Tamiya & ICM 1:35 Panther Ausf. D, Pz.Rgt. 4, Anzio, Italy

[Engine95]

Dot filter started on the Tamiya Panther turret and port hull and Schürzen. Still getting the hang of this process.

[digger303]

Everything has a learning curve, but it looks good so far.
I've yet to tackle this technique at lest once, but give me time and I'll have a go.
Can't wait to see them lined up together.

[Engine95]

I'm looking forward to it as well sir. Although, I think I'm going to have to build wall mount shelves in our craft room. As it stands now, I have no idea where to put a diorama that long. And my end goal is to build vignettes from the Pz.Kpfw. I through the Tiger II and from the M3 Lee through the M26 Pershing (with 2-3 variants of the Sherman)

[Engine95]

Dot filter on the XO's Panther is done. I'm not sure how long to let the oils cure before applying the satin varnish for the pin wash. Any ideas? If it makes a difference, they're Wilder oils. Which suck so I'm replacing them all with some other brand after this project is done.

[digger303]

Oil paints it is usually the longer the better ( 7 days) and then it also depends on climate. But when you spread them so thin and presumably have drawn the oil out before use I have gone over it after a day. I'm in a pretty dry climate too.
Whats the issue with Wilder oils ? I 've never used them or even have them readily available in Australia. I either use the cheap sets with the small tubes from the local shops or get 502 Abteilung from BNA.


PS.... the kit looks really good.

[Engine95]

Humidity is relatively high in Florida. I think the average is about 75%. So I guess I'm letting it dry until next weekend.

I've kept the tubes closed tight since I bought them. And so far two of them are half dried out and I have to use a kitchen roller to get anything out of them, then add a lot of thinner to make them remotely useable. Which really sucks because their customer service is excellent. But I need to start stocking up on 502 Abtailung oils.

ETA: Applied the fire extinguisher decal that came in the mail yesterday.

[Engine95]

Since I'm waiting for the oils to dry on the Tamiya Panther before I apply the VMS satin, I've decided the trailing Panther needs some more storage. I'll probably add a tarp and some other small items.



I'm also going to scratch build some angle steel brackets that will keep the crates above the rear air intakes. It seems there were some crews that did this to their tracks to permit extra stowage, similar to this photo. I'm assuming they were held down by weight alone. I can't see the crews having the tools to bolt them to the armored plate of the engine deck. Although I imagine they could have welded them on.

Thoughts?

[digger303]

I would think as long as there wasn't anything that needed to be moved they would be welded on. Armour is very thick and hardened and trying to drill holes through it wouldn't be easy. Then there is the trouble of trying to reach around or needing two people to actually insert a bolt and hold it while being tightened.

[Engine95]

That's why I'm thinking these are held in place by weight alone. They'd need to remove these to perform any maintenance on the radiators and oil cooler. So welding would be less than optimal. As would trying to drill through case hardened armor plate.

Anyway, both stowage racks built. I think since they were probably crew built out of available angle steel, they're going to be plain old metal with a bit of rusting.

[digger303]

I don't think weight alone would hold them in place. Tanks are a bit rough and they would fall off.
There is another option they could have welded a set of small retainer brackets in place which are used to stop it sliding around and then rely on the weight
to keep them in place. They could then simply lift the whole lot off to do any maintenance and then replace very quickly.

[Engine95]

Valid point sir, I greatly appreciate the input!

I added a plate (a foot so to speak) on the bottom of each rack leg. And I've ordered styrene rods to make bolt heads. I'll use them to add bolt heads to the feet as if they'd welded nuts to the plate. And bolt heads around the rack in appropriate locations. Many moons ago I used to design various needed items for a sheet metal shop to fabricate for the company where I worked. So I built the racks as I would if I were using angle stock to be bolted together.

[Engine95]

Turret and port side hull are pin washed. The VMS satin varnish . . . isn't really very satin and I definitely didn't have the right viscosity for my Iwata HP-CS. But I got it on none the less and I think it helped the capillary action of the pin wash.

However, now I'm encountering another problem. I went through two brushes just doing the turret and port wheels and hull. One was admittedly a cheap brush I got at a local art store, the second was I guess a cheap 5/0 brush from AMMO. Both lost a fine tip within 10-15 minutes. The art store brush I've used a lot, so I wasn't surprised. But the AMMO brush was brand new. How do you keep the oil paint and thinner from quickly making the brushes useless for a pin wash?

[digger303]

Some brushes are for acrylic and some for oil. I've found if I use a acrylic brush I very quickly lose all the bristles. Matter of fact I've picked them up after not using for a while and found no bristles at all and if they are synthetic ( for acrylic) they can fluff up.
Not sure if this answers your query.

