The pics come from a few GP mags BTW. The DML kit has the markings fr this tank.
Here the wooden boxes I scratched for this particular vehicle.I needed to begin some scratch building of wooden boxes that appear in the photos one on the back of the turret, engine deck and one that is on the long skinny box on the right hand rear fender. I used basswood cut in strips to emulate boards as the real boxes would be made and to give a variation in aspect, used hardware such as hinges and latches from Voyager, Aber and Griffin. White carpenters glue was used to glue the strips together. I basically made each side separate and then made the box from those sub assemblies. CA might be a better choice if the later washes are to be water based as the glue will reactivate- as I found out to my detriment. I also took some thread to make some handles for the one box on the fender. The framework that holds the box on the back end of the turret is also made of angle iron Evergreen. I've done the best job that I can decipher details from the photographs. To tone the boxes and weather them I used some gouache, oil washes and pigments.
It's fun adding unique features to these models...
Here is a pic showing the installed clear parts that are the items for the vision ports. As the ones in the actual pictures seems to be all closed I did the same.
Time for some paint!
Since I need to button up the interior I gave the interior parts a pre-shade basecoat of dark brown. I let this dry and kept on with other aspects of the build.
The real vehicle seemed to have a unique turret box on the back and from what I can decipher it was made from angle iron. I made up a frame the best I could from studying the photos.
prepping for the replacement PE parts that will make up the front spare wheel brackets.
Working hinges
more dry fitting of boxes
More work done on the smoke grenade dispenser
Here the spare wheel fitted,(seems I damaged the Notek light in this pic:p)
A couple more pics showing the build overall so far
Thanks guys for the comments.
pawel I won't be changing the u to an L , as I mentioned before- -not worried about it on this build.
Some more colours have been added to the tank's interior parts.
After the brown undercoat on the interior of the hull and turret was dry I airbrushed them with an Elfenbein that I mixed up from some Humbrol 34 white and teak colour from White Ensign Models. I also painted the guns in place with a buffable Humbrol metal coat #27003. I painted the floor, the driving brake system and part of the walls with the gray-green that is mixed up using H34, H25, H150 and H80. The seats were painted with Grimy black from Pollyscale. The engine areas were just painted out in black. The hatch on the turret cupola needed a little sculpting with a knife to help it look like the leather head pad it is supposed to be. The hatch was painted grey green and the pad Grimy black. I coated the interior with Future in anticipation of my oil-based washes. Pigments will be used as well to help age the inside down a little. I’m pretty sure desert vehicles could be pretty dirty inside. After the weathering was completed and the radio painted and mounted on the sponson shelf, I sealed it all in by gluing the upper hull to the lower hull.
A couple filler strips for the side where the upper and lower hull parts meet were glued to the lower hull. Using some .030 Evergreen strips cut to length, I filled the main gap in the middle of the hull. The back end received a thinner strip, some .020 for the back end as the Voyager set has a flange that will shim up the difference.
I aged down the basswood boxes with a solution of iron sulfate. This gives the wood a natural grey colour seen on weathered wood.
wheels and Jerry cans receive some attention
I decided to coat everything in a primer from a can that is for metal- but ...
more interior with chips
The one box lid looks a bit curved here, due to the water that was used for making the solution of iron sulfate which was brushed liberally onto the wood. (more on this technique here at an old [url="http://www.planetarmor.com/forums/showthread.php?t=869&page=4"]
[COLOR="olive"]RSO[/COLOR][/url] build. It is a technique we use in painting sets where new wood needs to look like old wood. Balsa wood could be used I guess but the grain on that stuff is not as tight as Bass wood, which should be easy to pick up at your local hobby shop, (or you probably can order it on line?) Or maybe use wooden stir sticks? Lots of options.
These interior pics seem a little over exposed... the chipping was achieved using stop out and adding some with paint. These are really rough as they really won't be seen and is very deep background.
the easy way to add chips.
Looks like I've clear coated with Future and ready for some washes.
So here is the reason I had dot dot dot after my mention above in using this etching primer out of the can- it ended up looking like shite to me- too thick and pebbly so off it came with some easy off oven cleaner.
fresh canvas
more pics about the smoke rack
Wow!, looks like I fixed the convoy light after all..
It will be held in place securely with two metal pins
Interior getting grimy...
