Italeri Stug III G - Part III

Yeah... nothing says Christmas like doing some work on a Nazi armored vehicle! Alright, most of work has actually been done over last couple of days, today I just applied finishing touches to the paint job.

As you can see from images below, the Stug is now completely assembled, painted and awaiting first coat of blank varnish. Reaching this stage turned out to be something of an adventure, filled with problems and mishaps.

As previously mentioned, the model itself is extremely simple to assemble. With the exception of tracks, I could glue together all parts before spraying the base coat. Then came first (and perhaps only) important decision during assembly step - would I work with chassis and superstructure separately or should I put them together and hope I could put tracks in place once I was done with the paint job. I decided for the second alternative - naaaag, wrong choice... but more on that later on.

Once the model was in one piece, it was time to take out the airbrush. Overall coat of sand yellow was followed by standard German disruptive pattern consisting of olive green and dark brown blotches. I tried to apply the pattern used according to Italeri in Normandy 1944, but the end result should be regarded as "free interpretation" rather than meticulous reproduction of cammo scheme shown in instruction manual. The simple truth is that I still have a lot to learn about airbrushing.

Once the cammo was applied, it was time to put the tracks in place. That's when the nightmare in this project began. First of all, as turned out, there wasn't enough room to squeeze the track links between the front sprockets and mud guards of superstructure. After brief and futile attempt to push track links into place (net result of that effort was a broken sprocket wheel ) I realized that I had to partially break up the model to even have a chance to get those tracks in place.

Misery likes however company and this case it was no different. There is no other way to say it - Italeri seriously dropped the boll with track assembly for this model. As can be seen in pictures I posted previously,  track assembly consists of a couple of solid sections and a number of individual links that are supposed to be  wrapped around the wheels. The thing is though that the sprue itself seems to be reused from another kit and needs to be cut to size before it is put together. The simple fact is that no matter how much you'll try, you will not be able to complete the assembly if you follow instructions provided by Italeri. Luckily there is a surplus of separate links, which can be used to cobble together passable tracks. But the assembly process which should be pretty straightforward is a real pain in the neck and in my case at least, the final result looks rather shoddy. Luckily, I build 1/72 AFV:s for my wargaming, where 1 meter rule applies - if it looks good from a distance of one meter, then it will do.

Not happy with Vallejo at the moment

Vallejo has been my favorite paint maker ever since I've decided to make a switch from Humbrol enamels to acrylics. Vallejo Model paints are pretty much the only thing I use for miniature painting (the other hobby of mine).

Right now however they are not my favorite company. The reason? Their "new next best thing since sliced bread" aka. their new polyurethane primer! I've spotted couple of adds about them and as I'm always curious about new stuff, I picked up a bottle of it when I saw it at a trader stand during my visit to C4 Open show. Couple of days ago I had a chance to test it out, as I needed to do some priming on one of the kits I'currently working on. First impression wasn't very positive - straight out of the bottle, it was rather thick, but at the same time it had tendency to pool together on bare plastic on which it was sprayed at low pressure levels (I stayed at 10-15 psi). I found it rather difficult to work with, although to be fair, the fact that I had a 0.2mm nozzle on my airbrush could have had something to do with it (thick fluid + small nozzle = clogging).

This less than optimal first experience turned out to be only the prelude to my problems with that "great" primer. Couple of days after my test run I found some free time and decided to work on the Stug. Imagine my surprise and horror when, as I picked up the airbrush, I discovered that its trigger action felt soggy as if its innards were filled with sticky glue. The problem became obvious almost immediately once I stripped the airbrush - once the needle was out, I saw that it was covered with sticky white goo. Same stuff stuck to the trigger mechanism and nozzle wasn't in much better condition. The whole brush was covered with residue from that test I did couple of days before.

Now here's the thing - I'm rather anal when it comes to keeping my airbrush clean. I strip it and clean both the nozzle and the needle with airbrush cleaner after every painting session, no matter how short it may have been. Test run with Vallejo's primer was no exception.

After a night of soaking all detachable components in cleaner fluid and with rather significant effort I managed to remove most of the goo and restore the airbrush to usable condition. Based on that experience it is clear to me that the airbrush cleaner I'm using (from Lifecolor) is barely capable to thin that stuff out. Until I find find a thinner that does visibly better job cleaning/thinning it, this new "wonder crap" from Vallejo isn't coming within a meter from my airbrush!

Italeri Stug III G - Part II

Just a quick update to keep this blog alive. Rather busy times in "real life", so there isn't as much time for model building as I would have liked, but I did make some progress with the Stug. Image below shows the model in "inbetween" stage, with black pre-shading sprayed on grey foundation coat.

Airfix Spitfire MkIa - Part IX

And so, without further ado, here is the finished model. Finishing steps consisted of highlighting the panel recesses with water-solvable oils, installation of cockpit, antenna and propeller and finally double coat of Testor DullCoate matte lacquer.

Nothing particular to report about those finishing touches, except for the fact that cockpit fit could have been better - I was unable to get perfect fit, as a result right edge of cockpit sticks out a fraction of a millimeter. In any case, I must say that I am very pleased with the final result. There is still a lot of stuff I need to learn, especially when it comes to handling the airbrush, but considering the fact that this is my first model in a very long time, I'm rather pleased with the end result.

C4 Open 2012 - Part 2

All right, time for another batch of photos from this year's C4 Open. This time around it's the most noteworthy airplanes that participated in competitions. My personal taste is usually on "small is beautiful" side, but this year it was the P-38 Lightning in 1:32 scale that made deepest impression on me.