Dawned on me last night that I’ve never actually done a WIP thread…my post-divorce modeling funk ended abruptly this weekend (thanks in part to my good friend Rick), so as a result I’ve been ‘glued’ to my bench with renewed motivation! So I figure what the hey, I’ll give it a shot with this little guy that I’m doing for the 1/48 Armor GB. [;)]
Cracked the box open on Sunday evening to start in on the construction:
And by Monday, she looked like this:
This kit, quite literally, FLIES together! The link-and-length tracks are a dream to build…the fit is perfect on them. The rest of the kit is equally well engineered as well. I’ve never tried a complete build THEN paint - so I’m going to give it a shot. Should be interesting.
Finished up construction on Tuesday afternoon (including a scratched screen over the engine intake), then went down into the basement for some primer. Looks like so:
Not represented in the pic is the coat of Floquil Grimy Black I airbrushed on the roadwheels/tracks/suspension. Gave the rubber it’s color, basecoated the links, and provided some shadows under the schurtzen. After work it’s time for some dunkelgelb! [tup]
Well thank you to Rick then for helping you get your poo together my friendd. hasn’t been the same without yo 'round here.
Nice work on the Hetzer.
I shoudl probably know this by now but what is link and lenght tracks? See ing the pieces on the sprues, are they molded sections that just get glued togther? Curved parts for the sprockets and idlers? If that what they are, do they have sag molded in? If not how would you do it? I know… lots of questions, right![:D]
Dupes–good for you, and good for the forums that you’'ve decided on doing a WIP thread–even though it’s more like a “WIF” (work is finished) thread right now, LOL! Make sure you take lots of pics of your painting steps–you know, base coat, 1st camo coor, 2ns color, etc. After wash, etc.
Wingy - the link and lengths are pretty much like you described - stuff that’s preformed to fit around the idler and sprocket, with sag built in. Works a lot like indies, except they aren’t all individual - for instance, the bottom run (say 25 links or whatever) is all one piece. If you’d like, I’ll scan a copy of the instructions for you of that step, you’ll see what I mean.
Doog - thanks brother! I’m awfully glad I’m free of the funk as well. Man, when it came back, it came back bigtime! I’ll be sure to snag lots of pics of the upcoming steps - I’m going to try to do the “modified ambush” scheme that the kit box shows - sort of circular edges to the green and brown camo sections, with the little crescent patches of dunkelgelb laid over the top of that. Should be challenging, but sweet if I can pull it off!
Wanted to let everyone know that you all (I’d say y’all, but I’m not from the south [:D]) helped a great deal in getting me out of my funk as well. Just spending time here on the forums talking to everyone - albeit on a more limited basis - certainly helped me re-kindle the plastic fire! Thanks guys! I owe you all a beer! [bow]
Update on the progress - was able to spray the dunkelgelb on Wednesday. Unable to get bench (or computer) time yesterday, so no additional progress from then. I did, however, get to spend a bit of time thinking about how to tackle the paint scheme. Will be spraying the green and brown this afternoon!
Quick scan of the scheme I’m going with - it’s hard edged, which may be the one easy part. Came up with a circle-y edged post-it note template (which I’ll show a pic of later) to use on the extremes of each color demarcation. Interested to see how it pans out! [;)]
Dupes my friend glad to see you back in action[:D]. If there’s one thing that helps me when things are down is alone time at the bench. Very therapeutic and cheaper than a shrink.
The disc pattern and in 1/48! That ought to be a nice challenge Marc, looking forward to seeing how your template works. I’ve been thinking about doing this one on a Grille M so will be watching closely. [;)]
I find masking has intimidated me, but seeing others conquer it, leads me to believe if I have the patience and know what I’m doing, I too can achieve good end results. You guys are the teachers and I’m the student.
More progress on the Hetzer! Decided to use some soft masks to paint the hard-edged ambush scheme. In this pic you can see the start of Friday’s work with just the dunkelgelb, and the masks I cut out - random circly-type pattern on the edges of post-it notes:
After a looooong spray session (1.5ish hours), she looks like this:
In retrospect, I would probably spray the dark green as the base coat next time and apply the dunkelgelb as the secondary color. Coverage would be tougher, but the percentage of green in this scheme is MUCH higher. After an hour or so of dry-time, moved on to the red/brown. Cut out a few different shaped masks to avoid a repetitive look:
The next part was applying the funky little crescents/squares/triangles of the ambush-type camo scheme. Rather than hand painting, I decided to go with the soft masks and airbrush again. These two pics show the post-painting results:
Overall, I’m VERY pleased with how close to the diagram scheme I was able to get. You can see in the pics the masks I cut out - a small tight pattern of random crescents, squares, and triangles to apply to the larger areas of hull and schurtzen, as well as some single shapes cut out on the edges of the paper to hit the hard-to-reach areas. With just a couple of minor overspray incidents, it came off pretty easily. Tried to rotate the mask frequently to avoid repetition in the spray pattern. Word to the wise - make more than one mask! Paint can gum up those tiny shapes pretty easily.
Next up is the dark green shapes over the remaining dunkelgelb. After that, the decals will go on (just 3 balkankruez), then I’m debating whether or not to spray a super-thin layer of dunkelgelb to tie the three colors together…or just go into the washes and oil-dots and assume that the rest of the weathering process will take care of that.
I should throw a ruler next to this thing in the next pic…a 1/48 Hetzer is has almost exactly the same footprint at the 1/72 Jagdtiger I just finished up!!! [:O]
