunmetal, then drybrushed a little Steel in desired places. Used the 90/10 Gray mix from earlier to paint the clamps/attachment points and drybrushed a very little bit of the 80/20 mix over that to get it to more closely match the rest of the vehicle. Final step was to paint my own mixture of "wood" (secret recipe aka I mixed up a bunch of colors in inexact ratios until I had the color I wanted and didn't write any of it down while tinkering!), and then install. I also took the opportunity to detail paint both the hull and turret MGs.





A few more details were also taken care of such as painting some Tamiya Clear Red in the tail-light and Clear Smoke in the blackout light, painting and weathering the mufflers, and drybrushing a little more Steel on the high points of the tracks. Also painted some Silver from the old trusty 1/4 oz. Testors bottle inside the little headlights on the front since I'd neglected that earlier.



Once all that was taken care of, it was time to apply the sealing coat of Future. I do this with a wide bore nozzle (the orange tip) on my Aztek at 20 psi and do light mist coats to seal everything up without creating a thick layer. Future sprays perfect right out of the bottle, only takes a few minutes, and leaves a pleasant, slightly fruity odor in the garage in the process.



I used to be a Future skeptic until I actually used the stuff...it does wonders both for decal application and weathering with washes. A little bit goes a very long way and it's incredibly durable with a quick cure time. Air dries to the touch in about 15 minutes and, at least in my environment, cures up nicely within just a couple of hours although typically I will leave it at least overnight before doing any heavy work with it.

Final step for the day aimed at the decals. I'd decided a while back that I would do the kit suggested markings of a unit (so it claims, no idea if it's 100% accurate) in the 3rd Pz Regiment, 2nd Pz Division, Greece 1941. The reason the markings appealed to me was the big ol' White Spade plastered on the rear of the turret because it's definitely not something you see much of, especially on later war vehicles, so onward and upward. The decals are the older DML style and somewhat thick as a result. A couple of weeks back I'd picked up a bottle of Walther's Solvaset and thought I'd give it a whirl. Normally I'd use the Testor's brand Decal Sol but I've not been too happy with it lately, especially with older decals, so the switch was made. The bottle recommends testing the Solvaset on a spare decal first to make sure it's not too hot, I followed this caution and had no problems with the test subject and set to work on the numerous decals called for. I was very, very impressed with how the solution works. With the Testor stuff it always took a lot of poking/prodding to get decals to lay down and not develop air bubbles. The Solvaset directions specifically warn against doing this but instead to let the solution evaporate on its own and do its job undisturbed. Worked like a charm with just a couple small touchup applications needed for some of the smaller decals.



Biggest challenge of the night and strongest test of my patience was the "White Spade" for the rear turret. I didn't realize when I chose this that the spade had to go over the left side pistol port...a very complex surface and one that I wouldn't have even dreamed of with the Testors. I put the decal on the surface, carefully used the bottle cap brush to apply some Solvaset underneath the decal and also on its surface, and then patiently watched it go to work. In hindsight, I wish I'd taken a couple of the "in progress" shots because it was, to me, unbelievable how it did it.

Here's the end result.



And a closeup.



The photo doesn't do it enough justice but that's the best shot I could get. Once it's weathered, it will show up more clearly, but the decal has literally shrunk down perfectly around the port, even so far as to show the indentation on the small peak point itself. Now I'd like to claim credit for this but in truth, all I had to do was be patient and gently reapply a little solution in various spots as it laid itself done and there you have it.

The decals will set up overnight and tomorrow I'll give it a quick additional Future sealing coat to protect the decals themselves and then next weekend will commence the weathering.

I was eager today to get to work on the final stages of this build with the weathering and was able to make some good progress despite having contracted a cold earlier this week. I promise that no "natural additives" made their way into the finish.

First step was to apply another coat of Future over the decals with the AB and let that set up for an hour or so and then the real work of the day began.

I always start out my approach to weathering with a pin wash, and use a 3/0 detail brush for this purpose. The Future gives a very nice glossy surface for this and has the added advantage of being very forgiving if too much wash gets in places that you don't want it to be. I keep a bottle with some clean thinner handy for this sort of thing and will as needed use it along with a paper towel edge or the brush to pick up or redo as I go along. The pin wash in this case consists of a 90/10 thinner/paint mix of MM enamel Burnt Umber. I apply this around all the raised detail, into the weld seams, etc. to create some depth and shadows. It's a slow process and I will frequently clean the brush, reshake/mix the wash to keep it consistent, and in extended sessions, even add some more thinner into the bottle to replace what's evaporated from the open container. The key here is that the pin wash is meant to deepen the overall finish and enhance the 3-D look. After a couple of hours of back and forth, the result:



The wash was applied to the upper and lower hull areas and roadwheels although this is the last step they will share in common in that regard.

