BP Models

I put the airbrush to work for a few hours today and made some good progress on this project. Since I will be applying a 3-tone disc camo from the fenders up on the hull, I decided to go ahead and lay down an overall base coat to the entire vehicle since a good chunk of it was going to stay in Dunklegelb regardless. To that end, I used my normal 50-50 custom mix of Testors Modelmaster enamel Light Gray/Panzer Dunkelgelb to set the stage for the camo phases to come.

Before painting the hull though, I tackled the road wheels, return rollers, sprockets, and idlers since they will all stay in the DY. Wooden toothpicks and small blobs of blue tack poster putty create easy to manipulate handles and all of these elements had gotten a primer treatment previously when I airbrushed the hull. I airbrushed MM enamel Gunmetal for the rubber portions on the road wheels first and then masked the rims off using a draftsman's circle template so the inner and outer hubs could be airbrushed with the DY hull color.



Since the rubber diameter and exposed hub areas are different sizes on the outer facing vs. inner facing surfaces, two different circles were used as needed. This of course results in the ever-popular 'wheels on sticks' moment that is inevitable when building German armor.



With that out of the way, the hull received the DY base coat as well by airbrush using multiple thin coat passes to build it up over the primer coat.




Next up will be getting the broad camo pattern areas on to create the three tone structure in anticipation of the disc stencils coming into play.

Made the most of the extended holiday weekend for the 4th of July today and put the new metal body Aztek airbrush to work on the camo pattern. My normal color choice for the 'green' in standard German three-tone is Model Master enamel Khaki but my on hand bottle went bad and the LHS was out, so I grabbed a close cousin labeled Italian Olive Green and decided to give it a whirl. It went down freehand first so I could have a base pattern to work from when adding the brown.



For the brown, I use a custom mix of 50/50 Model Master enamel Leather and Military Brown. This was also added freehand to create the full pattern. The three colors work pretty well together so I may have yet another choice when it comes to green paint choices for the future.






Next up will be using the Uschi stencils to transform the green and red blocks into the 'disc' patterns.

More fun with the airbrush today! To create the distinctive disc camo pattern that was seen on JP IVs (and Panthers) for a brief period in late 1944 around the time of the Battle of the Bulge, I used the wonderful Uschi Van der Rosten brand of flexible stencils. These stencils are self-adhesive and reusable and already have the disc pattern cut into them. The stencil set provides 5 long strips and you can cut them down into smaller sections for tighter areas if needed. I ended up using just one strip for the whole vehicle, so still have 4 others untouched for future builds should the occasion arise.

I used the whole strips for the long hull sides and other big areas and then cut off small sections later to work in the tight spots. The stencils are flexible and retain their adhesive nature for a good while but won't work indefinitely and toward the end I was using the point of a toothpick to hold some of the finer sections down so the air from the brush wouldn't lift up the stencil but I don't consider that a flaw at all, just something to be aware of when using this type of stencil.



I'm very happy with the result the stencil produces. Lifts right up, isn't too tacky, and flexible to handle and use.



After a couple of hours of working my way around the vehicle, most of the time was spent getting into all the complex shape areas on the superstructure front plate and the rear engine deck. I'm very glad I left off all the tools and gear as that would've been a nightmare to try to work around. Once the stencil work was done, I mixed up a highly thinned filter coat of the base coat DY color (roughly 90-95% thinner) and airbrushed a mist coat over the entire vehicle to tie the scheme together.





Not a bad 4th of July's effort! Happy Independence Day!

Made some more progress in the detail department once the camo work was done. The tools I'd worked on earlier got the rest of their detailing so they could match up with the rear deck pattern. All of the different pieces of equipment were installed in place starting with the jack and working my way across. These are covered in Steps 9 and 10. It's worth noting that Step 9 has a parts error, it labels one of the spare wheel supports as B8 (that's actually the starter crank) and is really G8. I didn't catch it at the time as being significant and used both of the B29 supports...but the G8 has a little spacer tab on it that helps better support the steel wheel since it's not as thick as the regular rubber-rimmed wheels that B29 are designed for. So far as I can tell, that's the only real difference and isn't a show stopper in its own right...but it might change the alignment of the spare wheels in relation to each other and the spare track run that goes across the rear. When I tested it on my build with the run I assembled previously, it didn't present an issue. If you were to leave that particular holder empty, the spacer tab configuration on G8 is the accurate one to use, so there's that consideration as well.

I also worked on the exhausts. These were done with a base coat of MM enamel Burnt Umber followed by passes with an enamel MM Leather wash in varying degrees to create a deep rusty finish. This was topped off with some orange artist pastels applied with a brush and black artist pastels to the insides of the stacks and around the rims.



