1/35 Tamiya Jagdtiger

[BigWall]

I have been progressing slowly. My last round of chemo was three weeks ago now and it messed up my blood counts, leaving me very weak and mentally a little wishy washy. I decided (a little late) that I wasn't going to cut any corners on this model so I added rolled armor texture, flame cut marks and weld beads (with help from our Uncle Night Shift.) It's my first time doing this so I've definitely learned and improved as I've gone along. I should have done this earlier so I've broken off a few pieces but nothing that I can't fix. I really like the effects and will continue with the techniques on future models. Here's a pic. If you look closely you can see all three things in this one picture.

JT45 by Big Wall, on Flickr

I need to do some touchups and a few more weld beads and then will be on to paint hopefully this weekend.

Good to see your still in the fight and on your feet even if a little out of it, but I'm sure you will beat this.
Really like what you have achieved in the way of extra effects. I shall have to check this Uncle night shift out.

Thank you Digger. I appreciate the thoughts.

Definitely check out Night Shift on YouTube. He's one person that I have learned a lot from.

[BigWall]

I hope you feel a bit stronger each day mate.

The extra detail work looks superb. The casting detail and weld seams look awesome. Well done for going the extra mile.

Thank you again Stokesy!

[BigWall]

Another small update today:

I added a piece of copper wire for the wiring conduit for the headlight. For this I used some wire that seems to be the appropriate size that was left over from when I thought I wanted to tie my own fishing flies. I started at the headlight, getting the wire positioned and bent how I want it to sit. I then use CA glue just on that first section. Then keeping tension on the loose end of the wire, to keep it straight, I work the CA glue up to the first bend and let the glue set up. Then I make the bend using a pair of tweezers to help guide the curve and followed the same process until I have the whole wire glued in place.

I also made 5 new hooks for the spare tracks out of sheet styrene to replace the ones that I had broken off. I cut a strip of plastic and used a pair of smooth jaw pliers and a little heat from a lighter to help form the bends and then cut them to size. The finished hooks are a bit thicker than the kit pieces but I thinned them out where they show and won't be at all noticeable once the spare tracks are in place. I also reattached the mount for the AA gun on the rear deck which I had broken off. If Parker is going to keep insisting his tank is a plane, my crew is going to need that.

Next, I painted some primer color on the upper hull where it would be exposed from the missing fenders and on the bottom of the lower hull. I also started painting the lower hull with Tamiya XF-88 Dark Yellow 2 and promptly spilled the almost full bottle with my fat fingers.

Overall a productive day at the bench and my fat fingers came out on top.

JT 46 by Big Wall, on Flickr

[ForeverPlasticKits]

It looks like that your Jadgtiger!

[digger303]

Nice update, The light conduit is very well done and just adds something more that enhances the overall effect.

[Parker]

so good Joe.
Hope you're well.

[Parker]

If Parker is going to keep insisting his tank is a plane, my crew is going to need that.

[digger303]

If Parker is going to keep insisting his tank is a plane, my crew is going to need that.

Maybe we need to stage a intervention get him back in the real world

[Gary30]

Best wishes with regards to your health, playing with little bits of plastic and glue is very secondary to such things!

But I've just caught up on this, great build so far, pretty much identical lower hull to the King I'm building.

And strangely enough, I have a Night Shift video playing in the background on my other screen, picking up some good tips from him myself

[BigWall]

Thanks for the comments and thoughts everyone.

Health wise, a PET and CT scan showed that the last two chemo treatments didn't do anything so we're switching to new drugs today and tomorrow and my doctor has asked permission of the clinical trial I'm a part of to switch me to the CAR-T side of the trial, which is a more experimental treatment but has shown great success with blood cancers.

Model wise, I started laying down some paint. The first coat showed some areas I need to work on before going further forward, but nothing major. Painting/weathering is the part of modeling that I really enjoy so it's nice to finally be at that stage. I'll post some pictures when I can.

[Tomcat64]

Just doing some catching up Joe and first and most importantly I wish you all the best with your health & treatment and hope that things start moving in the right direction really soon.

I love the texture and extra details you've added to this - really enjoying seeing it come together

[Kevthemodeller]

My very best wishes to you and your continuing treatment Joe. The build is progressing very nicely, the surface texture looks superb as is the extra detailing, looking forward to future updates mate

[Stokesy44]

I echo Tomcat and Kev's comments. I hope the change of treatment works out for you Sir.

The JT is looking top drawer.

[BigWall]

Thanks for the thoughts everyone. I can't express how much your support means to me.

I've found that I'm going to have to at least complete the tracks and track area of the lower hull before I join the upper and lower hulls together because it will be too hard to get the tracks in place once they are joined. At least that gives me another area to work on while one area dries.

Step one today was to finish painting the upper hull Tamiya XF-88 Dark Yellow 2. I decided to use a liquid mask over the areas exposed from the damaged fenders that show the primer instead of masking them off with tape. Just for experimental reasons, as I have some in the drawer and have never used it. The Dark yellow came out fine and I'm starting to draw the boundaries for the green on the hull with a pencil.

