Thanks again for everyone’s support and suggestions to improve in my earlier posts.
Well I have only done monotone tanks so far so it is time to dive into a soft edge two tone cammo paint job. I was also planning to wait until build #6 to start adding figures but my wife of all people is pushing me to start doing figures. With those goals in mind I ran across a Cyber-Hobby Super Value Pack (Orange Box) Sd.Kfz.142/1 Stug III Ausf. F with Sturmgeschutze Crew for $27.00.
To prepare for my first figures and also my first real Diorama I took some time off and did some research and read the following sources:
How to Build Diormas 2nd Edition by Sheperd Pain
How to Build Armor Dioramas by Lynn Kessler
Vallejo’s Figure Painting Tutorial
I have some ideals on how to approach the two tone soft edge and one is follow this paint scheme:
I figured I would base coat it either XF-51 (Khaki Drab) or a lightened XF-61 (Dark Green) and then use some blue tac or silly putty to mask and then use XF-60 (Dark Yellow).
I also decided to track actual costs of materials and assembly, painting, and weathering hours.
I am officially eleven hours and 37 minutes into the build and this is what I have learned so far working on my first non-Smart kit is that is smart to pay a few extra dollars for someone else to remove the excess flash and molding! [:D]
I have spent the majority of my time sanding and scraping.
I had quite a large gap in the rear hull that I filled with Milliput and decided to try my hand at creating my first weld seam. It’s a little out of scale but I had little choice. I also used some Squadron MMD Fast Drying Putty to add texture and demension to the rear mufflers.
Please feel free to provide any suggestions as this proceeds and thanks again for the support!
Cool project, but I think you may have over-done it on the mufflers…my preferred method is to “stiple” the muffler w/ liquid glue and a stiff paintbrush to get a rust-textured look…
Yes I have read posts including yours I believe about that method and also using corn starch and also white glue. I am going to scrape some of the putty off before I base coat. I used this method on my last build and really liked the final look. I will definately try your method on the next build. Did I get the weld seam right?
Off to a great start Edmund! I would strongly suggest not adding any real texturing to the mufflers at all as a personal preference or if you do, make it very light. These things did develop surface rust from exposure to the elements and the heat of operation but it’s something easily overdone and the effect looks like something that’s been immersed in salt-water for years in terms of the surface corrosion. It takes a long time for a piece of steel to develop sufficient rust build-up that it will start flaking/scaling and produce the texturing in scale IMHO. These mufflers weren’t built out of anything particularly durable…just essentially stamped sheet metal and weren’t cast, so very little texturing would be present as a rule aside from perhaps mud accumulation. The little holes in the middle are actually stiffening tubes because they were so prone to crush damage from the vehicle being backed into things.
I do like the way you created the weld seam on the rear join, solved two problems at once! I would also suggest perhaps rethinking your painting plan…you’re going to be using up an awful lot of green paint if you base coat with that and try to mask off the pattern with silly putty. Since it’s a simple pattern, you ought to be able to free-hand it without too much problems and a little practice on a scrap piece of styrene or paper. You can do it! [;)]
An alternative, assuming you don’t have an airbrush, get out your rattle can primer, and spray it. Then, you can take your green paint, paint the lines-thicker than normal, and then silly putty your extra thick lines. Apply the yellow and peel the putty-same thing you had in mind but with less wastage!
Thanks Bill! Well between you, Karl, and Manny I get the message. I will tone down the texture on the mufflers. I enjoyed making the weld seam I did it with a scribing tool. I like Milliput because it does not shrink and it’s water based and easy to work with.
I will make the decsion about painting method when I get to that point but I appreciate your vote of confidence!
I took a peek at your Bio and realized you are a Bison! Ick! [;)] I am a Fighting Sioux and graduated from UND in 89. I really miss Nodak and Hockey Fights! I don’t miss shoveling though!
Thanks Schnobs! And a good book for you would have to be Verlinden’s, the system, volume 1 and 2. And a great tutorial would be this, /forums/980078/ShowPost.aspx it helped me a lot with my figure painting, and again, I like it now!
I put in two hours last night and was able to mount the main gun on a very interesting and ingenious mounting system I might add. I re-enforced the swivel arms with gel filling CA for strength. This was my first exereince with a split gun barrel. I was not impressed and obviously refer a single molded barrel. I still have some additional sanding left before primer coat.
I also toned down the texture on the muffler as well.
Some good progress Edmund. I’d suggest removing the molded on outlines for the escape hatches on the lower hull, this is a feature found on Pz IIIs and not StuGs as a rule (although some Fs were built on III-J and L hulls that did have the hatch). If you drill out the face of the gunner’s sighting scope with a pin vise it will add a nice little bit of realism missing from the kit parts as well. [tup]
I love your attention to detail and historical references. It’s like watching the History Channel in print! [:)]
The directions had indicated removing the outlined material and I hestiated because I did not see that in any of the finshined box model pictures. So that is an escape hatch interesting…
Yes I will drill out the gunner’s sighting scope as well as the muffler tailpipes.
Thanks as always Bill for your thoughtfull comments and suggestions.
Hey, Edmund, my fellow West Coast insomniac. How did I miss this until now?
I think the build is gong well, not much to add from a realism standpoint, I am not overly familiar with your subject.
I have painted some freehand two and three tone camo, though. Practice on a piece of cardboard, etc. It’s really not hard to get a handle on it.
Looking forward to the paint on this one.
How was working with milliput? I may try to do some homemade Zimm on a T1 late I have in the stash, and I’ve never tried the milliput. Seems like it was easy to work with from what you posted. Sorry for the minor hijack, Edmund.