With that done, I turned to getting the old girl up on her feet. The return rollers and steel wheels had their contact edges treated with MM non-buffing metalizer Steel followed by some heavily dry-brushed Burnt Umber to create an exposed steel surface. Using the MK track runs I'd assembled earlier, the road wheels and return rollers were installed in position and left to set up level to ensure they couldn't float down the road when it comes time to permanently add the tracks.

With the road wheels taken care of yesterday and set up nice and solid, it was time to check the links count on the MK runs assembled previously to see how many additional links were needed. I had originally stopped at 96 links for both sides and the kit's instruction recommendations are 97 links, so I needed to test fit the sprockets and idlers first to get a good idea of where things would end up. The fit of the idler arms into the mounts is a tight one so throughout the painting process I've been careful not to allow any paint inside the mount holes or on the arm pins themselves. The idlers were permanently glued onto the mount arms off the vehicle and then the whole assembly fitted into the hull mounts without glue as the friction fit there is plenty to hold it in place. Some slight sanding on the pins that go into the hull mount proved necessary and this was done before the idler wheels were joined to the arms so that everything would play nice. The sprockets were held in place with small amounts of blue tack as they need to remain loose for the final installation after the tracks are painted and weathered.

97 links turned out to be the perfect length for the MK runs on both sides with the idlers adjusted slightly in the process to create the desired sag. The idlers in the photos below are moved at just about their maximum tension setting so it's possible that 96 links would have worked as well but it would've been a much tighter run vs. the look I was after. I also picked out the gunner's and commander's scopes with some non-buffing metalizer Gunmetal and added the commander's scope hatch in the open position to round things out for the day.





Ordinarily on a Pz IV family vehicle you would need 98-100 links per side but the lack of the 4th return roller makes all the difference on the suspension layout and total length of the track runs. Next up will be airbrushing and detailing the main tracks and the spare run.

Lots of things have been conspiring to keep me away from the bench so progress has slowed a bit as a result but still moving forward!

I spent some time on the tracks including the spare run for the rear hull. Spare run got an airbrush coat of MM enamel Burnt Umber, a light dry-brushing of enamel Steel, and a wash of enamel Leather. Some additional artist pastels provided some rust tone variation to top it off and the run installed in place with the holder rack.



Recipe for the main tracks was slightly different. Same airbrush base coat but with a heavier Steel dry-brush treatment. This was followed by a wash of MM enamel Raw Umber to create their foundation for additional pigment weathering to come later before final installation on the running gear.



Just need to apply some pre-weathering to the lower hull and then it will be time to add the markings and seal it up for the weathering phases.

The build officially enters the 'hurry up and wait' phase of completion centering around the weathering process now. I added some chipping/wear to the lower hull by stippling some Burnt Umber and the 50/50 DY custom mix to form the first layer of weathering for those areas.



Out came the airbrush and Future and everything got a sealing coat. After letting it sit for about an hour, I undertook the monumental task of adding the markings decals. All two of them! These disc pattern vehicles had truly minimal markings applied to them for good reason. Small dose of Solvaset made sure they snugged down and didn't silver followed by a 2nd airbrushed Future coat. That will get a chance to cure up nice and hard over the next 24 hours and then we'll see about getting down and dirty.

A while back I picked up a set of Ammo by Mig Filters for use on German armor and decided to give them a try on this scheme. The set includes three washes (one for three tone, one for dark yellow only, and one for panzer gray) and two of them seemed appropriate under the circumstances.

First up I played around with the Tan for Three-Tone wash and applied it using a round 00 sable brush. It's very thin and I found it necessary to shake the bottle several times to keep it consistent but was happy with the outcome. As a filter, the effect it produces is very subtle but noticeable.



For the lower hull areas that were left in plain dark yellow, I applied the Brown for Dark Yellow filter using the same approach and size of brush.



So here's where it sits after both rounds. Still more to come in terms of additional dot filters, pin wash, etc.

Moving on to the next step in the process, the JP IV got a dot filter treatment. I used small dots of enamel MM Raw Sienna, Light Gray, and my 50/50 custom DY mix to add some fading and dust to the overall finish. As usual, I worked in small sections at a time while wearing a breather mask due to the thinner fumes. The in progress shot here shows a nice before/after contrast with the hull front.



After a couple of hours, the whole vehicle had gotten the treatment.





Next up will be some localized streaking and the pin washes to get the detail to pop.

Spent the last couple of days working on getting the pin wash applied to the upper hull. I use a custom wash mix of thinner and MM enamel Burnt Umber and a 10/0 pointed brush for this process. The key is to follow up the application with clean thinner to tighten it up and remove any excess or blooming results. It's tedious and a time-consuming step but well worth it!



It never ceases to amaze me how effective this simple step can make such a huge difference in the overall finish. I also added some careful streaking in various spots using the same brush/wash combo to create a little more variety in the weathering.





Next up will be moving to the lower hull and applying some additional weathering there before sealing it all up and getting ready for the pigment phase.