1/16 Dragon Signaller, HG Div, Tunisia 1943 pt2

Using reference photos I've outlined the orange shapes with a 50/50 mix of Scorched Earth and Chaos Black. I've also added additional patterning in this shade as well as random dots inside the orange shapes.



The camo pattern supposedly uses five colours. I can discern at least two shades of brown so I went over the pattern this time adding more black to the brown. Also in these next photos my progress on the head can be seen.



I should have paused to take photos in-between these next steps but I was on a roll and kept working. At this point I'm adding shadow and highlights. Starting off i washed the tunic with a thin mix of Scorched Earth. This tones down and unifies the colours in the camo pattern. While this was still damp I mixed in some Chaos Black - about 50/50 and washed it in to the creases and seams. Again this goes over all the folds and creases regardless of colour. Finally more Chaos Black is added and worked into the deepest recesses.

Highlights are added to the orange shapes by adding Elf Flesh with Vomit Brown. Likewise Elf Flesh was added to the base colour and used to highlight the rest of the smock.


Next up are some close-ups of the head. The pictures aren't the greatest but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I started with a base coat of Snakebite Leather and worked up three levels of highlight by adding progressively more Elf Flesh to the Snakebite.


Shading was added by mixing Terracotta with Snakebite Leather and a touch of Chaos black for the deepest shadows such as the corners of the eyes or the creases right by the nose.


A 5 O'clock shadow is added with a thin mix of Snakebite Leather + Chaos Black carefully washed around the beard and moustache area.


Finally some colour is added to the cheeks and lips with a thin mix of Terracotta + a touch of Imperial Purple ( a little less of the pink in the cheeks).

GB

1/16 Dragon Signaller, Herman Goering Div, Tunisia 1943

Here's something else I'm working on at the same time as the KV, its a 1/16 scale figure representing a Signaller from the Herman Goering Field Division in Tunisa circa 1943. The model is not bad and went together without serious issue. Not counting the Tarleton bust this is the first large scale figure I've worked on. To add to the challenge the figure is wearing a camoflage smock. I've been wanting to try doing a camoflage subject and this seemed like a good figure to try it on.

I am not a German WW2 uniform expert but part of the fun of historical figure painting is doing research and learning something new along the way. What I learned is that the most likely camo pattern for the Luftwaffe Field Division in Tunisia would be the so called Oak Leaf "B" pattern. I found some good reference pics and a good SBS online by renowned figure painted Jaume Ortiz which I am trying to follow. He uses Vellajo paints so I had to try to colour match my Citadel paints.

My first step after priming was to come up with a good base colour for the camo smock. My first attempt was too light and too beige. You can actually see it on the head in the second picture below. My second mix was too brown but I finally found a mix that looked right. For the base I used a mix of Graveyard Earth + Imperial Purple+Chaos Black+Kommando Khaki+Skull White. I'm sorry I don't have the exact proportions. Once the base coat was dry all seems and straps were outlined with a thinned mix of Graveyard Earth + Chaos Black.



The next step is to start building the camouflage pattern by laying in random orange blotches using various reference sources. The orange shapes are Vomit Brown applied by babbing the brush to build the various shapes.



GB

1/35 Eastern Express KV-1s, part 3

Continuing with the painting, depth is added by outlining all details with a thinned mix of MM #1749 Flat Black + MM #2125 Russian Earth Grey. I went a bit further and blended some shadows here and there such as the fenders and the angle of the front glacis. The same paint mix with less thinner was used to add some paint scratches and wear.




GB

1/35 Eastern Express KV-1s, part 2

Back to the KV after a long period of inactivity. Major construction is done so I've started the painting/weathering phase by base coating the entire model with Model Masters Medium Green #1913 rattle-can spray. When I first sprayed it on I thought it was a disaster - too much paint - but once it dried it looked okay. The next step involved dry brushing with gradually lighter mixes of MM # 1786 Medium Field Green + MM # 2088 Sandgelb with additional lighter dry brushing of Medium Field Green + MM




To soften the drybrushing and add some tonal variation I then added dabs of Light Permanent Green oil paint on all the major surfaces and brushed then out to a very thin, imperfect coat. The effect is subtle and the pictures don't really do justice.




