Dragon Panzer III H late, 15. Panzer Division **FINISHED**

[NotDaMama]

So, after completely screwing up the internet and managing to put myself out of commission for the better part of 2 months, I am finally in a position to put this thread up!! Yes, horribly late, sorry to all, but at least it will all be on here last minute. The Mrs has kindly offered to take some beauty shots of the finished kit later too!

 

I'll put everything in as one long thread as I started on the first bank holiday after the start date, proceeded to crippled myself, then started a mad rush to the finish 2 weeks ago once I'd recovered just in time to blow up the internet connection in the house! So, to one and all who may be interested in this build, I hope you enjoy! 

[NotDaMama]

 

So this is the kit in question, I decided to build it as the cover vehicle as this seemed to be the most eye catching of the options. One does appear to have a painted swastika on the storage box but, by the time I came to painting there was no time left to mess about with making my own air recognition stuff!

 

The assembly it self was pretty straightforward, no major issues to contend with, a healthy parts count and everything seemed to fit quite well. I was impressed with the inclusion of torsion bars but, with no additional interior I felt it was a bit of a waste. 

 

 

 

 

As is usual with Dragon there is minimal interior detail for the turret. I decided to model the whole thing closed rather than look into purchasing sufficient interior parts to make it pass muster. I also decided against any crew, mostly for cost reasons. There is a decent enough array of DAK figures and tank crews, but as an Alpine tank commander would have cost me more than I paid for the kit I couldn't get the wife to agree to it. I had tried to get away with it previously, but as my shady kit buys had been rumbled whilst I was incapacitated I was in rather hot water on figures!! 

 

 

 

 

 

The turret itself went together nicely (I took no chances and buried it in tape. I've built Dragon turrets before and they don't like me...) I had it complete in about a day, and then it was on to making additions the instructions didn't ask for. As this is a DAK vehicle, specifically 15. Panzer Division for those interested, I needed to add additional wheels to the fenders. Despite it being a DAK specific kit it lacks any kind of fender mounting for the spare wheels, despite including them in the kit and on the box art! So, I raided the sprues and fashioned my own. As its hidden under the wheels I'm working on the excuse its a field expedient and nobody can see it anyway!!

 

 

 

As is normal, all the wheels said Continentau so they got assaulted with the knife! 

 

 

Around about here I managed to throw out my back and trap a nerve... no standing up, no walking, no painting, without serious pain, so the Mrs hid the model from the 2 year old Tank Destroyer and that was the end of that until 2 weeks ago

 

 

[NotDaMama]

Having recovered, it became a mad race to the finish line with 10am starts, 3am finishes, a wife who had moved on from ideas of divorce to just murder and an infant who has got annoyingly good at stealing turrets from places I thought were secure. 

 

A friend of mine introduced me to MRP paints and I got hold of RAL8000 and RAL7008 as, from what I can gather, this tank should have come from the factory in the Tropen scheme. Painting was straightforward with my Aztek, however I managed to blow an O ring and the acetone I used in a metallic paint mix appears to have done some damage to the interior of the airbrush. I get the distinct impression there is a deity somewhere who really didn't want me finishing this project 🤔

[NotDaMama]

 

For those who don't know, MRP is a lacquer based acrylic paint thats ready prepared for airbrushing. This went down really well, best to follow the instructions and use many thin coats, coverage was good and it was a breeze to get the base coat down and done! 

 

 

 

The camo was a much harder task due to the colours being so close. After some trial and error with lighting I managed to get a decent patter down. Mrs Mama has kindly taken some photos using her DSLR to highlight the weathering and the camo patter which isn't otherwise so easily visible. 

 

 

 

 

 

Once the camo was done weathering was achieved using Mig Afrika Korps Wash as a pin wash and then to create streaking effects on the hull. I didnt chip the paint as I wanted a relatively new, not yet really abused, look to this model. 

 

The biggest problem I ran into was with the tracks. I found the DS tracks included represented the 38cm, not the correct 40cm, track. This seriously screwed up my planning as I ran into this issue at 7pm yesterday with almost no time to switch to the spare Magic Track and get them assembled!! Fortunately there was minimal work needed and I was able to get them cleaned, glued and painted by 4am. Paint was just Tamiya XF-84 dark iron. Originally I had made up a mix of XF-56 metallic grey and XF-1 black to represent steel. I even pastel washed the track before realising the problem!! once I fixed it, I decided against the long route and cut corners on the painting! Weathering was with a steel colour pencil and Humbrol's dark earth pastel powder. With a liberal application of the powder to the running gear afterwards, we are all done!!!

[NotDaMama]

 

Lovely steel tracks... (2 Panzer III and a Panther)

 

 

 

The "Hail Mary"

 

 

The end result!!!!

Edited August 26, 2018 by NotDaMama

[Ozzy]

Nice blitz build notdamama, the end result looks fantastic.

[NotDaMama]

Thanks Ozzy, a real mad rush but a result I'm proud of!

[PlaStix]

Not surprised you are proud of your finished model - it looks superb! Very well done. 

Kind regards,

Stix

[NotDaMama]

Thanks very much Stix, much appreciated!!