u/bashomania

Finally had some reasonable spraying weather. I painted the Pak and also clear glossed my Panzer II which has been under construction forever (!!!). No pics of the Panzer II at this point — it’s just a clear coat over what I’ve already posted.

I took the simplest possible approach with the little Pak: I rattlecanned it with Tamiya Panzer Gray. Didn’t even prime. However, I did give the parts a brushed-on IPA bath before spraying (and gave sufficient dry/evap time). Man, this Tamiya spray paint is tight! So nice.

It looks much better than the photos, which were challenged by lighting conditions. I amped up the shadows, which introduced noise, and some sharpening made it worse.

I did end up opening up the ocular of the sight and will maybe put a drop of PVA or clear in there once done.

Next is painting and mounting tires and shovel, doing some dry-brushing and light chipping here and there, maybe some light panel lines, and then I’ll probably do some pigments to dust it up.

Planning to paint up the figures and ammo for a simple vignette. Is anyone aware of a set of figures actually moving the gun, rather than operating it? Would be so cool. Maybe one of the active infantry/machine gun/PG team kits could be modified…

… and I’ve been gritting my teeth here and there.

This is my “side piece” while I wait for weather to improve enough to rattlecan gloss my Panzer II (posted about here a few times) for decals, pin wash, etc. I feel like my past amateur watchmaking escapades are helping a little with skill and patience working on this tiny little gun, but it’s still a bit of a stretch! The classic Tamiya engineering is missing in a few spots. You can def get it done, but at least IME I had to get creative here and there, and utter a few choice incantations along the way.

Assembly is mostly done — just need to finish the carriage and attach the gun.

Anyone have any painting guidance? I originally toyed with brush painting every aspect, including a priming and a chipping solution layer as well as the base coat. But now I’m toying with just spraying it with Tamiya TS-4 German Gray and just doing additive chipping/weathering from there.

Anyone have an opinion on that? Seems like spraying might be too blunt an instrument. I’d probably do the carriage, gun/shield, and wheels separately, either way.

I’ll do the figures and put it on a simple vignette base, but I’m really looking forward do building the new Pak 40 sometime. I might just turn this 35/36 into a tiny paint mule in that case ;-)

PS: Photos are super unforgiving and will really mess with you. I see so many more mold lines now, and how the hell did I miss that giant ejector pin mark on the breech block 😩? I might try to fix that in place. I also might drill the sight out just a bit (didn’t realize what it was when I was building).

I couldn't decide what flair to use, so "Trivia" it is.

I am nearing the point at which I will apply decals to my current project, which is a Tamiya Panzer II, from the old classic lineup (I have published a few few progress posts).

I had been hearing that Tamiya decals are very thick and can be difficult to apply to uneven surfaces, so I thought I would do a simple practice round on some styrene sheet that I have already been practicing other things on -- kind of a torture test.

I had not applied a decal in 50+ years, and I felt this went extremely well. I did use super hot water (a tip I ran across somewhere regarding Tamiya decals).

Oh, and I did lose control of the decals and had to fish them out of the water with my paintbrush (something I don't recommend 😆). But in the end it all came together very nicely, I think.

Today was wheels, tracks, and muffler day. I’m not done with the tracks, so no photo.

I think I might have overcooked the exhaust. In my defense, a) man it’s super hard to stop once you start 😅, and b) truly my camera REALLY overstated how the muffler looks in real life. It’s not that over-the-top.

Next step: gloss varnish and decals.

Well, I spent a lot of time on chipping today. With this dark gray finish I was worried about having the contrast chipping be too intense or garish, so I actually underdid my lighter tone of gray for the “scuffs” the first time around. Then I decided it was too subtle, so I revisited with a slightly lighter tone, and added some additional areas. The effect is *very* sensitive to the available light and its quality.

Of course the result is I may have overdone it (what do you think?), but this is just the first phase, and things will get toned down by some washes and pigment dusting I have planned, eventually.

I still have to put the wheels on and do some minor chipping on them, too.

I also started working on the tracks. Black primer, and today a layer of dark brown from Vallejo’s Tracks and Wheels set. No reason to show the tracks at this point.

… because I sometimes get sidetracked on things other than the tank.

I wanted to try my hand at painting the commander figure that comes with the kit. I was never great at it as a kid, though I guess I got by. I was pleasantly surprised with my results so far, though I have a long way to go!

Today and tonight I got sidetracked into priming and painting a few barrels. Two of them are from Tamiya parts kits, and the burned-out one is from a 3D printed set of dilapidated barrels I got on Amazon. On the latter I decided to just let it be a burned-out and rusted hulk of a can, and the primer played the part ofthe burned parts. The other two were painted as a relatively fresh can, and a worn can, in order for me to play with some chipping/rusting technique.