GB

200mm Tarleton Bust

Obviously I suck at blogging. There hasn't been much progress on the KV. I did however complete a 200mm bust of Banastre Tarleton by Verlinden.

Tarleton was a British cavalry officer who led the volunteer British Legion also known as Tarleton's Raiders during the American Revolution. He quickly gained reputations as a capable and daring leader but also as a brutal and cruel opponent. He earned the nickname "Bloody Tarleton" from the Americans after an alleged massacre of Continental soldiers at Waxhaw Creek. He survived the war and returned to England in 1781.

The figure itself is cleanly molded in olive resin with a couple of minor pits on the turban. The base had some rough edges around the bottom of the pedestal. The figure comes in five parts consisting of the base, body, head, cap and peacock feathers. In order to fit the the cap to the head a fair bit of sanding and filing was required. I used 2-part epoxy. I was able to get a good join and also fill in some minor gaps.

After cleanup and assembly were complete I primed the figure with a rattle-can spray of white. Once this was dry I laid in the base colours using acrylic Citadel paints. In hindsight I should have put another coat or two of the green to get a more even coat - not being used to oils I didn't realize how translucent the paint would be. I did the eyes with acrylics at this point as well.



This bust is actually based on this painting of Tarleton. As you can see the facial features are not very accurate. His complexion appears to be quite pale. I decided to try a more painterly approach rather than the usual shadow, highlight blend repeat method. So I looked for a suitable model for reference and found it in Prince Harry. I printed out several pictures that I found online along with the Tarleton painting and a detail shot and set up a palette of flesh tint, rose madder, burnt sienna, yellow ochre, raw umber, ultramarine and titanium white.


Here I've started on the tunic which appears brighter in the pictures than it does in person. You can also see what I referenced earlier about the base coat showing through. Mind you it does add a sort of texture - sort of a "happy accident" I guess.

At this point the bust is mostly done. The guilt buttons and chain where done with Citadel Glistening Gold. The lace was built up from a brown base with yellow ochre, medium yellow and titanium white.

The final piece with the peacock feathers and finished pedestal. It doesn't show in the photo very well but the feathers are highlighted with metallic blue and violet from the Citadel range based on reference photos.

GB

1/35 Eastern Express KV-1s

I've switched gears to finish a couple of projects for some online group builds I'm involved in. The subject for this armor build is the Eastern Front. I have a number of suitable subjects in my stash and I ended up choosing Eastern Express' KV-1S in 1/35 scale. Once you get past the flash this is not a bad kit. So far I've had no major fit problems and the detail is pretty decent. Incidently the my Tiger I build is also an Eastern Front subject but since I had already started building it doesn't qualify as an "official" entry but I still hope to finish it for the campaign.

Anyway, on to the model. I didn't want to invest a lot in after-market products but I still wanted to enhance the detail of the kit. I replaced the front fenders and the sheet metal deflector at the rear with cuttings from a frozen lasagna tray.




Weld seems were enhanced with a hot knife and some added with plastic strip. The grill under the rear deck was made from a bit of window screen on a plastic strip frame.

The handles on the tool boxes are wire and more bits from the lasagna tray.

Here's the turret for the KV. The texturing was achieved with some Model Master glue smeared about and scrubbed with an old brush. A little Tamiya putty smoothed out any overdone bits. The rear machine gun needed some filling at the join but nothing major.

Handles are made from copper wire. The casting numbers came from the spares box from an accessories sprue for a 54mm figure. They are not 100% accurate but add interest to the turret.


