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Nº 44 11 €

STUG III G HYBRIDJAGDPANTHER

SD.KFZ 184 FERDINAND

STUG IV

PIGMENTS, APPLICATION AND FIXING



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AU S T R ALI AN MAT I LD A MK .I I I / I V 3 5 ( T ) • S S - U S C H A • MI G J I MÉ N E Z E N T R E V I S T A A N AB U O Y O S H I O K A

C AÑ Ó N D E AS ALT O F I N LAN D É S B T - 42 • T - 5 5 E N I G MA • LA B E S T I A D E L E S T E ( J S U - 15 2 )



SD.KFZ. 167 STURMGESCHUTZ IV, 1/35 SCALE

Alejandro Quintana’s kit has a number of peculiar features: Added

armoring in the frontal area (some of it hinged), and the typical

camouflage conveying the shadows of the central European forests

confer it a singular appearance.

SD.KFZ 173 JAGDPANTHER, 1/48 SCALE

Tamiya’s Jagdpanther kit does in fact give the hobbyist0000 some room to recreate a

number of color patterns. Jose Luis Lopez offers us one of the most unusual and

attractive ones. Its impeccable work using the latest techniques and products make this a

most interesting project.

2

SD.KFZ. 184 FERDINAND, 1/35 SCALEA powerful German AFV hunter, quite ahead of its time which did

not meet the expected results because of its hurried production -and

introduction- to the battlefield. Mario Gabàs does a highly realistic

piece of work, successfully transmitting the true image of these

“monsters”.

14

40

STURMGESCHUTZ III HYBRID, 1/35 SCALE

A rare kit obtained by mixing parts of different vehicles to recreate a Stug III. This unusual kit

by Jari Hemilä is pretty much a unique piece and a very interesting creation

26

MODELLING LESSONS: APPLYING AND FIXING PIGMENTS.

Pigment painting can give us a range of finishes and textures by varying the application and

fixing techniques as we can very well see in this review.

58

1

PANZER ACES Nº 44 2013



For my taste, the Jagdpanther is the greatest

exponent of the Panzerjäeger concept. This

panzerjaeger is a perfect balance of mobility,

armor and firepower (the powerful 8.8 Pak 43

from Tiger II) with aggressive and elegantlines at the same time. Yes, its one of my favorite AFV’s.

By: José Luis López Ruíz pictures of the author

Tamiya 1/48

2



3

1.-SOME HISTORY

The Jagdpanther’s gestation started in

late 1942 with a request for a heavy

panzerjäeger using the 8.8 cm PAK 43

and the prototype designed by MIAG

which was shown in October 1943 to

Hitler.The concept was similar to other

tank hunters’ designs. A well proven and

reliable chassis form a Panther in this

case with a big and sloped casemate to

house the huge Pak with enough spare

space for the crew and spare ammo.

Enough frontal armor was provided with

a 80 mm sloped front plate and 60 mm

for the side plates. . A single 7.92 mm

Mg-34 machine gun for local defense

was placed in a ball mount to the right

hand side of the front glacis plate. Themachine gunner was also the wireless

operator. Based on the existing Panther

Ausf G chassis, the vehicle did not suffer

too many mechanical problems. It had

an upgraded transmission (the Zf Ak 7-

400 he avy du ty) - wh ich ha d be en

planned for the Panther II - and final dri-

ve to counter the Panther's main weak-

ness. It was manned by a crew of six: a

driver, radio-operator, commander, gun-

ner and two loaders.Two main variants

can be distinguished, the earlier (1944

model) G1 with a small internally bolted

main gun mantlet and a modified Pan-

ther A engine deck, and the later (1945

model) G2 with a larger simplified, out-

side-bolted mantlet and a modified Pan-ther G engine deck, though late G1’s also

had the larger mantlet. Side schurzen

were also provided for additional lateral

protection.Jagdpanthers were deployed at

heavy antitank battalions ( schwere

Panzerjäger-Abteilung like 507, 654, 559)

and in other Herr and SS units, like

elites Panzer Lehr, Grossdeutchsland,SS Hohenstaufen panzer divisions

(which deployed not less than 10

Jagdpanthers during the Hungarian cam-

paign) and other top panzer



4

2.-THE KIT

Another hit from Tamiyas 1/48 cata-log. The kit is not only easy to build but

also has a reasonable level of detail, but

not enough if you want to make a realis-

tic replica of the real vehicle, I must con-

fess; the weak point of the kit is, once

again, the tools and the attachments, as

the general dimensions of the kit and thelevel of detail on the upper roof, motor