I was pretty happy with all this, so I set them up together and took a little portrait. Then I had Gemini take a stab at relocating everything to N Africa. Apologies if you hate AI, but it was just a bit of fun. Gemini went overboard with edits to the model bits, though 🙄.

The last pictures are of the Panzer’s pioneering tools, which I painted a few days ago. Don’t you love how pictures really call out issues? Like, I obviously missed some flash on the sledgehammer, and the machine gun needs another coat. Some minor paint issues are present on the deck, etc, but they’ll be covered eventually by weathering and other processing.

I think I’m going to just try to pigment dust the hell out of the Panzer II and set it in early N Africa service (my “field applied” desert tan approaches have not been satisfactory for me). I also have a somewhat better set of figures and I may try painting another commander, etc.

I’ve started putting together some diorama bits and pieces, so that’s exciting.

I warmed up by painting the lower hull. Gave it a couple of thinnish coats of Vallejo’s German Gray. Then I moved to the upper deck/fenders and turret. I used a pretty thin sauce of German Gray with 40-50% of that being Vallejo Thinner Medium, and also a drop or two of Flow Improver (depending on how many drops of gray). I also threw in a drop of water or two along the way (I wasn’t smart enough to mix enough paint for all the applications).

Photos show two coats on the hull parts and one coat on the turret. It’s amazing how many tiny unpainted bits show up when you’re “done” 😅.

I’ve mentioned I’m toying with doing a “hastily field applied” layer of some sort of desert tan. So far I’ve played with a mix of dark yellow and buff. I’ve been playing with brush strokes on sheet styrene. I’ve included a photo of that. Top left is purposely very hastily applied with a medium round brush. Top right is a couple of more attempts with a small square brush that is more to-scale (hard to tell here, I know). Bottom left is more of the small brush, with a thinner mix.

The jury is out … way out … on this idea, but I think the upper right approach would work best.

Did a Zenithal prime using Vallejo rattlecans outdoors in my “baffled paint booth” (deep-ish cardboard box with baffles). Unfortunately it was hot and humid so i got a dusty layer (last pic). Or maybe my technique sucks, but I’ve been having really good results with just black, until this happened — maybe white performs differently (?). Anyway, I washed the pieces under running water, using a brush to help the dust dislodge. Looks much better now (better than the pics, for sure).

I’ve been painting the road wheels, which is just So Much Fun™, while I put off committing to paint on the actual tank 😅.

Seriously, though, my plan for the tank is to first get a couple of Panzer Grey base coats, lightly weather, then roughly/mostly cover that with a desert tan-like finish as in early DAK informal field treatment, then weather again.

Why this approach? Well, I think I want to locate the tank in N Africa and I don’t have an airbrush to do “real” camo treatment and am committed to brush painting this guy for old times’ sake (50 years since the last kit build). Hell, I’m interested in trying to avoid the airbrush altogether (not personally against it, but it’s just kind of impractical for my living space(s), so my plan is to use spray can or brushes for the near future, unless this plan fails horribly!

All that said, I might just like the gray finish and put the tank in Europe, straight up. I can put that decision off until decals time 🫡.

PS - things have changed SO MUCH since I had a crinkly old tube of Testers goop, I mean cement, and a half-dozen stuck-topped bottles of Testers enamels and a splayed-out cheapo brush and a baby food jar full of turpentine.

PPS - I worked on my top deck and turret surfaces a bit more. Some “sanding” with a piece of paper towel followed by a *very* dilute water/alcohol bath and more brushing to carry away junk.

PPPS - I did some research and have learned that white acrylic spray primers are pretty notorious for dustiness. Now that I have a respirator and goggles (I spray outside) I’ll probably go back to Mr. Surfacer for priming. Or maybe I’ll try Tamiya.

… the classic Tamiya Panzer II Ausf F. It’s been 50 years or so since the last kit I built, and it’s been fun getting back into it (and some of the foibles came right back to haunt me, too 😅).

Anyway, I’d seen a reference photo where the right rear fender of a Pz II had a basket made of bent/welded metal straps to hold jerrycans, and I thought that was pretty cool. Decided to try making my own “field hack” out of 10-thou "sheet metal straps". Unfortunately, it can’t go on the fender due to Tamiya molding a mystery box in that spot. Anyway, I think it can go where I show it here, and if not, I’ll just use it for a different vehicle (there just aren’t many options on the Pz II).

Try not to notice the glue mark on the jerrycan 🙄, which will become random “field gunk" build-up once the kit is painted and weathered. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it (so to speak!).

Live to 2-track performance and dub mix (a touch of EQ done in Garage Band).

Roland MC-707, UDO Super 6, Erica Zen Delay, Benidub Echo, Boss RE-202, Behringer 646 Spring Reverb, Benidub Filtro, Neunaber Immerse v2.

Mixed on Behringer QX2442USB. Recorded on Zoom H6.

Stereo bus chain: SSL Ultraviolet, Warm Audio Bus Comp, Bereich Density, SPL Big.