[Engine95]

Some brushes are for acrylic and some for oil. I've found if I use a acrylic brush I very quickly lose all the bristles. Matter of fact I've picked them up after not using for a while and found no bristles at all and if they are synthetic ( for acrylic) they can fluff up.
Not sure if this answers your query.

Thank you sir, part of the reason I'm here is to learn. I wasn't aware there were separate brushes for separate paint medium. Although logically I should have been. I just bought a set of 15 brushes specifically for oil paints. They should be here tomorrow and I'll continue the pin wash then.

Much appreciated!

[BigWall]

This is what I started using:

King Art

I've been happy with them so far. Nice sharp points

[Engine95]

This is what I started using:

King Art

I've been happy with them so far. Nice sharp points

Excellent, my thanks sir. I've added a couple to my ever growing Amazon cart.

[Engine95]

Still waiting on oil brushes to come in before I get back to work on the Befehlswagen pin wash. So plenty of time to work on the little storage details on the 214 tank. I ordered some 0.75mm and 1mm and styrene rods so I could make bolt heads for the storage racks. Weathered them up a bit and made them a little rusty. I think I'm quite happy with how they turned out.

I need to put a coat of matt varnish on the crates, getting a bit of glare off the decals.

[BigWall]

Awesome job with the crates! How do you paint them? The racks look nice as well.

[Engine95]

I just used multiple layers of really thinned out paints until I was happy with the color, brush strokes in the direction of the wood grain. The big crate on the left is primarily Vallejo Old Wood and the the two on the right are both primarily Game Color Beastly Brown. I did add little layers of other very thinned browns in there as well in thin, random stripes or blotches to add some color depth and knots .

[ForeverPlasticKits]

Wonderful result for the crates, they look so realistic that they seem to be made in wood!

[Engine95]

Thanks Gents, much appreciated! I'm still on a steep learning curve with this, but still far better results than I ever had as a teen. At least from what I remember, none of those kits survived past my college years.

[Engine95]

I pulled out two year old Milliput to make the tarp for the back of the engine deck. To say it didn't behave well is an understatement. But I managed to make what I wanted. However, I'm not really happy with it. I couldn't roll it as thin as I wanted and I feel the thickness is out of scale.

That led to making a second attempt I've read about using standard printer paper and diluted PVA. I'm feel the thickness is more in scale but it feels a little . . . thin . . . lacking in any degree of bulk . . a bit of a loss on how to describe it. It does however have creases and folds that I couldn't accomplish with the Milliput. I'm just not sure which is going to end up on the model. I'll put some paint on them later this weekend and see how they look. Any thoughts from you gents?

[Engine95]

After painting both, the diluted PVA glue printer paper looked far superior. I've got some green stuff on order for next time around, but I'm happy with how the storage turned out. I also tried my hand at a little splinter camo . . something . . . rolled up next to the FuG 7 antenna. The first German camo introduced in 1931, Splinter A was used by the Wehrmacht. So it's not unlikely someone might have a roll of some in Italy. Also this was my first time using a wet palette. Not too bad but yet another thing with a steep learning curve.

I've been watching videos by a Swede named Squidmar on YouTube. He paints Warhammer figures, and he's fantastic at it. And his instructions and detail are clear as a bell. I highly recommend for figure and detail painting guidance.

[Engine95]

It's been a while gents, far too many home improvement projects and honey do's going on. But I found time this weekend to finish up both Panthers, make the diorama base, and two telegraph poles for the roadside.

The telegraph poles are MiniArt 35541a. Not at bad little kit but boy is there a lot of flash and cleanup on the steel angle cross members with the insulators. And the insulator post that connects them to the cross members are so delicate that it's problematic to clean all the flash off. The poles come in two overlapping halves and needed quite a bit of fill to make the significant gaps disappear. But there was a pretty nice wood grain pattern on them.







I need to put the fire extinguisher decal on the I02 track and they'll both be done except for dirt/mud weathering. But I'm not going to do that until I have the diorama ready for paint at the same time so I use a matching color mix on both. I need to plane the base as it's a bit wobbly at this point. And I can't avoid it anymore, I need to make a couple of seagrass trees for the roadside. I've never done that and frankly not looking forward to it. But you get the general idea of the diorama below. The telegraph poles will be on the left side of the road in a ditch and one or two trees on the right hand side.

[BigWall]

Coming along nicely! It's going to be cool

[digger303]

Tanks on a plank ...
Just kidding they look great.
I read back to Feb and your milliput issues.
This is not bad stuff....
https://www.vms-supplies.com/vms-paper-shaper
Looking forward to the finish line

[Engine95]

Appreciate it gents. Looking forward to getting this project done!

"Tanks on a plank."