Yeah, real funny, huh? [D)] This is my belated Elefant from the Elefant GB I started 2 years ago. Wow, where has the time gone? anyway, I never finished then, because my father went thru some health problems and the tracks just killed me. I wanted to thow the kit away. Had one of those episodes? Fortunately I received some vinyl tracks from the Dragon Porsche Tiger and was able to get them done. The zimmerit is by Cavalier and I’m sold on this stuff. Awesome and easy to work with. The model is the Dragon kit and was a joy to build, hardly any filler needed. I screwed up the numbered decals (silvering even though I futured it) I couldn’t fix it. [V] I over dulled it by accident too and it shows in some pics. I also lost more parts on this kit than any other that I can remember. I thought this build was hexed. The travel-lock for the gun was insanity.
to my knowledge the tracks only touched three wheels. If I’m incorrect let me know. All critiques and criticisms are welcome. Thanks for getting this far.
Looks great Eric you really have a knack for the camo i have the premium kit with cav zim in the pile i agree about cav zim it really is nice to use and i like the way it looks, i think you did a great job on this i noticed the decals but i dont think they look that bad. nice looking elephant and great pics also.
Hey tigerman! It may have taken 2 years but at least it was worth it! Your Elefant looks great! [tup] I luv the camo, the zim and the subtle weathering! I probably wouldn’t have noticed the decal silvering if you hadn’t pointed it out! What do you mean about it being over dulled? To be honest, I was never interested in the Elefant series of tank destroyers, I always thought they were kinda clunky looking. However after seeing this I just might have to build one!! I’m glad you didn’t throw it away! Perseverence pays off!![:D]
Silvering is when the decals shine and don’t look matte and blend in like stencils. In a couple of pics, you can see air bubbles. I tried to fix it but failed. Perferred method is to Future, set with Micro Sol, use some Micro set for tough decals, and reseal with Future again. After this cures, hit it with dullcoat. I should stick with Archer transfers. The crosses were and as you can hopefully see, they went over the zim nicely with some Micr Set.
Bufflehead, I meant I used too much dullcoat on the decaled area and it left a bit of fog. I was wondering if another wash or washes might make it go away?
Ron, I want the Ferdy Preminum kit myself. I want to paint one of those crazy patterns too. I wasn’t to pleased with the camo, poor refs.
Oooh, I see it now t-man! I had the same problem with my Tamiya Panther A…sprayed on some MM Acryl flat straight from the jar and it left a whitish residue all over the darn thing. I was not happy. Unfortunely I don’t know how to fix it. Yours is barely noticeable…but I’m sure it very noticeable to you!! Anyway to remove the dullcoat without harming the paint/decal underneath?
Looks great! I guess I should give Cavalier a shot. I’ve been trying to work on Zimmerit with putties and hot iron, but too time consuming and the result is not as good. Perhaps it is my skill that is not producing such a good result.
your elefant looks great.perhaps with some careful stripping you could remove the decals and try again.it’s never fun but it beats having a wonderful job messed up by silvering.happens to me all to often.the tracks on dragon’s elefant are something else.i went way overboard and drilled and pinned mine.love the look,but i think i left some of my sanity behind on that one.enjoy seeing your work.keep-em rollin
Eric, i’m really diggin it man!!! I have always loved this odd lookin thing. The silvering issue can be worked on. try a thin wash of the base colour over them? When I have silvering I usually paint the edges the colour of the tank! Pictures can be decieving because I don’t see THAT many issues with the decals. The zimm is cool too. Never been a big fan of AM zim, but boy, maybe if I do a WWII I’ll give it a shot! Well done Eric!
Thanks guys for the generous comments. I might give that wash a try James or even let it go. I learned a few lessons with the Future on this and will hopefully do a better job next time. I also learned not to overdo the flat finish too.
Cavalier is a nice alternative and is pretty easy to work with. Obviously it looks better than PE zim. For those of you out there that don’t want to ruin an expensive kit, it’s worth a try. Check out ebay too. Also, Atak is excellent, but expensive. It might not be do-it-yourself, but AM does take the fear out of making the German heavies IMHO.
Better late than never! I remember when you started this build, so am glad to see it get its due and completed. I had a similar problem with the orignal DML decals, they are very thick and stubborn, I remember ending up having to apply MM Gloss directly by brush to get them to snug down and avoid the bubbles.
Thanks Bill and Steve. I’ll admit that the tracks really need a dusty wash too. [V] I need to get some MIG’s or something. I might try some streaks along the side. I’m still tinkering with that until I get it right. I will experiment on my Puma. Cheers.
Eric[:D]-- she is a real beauty dude [tup][tup]-- glad you didn’t toss it !!-- ya know what I always wonder about elefants?-- I know it probably didn’t happen but they look as if the drive wheels would force the tracks into the rear superstructure or fenders-- I guess the weight of the tracks and slow speed kept it from happening plus I guess they are actually pulling the the bottom tracks up so the top tracks would be sort of compressing–oops getting [#offtopic] —super build dude – a pleasure to view!—tread[8D]
I never finished my Elefant for that GB either, I still traveled a lot for my work back then which pretty much blew me out of the water for that and several other builds. Now I seldom have to travel.
I plan on finishing mine up soon though, I just need to spray the camo pattern and finished the Fruil tracks. I think I only need to spend a few hours of actual build time to finish it up.
Seeing your finished build is inspiring me to finish up mine. I really enjoyed that GB, even though I didn’t get to finish.
Thanks, I really enjoyed the build too Scott. I checked out the thread the other day and there were over 72 pages! It was a little hard tracking ones progress. Hey keep plugging away. I’m not that happy with the finish on mine and will go back and doctor it up later.