deck and so on is superb.Hauler sets HLX

48067 (fenders ) and 48074 (gener al

detailing) come to our rescue to help us

get the best from the Tamiya kit. If PE

sets are complex to manipulate in 1/35,

imagine in 1/48!. Also a little bit of

surgery is necessary in order to remove

all the spare track supports provided in

the kit at the sides of the vehicle and

some care to fill all the holes located at

the lateral plates of the tank to attach theplastic parts of the tool attachments. But

the results, the delicate detail that these

kits provide to our tank is indispensable

if you want to make a detailed and realis-

tic Jagdpanther. I just added some more

extra minor details like the notek wire

and a metal gun form RB Models. The

always nice Friulmodel tracks are the final

touch for this beast.



5



3.-PAINTING THE FELINE

Although I found many attractive

camouflages for the early type Jagdpan-

ther during the Balaton Battle (all with

zimmerit, by the way), I did not find any

for late Jagdpanthers. I just found one

monochrome example belonging to the

Panzer Lehr (not too clear if green or dark

yellow) and a two color camouflage (dark

green and dark yellow) of an exemplar

belonging to an unknown unit in Hun-

gary.I just found a picture of a destroyed

Jagdpanther belonging to the SS Hohen-

staufen Panzer Division with solid white

numbers as an evidence of a three color

paint scheme. So, I decided to make a

typical late war three color Jagdpanther

camouflage, with the numerals of a com-

mand vehicle of any of the divisions and

units involved during the Hungary cam-

paign.

6

3.1.-Priming the kit.

Priming the kit is absolutely neces-

sary when youre a painting a kit

with so much “metal” in it. Its com-pletely necessary to ensure that we

have a primer coat that will not let

paint peel off from the PE and metal

parts of our kit. For this task,

Tamiyas Primer is my best option. I

apply it using my airbrush, not direct-ly from the can for a better control.

Anyway, you must be very careful in

this step or youll get a nicely granu-lated surface!. If you have this prob-

lem, you can commit suicide or just

solve it. I strongly recommend solving

it!!!. How? Using an ultra thin sand

paper and tweezers you can remove

not only the granulated (dry paint) sur-

faces, but also smoothen the surface, a

very necessary thing to get the bestresults when youre painting the tank. Just be careful with the PE parts or the

carpet monster will eat them without

mercy. Look at the pictures and check the

process and the difference between thecleaned and granulated surfaces.



3.3.-Camouflage.

For this task, I used the typi-

cal German camouflage colors

Dark Yellow (RAL 7028), Dark

Green (RAL 6003) and Red

Brown (RAL 8017). For the first

two, I directly used the Gaia

Tank Colors from their military

series special set, very thinned

with Gaias own thinner

(80%). Red hull was madeusing a customized mix with

Tamiyas red hull, red andorange.As I did not want to

obscure the light grey almost to

a white base coat, I just applied

the different colors in their

definitive place. So, I did not

apply a general dark yellow coat

and then the different color

patches as usual. As you can

see in the picture sequence, I

first applied the yellow, thenthe dark green and finally the

red brown. Remember to use

highly diluted paint and do not

try to make the patches imme-

diately; take your time and

paint them little by little in thin

layers.

3.2.-Preparing the base for

the camouflage.

As I want a not too dark kit

once its finished, Ive lookedfor a close to white base before

painting. In this case, I just

added some dark areas here and

there as I did not look for a

zenithal light effect look. Nopre-shading, just a bright base

for the camouflage.



3.6.-Decals.

I love Archer transfers and I use them as

many times as possible. I choose generic

iron crosses and outlined black numerals

from their 1/48 transfer range. The main

advantage is that they have nearly no thick-

ness once applied. The main inconvenient

is, that these must be carefully placed asyou haven’t a second chance with them.

3.7.-General Wash.

The main 1/48 scales drawback isthe lack of detail when compared with

the 1/35 scale. Due to the size, many

details of the kit are simplified on 1/48

kits and Tamiyas kits are the best exam-ple of this as their first kits had the tools

molded over the fenders and had many

other simplifications that forced modelersto remove them or look for other solu-

tions. And the only option was some-

times a more aggressive wash and a more

delicate and volumetric paint for these

areas.So, a general dark wash used to be

very necessary in this scale because it did

enhance the details all over the kit, which

is a very necessary step.For this task,

there are many products available from

AK, Mig Productions, and more recently,

Vallejos washes. For my taste, oils are

the best option as they allow you to cus-tomize the color of your washes easily.

