Tamiya 1/35 Sturmgeschutz 3

[jmatt]

A photo recap of my progress over the last six weeks.

[arilo76]

Wow really well done , the build and the paint is really excellent, the weathering in the lower part is really good.

well done

[SergioSolo]

Awesome mud effect! May I ask, what product did you use for the really thick mud?

[OneSmallStep1966]

Great job so far, particularly the mud layering. KUTGW

[jmatt]

The mud was done with Wilder's Textured Earth effects, mainly. As always, it's a concoction of sorts, with Vallejo pigments, Wilder's Nitroline; the grass is AK's khaki with some AK wet green grass for variance. I'm saving the Tamiya khaki grass for touches on the treads. The Tamiya stuff has some grit in it and I think is a superior product.

This is my first tank, and I'm trying to resist the temptation to go overboard. Waiting for some Ultimate clay washes to arrive so I can finish up. Then, maybe a diorama base -- never did that before either.

And thanks for everyone's kind words.

[Stokesy44]

Beautiful mud effects. Love how you built it up and painted it. Great stuff

[privatepete]

Hi the build and paint is really great, the weathering on the lower hull is really excellent, very well done

[jmatt]

Thanks. I've since hit the upper half with more dot filters to color it up a bit more. That stuff is really hard to see in pics. Hopefully, the clay washes will arrive tomorrow and I can age the upper half some more. It's all glossed up with Alclad Gloss waiting for the arrival...

[jmatt]

Mud bath.



Earth.



You lay the stuff down, let it dry, and then remove with a moist q-tip or slightly damp brush. The idea here is that you can be selective as to how much to remove and from where.

Here's a 'before' shot from last week.



After.







Shots with the flash on are a little less subdued. To the naked eye it's somewhere in between.







I did the tracks this week while waiting. Almost home. Then, maybe a simple base diorama.

[jmatt]

I dunno. Whaddya think? Too much? I can always back out some of the clay wash with a moist brush...

[jmatt]

I've been tweaking some things over the last few days, just about ready to call this done. I will probably try my first simple diorama base for it next. I used a thin black wash to add some faint rain streaking marks, blackened up the muzzle, added the machine gun, etc.

But first, I had to fix the treads. There should be some slack, a little drooping as they traverse the upper wheels. Problem is, this kit was made in 1992(?) and they have the old style "rubber band" tracks... taught.

No sag.



So after reading about some cockamamie remedies for this (one of which included heating them to the point of melting with a hair dryer, then putting it in the freezer for a day facepalm ), I invented my own. Paper clips twisted up so as to stay upright under the pressure exerted on them by the taught tread, primed in black, and pushed way in so they really can't be seen.



Now there's some slight sagging, as you'll see. And while it's not really prominent in the pics, I also added some metallic shine to the treads with a lead pencil simply rubbed across them.

Btw, this is a variant of the armor class, a direct fire artillery piece designed to support attacks from within the attack group itself -- thus the high gun elevation. As the tanks and troops swarm a position, this unit fires on structures (buildings) that may be hiding enemy combatants.

Here's a set of finished pics. These closeups show all of the warts you'd never see just sitting in front of it. All in all, I'm pretty happy with it.





















In retrospect, I wished I had sanded down the wheels... nobody's gonna see them once the treads are on, right? I forgot that the two spares on the rear deck are visible. But you can't see them when you're sitting in front of it. Live and learn.

[OneSmallStep1966]

That looks really good, well done