This wash will be wiped back
The engine areas were just painted out in black. The hatch on the turret cupola needed a little sculpting with a knife to help it look like the leather head pad it is supposed to be. The hatch was painted grey green and the pad Grimy black. I coated the interior with Future in anticipation of my oil-based washes. Pigments will be used as well to help age the inside down a little. I’m pretty sure desert vehicles could be pretty dirty inside. After the weathering was completed and the radio painted and mounted on the sponson shelf, I sealed it all in by gluing the upper hull to the lower hull.
A couple filler strips for the side where the upper and lower hull parts meet were glued to the lower hull. Using some .030 Evergreen strips cut to length, I filled the main gap in the middle of the hull. The back end received a thinner strip, some .020 for the back end as the Voyager set has a flange that will shim up the difference.
Some bolts and screw heads were added to the front tow hooks as they are missing on the kit parts. I then glued the Moskit muffler in place and used the Voyager straps and heat shield to finish this assembly off.
So here you can see one of the attempts to make the Jerry can holder with brass. I used a piece of wood to wrap the brass during soldering. I needed to do another as the block was a measurement of the Jerry cans-before they were painted! So the clearance was not right- tooo tight!
More aging with some piggyments
Upper hull interior painted out
Radio parts enhanced with some strips of plastic, the location the instructions have for the radios is wrong. The need to be in the fender sponson.
next the tools are primed out in black
Gas cans painted in white before adding stencil for crosses.
I screwed the pooch and glued the rear visor klap upside down- I fixed it though as can be witnessed by the unsanded filler.
You can see the radios installed
Start with a few more shots showing what it looks like with the upper hull glued down
and so the white Jerry cans get their stencil masks applied- a combination of Tamiya yellow tape and Eduard vinyl mask.
Here you can see I've added a couple of bolts to the left (from this view) front tow hooks. The other side will receive the same treatment and screw heads as well.
Glued the smoke grenade rack in place.
The metal parts included in the kit for the side inlet just didn't look right so I made some with stretched sprue
Hard to see here but I have threaded the mounting bracket for the muffler with some stretched sprue- this will be heated with the proximity of a lit stick of incense which will melt it back into a bolt head of sorts.
The muffler also has the metal guard which was annealed before shaping.
access door stop and horn added.
You can see on the right side here what I meant about melting the sprue back. Also added the PE chain to the tow pintle.
Here's the start of the paint on the outside- the usual nice dark panzer grey from Xtracolor.
This will be given some stop out before painting in a desert yellow colour so as to get some chips into the look. These will not be overdone though.
More work done on the tracks
Looks to me in this pic I may have selected out only the metal parts and did a little priming with decanted airbrushed on green metal etch prime.
Here you can see the Dragon F next to a Tamiya C
Staring to put the desert colour on- I used a little hairspray on the grey before airbrushing the desert yellow on, just to maybe try some different aging look.
This along with my usual Vallejo stop out/scouring pad technique.
Painting of the outside of the Panzer II began with a coat of dark gray from Xtracolor. These vehicles arrived in Africa with their original gray colour over which was sprayed with desert camouflage paint soon after arrival. I didn’t want to go overboard with the chipping so I added only a light application of stop-out applied with a 3M pad.
Over this I sprayed light coats of Tamiya desert yellow FX-59 thinned with Isopropyl alcohol. I let this dry overnight. Using a cheap tightly wrapped Q-tip dipped in Vallejo resist I removed the stop out under the yellow paint to bring out the chips. In photos of the real tank you can see the remnants of a previous marking on the right side of the turret so I painted a 2 and a 1 with grimy black prior to applying the kit’s tactical decal. On the left side I masked off the same area and sprayed some solid desert yellow, as it appears in reference photos. This was coated in Future, and allowed to cure for a day or two. The decals were then applied.
Taking some of the stop-out away to reveal chips.
Coat of Future clear acrylic sprayed on, prep for oil based washes to come.
On the reference photos it appears there is a ghost of some other tactical numbers on the side of the turret and for that I just hand painted them in.
On one side though it appears the numbers were painted out with some desert yellow. I used the kit decals.
I believe I substituted the Balken crosses with different ones on the same decal sheet as the ones indicated on the decal sheet didn't look right when compared to the photos. The Balkan crosses indicated in the paint scheme appear too big I opted to use the #14 items for my national marking. Their placement is also wrong on the right side in the paint scheme drawing. It’s too far forward it should be more in the middle of the right hand storage box. The instruction sheet paint schedule fails to indicate the Balkan cross needed on the rear smoke grenade rack.
I next applied a dark wash using artists’ oils mixed with Humbrol thinner over the entire model. This was allowed to set up and dry over night.