In this case, I used a natural umber oil

color. But don’t forget to apply previously

a nice coat of acrylic satin varnish all

over the kit (this varnish will also protect

the transfers we applied in the previous

step). This not only helps to protect your

base color from forthcoming aggressive

weathering steps involving turpentine, oil

spirit or any other kind of thinner, but

this also lets the wash run smoothly

across all the kits recesses, slots and oth-

er molding details of you kit.

3.8.-Painting the accessories.

Its a morally important step as it willallow you to see the final looks of your kit. I

just painted a general base color to tell the

different materials apart from the different

pieces of the real vehicle. I always try to use

different shades of brown for the wood in

order to get a more attractive look and steel

parts in different shades of dark grey and pure

black. But most often times, I change these

colors during the final steps when I paint

them in the final and weathered way.



10

3.9.-Oils.

The old and traditional, but highlyeffective oil “dot” technique is of full

validity even when considered against

the most recent and sophisticated paint-

ing techniques. As shown in the picture,

several oil dots of different colors are ran-

domly applied over the previously soaked

-with White Spirit- surface. Approximate-

ly 15 minutes later, the dots are blended

over the surface using a flat brush slight-ly damped in White Spirit. The result is

a nicely faded surface with a very rich

chromatic appearance, a subtle but effec-

tive step when youre weathering anAFV. Oils also help increase some light

effects on the more prominent elements

of the kit with a maximum exposition of

light. In this case, I used white, Naples

Yellow, light orange and green. Also, youcan darken the hidden recesses of the

tank, where you can use natural umber,

black, blue or dark brown oils. These are

applied in the same way, in dots but this

time these are blended on the different

surfaces with an almost dry and thinner

paint brush.

3.10.-Acrylic vertical weathering.For this task, I used acrylic paints because I do not want to spoil the pre-

vious work with oils. I always use a range of colors from buff to a nearly

black brown shade. I strongly dilute this paint in water until I just have dirty

water.Then, with a very fine brush, I select one color and after dampening

the brush, I nearly completely dry the brush on a piece of tissue paper. Near-

ly dry, with several passes of the brush, I start painting the vertical lines that

represent the typical washed out dirt over the vertical and inclined sur-

faces.When using this technique it is very important to draw the lines little

by little as the best result is achieved when the dirt line is not solid but some

kind of a transparency over the surface. The effect becomes more realistic if

you use several brownish shades going from buff to dark brown as explained

before. You can also use this technique with rust colors to simulate thedrained rust.



12

3.12.-Final weathering effects.

For the final dust effects, I used AKsproducts. First, a general “wash” using their

Africa Dust effects wash. I do not apply this

wash in a general or homogeneous way all

over the kit. I just apply it in the more attrac-

tive (and logical) places, mostly on the hori-

zontal surfaces.Once dry, I removed the

excess product using AKs Odorless Thinner and using OIF&OEFs washes, I slightlychange in a random way the color of dust to

create more deepth in some places.I also

made some splashes using these products on

the wheels and the exposed plates of the

vehicle. A controlled splash effect is one of

the more realistic effects we can add to our

kits. Just on the horizontal plates and fend-

ers, I added some pigments to create texture

and additional dirt. Do not forget to fix the

pigment using turpentine or any specifically

designed product for that task.During thisstep, I painted again the accessories,

not forgetting to weather

them like the rest of

the vehicle.For the

bare metal effects,

my favorite HB pen,

taken directly from my daughter’s case was

used.And finally, natural plants and earth

were added in debris like manner on some

parts of the AFV. I do not do this very fre-

quently but I must confess that I love the

results!



14



15

This German AFV hunter has always been one of my weaknesses.

I’ve always been fascinated by how massive it was and how it

made its debut at such an early stage when the great “felines” of the end of the war hadn’t made theirs yet.

