I have been pretty darn busy at the bench of late…not only am I working on all of my own builds for a pile of GB’s, but I’m co-authoring all of my girlfriends builds - and she’s a machine! The first one was the KV-1, which is still in the pipeline - final weathering to come sometime soon.
So for this 234/3, she did all of the assembly, all of the detail painting, and some of the weathering. Sort of a “I’ll show you how this technique works” sort of a deal, and then she attacks the other side of the model. All of the airbrushing was me, as well as the majority of the weathering.
Here she is:
Open to all comments, criticisms, and as always any suggestions on how to improve it!
Thanks for the compliment, Doog! A lot of your techniques went into this guy…[swg]
As for the panzer gray finish, it came straight out of the Italeri instruction manual. I assumed that they were correct, so I went with it without doing any research on my own. That, and the GF really wanted a panzer gray build…[:D]
Dude…DUDE!..that is AWESOME! Seriously, I have been looked at a lot of builds since joining this site, and I am dead honest when I say this is one of the top 5 better builds I have seen here!
And really, that is all that needed to be said… [:D]
Man, dupes, don’t you have a cheese truck to load or something - you are crankin’ out some builds these last few weeks. Nice work on that (well, I guess that compliment is for your lady), and regardless of how historically accurate it is, I dig the gray! It is attention grabbing because it is not what you expect to see a 234 in…
So, give a quick rundown of the finishing techniques you used on this.
Setting aside the accuracy of the panzer gray scheme (all of the 234/3s were completed in dunkelgelb), the variations achieved in the finish look good Marc. Nice effort in pairing up with your wife on this one, will there be more “partner” builds in the future? [tup]
Bill, DANGER!!! Don’t go throwing out the ‘W’-word, at least not yet. She’s his girlfriend… He is ‘pairing’ (is that a euphamism) with is ‘girlfriend’…[:D][}:)]
As far as the scheme goes - Marc can always blame his color-blindness… “It’s not dunkelgelb!!! Really…? I had NO idea…?” [:-^]
Whoops! I read girlfriend in the first post but when writing I used “wife” instead…I guess being married myself it’s the “default” and I didn’t catch it. [(-D] Hope it doesn’t casue any problems for you Marc! I agree with you Boyd that it sure does look good. [;)]
I agree, even though the PG is not accurate, it is a really nice finish…also, the ivory interior would have also been painted the outside color (PG) in this case as well…nice…
Besides the PG color, that looks awesome. Great team work there. My wife just asks if it’s comm. or ebay and how much!! Although she does give some good tips once in a while.
I have to admit I’m sorely disappointed in being misled by the instruction manual with this kit…after cranking out something that turned out well, it bites to have to add an “asterisk” next to the name. Ugh. [V]
I even went back last night to check out the instruction sheet to make sure that I didn’t mis-read the color info, or mis-see it via the colorblind thing. Wrong on both accounts - it indeed says panzer gray. Thanks research team! [|(]
However, I would like to thank all of you who took the time to comment (especially the good ones!). I’ll be sure to pass them all on to my girl later today when I see her.
And no Bill, she’s not my wife. Maybe someday…we’ll see. [;)][tup]
Thanks a ton Brian…I am humbled. Isn’t it interesting how certain people’s “styles” appeal to others? I know there are certain types of painting/weathering combos that get me all excited, and apparently mine does that for you. Hopefully I can crank out some other stuff you like. [:D]
The seasonal cheese biz is indeed picking up lately (anyone interested in vacationing in Maine?), but when your significant other is also drawn to the bench, it makes it much easier to find time to build!
Quick rundown of techniques -
Started with my new fave, the Wal-Mart black rattle can primer coat for pre-shading, followed by the base coat, leaving a good bit of the black showing through.
Lightened base coat sprayed on the centers of the panels.
Hand brushed a bit of future where the decals were to go…then decaled.
Flat coat to seal in the decals, and protect the exposed primer from oil washes.
Raw umber wash, custom colored (to match Tamiya Buff) wash, and liberal use of the “oil dot” method. Don’t remember the order of application.
Painted all chips with a black/brown acrylic mix.
Mufflers done by painting a base layer of burnt umber oil, then adding ground pastels (about nine earthtone shades) before it dried.
Airbrushed Tamiya Buff for dust on the lower half of the vehicle.
Italeri 0234, 1/35 scale. An older kit, but it builds up well (despite a lack of accurate color info)! I did their 234/2 a while back too…think it may have been the first armor build I ever posted. Let’s see if I can scare up a pic of that guy.
Based on the order of pics in my photobucket account, it was indeed the first build I ever posted.
Holy lack of weathering, batman!!! [:O] Almost makes me want to re-visit that build. Hmm.
There will indeed be more partner builds in the future - although at some point, I’m really hoping to get her comfortable enough with the airbrush so that she can run the complete gamut on her own. For now though it’s working out just fine…TONS of painting and weathering practice for me! [^]
The next “team” build is going to be a 251/8 - made her paw through some reference books, she immediately took to the ambulance version. Going to convert one of my spare DML chassis into one, probably with a closed (tarped) top to avoid making her scratchbuild an interior. I’m already devising cool ways to do the paint scheme. [;)][tup]
Dupes, that is nice. The grey looks great- to me it is a ‘right’ color for the shape of the machine. I would be proud to have that to look at. It makes me wonder what a 234/4 done up in grey with some IR equipment as a hypothetical nachtjager could look like?
