Been working on this one for a while. Got it together and sprayed it tamiya Dark Panzer Grey. Shot some cheap hairspray from the $ store then brushed some white craft acrylic paint. Used an old brush and water to wear away the whitewash. Did some dot filtering on the interior color to get rid of the monotone grey. Did a couple of oil washes to dirty up things. Used some decals for the instruments and a drop of Future for the glass. I also added some wires around the top of the transmission. Did some preliminary mud on the underside with MMP Powders and water. Still have a long way to go on this.
Yes, kit #6383. The tools are a little bit too large I think. I had to cut down the ax handle to make it more scale. I also used some wine bottle foil for the tool clamps and tool holder for the ax and pick.
Thanks to all for the positive comments and a couple of more pictures.
Thanks Bodge for the kind words. I’m trying to get this little guy ready for an upcoming show. I forgot to add the wire clamps so I used some thin electrical wire and formed it around the tweezers, cut them to size and secured them with a little Future. I will paint them later. The tracks are next. I cut them off the sprue, cleaned them up and separated them with their respective numbers for future assembly. They are next…
I have this one started but haven’t touched it for over month and I am glad because I wanted to dirty it up a bit. I am going to try this technique since I already have the Panzer Gray down.
The kit builds up very nice. The Pak 38 is nicely detailed. As mentioned before, the tools are a bit too large and the tool holder on the right fender is missing but I fashioned one from foil. Looking at a Demag walkaround, the dash is pretty accurate as well as the gears and transmission.
IBuild1
Whatever you do, build the track links while the fenders and all the other thingies are off otherwise it makes it very difficult to work with the placement.
Tigerman
I could not do this work if it weren’t for my 4X optivisor [8-|]. Several of those tiny clamps flew off God knows where!
One way I found to cheat drying time over an oil wash is using acrylics for the tool handle color. Paint the tool handle tan and let dry. Then brush on Tamiya clear orange and let dry. Then use Tamiya smoke to tone it down. This method takes a few minutes since the Tamiya acrylic dries fast and the oil wash takes at least a couple of hours to evaporate. The smoke color will also add streaks on the wood finish creating realistic graining.
Finally completed it. The tracks were just crazy to work with. Punched out a mirror from the inside of a potato chip bag and glued it with RC56 Glue. Added an MP40, spare tracks and ammo boxes inside. Also made my own tow wire from a piece of electrical cord , painted it steel and draped it over the spare tire. Grabbed some thin braided string and wrapped it around the front hooks then colored it with Elmers Glue, water and tan craft paint. After weathering the tracks with rust color craft paint, oil washes and MMP Powders mixed with rubbing alcohol, I used a #2 pencil to show wear on the raised track parts and outside edges.
Very nice work all around on this one. It’s one of my favorite of the “unusual” half-track variants and the whitewash finish you’ve created is very well done. [Y]
Thanks Bill and Tigerman for your comments. The potato chip bag trick is the closest I’ve found that actually looks like a mirror. I may make a small base later on.