Next step involved adding the chains to the smoke candle rack on the rear hull. I used 47 link-per-inch chain that I'd purchased from a seller on e-bay, it was advertised as railroad logging chain for one of the smaller train scales, but it works very well for this purpose IMHO. I'd held off adding them until now because I didn't want to run the risk of knocking them off from handling. On they went with just a little bit of touchup required as the pic shows on the final couple of links due to the struggle of cutting them. I used a couple of reference photos from the archive at UllsteinBild to determine the chain length, they had a couple of very nice photos of the rear hull on an F that were perfect.



Next step was very straightforward, sprayed Testors Dullcote in the rattlecan to remove the shine from the Future and to provide a good surface for drybrushing. I also, finally, was able to remove the blue-tack masks from the cupola, this required some careful work with a toothpick but it all came out eventually revealing the view ports just as I'd left them before painting started. I did have to touch up the areas below the glass that were still bare plastic but that was easily taken care of with a small pointed brush and some steady hands. The cupola had been held in place with some of the same blue tac in anticipation of just this type of activity and once all done, glued into place.



Just as the purpose of the pin wash was to deepen and create shadows, the purpose of the drybrushing is aimed at creating highlights and raised areas to further add to the 3-D of the finish. Just like the pin wash, this is a slow and lengthy process using the same 3/0 detail brush to provide more control. For this kind of drybrushing, I will only touch the tip into the paint and will use a paper towel to blot it away so that there's only a very small amount of paint on the brush at any one time. The 90/10 Light Gray mix from earlier in the painting process is again brought into service for this task and is drybrushed over all the raised detail and angled areas.



In the pic you'll see that some of the drybrushed areas seem stark in comparison to the rest of the paintwork and this is due to the fact that the paint is still "fresh" as opposed to having cured. In the past I would immediately seal up a drybrush effort under the assumption that it was dry and therefore done but I've found that if left overnight it will actually cure and blend in more to the Dullcote with a more subtle contrast. I'll check it in the morning and if some of the areas are still too light then some selective counter-drybrushing with the base Panzer Schwarzgrau will bring it back into balance.

I also weathered up the wood handles on the tools and the jack block with some pastels and corrected my earlier mistake (which I didn't catch until doing the wash) of having somehow mounted the shovel backwards on the right fender. :-) It's a real head-scratcher how I managed that and I remember thinking at the time that it was an unusal arrangement but didn't think twice about carrying it forward.

Tomorrow will focus on weathering the tracks and lower hull/suspension with some dust/dirt pigments as the final task barring anything unforseen that is.

The day of destiny arrived today, this is the final installment of this Build Log because, well, its done!

Picking up from the work done yesterday, a little counter drybrushing was needed in just a couple of spots, that was quickly taken care of and then a final sealing coat of Dullcoat applied and allowed to dry.

While that was setting up, I did some quick research on the state of weathering appropriate for Greece in 1941. Since the Greek campaign was in mid-Spring (April-May) and the units involved were fresh troops at the outset, I decided on a dusty road-march type of weathering and selected MiG Light Dust for the task.



I use ordinary tap water for this step and mix it in an old disposable contact lens container and apply wet with a round brush. The Dullcoat provides an excellent surface for this as it will allow the water/pigment mixture to flow easily although it does take a little maneuvering to get it all in the right places. Working on a horizontal as opposed to vertical surface makes this easier and in preparation of working on the lower hull, the turret is removed and the mix applied.



As users of pigments know, when applied wet and allowed to dry, the dried pigment is lighter than its "dry" state. This can come as a surprise the first time out using them as the desired color when "wet" is not how the end result will actually turn out. While the water was drying on the wet applications, I also used a round #6 sable brush to dust the upper hull and turret, more on why later.

The first reaction when seeing the above result is often one of shock/horror...but it's not going to be left like that. Instead, the [auto-censored]nal of stiff bristled brushes you see along with it are going to be put to work removing much of the excess and blending in the remaining to achieve a better result. It's a case of over applying knowing that the next step will be to "subtract" rather than "add". Here's how it looked midway through working on it.



And completed.



A word of caution here, the MiG pigments are very finely ground to begin with and when working to remove it, the pigments are even finer and very easily go airborne. I wear a dust mask while working on this step as I had a rather nasty sinus headache the last time I did this without a mask and have learned my lesson. After giving the opposite side the same treatment and dusting up the turret, we've almost arrived.



One thing that I find very useful in working with pigments or weathering powders in general is a can of compressed air with the plastic tube extender used to clean keyboards. I keep a can on my workbench and with a careful use of the trigger it removes excess dust far better than just blowing with the mk1 lungs can accomplish and with a lot more precision as well.

