Messages

1

Showcase & Gallery / Re: Heisler's WIPs

« on: September 13, 2022, 03:06:19 am »

The STuG brought home gold and the Stuh took a bronze (to be honest I put it in a conversion category and really shouldn’t have the conversions were minor and not particularly difficult to do).

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Showcase & Gallery / Re: Heisler's WIPs

« on: August 31, 2022, 02:29:34 am »

I finally finished 1 STuG and the Stuh. Hopefully the other two STuGs will follow shortly.

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Work In Progress / Re: Project of the Month - Dec 2021 - M3 Lee & Grant

« on: December 12, 2021, 09:13:47 pm »

What!? No cast hull option?

Did the cast hull version even see combat?

Possibly a few made it into combat, the vast majority remained in the US for training.

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Work In Progress / Re: Project of the Month - Dec 2021 - M3 Lee & Grant

« on: December 11, 2021, 07:22:49 am »

What!? No cast hull option?

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Work In Progress / Re: NEW PROJECT - M24 Chaffee Drawings 210604

« on: June 04, 2021, 11:44:44 pm »

Take my money!

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Showcase & Gallery / Re: Heisler's WIPs

« on: April 24, 2021, 01:36:50 am »

Chipping is completed! The chipping is done with acrylics. In this case a light dunkelgelb and chips both from Ammo by Mig. I  used a piece of foam for this which is a good way to do it you just have to be cognizant of patterns and remember to rotate the foam a bit as you move around the vehicle. The process was repeated on the skirts where I also included some long scratches that run horizontally almost the full length of the vehicle (the front of the skirts with the horizontal scratches are shown in the previous post. I also did some chipping on the wheels. The tracks and wheels being a single unit, for each side, makes the painting process much easier.

I, obviously, still need some practice with this technique. In some places it looks great, in others it looks okay. I think I might skip the light colored chips on the next bunch of vehicles. Nothing came out so badly that I felt the need to go back and try and make some corrections. A lot of this work is going to be either covered by the stowage that will go on the back decks or by the weathering process itself so in the end I think these will look pretty sharp.

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Showcase & Gallery / Re: Heisler's WIPs

« on: April 16, 2021, 11:38:32 pm »

I stole some time and started the chipping work on the STuGs. The skirts are basically done and the light chips are done on the hulls (not pictured). I tried to incorporate some long scratches on the skirts and they came out okay, not great. I don't feel the need to go back and try and redo them and some of its going to be obscured as the weathering steps continue anyway.

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Showcase & Gallery / Re: Heisler's WIPs

« on: April 08, 2021, 08:33:14 pm »

I have been accumulating stowage for the STuGs. I should probably start putting it together and getting them painted.

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Showcase & Gallery / Re: Heisler's WIPs

« on: March 25, 2021, 06:13:25 am »

The pin wash is finally done on the STuG fleet. I can move on to something a bit more entertaining now; chipping!

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Wish Lists / Re: Pz.Kpfw. 35(t)

« on: March 18, 2021, 09:44:23 pm »

Not to mention that the 6th Panzer Division was equipped with the 35t through operation Barbarossa.

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Showcase & Gallery / Re: Heisler's WIPs

« on: March 06, 2021, 04:29:11 am »

A little progress on the STuGs. Here you can see the “pop” between the two with a pin wash and the two without.

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Showcase & Gallery / Re: Heisler's WIPs

« on: February 23, 2021, 06:38:56 am »

And here is some actual progress. These are the STuGs after the initial fading step. I’m still on the fence with this technique because it’s easy to lose through the rest of the weathering process.

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Showcase & Gallery / Re: Heisler's WIPs

« on: February 23, 2021, 06:32:43 am »

Wow, it’s been awhile. Life has really been smacking me around. On the airbrush front and ready to go airbrush paints. Basically the thinner the paint the lower the PSI. I’m not familiar with the Cobra but I’m fairly certain it’s a badger design. The Cobra, or more properly the Air Cobra, is a fine detail airbrush which makes it pretty finicky, a .2 needle is really small. That means at low PSIs, which is what you need for thin paint, it has to be really clean. Any kind of debris in there will make it spit at low PSIs. I usually work in the 10-12 range and as low as 8 as needed.

The Ammo by Mig airbrush paints are by far my favorites and they work pretty well right out of the bottle with a paint brush. Any paint will work through an airbrush if you thin it enough, it’s just a question of it being worth the effort. The PSI you work at defines how much thinning is required. That’s why there is no magic formula, depends on the paint and the PSI you are comfortable using.

I use a Renegade Velocity for detail work and a Badger Patriot for bigger stuff.

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Showcase & Gallery / Re: Heisler's WIPs

« on: December 25, 2020, 01:57:32 am »

I'm going to leave the title somewhat generic simply so that I can put my builds into a single post. I tend to work on multiple models and in phases so there is always something going on that I can work on when I only have a few minutes. Even in the middle of this pandemic my wife always seems to find ways to occupy my time with something other than building models.

Phase 1 - Build in progress
Phase 2 - Priming
Phase 3 - Painting in progress.

I break out priming and painting separately since I tend to let models build up here I have enough to make priming worth while or I'm ready for the next item in line. Oh and I'm only including the Rubicon Kits in this list.

Currently:
Phase 1 - Resin M32B1, Jagdpanther
Phase 2 - M4A3E2 (conversion kit), M4A3/76,
Phase 3 - StuG IIIGs (3) and StuH 42

Your M4A3E2 reminds me of a few years back when “cobra king” was re-discovered outside a base in germany serving as a gatekeeper, it looked exactly like that.  No EEC and the 76mm with the MB on it, did you build it like that on purpose?  Last i heard they had shipped the tank to the US and it was being restored to look like the iconic photo “first in bastogne”

I did not deliberately build as Cobra King. Since that shot was taken I have removed the muzzle brake and replaced it with the regular 76mm cannon to better fit in with the tank battalion I’m modeling.

Nice.

I have been wanting to try the Mig Ammo paints. How do they compare to the Vallejo paints (Model Color & Model Air)?

At this point I prefer the Ammo paints over Vallejo for airbrush work. I like Vallejo’s Model Air quite a bit but find that it usually still needs a little thinning. Not a problem for me since I typically add thinner to Ammo as well just to make it a bit easier to use. I rarely use Model Color through the airbrush unless it’s a color I have had to mix or need it for large jobs, like base coating ACW infantry, colors that’s I can’t find in dedicated airbrush paints. I use Model Color and Reaper Master Series (MSP) for brushwork though.

Model color just takes a lot of work to get the ratios right and my painting time is to precious to spend mixing when I can use it straight from the bottle.

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Showcase & Gallery / Re: Heisler's WIPs

« on: December 23, 2020, 12:54:20 am »

Finally got some the basic paintwork done on the STuGs. They are ready for decals and then some weathering.