Kitchen Table Update - WIP #2

Time for another update, combining most of my 28mm builds at the moment. I tinker in the evenings on the kitchen table. Currently the shots show,

• BAM Pzr IV , Schwimwagen and Sdkfz 9,
• JTFM Pzr IV, Puma and 234 8-Rads, 251/D's
• Army Group North , Stug III's
• Company B - Adler

All have mods some more than others. Following some comments, i will add that these additions and alterations are not always necesary and not a true reflection on the basic kit. I position my work at showcase standard and continually try and improve, hence all the mods and extras.

• Panzer IVs, not much more done to these, fiddled around with some more stowage and completed the schurzen on the JTFM one. Am toying with some camo nets but cant get it just right.
• Schwimwagen, i love this kit! although theres not to much you can do with a four seater. Added generic stowage, zeltbahn cover ( use of lead foil from posh wine, thanks Julia! ( who still looks at me funny when i ask for it!) and rope drop rope for the motor.
• SDkfz 9, this will be a SCW version so had to disguise some of the late war stowage, hopefully effectively with a "green stuff" discarded jacket.
• 8- RADs - I love these as well. These are just me playing, will be very late war schemes i thing. Metal foil fule can straps added and helmets and their straps
• 251/D - quite a bit of work here and very much WIP. The JTFM is the best 251 available and has lovely interior details. Downside is the assembling, i should really do a two part paint for these but that would double the time and increase the price accordingly. You will see green modellers putty on the body joints, still working on these. Have added internal rod bars for kit stowage and started to add green stuff kit etc. Nice advantage with these is that the rear doors can be cut open with a little bit of work.
• The Stugs are almost there. Interesting point with these, and my work in general, is where do you stop. I could do more, noticably the tools dont have any securing points which is bugging me but will stop on these now.
• Adler, not much added at the moment, added a BAM schwim/kubel driver. This will probably move right with a Horch which has just arrived.
  

Finishing: you'll notice several different finishes, from grey primer, to balck undercoat, to white metal and resin. With modern resins it is important to clean and prime correctly. I use an enamel plastic primer ( hence the grey) and then a black primer undercoat. Some have this already as they were "around" when spraying. These will all receive another primer grey and black undercoat. This will then be touched up with enamel ( Humbrol).

I havent posted pics of all the mods talked about here, however there is now a WIP folder up on my flickr gallery, which has more.

F.A.Q - New feature

I always try and share tips and techniques, unfortunately most of the answers are distributed in private emails and across various fora. I will now try and post the answers here, any questions just email me. I will add these will be just my take on things, i'm sure there are hundreds of ways for skinning these particular cats

Scratches and Scrapes

I also use an airbrush for the basecoat on my WWII tanks, then, for Germans, airbrush the camo on. From there, I usually drybrush with a lighter shade of Dunkelgelb, drybrush on dirt, then I’m done.I notice with YOUR models you have lot’s of small “nicks”, which seem to be black. Also, I’ve seen your models with great scratches running along the sides, just like a modern car would if it was driving through the woods. How do you achieve these effects?

[Troop writes] I have been experimenting with the well known technique of "dabbing" paint by using blister pack foam. Simply load the foam, dry off and dab on areas of high wear, less is more. This is then augmented with balck/hull red/dark brown applied with a detail brush. This part is laborious and best done in stages, put down, leave and then revisit. Its far to easy to overdo these bits. Finally scratches are "highlighted" using a light tone ( grey, light olive, khaki and yellow all work for OD) . This is just to give a light edge to some of the scratches, this is an out of scale technique but adds to the overall effect.


BLOWING PANELS/PRE-SHADING

Also, I’m guessing from looking at your models you’re using the airbrush for shading? I’d love to hear how you pull that off as well.

[Troop writes] For the OD vehicles, i start from a base black coat. Then use a darkened OD and spray out from the centre of any panels. The effect you are after is to leave some of the black showing through around the panel edges. Then use OD and do exactly the same but leaving some of the darkened OD showing, as you lighten the OD you get to a light point in the centre of the panel. If you get confident you can also lighten the top edges of panels and top surfaces for extra fading. An alternative method is to use your normal OD coat and then spray a wash colour ( raw umber) around the panel edges. This needs to be heavily thinned and is a bit more tricky, again less is more and work up to taste!. I also find the paint can often dry a lighter colour than when spraying so often stop and let dry to see the effect.

Paints

I'm experimneting with various diferent paints, Tamiya, Model Air and Vallejo Air. Tamiya is by far the easiest to work with, the other two have better colours but are very thin, this means a several sweep approach that can can be tricky on the smaller scale german camo.

Cleaning and Storage

Ref storage, i clean through as normal, each clean i pull the needle as well. Start with ditching the paint left in the cup, fill the cup with water dilute reside and ditch x 2. Hopefully i then have no paint bits in the cup i then use airbrush cleaner dilute and ditch, when confident no stray bits, blow through. As a final touch i spray some of the foaming airbrush cleaner in a can. Dissassemble and clean. On resassembly again some cleaner then half a cup blown through of water. As i can leave set up in the shed and its used frequently i usually leave some cleaner in the cup put the lid on and store upright in a holder. Its rarely put away dry, but woudljust miss the last step if i did.