UBB.threads Forums General Interest Other Hobbies and Collections, like sports cars, movies, music,etc The First Jagdpanthers

V101 and V102 were two of the first test vehicles to see light of day for the Jagdpanthers. I�ve modeled V101 and did it using nothing but spare parts left-over from old projects! An upper hull from a Dragon kit, a lower from a Tamiya. A ton of miscellaneous Panther parts both plastic and photo etch. A little bit of scratch building, a whole bunch of fitting and sanding and Viola! An old fashion kit bash!

At this point in the vehicles life practically none of the stowage mounts were in place, the hull was barely painted, early style Panther tracks were used. The 88 barrel (which had been laying in the yard during much of the winter prior to installation) was covered in a combination of rust and machine oil. I�ve been trying to accomplish the look with various oil based washes over the bare aluminum gun barrel. Almost there.

Rick

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Red primer, some will remain exposed after the dark yellow is added, some areas will come through as wear on the highlights. The red will darken just a bit once a light wash is applied.

...red too.

1943 vintage Panzer Dunkelgelb is applied, some areas of the lower hull will remain exposed primer red.

In some of the construction images you will notice a dull look to the surface of the heavy plate areas of the hull. This was texturing I added using liquid glue and fine wet or dry sandpaper, makes the surface look scaly and rough.

... one more pass with the wet or dry and then a final coat of dark yellow.

Outstanding!

That sure motivated me to start my own model...thanks for showing the steps you took.

Mark

Thanks Vern, much appreciated. Your welcome Mark, glad to be of help. Started some dry brushing last evening so more of that red is coming through now. Don�t want to make this one look like its been in the field for several years and several fronts so there will be some things I won�t do in the weathering department.

You guys do know that after the paint shop German tanks went to the weathering shop? (j/k )

I'll try to post more progress pics latter today.

Rick

Basic weathering is complete with a combination of oil washes and dry brushing. Next step is to detail the weathering with things more typical to the shops than the field. (I hope!) A little bit of oil here and there, the main gun, spilled on the engine deck, oily parts sat on the engine deck. Exhaust pipes were painted over in the paint shop, after some road testing the layers of paint are burning off. Scrapes on the top of the fighting compartment from work on parts for the interior. Soiling along the engine deck from techs standing in this area during testing.

Scratches and scrapes from mechanics working on things on the roof, an adjustment needs to be made to the gunners scope, someone has noted it in chalk. The washes help bring out the texture work.

The lens for the scope is a headlight for an N-scale train.

Well the gun barrel is coming along nicely. I�ve put so many washes over it I lost count. It�s a combination of lamp black, burnt umber and burnt sienna oil based washes done separately. The first washes were applied full coverage on the gun, the final washes were dabbed here and there and allowed to overlap. Gives a more layered look.

Since I don�t have a bunch of stowage to add for detail on the back of this Jp I�ve added various chalk marks. I use a watercolor pencil to make the chalk marks. Blend them in with a dry soft brush.

The hull is looking good now but I still have a ways to go. Found an extra set of brass side skirts I didn�t use on a previous Jp project, need to paint and weather those. Need to do my least favorite thing on a German tank, paint all those dang road tires. Oh, and I still need a set of tracks......

The Jagdpanther is a classic armoured vehcile and Rick is one of the few who can do it justice. Outstanding my friend.

Rick, top notch modeling.I love to watch artists like you and Cody build models.It gives us with little talent something to shoot for.Can't wait to see the finished model(this is probably my biggest problem,I'm impatient).

Absolutely superb lesson on how to paint and weather an afv. Looking forward to seeing the rest. The road wheels and tyres always look great if the time is taken to finish them properly, but are probably the least satisfying parts of a project to complete.

The gun barrel is class!

Regards
Russell

Rick,

I applaud your work - thanks! ... a fabulous and exceptional adventure for the eye and fingers ...

..first rate, mate! How about doing a Tiger I
for us? My Pop saw his first in the winter of '43 near Leningrad.

Best regards!

Bill

Thank You gentlemen, very, very much. No matter the subject, model tanks, art work, custom cars, it is a great pleasure to create something and have others enjoy and appreciate the fruit of your labor.

I do have a couple Tiger projects in the works but I'm still doing research and rounding up parts. Since I like off-beat subjects, one is the Tiger that never was, what the KingTiger would have become had the war continued through 1945.

The other is one my son asked me to build recently, the Tamiya Otto Carius Tiger I.

Stay tuned ...

Rick

A favorite German tank historian and model builder of mine, James Blackwell, once wrote in an article on weathering that you should take chances in your weathering, try things you haven�t tried before. I just hope you don�t think I�m crazy!

O.K., so the painters are back and they�ve had to repaint the interior after the early disaster with the gun mount not being properly secured and they made a bit of a mess with the paint cans. Paint chipping and wear have also been added to heavy traffic areas being frequented by the mechanics, crew and painters.

The painters have also started chalking in and painting the first insignia to be applied to the test vehicles.

In the earliest days of these test vehicles lives the only major stowage appears to be a fresh set of spare tracks on the one side. At least one of the test vehicles came out of the shops with the old style tracks but early photos (coming days or weeks of testing) show the test beds changed over to the later, newer production tracks very quickly.

Progress is also being made on the side plates, one of the few extras I can add to this tank. Once again, extras in the parts box, these are made from sheet brass. Interior face is exposed red primer, exterior surface dark yellow with paint chipped to the primer.

I use a small piece of foam with random chunks pulled out of the surface to be used. I thin the paint heavily with acetone, dip a little in the cap, dab it on the area you want chipped quickly. Works well and you can cover numerous parts quickly. Change the pattern as you go and it gives a very random look to the dings and chips.

