This is something i have been working on in the past couple of weekends. It is the Dragon kit of the Sdkfz 234/1 built entirely OOB. Of all of the new genreation Dragon kits, including the Tiger series, this has to be the one i have enjoyed the most and possible is the best of the new gereation models that Dragon have produced. The level of detail and quality of the mouldings is superb.

So far i have only painted the interior with some light weathering. The small dash board has not been painted yet hence why it is still in light grey. I base coated the inside inTamiya Hull Red and over coated this with Valejo Air Panzer Dark Yellow. It is a too green for my taste, but i wanted to experiement with these paints so the interior i felt was a good place to start.

More photos to come.









All constructive comments welcome.

Regards from the Swamp

Eth

The subtle weatherin' on the interior is superb, I like it a lot. What did you use?

Thansk for that Paul.

i undercoated everything in Tamiya Hull Red than topcoated it in VallejoAir Panzer Dark Yellow, making sure to concentrate more on the center panels and try and leave some of the hull red showing through on the edges.

The Vallejo paint is a tricky one to use, too much thinner and it is way to thin, too little and it dries on the needle. Although this is my first time using Vallejo paints and i think they need a lot more care than Tamiya or xtracrylics.

Regards from the Swamp

Eth

Looking tops so far Hawkeye! The mild weathering looks the part and raises all the details nicely. How is the fit of top and bottom hull after painting? I see from your images there is male/female location points. Do these do the trick? The details from your photographs look great!

Thanks for that Frank, appreciate your comments.

The fit of the upper and lower hulls is not that good. if you line up the forward male/female locating pins/holes the rear ones will not fit. So i shaved the rear ones off and lined everything up from the front to the back. I will have some more photos up soon. I have joined the hull together, and painted the outside. I will show those photos next, then some more when i have weathered the kit.

Even with the minor problem with the location pins, this is still a very good kit, and i have really enjoyed it.

Regards from the Swamp

Eth

Construction and painting is now finished. I primed the exterior in Tamiya Hull Red, then base coated it in Xtracrylics Afrika Corp Sand Grey, lightened with some Xtracrylics White. The Green is Xtracrylics Olive Green, and the the red brown is Tamiya, both clours have been lightened with white.

Detail painting was done with a variety of enamels, either Humbrol or Revell. The exhausts were texteured with MR Surfacer 500, then painted with Humbroll 113, the darker colour is again Tamiya Hull Red.

Next stage will be the applying of Unit markings, either by paint masks of decals, not sure which way to go yet. Then i will over coat it in Humbrol Dull Coat and then start to weather it, hope you all like the progress so far.

















All consructive comments are welcome.

Regards from the Swamp

Eth

i like it! looking forward to you further progress!

good luck

koen

hi there,

great kit you have built there! Loved the interiors esp! Cant wait to see more when you completed it.

Cheers!

Mmmm! Looking good! I particularly like the effect on the rusty exhausts - how did you do this? The close up photo seems to have pixellated a bit so isn't clear. Must break out the airbrush & get mine painted, also Puma & Flammwagen!

That xtracrylix sand grey looks great as the dunkelgelb!

Dan & koen,thanks for the kind remarks they are very much appreciated. Jon,i think the Sand Grey is a better representation of the Dark Yellow as well, thanks for your commentsC[ ]




Hey Steve, it is not pixellated, or at least it does not look like it to me, it is the texture i have added. Here's how i got to that stage. I used Mr Surfacer 500, stippling it on with an old slightly stiff brush. Then i painted the exhausts with Humbrol Rust,113 i think is the number but can check if you need me to. Then i used some Tamiya Hull Red for the darker areas, again i stippled this on on the right hand side exhaust, but brushed it on on the left hand side to create the contrast between the two. In the next photos i will take, you will see that i hav also added some Mig Pigments, Light Rust and Standard Rust. I have fixed thses in place using thinners.

Hope this helps?

Regards from the Swamp

Eth

This looks real nice! Is it goin' into a scene, at all?

Well i finally got to take some photos of the finished model, it has been raining cats and dogs here so the light has not been conducive to taking photos.

I have added several more filters, dull coated the model and then weathered the exhausts, wheels and lower chassis with Mig Pigments. Also added some light chipping/scratching where i think it would be appropriate. I am not a great one for the chipped look so i hope what i have done looks convincing?

As always all constructive comments are wellcome.













Paul, for now this is a stand alone model, i may add one of the Alpine SS Recon figues to it as well as a small dio, but i am not sure yet.

Regards from the Swamp

Eth

Excellent!

Very nice work. Really like the paintjob and the weathering.

My only nitpicking would be the mufflers. You seems to have forgot to fill and sand the joint between the parts.

Nice weathering Ethelian. Flat and dusty, with the wheels looking slightly damp. Very nice. Me wants one of these now .
Eventhough it doesn´t need a figure in the turret, because of the gun, this model deserves a nice figure, to really set it off! The Alpine recon team or even a single figure would be perfect. C´mon, you know you want to!! :-)

Great job. I especially like your weathering and your reserved use of chipping, both of which sufficiently subtle to be convincing.

Thats looking very nice Eth, the only fault I can see is that the straps around the Green jerry can in the last pic dont meet squarely, but overall its a damn good job!

Have you got a picture straight down into the interior, or down and forward at a 45 degree angle?


I'm wondering how much of the drivers area is visable to the front when the turret is on.

In the 234/4 it is very little, I am imagining here is even less.

Mike

Mark, i noticed that as well. and it is to late to correct*sighs* Lets call it manufacturing tolerences shall we

Mike, you can see very little of the interior with the turret in place, obvioulsy if you remove you can, and twistthe model about. All of the interior is visable, and that is why i did the interior painting. I can't take any decent photos of it right now as the weatehr is so dull and over cast that there is not enough natural light to provide good photos. Thanks for your comments guys

Regards from the Swamp

Eth