Mitchell I've never built any of the academy armor offerings so I'd be interested to see just how your T34-85 turns out. I've heard bad things about their Panzer IV offering in terms of detail and accuracy so I wonder how their T34 compares to other companies offerings.

Erik pleased to see another Panzer IV in the mix I'm interested to see what Dragons offering is like. Italeri's offering has plenty of Detail surprisingly enough given it's age but the gun barrels for both the main gun and MG's need replacing which I found surprisingly simple.

Anyway I've got the undercoat on and it is Tamiya's offering thinned to 60/40 and it's homogenised the kit making it finally appear uniform. As expected the cuts in the Tamiya Zimmerit are visible and next time I'll smear a little putty into the joint and wipe off the excess with solvent to make the join a little less visible. The Zimmerit material is solvent resistant so it should be relatively easy. This Zimmerit will easily lend itself to showing damage by simply cutting out pieces and painting accordingly. Here are some progress pics so you guys can see where I'm at.

Truly Chris,
I don't think I could tell your kit from a Dragon or Tamiya offering at this point. Still, the worst part of the PzIV lays ahead... Painting all of those roadwheels always tests my patience.

Gaz

Hey thanks for the compliments guys! It does look quite good now after all the extra's have been added. I've got a tow rope coming as the scratch built hooks at the back are too far apart to use the kit part.

Painting wheels of any sort is trying Gaz! I've got an idea to cut masks from masking tape so I can paint the wheels black when I'm doing my pre-shade and the cover the tyres and leave just the hub and paint that then mask the tyres and spray the rest of the kit. The challenge will of course be what camo do I pick and do I replicate it behind the schurzen or not?

One issue that has popped up is that I can't seem to find anything in the instructions where Dragon tells us which optional part goes along with which of the different vehicles in the painting instructions, and back there they are all identical as far as my eyes can tell.

This would seem to call for references. Does anyone have any idea where I might be able to find a photo or so of the vehicle they describe as "Unidentified Unit, Eastern Front 1943" with number 421 (black, outlined in white) on the turret?

WOW! Fantastic work here everybody

Chris: great efforts on that Panzer IV-kit, you really turned it into a very nice one so far. As my last armour build was decades back I'm very impressed.

(Note to myself: build a Tank or AMV soon...)

But for now I'm going to divide the "Tank-Section" and show further proress on a flying thingy. Did the office on the 1/72 F-4F II (no milestone, but can live with)


Thomas

Thomas outstanding work on that cockpit! You've made the detail pop and it looks suitably busy for a front office, even more so because of the fact it's 1/72nd scale. looking forward to see what you do with the rest of the kit.

To be fair Thomas this is probably my first armor kit in the last couple of years and I'm doing things that I've never done before in regards to aftermarket parts and painting so it's quite the journey. Totally next level, actually several levels above what I usually do or have done with armor previously. But my use of aftermarket parts in my aircraft kits has opened my eyes to the possibilities with my armor kits and I want to experiment and see where it takes me.

Hull done. The instructions do have a worrying tendency of not telling you things every now and then. Plastics generally good at least, most things fit very well, and most bits are more or less flash/mould line free (obviously not the road wheels and return rollers, Muprhy wouldn't let that fly now would he).

Ach, more road wheels!

Thomas,
Nice looking pit!

Gaz

Chris,

I really like the way the Zimmerit came out.
The Pzkpfw IV looks really good nice job so far......

Fantastic builds. The panzers are coming along nicely.

Really need to get back to work on my build. Doubt I will make the deadline but I'll to do as much as I can.

Primed up and ready to go.



The painting guide has three different paints suggested for the base grey, all of which appear to be wildly different hues, and then names this as "feldgrau".

On a tank.

Oh dear.

So the instructions have most definitely not been all that kind to me. Slightly more of a bother with mold lines than the Tasca/Asuka Sherman I made a while back, but I'd say slightly better guides/slots for some of the small stuff.

Erik: very nice progress, already looking cool. It shows up a lot of details.

My Phantom is getting slowly together and turns into a plane shape. Added some styrene strips at the fuselage before installing the office (before it looked too thin to me) and pre-painted the nozzles with Gunze-Metalizer.



Thomas

Erik,
Your Pz looks great! I love the unique look of the Pz IVf2.

Thomas,
Glad to see your F4 is coming to shape.

Gaz

Plenty of good work here guys, I haven't even opened my box yet, I have been under the pump at work Will hopefully get underway soon. Looking forward to seeing more progress.

Thomas, the Phantom is coming along nicely. I'm guessing it's Revell's 1/72 F-4F?

The Rumpler's cockpit is coming together slowly. No fault of the kits, just my current build rate. House and other things keep throwing surprises at me. But I'll keep working at it.



Just a few more things to do and then it will be ready to fit together and install inside the fuselage. At some point.

Okay I cut the masks and sprayed the road wheels went rather well I think. Now it's just a matter of masking the road wheels and spraying the rest of the chassis. Have to mask the idlers or possibly given their small diameter I might paint them by hand.

Hi guys
Originally I planned to go with a PzIV being that I have 3 in the stash but because Im running a little late to the party Ill go with this Wingy Thingy that I originally picked up for the Academy Campaign

Started it the other night put dont have any progress photos yet

Thomas-----Great work on the F-4.

Chris----The Panzer IV is really turning out nicely. Can't wait to see it in all it's camo glory.

Sal---Hey, welcome to the campaign. I have not run across you in awhile. Hope you are well.

Best wishes,

Ian

Stephen---That Rumpler interior is really nicely done.

Regards,

Ian

Thanks Ian.

There are a lot of little jobs that are very time consuming in the cockpit.
I've to work out how to fit in the seatbelts and control wires!

First weekend in a while with no commitments, and I decided to get some more work done. Built the turret today, and plan to finish with the suspension tomorrow, and then start with the fiddly bits and a base coat. Might try a black basecoat on this one for a change!

Things happening.



Going for the hand painted wheels approach instead of masking, with an every so slightly different shade of dark grey. That may have been quite a bit more effort than effect.



On the plus side the big transfers behaved quite well (once sufficiently drowned in MicroSol) despite being placed right over the view ports.

Looking cooler every time you show more - great work on that paint, Erik!

Erik----Wow!!! What a beautiful scheme. Fantastic job, sir.

Best wishes,

Ian

Some different colour...
Got the first layer on the underside/fuselage. Revell enamel.



Thomas