Here is my second armor build. There is still some work to do on it such as another flat coat, there is a decal peeling off at the back, the headlight protective cages are misaligned … If you found others, please tell me. I’ve added some extras on it such as maps, straps made of masking tape and I still want to make a first aid box and some accessories. Any comments would be appreciated, I’m a rookie in armor building and I have some other kits to do so I want to improve myself …
And here is a picture of the interior I made just before installing the turret and complete with weathering.
Oh! I forgot to tell that I tried to be as accurate as I could (with the help of no book at all) and the maps are all depicting the december 1944 situation to correspond to the markings on this tank. Of course that doesn’t show on the pictures and I’m the only one to know that but I’m sure I’m not the only insane modeler who do that! Right? Now I have to work on some figures, which I never made, to put in this beast. Do you guys know a good kit for it?
Great work. First off, I love the added ammo, and the little strap holding the can to the basked it beautiful. In and of itself the build is great, but the weathering is a little too drastic. Too much mud on the tracks and running gear, and nothing on the top. A vehicle that covered on the bottom would make a huge dust cloud, and would be dusted everywhere. You may want to tone down the weathering next time, and lighten the colouration on the actual vehicle itself. All in all, a great Hellcat. I just love the look of this vehicle.
Thanks for comments, it was a fun build. I tought about having that tank running in the wet mud so I’m not sure about the dust covering the complete tank. I do agree that the sun could blemish the paint a lttle more but it all depends of the years of use you want to show. I tried to blemish it a lot but now that you mention it, it may have a little more. Here is my reference picture for paint job and mud effect.
The paint was not that blemished and there is definetly a contrast between the tracks and the tank and now that I look at it again, the tracks on my model are probably too clean.
Thanks again for comments, my next one will be more attacked by the sun probably and you did an excellent work on your model. Great looking!
As for figure kits, Dragon has the WWII US tank crew kit, which is a very nice kit. If you want to go bit more advance or fancier, you can go with Resin kits from Legend, Verlinden, warrior or Jaguar. I personally am not good at paining figures, so I stick to Dragon or Tamiya kits for the time being.
It’s not that I don’t like critics. Really I appreciate all your comments: the good ones that makes me proud of my model and the constructive ones so I can improve myself. But when it comes to weathering, a lot of you seem to think that armors were never new or almost new. Even if these armors comes from WWII era, they were new at some point and when it comes to weathering, I think we must refer to pictures of recent armor in action to depict it as they were on the battle field at that time. I know it looks very good and adds life to a model to do heavy weathering and rusty look but I think there is more chance to see one of these in a scrapyard than on the front. Its not that I don’t like those heavily weathered tanks, I like it a lot, most of the time the rust effect and blemish paint looks pretty realistic and that’s what modeling is all about. But there is other ways to show things. My car was new when I bought it and it looks like a piece of junk now. But there was another kind of used car in between.
My next armor will be a panzerkampfwagen IV Ausf. D and I will try to weather it a lot because I want it that way. But there is room for other kind of stuff. I wanted to show that Hellcat as it would be on the field with some rust and used by the sand and wind but also just a little bit from the sun. If there is a good reason for that to be wrong, I would like to know and will try to correct that cause I want to be as accurate as I can. But all tanks were not that used. All that said, I want to tank everybody for all the help you’re providing to me and I can’t wait to see your next model.
You have to do what is right for you and what looks good to you. Afterall, you are doing this to please yourself and for your own enjoyment. I personally like what you did with this piece and can’t wait to see your next project.
