Good morning!
Still plenty of spots for the airbrush basics workshop on February 8th, so make sure you register if you want to attend.
Nüremberg Spielwarenmesse is taking place this week. It will be interesting to see what announcements will be made...
Meanwhile, I've made more progress on the Bergepanther. The original Panther tank had an armour plate with hatches over the driver/radio operator's seats. On the Bergepanther this plate was removed and replaced with a tarpaulin that could be pulled over it from the superstructure. The Takom kit includes both a folded and extended tarp. Of course I opted to use the folded version, in order to show off the interior. Instructions tell you to paint it in the camouflage of the tank, but I chose to spray it in XF-49 Khaki:
You see I've also started attaching the tools on the sides of the vehicle. Tow ropes were painted in a
Steel colour, and given a coat of
Streaking Rust Effects. I then wiped off most of the Rust product to give a used but not very rusted look to the wire. I gave the wooden handles of the tools a basecoat of
XF-57 Buff, and the wood grain effect was made with Burnt Umber oil paint. These colours give a 'colder' look than my customary Dark Yellow/Burnt Sienna.
In the back I deployed the tow rope and hook, gave the spade a dried dust/grass coat and put down the tow bars over the engine deck. These are not glued to allow the engine hatches to open. The tow hook hooks over brackets in the spade and holds it up. I can leave it loose and show it in a deployed state this way.
You can see the tow rope emerging from the box-like superstructure. This hole normally fully surrounds the rope, but I made a small cut so I can completely remove the superstructure. It may not be historically correct, but it's barely visible and this way I can show the interior.
More tools painting to do this week. Nearing the end now, and maybe I'll enter it in the competition in
Puurs.
The Ford Focus chassis received a gloss coat and I applied some decals:
As you can see the seats as well received their colour and decals. The seat belts are regular decals and don't look extremely convincing. I'll try playing with varnishes a bit to make them stand out a bit more. The decal sheet is old and damaged and they don't come loose easily. I just hope the big ones on the exterior body will work out okay...
A light grey filter should bring out the detail in the floor a bit. I'll then apply a
Satin Varnish to tone down the shine a bit.
The roll cage was painted, too:
Satin white for the most part, with the upper front bars in
Satin Black and the shock absorbing covers in Black oil paint (to give some texture).
Finally, a sneak peak at the next projects (yes, two of them!):
Can you guess what they are?
That's it.
See you next week!