Final step is a delicate one. The dust coat is meant to enhance and not hide all the previous work done with the washes, drybrushing, etc. and to accomplish that I take a round 0 brush that is barely damp and use it to create rain streaks, vary the dust accumulation, etc. This is the great thing about MiG pigments IMHO, they are very flexible and can be rearranged virtually indefinitely until you've got it the way you want it.

Speaking of which, here she is:



And just to add a bit to the historical reference point....same shot in grayscale.



And some additional shots of the finish:

Stunning.

Thank you for this.

Bill,

Excellent work. Thanks for the SBS.
-zon

Bill... Thank you.

This has been great to follow and has shown me the methods I need to further my skills. A lot of the time you hear someone say do this or that then the next stage is x, y, z but they don't tell you HOW to do x, y, z. You just have, again Thank you.

Just a thought, have you thought about putting this forward as a feature that way it won't get lost in time.

Ciao
Luciano

Hi Bill. Great SBS. This has been a very interesting topic since day 1. Well written, clear and concise. Excellent photos throughout. I truely enjoyed this.
A great tip I got a few years ago, for painting wood, was to give it a light sand colour like you have here. Then when this is dry, paint on burnt sienna oils over it. Then after an hour, brush most of it off again using only a dry brush. Then using a sharpened tooth pick, run some grain on this. After a few days, a light wash with black over this gives an amazing wood finish. No one wood-colour simulates wood easily as it is a blend of different colours. The oil trick really does work.
The wire cutter did not have wooden handles ... they were some some sort of bakelite material and were usually a maroon/wine colour.



I agree. Definately put this forward.

Appreciate the comments, I am planning to distill this down into a feature, just have to figure out what to keep not keep and how to keep the whole thing manageable. Ordinarily for a build like this I'd maybe take 20-25 or so photos including completed shots but this one has about 4x that.

Frank,

Thanks for the tips on the wood grain method, will have to give that one a shot. I do something similar but not with the oils, instead use artist pastel (not the chalk) in combination with the brush texture from painting. The trouble is the struggle between artistic look vs. scale realism considering what 1/35 woodgrain would actually appear as, that and the limitations of my camera at times.

As far as the wire cutter handles go, I've read conflicting accounts that early war tools were wood handled (I think it was a topic on John Steinman's Pz 38(t) build?) and later war tools had the bakelite, but I don't know how definitive that is one way or the other(or when such a cutoff might happen), so in this case I left it as is but on future builds will look at the bakelite finish.

Here's some more detail shots (I ran out of steam last night posting these unfortunately), in a couple you can see more clearly the detail on the wood handles.

While doing a search over on Missing Lynx as my curiosity on the tools question led me to it, I found this link to an actual set of WW2 wire cutters.
WW2 German Wirecutters The text is in Japanese but the pics show a very deep dark brown color, something I will have to work on for future tools for sure.

Hey Bill, if memory serves me,Bakelite was made from
soy beans and if exposed to prolonged sunlight the outer surface
would lighten up,crack and flake off.

Thats been along time ago and I may be mistaken.

....Tony....

Tony,

I know it's a hard plastic-like substance used for a lot of things (gun stocks/grips, periscope housings, optics such as binoculars, etc.) so would think it would be more durable than that.

After digging around on the 'net a bit, it turns out there's quite a collector's market for stuff made from Bakelite and even a museum for it in Germany! http://www.bakelitmuseum.de

nice work on the Zim... have you done it all with the Tamiya tools?

very nice work

per my PM

Michael,

Not sure if you meant that for this post/thread or if you're commenting on the weathering approach... :-)

Carl,

Got it, thanks!

It was also used on some dog tags. My Grandma's neighbor has a set of dog tags (his) made of bakelite and its very hard and dark brown almost speckely and layered looking. It seems to me that it would get brittle if left in the weather for too long, although im no expert so i wouldnt trust this as a good reference!

the tank looks AWESOME btw. Its incredible. very very nice finish you got and your techniques are very effective!

Charile,

The more I look at the photos from that Japanese site I think it's the endcaps that are made from bakelite (they have that deep purple/brown) color like the rest of the stuff in that museum page but the handles themselves are a different color. According to the guys over on M-L (I did a search that turned up a discussion from 2002 and most recently got an answer to my own question on the subject there today ), the handles are made from a resin impregnated cardboard used as an insulator and that makes sense given the coloration in the Japanese site example. So painting the entire handles in the purple/wine color would not be accurate, only the endcaps should be that color. Given this info, I'm going to go back and carefully redo the handles on this one with a thin sheet of plastic card underneath to help prevent any "oops" moments.

From seeing all the different things it was used for, hearing that dogtags were made from this doesn't really surprise me. We (or at least I do) tend to think of plastics as a post-war innovation but Bakelite stuff can be found as part of many common things it would seem!

A small coda to add to this, I went back and redid the wirecutter handles by taking just a little of MM Leather and mixing it with MM Dark Earth with some thinner and stippling it on with a small brush.

The result: