'Kampfgruppe Tunesien'* German Armour Diorama with an Fw190 - ##Finished - in the Gallery## 25/12/16

[Ozzy]

Nice progress Stix, those tamiya 1/48 figures sets do look nice.

[Sgt.Squarehead]

It's just a shame there aren't a bigger variety.....Nothing modern whatsoever that I can find, I'm trying to scratch up some 1/48 Mujahideen, but you can't even get an AK-47 in 1/48 at the moment! 

[sean]

14 hours ago, rob85 said:

Hey Sean haven't seen you in a while! You been hiding?

 

 Rob 

 

Hi Rob,

just been way busy, mostly work, and my son got married in July, so the house got done up inside and out,

so really only had a half hour here and there to check what was going on and pretty much got out of the habit

of being actually on BM .......Phew... that was a mouthful..........

 

Normal viewing shall resume...........

 

Sean

[rob85]

3 minutes ago, sean said:

 

Hi Rob,

just been way busy, mostly work, and my son got married in July, so the house got done up inside and out,

so really only had a half hour here and there to check what was going on and pretty much got out of the habit

of being actually on BM .......Phew... that was a mouthful..........

 

Normal viewing shall resume...........

 

Sean

Well congratulations to you and your son, and it's good to have you back! 

 

Sorry stix I will stop deviating from your tanks and FW....

 

Rob

[sean]

38 minutes ago, rob85 said:

Well congratulations to you and your son, and it's good to have you back! 

 

Sorry stix I will stop deviating from your tanks and FW....

 

Rob

 

Cheers mate..

 

Sean

[PlaStix]

On 9/22/2016 at 4:21 PM, Ozzy said:

Nice progress Stix, those tamiya 1/48 figures sets do look nice.

Cheers Ozzy - yes they are really good - especially for saying they are only 1/48.

 

On 9/22/2016 at 8:37 PM, Sgt.Squarehead said:

It's just a shame there aren't a bigger variety.....Nothing modern whatsoever that I can find, I'm trying to scratch up some 1/48 Mujahideen, but you can't even get an AK-47 in 1/48 at the moment! 

It is odd that there aren't more modern 1/48 AFVs generally.

 

I got quite a bit done on both projects over the past weekend but not had the opportunity to post any details- until now.

First off I got the tracks attached to the Tiger 1:

 

 

Once the glue had fully set on these I attached the upper hull to the lower hull. I think one of these was slightly warped as it took a large amount of masking tape the pull the two evenly together but it got there in the end:

 

On the Pz.III I gave everything a dry-brushing with a lightened version of the base coat:

 

 

 

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Decals were next followed by some final touches to the remaining parts that still need to be added:

 

 

These last two photos show where I had got to be the end of Saturday's session:

 

 

Sunday's session was mostly taken up with adding more weathering and then final assembly of all the smaller parts. By the end of Sunday afternoon it was mostly complete although I still need to do some dust and dirt washes. The light wasn't great (the sun was far too bright and casting deep shadows) but I still wanted to take some photo as I find these help me identify things I still need to work on. I still want to add some stowage and other paraphernalia. 

 

A bit of an arty one to start with - taken on a chipboard base with one of my desert backdrops:

 

From above:

 

....and a few(!!!) general views:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I do apologise about the number of photos but I really did find this tank to be very photogenic! It's a lovely kit to build and the detail is pretty good. 

 

Next weekend I will try and finish this one completely and then maybe build the Tamiya Tiger alongside the AFV Club version.

 

Comments and suggestions welcome.

 

Kind regards,

 

Stix

Edited September 26, 2016 by PlaStix

[fatfingers]

Aye up Stix

 

That's a proper beauty.  The PZ.III is by far one of the best looking tanks of WW2.  Looks just like a tank should.  😉

 

Regards 

 

Steve 

[modelling minion]

Great job on the Panzer III Stix she looks very realistic, a true icon of the Desert War.

The tracks on the Tiger look good too.

 

Craig.

[sean]

Nice going Stix. The Panzer has turned out really well, the dry brushing makes everything pop.

'Til next week then.

Sean

[Ozzy]

Nice build.

[PlaStix]

On 9/26/2016 at 6:15 PM, fatfingers said:

Aye up Stix

That's a proper beauty.  The PZ.III is by far one of the best looking tanks of WW2.  Looks just like a tank should.  😉

Regards 

Steve 

Hi Steve and thank you. I totally agree it is a great looking tank - it has real character. Going to have to make a few more of these in different scales at some point!

 

On 9/26/2016 at 6:24 PM, modelling minion said:

Great job on the Panzer III Stix she looks very realistic, a true icon of the Desert War.

The tracks on the Tiger look good too.

Craig.

Hi Craig and thank you very much too. The shape and appearance of the Panzer III really is quite evocative of the desert war.

 

On 9/26/2016 at 7:36 PM, sean said:

Nice going Stix. The Panzer has turned out really well, the dry brushing makes everything pop.

'Til next week then.

Sean

Hi Sean and thank you. Dry-brushing is really good for bringing out the detail Tamiya have included in their kits.

 

On 9/26/2016 at 8:09 PM, Ozzy said:

Nice build.

Thank you too Ozzy.

 

I did end up doing a bit of work on the AFV Club Tiger 1 late on yesterday evening - I'm enjoying these builds so much I'm trying to find odd bits of time to work on them when I get home from work. It was dark by the time I'd stopped and the dark green plastic didn't show up too well under electric lights so there's not photos yet. I was mostly building up the turret yesterday.

 

Kind regards,

 

Stix

 

 

[CliffB]

I somehow managed to miss this one so far Stix (there's just too much to look at on BM!).  But glad to catch up now, as your Panzer III is superb

 

Cliff

[PlaStix]

5 hours ago, CliffB said:

I somehow managed to miss this one so far Stix (there's just too much to look at on BM!).  But glad to catch up now, as your Panzer III is superb

Cliff

No problem Cliff and thank you for stopping by. I know what you mean about the amount of content on BM. I frequently miss loads until late on because there is so much!

 

Yesterday evening I managed to take a rather dim photo of my progress so far with the AFV Club Tiger 1 turret:

 

I've been managing to find the odd few minutes in the evenings to to a bit of assembling.

 

Only Friday in the way until the weekend! 

 

Comments and suggestions welcome.

 

Kind regards,

 

Stix

 

[Robert Stuart]

Good progress Stix, will it be closed up as the Pz.III?

 

ot - I'm intrigued by the prespective on the Tiger tracks in that last photo - presumably a mix of true perspective and of lens distortion?

 

 

 

[PlaStix]

16 hours ago, Robert Stuart said:

Good progress Stix, will it be closed up as the Pz.III?

ot - I'm intrigued by the prespective on the Tiger tracks in that last photo - presumably a mix of true perspective and of lens distortion?

Hi Robert. Thank you and yes it's going to be similar to the Pz.III - the front two hatches will be closed but the two on the turret will be open. 

 

I had to go and look at the box lid when I got home last night and, upon investigation, I think the tracks are oddly represented by the graphic artist. I took a photo of the lid, but more square on, and the perspective does still look strange:

They do spread out rather than getting slightly narrower - perhaps it's the weight of the tank?

 

I added a few more bits last night including the front hatches and I did a quick test fit of the turret........as you do:

 

 

I have been finding photos of 131 when it was in the desert so I can 'damage' any of the parts I need to before final assembly.

 

Saturday tomorrow! 

 

Comments and suggestions welcome.

 

Kind regards,

 

Stix

[rob85]

These are really coming together stix. I love how your brush work brings out the detail! The tiger appears to be coming together well.

 

Rob

[Ozzy]

That does look like a nice tiger, looking forward to see the three of them stalking through the desert with a Fw 190 giving air support.

[Robert Stuart]

That looks like a Tiger now Stix, so good progress.  I'll be interested to see the results of your research into 131

 

(p.s. I think the spreading tracks afre really an optical illusion )

[Sgt.Squarehead]

I'd call it artist liscence. 

 

Prefer Stix' rendering TBH. 

[Kahunaminor]

Just took the time to read this Stix,

 

Absolutely gorgeous Pzkpfw III and the Tiger looks to be shaping up well. Well done on all.

 

Regards,

[PlaStix]

On 9/30/2016 at 1:11 PM, rob85 said:

These are really coming together stix. I love how your brush work brings out the detail! The tiger appears to be coming together well.

Rob

Hi Rob and thank you. I think it's how nicely detailed that Tamiya makes these 1/48 kits that works so well with dry-brushing.

 

On 9/30/2016 at 6:59 PM, Ozzy said:

That does look like a nice tiger, looking forward to see the three of them stalking through the desert with a Fw 190 giving air support.

