Well here I am so far WIP. This is the AFV Club AF35103 Sturmtiger. It’s a nice kit. I will probably be using the vinyl tracks instead of the indylinks on this one, because I wanna show it crawling over something thereby articulating the suspension. Only midifications to the kit so far, are the addition of shell damage here and there, one direct hit and a few glancing blows from some kind of shell, and some pock marks from small arms fire. The damage looks a little funky right now, but it’s all part of the weathering plan.
Also the zimmerit is done with green milliput, using water and the back side of a pair of gripping tweezers to smooth it, and then the AFV Club metal zimm roller to add the zimmerit. A bit messy but the roller works extremely well.
My biggest thing, is I have not decided on what paint scheme to go with. So suggestions on the paint scheme would be appreciated. I have an airbrush capable of spraying lines less then half a millimeter wide freehand, or I have silly putty to mask with for a hard edge scheme. Idea’s would be much appreciated.
Looks good so far Michael. I applaud your doing your own zim. I see the roller does work pretty well. I’ll have to consider it.
That one shell hit near the driver’s visor appears too deep, much more than the 6 inches of armor. Therefore a penetration might have been achieved. Sorry for the nitpick, but it’s an observation. As far as I know, there were only something like 18 built. I myself haven’t seen much evidence of damaged ones, so I can’t say yours couldn’t be accurate.
Good luck on your scheme. Kykeon gave some good choices. I kind of like the splinter scheme, but think it would be a little trickier to pull off.
Well for the deep shell hit, I kinda wanted it to look like a ner penetration. It will look a bit more filled in once all the weathering and such is completed. But you know me I’m more of a could have happened if it’d gone on longer kinda guy. Prototypically possible is more my style. Unless there is a specific vehicle I’m gonna replicate.
For the camo I did three color, although the pattern looks a bit more modern it works. I did the different colored dots or lozenges all over it as well. GReena nd yellow inside the red brown, yellow and red brown inside the green and so forth. Looks pretty trippy sitting here. I did it hard edged. I will get some pics tomorrow afternoon of the finished camo, and tonight I’ll probably post pics of it in stages.
There are several rollers out there, but they all seem to be pretty much the same. The AFV club one was like less then 10 bucks where most of the others are 30+. Also you can’t really tell but I used the stamp part of the tool for some touchup.
Actually, I decided a paintbrush would be a bit more economical, and a bit smarter. So I used an artists brush that was given to me by ana rt student that was done with school.
Tigerman is correct. As for the price I paid for the Sturmtiger, I don’t remember. Tigerman may know better then me, as if I remember correctly, I bought it along with the matching Michael Witman Tiger from him.
Reminds me Tigerman, as soon as I can make zimm on the front, look the same as the zimm everywhere else on it, I’ll get it done. That is myonly setback at the moment. Oh yeah that’s in regards to the Panther. If I can’t get it right I’ll order another PE zimm set one of these days.
Come to think of it, I’ve picked up quite a few kits from you haven’t I? I think about 1/3rd of my armor stash came from you. LOL
Not gonna forget that this time. I’ve done that WAY too much.
Heh, I’m finally breaking down and working on that Dragon Halftrack. ##$@%^#@%^@$^$@ thing. The instructions could be better, the fit could be better, the parts could be molded with the sprues better. So many issues with it I don’t like. On the high side the molded in detail is exquisite. Last dragon Halftrack I buy, I can tell you that much.
