Thanks modeler#1, appreciate the comments! [B]
ugghh…now I’m wanting to try a halftrack!..and I already have two Assualt Guns, a Whirlbewind, and an '88 waiting in line!
Good luck with the ‘sadistics’ class…maybe for a thesis you can determine the permutation of kits necessary to recreate a given Panzer Army.
If you decide on a 251 there a lot of choice out there and some great kits. I love this vehicle as there is so much variety. The Dragon and AFV club kits are deffinatly the best for detail, but the Tamiya kits build up really nicely as well.
Things are coming together well as usual. Good luck on you Master of Building Armor Degree[:D]!
Winetanker thanks for the comments and definitely have to urge you to try out an HT! They have a place all their own in the world of AFVs and lots of variety to choose from. I like you’re theoretical problem although the data collection would be a bear! [:D]
IB48, thanks for the encouragement! I’ve been at it for almost a year now so am in the home stretch and should be done by end of March if things continue according to plan.
[:)] Excellent WIP my friend!.
Regards,
Rodolfo
Awesome progress Bill, no matter which way I look at it (from any manufacturer) it is an awesome looking vehicle. I myself made the bad choice of buying the AFV club one and the fit of their 251’s is atrocious.
Good luck with your next step in college andI hope to drop by again soon.
Terry.
Does this apply to all AFV’s 251’s. I have their /22 as well as a few others and had always read they were good kits.
Thanks Rodolfo, appreciate the comments! [B]
Terry, thanks as well and glad to have you stop by. The first class meeting took place on Thursday and wasn’t as rough as I thought it would be…so I’m feeling more optimistic but still a hefty load of work/material to get through. That’s the downside of the class only being 6 weeks at a stretch but the upside is it won’t last forever either. [:D]
More VOCs please.
Plenty of of VOCs on the schedule for today and tomorrow Marc! [;)]
I decided that I would approach the weathering of the hull interior in a “layered” fashion similar to that I would use on the exterior. To that end, I started the process by stippling some enamel Burnt Umber using an old round sable brush. The brush was treated the same as if I were going to dry-brush but I used a random stabbing motion instead. Very hard on the brush but produces a nice effect.
The Burnt Umber is pretty stark, so to blend it in a bit, I used the same stippling approach but with the base color.
With that foundation laid, I turned to the interior details and added the seat back cushion and also detailed the wood seats. The wood effect was created using a thinned wash of MM enamel Leather over the base coat color followed by a dusting of burnt umber artist pastels. The black leather cushion was painted using a base coat of MM enamel Gunmetal followed by dry-brushed patterns of the base coat color, MM enamel Leather, and a light dry-brush of the enamel Gunmetal to tie it back together.
I installed 9 of the single-round Pak 40 ammo containers after a test fit with the upper hull revealed that the 10th round wouldn’t fit properly.
Driver’s area received some attention as well. I installed the seat, the gas mask holder, and the various gears and levers. Kit-supplied decals along with Solvaset provided the dash board instrument detail.
The entire lower hull received a coat of Future to seal in the paint work and initial weathering as a foundation and was left to cure overnight. Then I applied an overall wash of enamel Raw Umber and followed that up with a 2nd wash of enamel Raw Sienna. A pin wash of enamel Burnt Umber was used to bring out some of the panel detail in the floor as well as other details like the hinges on the ammo bins.
Not wanting the interior to be too dark, I went back over the washes with an additional dry-brush pass of the base coat color and further layered/blended things together until I had the look I was after.
I sealed in all the work with a coat of MM Lusterless Flat to remove lingering gloss from the Future and then joined the upper and lower hull halves together. I used rubber bands as a set of “helping hands” at the three strategic points on the hull that wouldn’t result in the compartment sides warping in the process. The hull nose plate was added as well to make sure the alignment worked for the later exterior components.
I noticed in the PT reference photo that I’ve been using that the cleaning rods were tucked away on the left side using the space between the mount brace and the hull as a convenient way to keep them close by but still out of the way of the crew when working the gun. So I dug around in my spares bin and came up with a set of 4 rods from another DML kit, separated them and cleaned them up, then painted and detailed them and arranged them into position. Once I was happy with the way they sat, I used a small amount of liquid glue to secure them in place.
I decided I wasn’t going to deploy the rear-mounted MG42 on its mount so it was installed instead in the seat-back bin along with an ammo can from the spares bin.
That’s all for now, next up will be detailing the Pak 40 and working on the remaining exterior details.
[:)] Very Nice, Bill [Y]…for a tough spot to paint , it came out really nice ! one of the most important things you mentioned was basically ’ you have to keep working it to get it where you want ’ there is no cut and dried format for an odd angled interior. The decals are super on the dash and the interior now looks properly, evenly worn.
always a pleasure to watch you do your thing !
tread[H]
Very nice work on the interior…now to the exterior…nice Labor day project!!
Rounds Complete!!
Thanks tread! Not only was painting tough, so was getting decent photos! Angled interior even with the top off makes for a lighting challenge in more ways than one. [;)]
Mike, yep, hopefully I can get in the same chunk of time over the holiday weekend! Thanks as well! [B]
Extremely well done interior Bill!
Weathering and open interior can be so different than the exterior it’s like 2 different models. Nice technique.
Thanks CMike!
Marc Appreciate the comments as well! Agree with you on the “tale of 2 models” when it comes to open-top vehicles…so much opportunity! [;)]
Ahhhhhhhhhh yes Bill, sper well done interior ! I agree those decals for the gauges are a nice touch .
Some stunning work there Bill.
When you say you are useing Enamel burnt umber, is this an MM paint or a weathering product, i have only used oil paints for this sort of thing.