Thank you Ozzy. AFV Club's Tiger 1 is a very nicely detailed kit.

 

On 9/30/2016 at 9:01 PM, Robert Stuart said:

That looks like a Tiger now Stix, so good progress.  I'll be interested to see the results of your research into 131

(p.s. I think the spreading tracks afre really an optical illusion )

So far my research isn't showing that there was a lot of damage beyond what finally disabled it - however I'm making it it in the period before that. There is some damage to the shields around the engine exhausts but so far the side skirts look to have been intact - as are the fenders - one seems to have been bent up out of line and a couple bent slightly out of shape - but nothing serious. There is some streaking dirt in places in one photo. It seems to have been in pretty good shape up until the day it was hit.

 

On 10/1/2016 at 5:20 AM, Sgt.Squarehead said:

I'd call it artist liscence. 

Prefer Stix' rendering TBH. 

Sounds about right

 

On 10/1/2016 at 11:14 PM, Kahunaminor said:

Just took the time to read this Stix,

Absolutely gorgeous Pzkpfw III and the Tiger looks to be shaping up well. Well done on all.

Regards,

Thank you very much Kent.

 

I have been busy over the weekend and I'll post some updates when I get chance this afternoon.

 

Kind regards,

 

Stix

[PlaStix]

I've been working on both the Tamiya Pz.III and the AFV Club Tiger 1 over the weekend.

 

The work on the Pz.III centered around painting and fitting the stowage.

 

Stowage painted:

 

....and in place:

 

The rope is made from some of Mrs PlaStix's thread from her sowing box which I soaked in watered down PVA glue and Humbrol's Dark Earth paint.

 

On the Tiger my first jobs were to convert some of the kit's details a little to be more like the original 131. I've been using the information included in this post by David Byrden on Missing-Lynx.com: 

http://www.network54.com/Forum/47207/thread/1435252952/1/Tiger+131+kit+by+Dragon

It's actually about the Dragon kit but it's very useful. 

 

So far I have removed the headlamp fittings - leaving just a cover plate on each side and reduced the S-mine fittings back to the fixings:

 

 

I've also added the missing grab handle on the glacis plate:

 

The handle is made from thickish fuse wire with thick foil, from a yogurt pot lid, for the fixing plates.

 

Last job on the Tiger was to get the base colour (Humbrol 93) onto all the upper hull and turret areas:

 

The paint was thinned with water and applied by a flat brush.

 

Finally this weekend I got some Revell Anthracite paint on the figures as a base coat:

 

I'm going to try and do a bit on these projects this week in the evenings, if I get chance.

 

Comments and suggestions welcome.

 

Kind regards,

 

Stix

Edited October 3, 2016 by PlaStix

[GREG DESTEC]

Looking good Stix. The PzIII is very photogenic! I assume there's going to be a crew guy in the turret? The Tiger is progressing nicely too. Cheers Greg 

[sean]

Nice progress on the Tiger Stix, and the stowage on the Panzer certainly makes it look "busy",

Sean

[PlaStix]

On 10/3/2016 at 9:43 PM, GREG DESTEC said:

Looking good Stix. The PzIII is very photogenic! I assume there's going to be a crew guy in the turret? The Tiger is progressing nicely too. Cheers Greg 

Hi Greg and thank you. There may well be a crew figure in the turret but I haven't decided quite yet on the final scene......so we will see........

 

On 10/3/2016 at 10:25 PM, sean said:

Nice progress on the Tiger Stix, and the stowage on the Panzer certainly makes it look "busy",

Sean

Hi Sean and thank you too. I always think stowage adds to the overall appearance. I used to avoid putting any on because it obscured the detail in that area of the tank but, having done it a couple of times, I think it is worthwhile. There may not be stowage on all the tanks but that's because I have some ideas about what may be happening with them.

 

Over the past couple of evenings I have been doing a bit of work on the Tiger. First up I got the PE grills painted with the base colour:

 

I've also been working on getting some of the other parts painted:

These still need more work.

 

I've also given the hull and turret an overall wash of Revell's Gunship Grey and glued on the side skirts:

 

I'm sorry about the quality of the photos but the light isn't great at the time of night I have been taking them.

 

Comments and suggestions welcome.

 

Kind regards,

 

Stix

 

 

 

 

Edited October 6, 2016 by PlaStix