JT 47 by Big Wall, on Flickr

JT 48 by Big Wall, on Flickr

Step two: ???

Step three: Profit

[ForeverPlasticKits]

Nice beginning of painting !

[digger303]

[BigWall]

Thanks guys.

I got the green pattern drawn in and laid down the Tamiya XF-89 Dark Green 2 on the upper hull.

This is the first time I have tried brushing the edges of the pattern and them filling them in with an airbrush. it resulted in a nice hard edged pattern. There are a few spots I need to touch up but I think it came out nicely. I would definitely use this technique again. I was concerned that the brushed edges would show up darker than the middle of each pattern, and some did. It was easily corrected by airbrushing another coat into the middle of the pattern though. It was a slow process but I think the results were worth it.

JT 49 by Big Wall, on Flickr

JT 50 by Big Wall, on Flickr

Now on to the red brown.

[digger303]

Thanks guys.

I got the green pattern drawn in and laid down the Tamiya XF-89 Dark Green 2 on the upper hull.

This is the first time I have tried brushing the edges of the pattern and them filling them in with an airbrush. it resulted in a nice hard edged pattern. There are a few spots I need to touch up but I think it came out nicely. I would definitely use this technique again. I was concerned that the brushed edges would show up darker than the middle of each pattern, and some did. It was easily corrected by airbrushing another coat into the middle of the pattern though. It was a slow process but I think the results were worth it.

JT 49 by Big Wall, on Flickr

JT 50 by Big Wall, on Flickr

Now on to the red brown.

Excellent camo. How did you control over spray ?

[ForeverPlasticKits]

excellent!

[BigWall]

Excellent camo. How did you control over spray ?

I got a little overspray (splatter?), but i think that was mostly from a lack of paying close attention on my part. I thinned the paint down a lot ~70%+ thinner to 30% paint and sprayed it at about 10 psi. I generally don't get overspray from Tamiya acrylic paint.

I have a Paasche syphon feed airbrush with a .55mm tip that really doesn't lend itself to detail work but can be forced to do an ok job.

[Parker]

Looking good, Joe.

[Stokesy44]

Cracking work on the camo.

[Tomcat64]

The guys already said it but that's beautiful smooth work laying down the camo Joe - really organic and breaks up the hard lines wonderfully

[Kevthemodeller]

Great looking cammo Joe

[BigWall]

Got the Tamiya XF-90 Red Brown 2 applied to the upper hull. I used a liquid mask on the areas that were covered by the fenders and it pulled some of the paint off when I removed it. That'll be an easy touch up though. Hopefully, I'll get the lower hull painted and the ambush spots applied this weekend.

JT 51 by Big Wall, on Flickr

JT 52 by Big Wall, on Flickr

[Stokesy44]

Camo looks superb. Really like the colours and shapes. Excellent work.

[Tomcat64]

Stunning work Joe - awesome job

[digger303]

Great with the paint and the camo is awesome.

[Kevthemodeller]

Great looking cammo Joe

[BigWall]

Thanks for the comments everyone! I appreciate them.

My goal was to have the paint down by the end of November. Even up until today I thought it wouldn't happen, but, I'm excited to say that I have met my goal!

JT 53 by Big Wall, on Flickr

JT 54 by Big Wall, on Flickr

Now I need to finish the lower hull enough to install the tracks so I can attach it to the upper hull.

[Stokesy44]

Now that is just awesome. Great work on the scheme.

Bit of trivia - the 'ambush' camo scheme used by the Germans was supposed to replicate sunlight through tree foliage.

[BigWall]

Now that is just awesome. Great work on the scheme.

Bit of trivia - the 'ambush' camo scheme used by the Germans was supposed to replicate sunlight through tree foliage.

Thank you! And yes, it was and even more surprisingly, it was apparently very effective.

[Quax]

absolutely super job on the paintwork Joe, you've nailed it!

Paul

[Kevthemodeller]

absolutely super job on the paintwork Joe, you've nailed it!

I'd agree with that, all day long

[Tomcat64]

That looks great Joe - lovely work on the dappled shade ambush scheme

[BigWall]

Well, I really wanted to get this over the finish line for the group build but I just don't have the energy to make it happen. Will a mod please move this thread to the Armor WIP thread? I'll get her done but it's going to take a while to do it.

Keep up the great work everyone! I'm enjoying watching them all come along! These are all great projects going on here.

[digger303]

Well, I really wanted to get this over the finish line for the group build but I just don't have the energy to make it happen. Will a mod please move this thread to the Armor WIP thread? I'll get her done but it's going to take a while to do it.

Keep up the great work everyone! I'm enjoying watching them all come along! These are all great projects going on here.

Don't worry about the group build, just do what you want to do when you can. I'm just glad to have you in the group and on the way to health. I'm a mile behind it is taking me way longer than I thought and this holiday period is robbing me of bench time too with un expected happenings I'm told I have to participate in......I'm a anti social person

[BigWall]

Well, I really wanted to get this over the finish line for the group build but I just don't have the energy to make it happen. Will a mod please move this thread to the Armor WIP thread? I'll get her done but it's going to take a while to do it.