Spilled paint marks were made with a 1/35th scale bucket and a little thicker mixture on the primer. I use a spare piece of plastic sheet to remove extra before the final dab on the tank. Oil can stains were done with an oil base mixture, test and dab, test and dab.

...the side plates. Left side done, still working on the right side plates.

...one more...

I made up my mind. I will throw away my models.. No need to "try" to paint them...

Top notch stuff! Great work there....


/Thomas

Just as a point of interest at the War & Peace show this year in the UK there was a fully restored, original parts one of these driving around the field. what a monster. The only one in the world.

Fantastic!!I used to build models years ago ,mostly Tamiya kits,I think that is what started my TR intrests.Great work!!I am assume your other half is doing the fotos for you?Forgive me if I am wrong.But if I am correct,You make a great team!!I wonder if there was a way to adapt a scale figure with goggles to appear to be welding?Perhaps a piece of fibre optic thread and one of those new diode flashlights hidden in the base??of the display??Sorry,But you have inspired me!Great stuff !Thanks Geoff.

Gentleman, thank you for the comments, again greatly appreciated. Geoff I really like that welder idea, if you don�t mind I might try to make that happen on a future project. This one has a couple painters earmarked for its display which is already built.

Yes, Tanya is my partner in life. Not only helping with the photos but she does most of the work for us over in the For Sale section and our auctions and real world sales as well. She does have a small dagger collection, need to have her post them sometime.

Rick

Rick I would be very proud if you used the welder Idea! If you wouldnt mind..If it comes to pass,I would love an autographed 8x10 foto of the welder signed by the artist and photographer for my war room.Keep up the Great work y'all!!G.

When I was a kid in the 1950's, I used to build endless tanks and planes, although there was not a very good selection. And I was not that good a modeler, either.

After a bit, when they got broken, I would take them to our workshop and give them "battle fatigue". I would use heated pins or small nails to simulate impact points of bullets and use painted cotton for flames. Sometimes I would heat the plastic crew figures until they folded over the tank turret or inside airplaine cabin to simulate injuries.

Dave

Hey Geoff

Tanya already found something to use for the power unit, one of those tiny flasher units for things like Halloween figures that you pin to your lapel. Some flash at a more random pace than others and that�s what we�re looking for now.

I�m also searching for a 1/35th scale welder. No need for a uniform, he�s a shop guy so coveralls or work cloths are fine. Welding tanks should be easy to find. I decided that the next project will be my July 1945 KingTiger II and the welder will be added to that base. This is going to be fun, I�m really looking forward to it!

Dave, we did the same thing. Did the battle of Kursk once with my buds and all of our junked out tanks. Used standard war-game rules with a twist, BB guns and fire! Losers tanks were burned on the battlefield! Crazy kids!

Still working on the road wheels and tyres for the JP, 32 of �em! Also have a set of metal tracks assembled, painted and weathered. Been busy but with one of the more tedious aspects of German tank building, panzer road wheels!

Rick

Not the welder. But an mecanic... 1/35 scale K�bel workshop. Just placed diffrntly, looks good, perhaps usabel for the welding projekt?

/Thomas

PS due to this thread, I am thinking of digging out all models making stuff from the closet and build an Me 109 in an larger scale.

I�m going to challenge all GDC model builders to dig into those spare parts drawers and see what you can make of all that stuff collecting dust!

As a little something to break up the monotony of finishing all those road wheels I started working on my dio-base. On my better projects I like to build a small something for them to reside on. Many times I�ve used a standard 1/35th cobblestone road section, add a few things, a little weathering, some rubber stick on feet from the hardware store and there you go, a mini dio-base. Really helps when moving your models around in the house for various reasons, you can pick them up via the base versus always having to handle the vehicle itself.

For this particular build I wanted something depicting the conditions in the first days these vehicles were up and running. A thin layer of snow outlines the shop roads, its damp, cold, winter time. For this I needed snow and ended up using two different products for the end result.

The first product I tried made by Woodland Scenics is like $8 for a 32 oz. shaker. Applied easily and looked good on my daughter�s base for one of her T-34s, but when I applied a wash to muddy the edges of the snow on my base it didn�t look very good afterwards. The �snow� is shaped like sugar and that�s what the wash made it look like, the edge of a pile of sugar!

So we tried another snow product put out by Games Workshop. Shaped like little slivers and as light as dust the stuff was also a little pricey, $8 for 15g. Again easy to apply, I placed it over the other stuff with no problem. Plus it works well with the oil wash.

Conclusion, use the cheap stuff as a base filler to build up to the thickness you want, use the nice fluffy stuff as a finish coat. But I still wasn�t happy with the overall base. Something was missing, something still wasn�t right. Then it hit me!

The cobblestones looked good with all the various colors from mud to oil grime, but only when the wash was wet! That was it! When the wash dried you had this sparkling white snow next to this dead flat road. I was missing a wet surface from all the snow melting and all the runoff on the paved areas. So how do I make a rain slick road? Never done rain before. Minwax to the rescue!

I was trying to think of something I already had that I could put over the oil based wash and along the edge of the snow that was thin and easy to apply with a brush and would still look wet when dried. Plus I wanted just a little fill in around the stones and some of the low areas. Clear gloss polyurethane, 2 coats. Went on smooth as glass, no brush marks, plenty of working time and didn�t disturb anything that it was added two or over.

I know, still crazy after all these years, but now its only used for good.

Rick

OT but I did find something real neat for the future welder figure...

http://www.sceneryexpress.com/prodinfo.asp?number=EZ7002

...and yes I'm still painting wheels and tyres...

Rick