I've now started the detail painting on the jagdpanther after painting the lower hull tracks and rubber portions of the wheels & have also put the decals on. So far it's going well and I'll start some chipping and wear on this one soon. The staff car has also been worked on and had the decals applied. Both are looking rather good and I'm thoroughly enjoying working on them.
The Husky has also had some attention after the resin wheels arrived. They are actually weighted or sagged which I'm not generally a fan of but in this instance they look very good. Some adaption of the mounting arms was needed but nothing that a saw and a drill bit couldn't sort out. I've fixed the wheels in place using epoxy glue for a strong bond.
Yesterday again saw terror strike at the heart of England with the sad loss of life and multiple injuries. I watched the events unfold with a sense of shock and anger. My thoughts go to the families and those injured and murdered by another extremist who thought his despicable act would break our resolve in the fight against terrorism, it has not and never will.
The brave emergency services and those who helped the injured and tried to save those who died are all hero's in my opinion. PC Keith Palmer is also a hero, doing his job and protecting the public he lost his life confronting terror face on. Now more than ever the government must do more and spend more money on the police forces of this country. No more cuts, no more bureaucracy but action. The thin blue line needs to be thin no longer.
R.I.P
The Jagdpanther has now been sprayed and here I used Mr hobby H320 for the green then tamiya XF 68 NATO brown & XF 60 dark yellow with some white added. I left the road wheels in green as they will be severely muddied up later on so you won't see any camo patterns on them. The pattern is sprayed freehand and took about 2 hours to do.
The gama goat has also been worked on today and here I've finished off the MERDC camo by painting the cream and black areas. I used vallejo 821 german camo beige with a drop of white and vallejo flat black, painted using a brush. I've also made a start on the detail painting. Very pleased with the camo it came out better than expected.
Today I've started painting the three models and began with the gama goat. I used Mr hobby 309 with a dash of black for the green and tamiya XF59 mixed with a drop of XF64 and a dash of white for the brown colour. I've kept the colours deliberately a couple of shades lighter to account for weathering later on which will darken the overall paint colours. The lighter tan and black areas will be hand painted later on. The canvas for the cab and cargo were sprayed using Mr hobby H52 olive drab No 1 then lightened with tamiya XF15.
The jagdpanther and staff car also got some paint and here I've so far just sprayed flat black on the jagdpanther paying particular attention to the lower hull and engine grills. The staff car was sprayed using H52 olive drab no 1 then lighter mixes were sprayed lightly in the centre of panels for a bit of tone variation.
I'm very pleased with how they have all come out so far. I'll let them cure for a day of so before starting detail painting which gives me a chance to decide on the camo scheme for the jagdpanther.
Progress on the husky is going well and I've now added the anti slip seen on late vehicles. After lots of taping and masking fluid and plenty of patience I sprayed the areas of anti slip using rustoleum. Only a couple of light passes sprayed from some distance were needed. On removing the masking a nice neat finish is evident. The rustoleum produces a nice texture which is just right under primer and paint.
I've also addressed the sloppy fitting rubber wheels and hubs in my kit by finding a suitable resin replacement set from real models. These have the correct hub pattern and will look much better than the kit items.
Now I must give the airbrush a good clean before starting the paintwork on the gama, jagdpanther & US staff car.
Next on the bench is trumpeters rather nice husky. You may remember I built the grizzly a couple of years ago and have had this kit in the stash ever since. The perfect excuse to build it has just come up in the form of an engineering & recovery group build over on the modelworx forum.
So far I've got the hull together and added the suspension. A slight turn of the front wheels will add some interest to the model too. It's very easy to do as well needing only a slight rotation of the wheel mounts to the desired positions.
The gama goat, jagdpanther & staff car have all now been primed. A bit of a session with the airbrush but it makes sense to do them at the same time. The goat will hopefully get the main colours sprayed on later on this week & the jagdpanther & staff car sometime next week.
I've had a very busy 10 days or so since the last post but have still been able to get some bench time in, albeit in small segments. So I have gone back to one of my shelf queens, the tamiya 1/48th jagdpanther which I started ages ago but lost interest in very quickly. This time around I was determined to finish it with the minimum of extras and just enjoy the build. The Hauler etched grills worked really well as does the barrel and a figure from the spares box.
I've also knocked up a companion vehicle in the shape of a tamiya US staff car. This built up really quickly and was done in about an hour. Detail is great and it should paint up really well. I plan on a small base with the car in a ditch abandoned with the jagdpanther passing by, possibly in an Ardennes setting.