GB

1/35 Italeri Tiger 1H, part 2

My Tiger project continues with an attempt at reproducing a cast finish with Tamiya putty thinned with nail polish remover. I've also added the stowage box, mantlet and left side smoke grenade launchers.
I noticed a seam that will have to be fixed after applying the texturing. When I test fitted the mantlet it had a significant diagonal skew. Twisting didn't bring it in line so I ended up cutting the attachment point right off, glued it to the mantlet then re-attached at the correct angle. You might also be able to make out the casting number which was added from a Historex detail sprue from the spares bin.
For the stowage bin I wanted to try to recreate the clasps for the lids. This was done with a combination of plastic strip, fine wire and bits of sprue. The bin itself needed some super-glue seam filler and sanding. I also added a few dents and dings. You might notice in the picture above that the pistol port is inverted. I popped it off and glued it the right way around.
For the smoke grenade launchers, I really wanted to add some wiring detail. The Italeri part consists of bracket, launcher holder and individual tubes. First I hollowed out the tubes and then bent the launcher holder tabs to more or less the angles seen in pictures of the real thing. At the rear of each launcher I glued a small bit of round plastic sliced from a piece of stretched sprue. When the glue was set I drilled a small hole in each to run the wires through and tacked them down with super-glue. A short piece of thicker copper wire was used to complete the connection through the turret roof.



GB

1/35 Italeri Tiger 1 H1

My latest project is a 1/35 Italeri Tiger 1. I know a lot of people knock this kit but I'm not really an expert on Tiger's so accuracy is not a big issue for me. I have to give credit to Matt Grzybinski on the Armorama forum. His work on a 1/25th Tamiya Tiger was my inspiration. I don't expect to turn out anything near as good but I figured this kit would be a good base to try out some new techniques.

As I've said, I'm not a Tiger officianado but it seems to me that the Italeri kit has features more common to a Jan/Feb '43 production vehicle rather than an early version. One of of the major changes required was to add the escape where the right side pistol port is.
This was a bit of of a challenge. I cut the hatch out of plastic card and carefully sanded it to what looked to me to be reasonably circular. I then cut the hole in the turret all the while checking the fit. The hole didn't come out too clean - the edges should have been straight but they came out tapered in places and gappy. I've tried to fix this with filler. I have a bit more work to do here.

I added some details to the commander's copula with bolt heads cut off an old Tamiya KV-2 hull, some plastic strip and fine wire for the spring. The weld beads were done with stretched sprue softened with glue and textured with an old X-acto blade. The bead around the cupola is probably overdone.
The join of the turret roof needed some filling and sanding especically towards the mantlet on both sides. I went over the welds with a hot knife that I picked up at a craft store.
This angle shows some more of the details added to the copula and hatch. The inside of the hatch is not the greatest but I'm hoping it won't be too bad once the commander is in place.

GB

1/35 DML Panther F - Finished

Construction and painting are now complete. I have to spray a matte coat and I do want to put this on a base with a Warriors figure standing on the engine deck. This is my 3rd complete this year - a little off my goal of 1 a month but if i can finish Dora off by the end of the month I'll be in better shape.







GB

1/35 DML Panther F

Wow two posts in one day! Online group builds are great ways to plan your builds or motivate yourself to do something. This particular model is for a group build on Model Geek (Amorama) call "Get the Job Done". The idea is to finally finish some of those projects that have been sitting on the bench for a while. I bought this model several years ago on eBay, started it, lost interest, start again, stopped again - you get the picture. Anyhow I am making a concerted effort to finish this by the end of the month.

The Panther F was to be the latest revision of the Panther line. Sporting a new, smaller turret design that was supposed to address the Panther's weakness in all-around protection. It is debateable wether or not the F model ever made it into combat in the last days of the war. There were prototypes built and several hulls were completed. Some turrets were also built but didn't have all the key components installed.

At any rate I am finishing this as if it were delivered to Panzer Division Muncheberg just before the battle of Seelow Heights and defended Berlin in the final days of the war.

The next 3 photos show pretty well where I left off about a year and a half ago.

The brighter yellow parts and the PE grills were just added this time around.
I lost the PE brackets for the exhaust so had to build new ones from plastic strip.
Here's where I am now. I need to do some additional weathering, painted details (tools) and install the tracks.




GB