Keep up the great work everyone! I'm enjoying watching them all come along! These are all great projects going on here.

Don't worry about the group build, just do what you want to do when you can. I'm just glad to have you in the group and on the way to health. I'm a mile behind it is taking me way longer than I thought and this holiday period is robbing me of bench time too with un expected happenings I'm told I have to participate in......I'm a anti social person

LOL! Thanks Digger. I'm with you in being anti social. This year hasn't left me feeling neglected in the least.

[BigWall]

So, I thought I probably better update the build thread to where I am currently.

I wanted to try something different for the tracks so I painted them my track base color, which is a mix of Tamiya Hull Red (XF-9), NATO Black (XF-69) and Flat Red (XF-7). This turned out not really being seen at all with the following steps. Next I stippled on Wilder Fine Light Brown Textured Earth of varying consistencies with Fine Dark Brown Textured Earth stippled in randomly. This dried quickly and extremely hard. I wanted these paints in the recessed areas of the tracks but was stuck with them on the high parts as well. Lesson learned I guess. I decided to take a brush and paint silver paint on the track cleats that were still exposed and used a pencil to create polished areas on the inside of the tracks where the road wheels run. Here's where they are now. I think I may add on some Vallejo Mud and Grass in areas.

JT 55 by Big Wall, on Flickr

I need to complete the weathering on the lower hull so that I can install the tracks before attaching the upper hull. I again used the Wilder Fine Light and Dark Brown Textured Earth followed by Wilder Aqua Line Dry Earth and Light Mud. It didn't turn out quite the way I imagined it would but, once again, I know what I'll do differently next time and it really won't ever be seen. I would like to add some scrapes and scratches along with some mud on the bottom of the lower hull as well. I always feel like this is an area I fail to pay enough attention to.

JT 56 by Big Wall, on Flickr

And finally, the upper hull. I sprayed it with Tamiya Flat Clear (XF-86), applied the decals and then resprayed a few coats of the Flat clear. I've also weathered under the fenders to match the lower hull.

JT 57 by Big Wall, on Flickr

I spent some time at the workbench today. Hopefully I'll have more time to work on this soon.

[Stokesy44]

Coming along really nicely. Good to see a lot of experimenting and new techniques being tested.

[digger303]

I like the look of the tracks. Castings can often look like that...well done.

[Kevthemodeller]

Great looking tracks and the weathering is moving on very nicely

[Engine95]

Love the work so far sir!

[Tomcat64]

Lovely progress Joe.

I really like the look of the way the lower hull came out and the tracks look great!

Nice work mate

[BigWall]

Thanks for the comments everyone!

Well, you guys made me famous! There were enough of you that thought my idea for gluing the barrel together was interesting that I sent it in to Fine Scale Modeler magazine and they published it in the February issue as a Reader Tip. I'm kinda shocked. If I remember correctly, it was my mom's idea when I was a little kid building models. Thanks everyone! Keep building great models!

[Stokesy44]

Thanks for the comments everyone!

Well, you guys made me famous! There were enough of you that thought my idea for gluing the barrel together was interesting that I sent it in to Fine Scale Modeler magazine and they published it in the February issue as a Reader Tip. I'm kinda shocked. If I remember correctly, it was my mom's idea when I was a little kid building models. Thanks everyone! Keep building great models!

Nice one!

[digger303]

Thanks for the comments everyone!

Well, you guys made me famous! There were enough of you that thought my idea for gluing the barrel together was interesting that I sent it in to Fine Scale Modeler magazine and they published it in the February issue as a Reader Tip. I'm kinda shocked. If I remember correctly, it was my mom's idea when I was a little kid building models. Thanks everyone! Keep building great models!

Great idea and well done for getting it published

[BigWall]

It's now almost the end of January and I've finally progressed to where I wanted to be at the beginning of November. I needed to do some basic weathering to the tracks and lower hull before I joined the upper hull to the lower so that I could install the tracks.. Weathering is always something I struggle with and it doesn't help matters that I try mostly different products on each build. Being that this is only my fourth model since returning to the hobby, I just don't have much experience with any product so there is a lot of trial and error.

One area that I have never done much detailing to is the bottom of the hull. Granted it's not seen, but I wanted to at try a little more than applying some pigments to the area so that it didn't look like fresh, clean paint. I'm actually kinda happy with how it turned out...

JT 58 by Big Wall, on Flickr

And with that, I installed the tracks and attached the upper hull to the lower. I almost forgot to stick the barrel in first but caught myself before screwing that up. I also pin washed most everything.

JT 59 by Big Wall, on Flickr

JT 60 by Big Wall, on Flickr

Next is adding some weld detail where the upper and lower join together, some touch up painting in those areas and then on to oil dot filtering.

[digger303]

That's really nice well done

[Tomcat64]

That really does look great Joe - superb job