Dawsonsauce

Halfway decent would be worth it, but so far this looks pretty good to me!

Yeah, no idea about that. I got mine from HobbyLink Japan. Fairly painless. Bought a few other things to save on shipping.

I finished reading 'Spearhead' by Adam Makos not too long ago. Really incredible book, and I thought about dipping my toe into model tanks. It's not really my usual thing, and I have enough big models sitting around not being built, so I wanted something easy. Thankfully, GaleForce9 makes some wonderful little tank Miniatures for the World of Tanks: Miniatures game. I wanted a Pershing, but the store didn't have one, but they did have the Panther, the co-star of the book. This was a fantastic experience for me. I needed something simple, and fun to break me out of my modeling rut, and this did just the trick. No building, very little cleanup, and straight to painting and effects. I did a little diorama for it and stuck it in a baseball display case. :}

Really incredible!

Wow that looks incredible! Great gloss finish!

Thank y'all so much! It really is a lovely kit. I bought a few other IBG kits with this one, and the ones I have built so far have been a steal for the price. Next one in line is the P.11g. :} Thanks so much! It was difficult finding much information on the .42, I had no idea the 23 came first! I really appreciate the insight into the white rudders too. :}

Hey y'all! Just wrapped up this kit the other day, and finally got around to taking some photos in the spray booth! Honestly, this kit was a joy. Went together great, wonderful detail, just couldn't be happier with it. If you're interested in my build progress, the WIP page is below. This was the first time I've really tried a build blog, so I probably could do a better job documenting them in the future. This was apparently a prototype aircraft, so the scheme choices were limited. I went with the version that had white rudders, but didn't realize until later that meant no markings on the upper surfaces! Either way, I tried to keep weathering to a minimum, I wanted it to feel used, but not abused. I modeled the bombs in Zbrush and printed them out. The prototype probably didn't get bombs, but hey, the thing looked naked without 'em. :} Anywho, without further adieu, the model as it ended up. Thanks for stoppin by and takin' a peek! ^^

So I got it all base coated, assembled, sealed, and decals applied! I noticed that the primer I used (I used Army Painter Grey) ended up with a ton of little micro wrinkles/cracks in the paint. Gives it a bit of a pebbly look. Not super happy about that, but it was the tradeoff for using a rattle can. I had been using the Mr.Hobby Surfaces rattle cans, and they are amazing. Either way, it is what it is! I almost wish I had chosen the scheme that used decals on the tops of the wings and tails, but I couldn't resist the call of the white rudders. Anywho, I figured this would be the last time the model was sealed, so I felt free to take off the masking on the canopy and underside windows. The masking worked out pretty well I think, and I'm happy with it! That said, I'm not sure how people get such crisp clean lines on their canopy frames! I found an image of someone who did the same kit and their masking lines were super sharp and crisp. If anybody has any tips I'd love to hear them. I'm super excited to do the oils for this. I always have such a blast with the oil paints. I didn't do any chipping, though I might go back and add just a touch. Not too much though, since this was a prototype aircraft! After that's done, I'll paint the nav lights, glue in the landing lights and I'll be happy with it. :} Thanks for stoppin by!

Thanks, Clive! Definitely still learning. Lesson this time, don't trust the manual for paint suggestions. They may get you close, but it's up to the artist to check the colors! Now I just have to remember how I mixed the polish khaki for the interior. :}

So I finally primed the model, and gave it the ol' preshading treatment. I'm still not totally sold on preshading. It feels like extra work that I rarely end up seeing. Feels like I get better results with post shading oil paints. Suppose it could be a cumulative thing that I'm just not catching. So when I bought this I grabbed the paints the kit recommended, and the light blue on the belly seemed... way too light. After masking it a bit, I just wasn't happy with it. So I unmasked what I did, and dragged it back over to the spray booth. May be a bit too much, but It's better than nearly white.

Oooh jeeze! xD I got lucky this thing has open canopy at the back! Thanks! Thats my hope as well! :}

Just realized I didn't take a single photo of the thing after the innards were painted. :C

It's been a while, and this model briefly took a back seat to a Phantom kit I was working on. However, now this is ready for paint! Had a few little issues. One is the fit between the fuselage and wing was close, but not perfect. I realized that by sanding I was going to lose raised rivets, but I was willing to sacrifice those to get a better fit. Secondly, JUST AFTER gluing the damned canopy on, I was masking one of the windows on the underside of the fuselage and pushed just a touch too hard. The thing popped out and rattled around. I was able to get it out, thankfully. Left with just the window frame, I resorted to a hail mary. I had bought some Model Masters canopy glue ages back, and recalled it said it could do windows. So I put some on a toothpick and ran it around the edges of the frame, and yeah, it dried to make a window. Not a perfect window, mind you, it was distorted and a bit convex, but it was better than nothing. I tried to mask it with masking tape, but got scared and did it with masking fluid. I'm sure this isn't going to be perfect, but it's the best I could do!

Looks great! Really screams "work horse" with the weathering you did. I'm building a variant of this model (an IBG Pzl.42) and the thought of masking the canopy is givin me anxiety! You did a great job on yours, did you do the inside too?

This is easily one of the most enjoyable builds I've done in recent years. This kit has wonderful detail, it's simple, nice decals, great shapes. Nothing about this model gave me trouble. If I had one wish, it'd been that I'd thought ahead to set the tail surfaces drooping a bit. However, I only thought of it once I'd glued them on and was afraid to break them. I thought about doing some sort of wash, but honestly I really like the look of this as if it's pristine.