Dazzled's Postponed Jagdpanther.....On Parade!

[ShaunW]

not like that namby pamby aircraft nonsense

Don't get the dog on Ian, I'm only joking

[Dazzled]

That is a really nice looking kit of the Jagdpanther Darryl. Whenever I've done separate track links I've usually touched them up after assembly onto the model. If you use liquid glue to attach them as I do, then you will find that the glue may well remove some more of the paint in any event. It's a man's life building AFV kits you know, not like that namby pamby aircraft nonsense - a bit like comparing rugby to football

In Wales we don't tend to compare Rugby to that other game that girls play.

[Dazzled]

Keeping the momentum going, I squeezed in another shortish burst of modelling this morning.

In typical Dazzled fashion a bit has become detached and gone missing. It's not an important part. Just a strange square U shaped bracket at the rear of the vehicle. I can't see it in any of the reference pictures I've looked at but, seeing as it's in the kit, I thought I'd make up another from plasticard.



While I was at the bench I took the opportunity to apply the photo-etched engine grilles too.

Time for a lick of paint to touch up I think.

[Dazzled]

It's been a busy couple of days for me, dominated by work and my manful battle against a seriously debilitating illness that would have cut most mere mortals down like a scythe!

Okay, I've got a cold. It's making me even more miserable than usual and isn't making either working or modelling any easier. especially when I sneezed all over the Jagdpanther at close range yesterday. I'm all in favour of a bit of weathering but that was going a bit far.

I have managed a modicum of progress though. I've been working on, among other things, the external stores (luggage) ready to fit to the outside. So often these are items that are left as a bit of a last minute lash up and can let down an otherwise excellent model so I do try to integrate these into the build of any military vehicle model.

The metallic parts were given a base coat of Humbrol Polished Steel Metalcote which I'll buff up later. The wooden box and tool handles got a coat of Burnt Sienna oil paint over a base of Tamiya Deck Tan for the box and Dark Yellow for the tool handles.



This has had a day or two to dry, so tomorrow, my day off, will see another round of adding detail to these.

With all these parts aside to dry I thought the next prudent step would be to apply the decals before beginning the weathering process. I applied a brush coat of Future to the appropriate areas. I was a little concerned that the decals wouldn't go down very well over the rough surface of the Zimmerit.



It seemed to be a bit like trying to decal a pizza but Dragon's decals behaved perfectly. I used copious amounts of Microsol in 3 applications and they did conform very nicely.

One issue I had though was this.



The tow rope holder was in the wrong place. I'd made the rookie error of believing the instructions regarding it's position. I realised while I was decalling that this would get in the way of the serial number decals on the vehicle side so, after referring to a picture in "Panzer" I prized it off and smoothed and repainted the area.

After a brief hiatus decalling resumed and the rest of the process went without a hitch.



I was pretty pleased with the way the decals behaved and with the way they looked it terms of definition and density. Definitely a plus point of the kit .

I also managed to begin the weathering process with a thin dark grey enamel wash. I'll elaborate on that in my next update.

Right now it's time to drag my disease ridden carcass to bed .

[Clashcityrocker]

Top marks for those decals.

Nigel

[Dazzled]

Fighting manfully against the dreaded lurgy, armed only with a bottle of whisky (hic) I've bravely soldiered on with the Jagdpanther today. Admittedly, most of the progress involved weathering which doesn't generally require too steady a hand (just as well really )

I mainly concentrated on washes and drybrushing. My initial enamel wash of dark grey was supplemented by a dry brush of Tamiya metallic grey acrylic. This picked out the details quite nicely. I then adjusted the wash to give it a more brown hue by adding Humbrol 83 enamel and gave the lower half and running gear a wash over. I finished off by lightly rubbing in ground up black pastel with an old brush.





I'm not going for my usual heavy weathering (with my usual heavy hands ) but have opted for a lighter touch, bearing in mind that the vehicle depicted here would have been quite new at the time (Normandy, 1944) so I've tried to be a little restrained. I hope I've succeeded .

Moving on it's time for a game of "What's in the jar?"



Of course it's still the tracks but, to take the shine off them they've had a little "treatment".



Some ground up pastel chalks (black, white and orange) have been added to the jar together with a splash of my dirty wash mix and the jar given a good shake. Then they were poured out on to a piece of kitchen towel to dry, as in the picture. They are looking better and better as they dry.

At the moment I'm in the process of attaching the individual track links, still rather wet, to the vehicle and re-living the last time I did this (Dragon 1/35th Nashorn) a few years ago and recalling fondly the weeks of therapy I needed afterwards .

Oh well, onwards and upwards. More progress soon.

Darryl

[ShaunW]

Excellent work. Microscale solutions are your friend for decals over Zimmerit and that's a great idea for weathering the tracks! I shrugged off my quadruple pneumonia (OK, OK, some would say a cold) using sheer willpower and maybe the odd paracetamol or two Get well soon!

[AndrewR]

When I saw that jar, I thought you must be taking some traditional Chinese medicine for your lurgy...

I'm impressed with the decals going on over the Zimmerit finish.

Cheers

Andrew

[Dazzled]

When I saw that jar, I thought you must be taking some traditional Chinese medicine for your lurgy...

I'm impressed with the decals going on over the Zimmerit finish.

Cheers

Andrew

Thanks Andrew. I've actually been taking quite a bit of traditional Scottish medicine for my lurgy . Happily, it appears to have worked .

Here's the progress so far.

Basically, one track on.





Unfortunately work was put on hold yesterday as I had to attend a family funeral. It wasn't a close family member but one has to show one's face at these occasions. Personally, I'd have preferred a few hours at the bench or even banging my head against a wall. It would have been better than sitting in a dilapidated club with a bunch of my wife's extended family, who I don't know from Adam, listening to my mother-in-law complaining about the ones she doesn't like and what they did to upset her .

Anyway, on a more positive note, work is progressing again on the model and the second track is being fought into place link by link.

And I've only developed the slightest of nervous twitches so far

.

[AndrewR]

Traditional Scottish medicine is good for stopping nervous twitches

[Dazzled]

Traditional Scottish medicine is good for stopping nervous twitches

It also leads to distinctly wonky tracks though .

And, unfortunately, the medicine bottle is empty .

[Ian]

Great track!

[Dazzled]

Glad you like it Ian.

Cos' here's a second one....



A bit of a push today got the other track on. This one seemed to go on a bit easier than the first although I did remove the forward mudguard to make access a bit easier.

I've also been working on the ancillary equipment.



I'm quite happy with the basic finish although there are, as always. still one or two more things to do.

I've given the model a coat of matt varnish though, so no more bits can be attached until it's dry.

[AndrewR]

Looking good!

[Clashcityrocker]

Coming along very nicely.

Nigel