Panther Storage Boxes Complete

Took longer than I'd imagined. Construction, damage, reassembly after damage was inflicted due to the boxes coming apart. But, they are finally done and mounted on the hull.

The Panther Advances

Some much anticipated bench time was finally scheduled after a fairly hectic week or so at the shop. It's great being busy with paint work this early in the season, but sure does take away from the hobby.
More details added to the Panther build. Starting with the commanders cupola, which received texture and... weld seams. Texture was added using paint in a stippling application to give a cast look.

Sd. Kfz. 171 Continued

Finally! Both upper and lower hull have been joined together. I'd been contemplating some sort of scratch built interior for the drivers section, just in case, but went without it. A drivers figure will pretty much block everything and I don't know if there will be a driver hanging out yet. Now that this point of the build has been reached though it should move along a bit quicker.... I hope.

Sd. Kfz. 171 Panther

Little bit more headway on this build. Still not a whole bunch, but steadily moving forward. Life is conflicting with the model building a little here of late.
The metal foil stowage boxes are really turning out nicely I think. A pain to build, but well worth the effort as the finished result bends and acts like scale metal should.

The new shooter..Badger Patriot 105

It was time to replace the old siphon feed Badger that's been spraying these models, and many custom paint jobs on auto's, for many years. The replacement.. Badger Patriot 105.

Sure, it's got the fancy "S" name stamped on it. So did the siphon feed. But for an all around airbrush I'm hoping this will be a good replacement for that old one. Now, there's still the Iwata Eclipse HP-CS in the arsenal for the fine detail, so everything should be set.
The Panther is going to be the first one in this gun's site's. We'll see how it does in the near future.

Thanks again for stopping by.

Dale

Sd. Kfz. 171 Panther continued

Finally finished a little more work on this. Not much, due to a very busy work load at the paint shop.
Progress is being made though.
The rear storage boxes are being sorted out in another media to see if they look better. You'll remember the first attempts were built with plastic sheet. This time around I've decided to try aluminum foil.

Sd. Kfz. 171 Panther A Early

Since the Sherman build is kinda stalled right now. Still no cure for the "mind block" on it yet. This old Dragon kit came out and was fired up.

Now, even being an older kit, I think it's been in the "stash" for about 4 years or so, it's still quite nicely detailed. Even so, it needs some minor altering.

Sd.Kfz. 251/10 Ausf. C

Dragons 251 Ausf. C 3 in 1 kit, could be built as a 251/7 Pioneerpanzerwagen, a 251/1 with SMG, or the 251/10 with the 3.7cm PaK. This was a great kit to build, with the only issue I had being in the fitment of the upper hull to the lower hull. That was probably more my fault though. The "link and length" tracks, although time consuming, were a treat to build, and if your careful with the glue can be fully movable when complete... Which I actually managed to pull off.
This was almost an out of box build. Just a few pieces of stowage were added for a little more clutter.  Hope you enjoy

M4A3E8

Went to shift gears on the "8" build and hit neutral. Stuck, stalled. Just can't get the next move figured out. But, for now, here's where "The Exorcist" stands...

Kfz. 305 Opel Blitz

Finished this one. Finally. Here's the 1/35 Italeri Opel Blitz, with some alterations. the standard cargo bed was swapped with one from the Italeri Maultier kit because i wanted the stake sides on this one. All the tarp tie down loops were shaved off and replaced with fine wire. The tarp bow mounts were replaced, as were all the latches on the bed. Scratch built the large cargo box on the drivers side. Cut the doors away from the kit, which takes a lot of work to get back into the proper position!! (so not advised) Just numerous mods done to bring a different aspect to the kit. Hopefully the pics say it all.

Dale

 

M4A3E8

Another round of mods on the 8. Working on the tools gave me the chance to dislike the cargo rack mounted on the rear hull. So, off with the kit part.

This is of course what the kit provides. Adequate, if a person is going to bury it in gear.

M4A3E8

Still in progress. But moving forward on it. Dragons 1/35 "Thunderbolt VII" Sherman. I'd been waiting for some pigments in order to finish this up, and in the process of constantly looking it over, decided the tools could use a little adjustment. So that's what I've attempted.

The kit tools had the molded on brackets, which were fine all things considered. Just not what I was looking for. So the tools were cleaned up and new brackets built from leftover PE frets.

Opel Blitz

Opel Blitz 3 ton. Truck coal engine. This is the Italeri 1/35 scale kit. It also has the late war Einheits version of the cab, (wood cab).  An Eduard PE set was used for that extra touch of detail. The hood was cut open and most of the detail scratch built for the engine. All the windows were replaced with thin clear plastic so that the side windows could be cut and posed open. Model Master paints and Tamiya Weathering master pigments finished it off. In the bed is the Dragon 1/35 scale 3cm Flak 38/103 Jaboschreck. The trailer frame is from the Dragon kit while the box is scratch built.

 

Katyusha

Katyusha mounted on the Zis-151. Italeri/ Testors 1/35 scale kit.

 

Stug III Ausf.G

Stug III Ausf. G. Dragons 1/35 Imperial Series kit. It has the Eduard PE set added, which was a large improvement to the model.