By: Mario Gabás Ruiz Pictures: Rodrigo Hernández Cabos

Dragon Models 1/35



16

I had been keen to make this kit for a

while, because as I said earlier this is

one of my favorite AFV’s. If my memo-

ry serves me correctly, this is the third

Ferdinand I make. The first one I did

was the old Italeri reference which as

you all know is not actually a Ferdinand

but an Elephant and I didn’t even paint

it; it was left in the green plastic hue

that those Italeri kits had back in the

day. My second try was also with the

Italeri kit, but this one was painted and

I tried to copy an Elephant which came

out in a publication which some of you

might still remember: the “Cuadernos

de Modelismo aplicados”. In one of

these there was a diorama set in theBattle for Kursk. In it we could see

some German grenadiers trying to take

a line of Soviet trenches, while hidden

behind the considerable bulk of this

vehicle. You can imagine the disastrous

results I obtained and how little did my

vehicle resemble the one from the dio-

rama; the name of the vehicle was the

only thing that matched…

So when Dragon released this kit for

the first time in 2001 I was anxious to

acquire it, but it was actually my father

who gave it to me as a present knowing

how fond I was of this kit… and what

happened during the twelve years

which have gone by? Well, I simply

kept the kit on a closet until I finally

dared to build it. I guess that most hob-

byists have a similar story to tell with a

given kit.So I can only say that this is the first

Ferdinand kit by Dragon and it does not

have any PE sheets, the gun isn’t made

out of turned aluminum, it does not

have any Magic Track tracks or any

extra detailing kit. As far as I know,

Dragon has manufactured two later ver-

sions with improved parts and a whole

bunch of extra pieces including one

with specific pieces for the Battle for

Kursk.

Before we begin with the assembly

chores I leave some space for a histori-

cal introduction of this vehicle by my

fellow association member and friend

M Salcedo Oliver.

This heavy and enormous German

AFV hunter (65-70 tons) owes its exis-

HISTORICAL

INTRODUCTION



Before I finished the assembly stage I

was already taking a look at the differ-

ent color profiles and pictures of this

vehicle and wondering what kind of

camouflage pattern I wanted to repro-

duce. The first idea I had was to apply

the typical dark yellow German camou-flage with the small green threads

which were very common during the

battle for Kursk, but along came my

friend Luis Fuster with a handful of

“Ferdinand pictures” from the 653

heavy AFV hunters battalion and I saw

one with a green spotted camouflage

pattern which immediately caught my

attention and made up my mind to

reproduce.

Once the vehicle was finished and

after having primed its surface withCitadel’s white priming paint I began

working and testing the new zenithal

light source technique, so I painted the

dark yellow color with Tamiya acrylics

doing a very smooth zenithal light

source on the prominent areas of the

kit which later on have so much eye

appeal. I applied much lighter shades in

the upper areas of the vehicle and dark-

er ones on the lower areas. I also light-

ed up some areas with this lighter basecolor mixture such as the upper part of

the frontal armoring, the upper part of

the casemate and the upper part of the

fenders. I was truly satisfied with the

results obtained and a kit with such

large vertical surfaces truly asks for it.

When executing the green camou-

flage spots I first drew the contour of

each spot and then filled it up with

paint. This is a pretty tough job and

you need lots of patience. I spent a

total of six hours doing it, so patience–at least for me- was the thing to have

along with an airbrush kit in perfect

working order, heavily diluted paint to

work with and an air pressure of about

0.5 bars to apply it. I tried to apply a lit-

tle of this zenithal light source treat-

ment to the camouflage spots, but I

was not too convinced with the results

obtained so I applied a modest high-

light in the center of the spots, leaving

these otherwise pretty muchuntouched. On my next project I would

truly like to work with that on the cam-

ouflage spots.

Once the kit has been fully painted

with its base color, I seal its surface

with gloss varnish in order to get a

satin finish which will be very helpful

later on during the application of the

weathering processes. Varnish is also

an excellent base for integrating decals

perfectly.

Now the kit is ready for the weather-ing or “dirtying” process; in a vehicle

as big as this one with such large verti-

PAINTING



cal surfaces, you should carefully plan

your work ahead and work on small

areas of the kit at a time. By doing this

we avoid getting tired or skipping some

processes.

I aged the kit by using a mixed tech-

nique; in addition to the typical “melt-

ing” of oil paints on the vertical sur-

faces I employed MIG Jimenez’s“Streaking” technique, which consists

on melting paint vertically on all the

vertical planks combining this with a

personal touch involving a number of

oil paint gradations that gave me an

altogether pretty good time. I insisted

however on working on a few small

areas at any given time to avoid getting

saturated with the work which would

otherwise be pretty heavy.

Once I was done with this, I did

some general detail profiling on the kitusing dark colored enamels. Then I

worked on the paint chips and divided

these in two: The darker and deeper

ones made with Panzer Aces 302, and

the lighter and superficial ones which

have a hue similar to the base color.

The kit after all the treatments looked

like it had a number of campaign hours

behind it, so now it was time to seal

this with Marabu matt enamel Varnish,

leaving the vehicle ready for the coloredpigments which followed.

Overall dirt includes both MIG Pro-

ductions and AK Interactive color pig-

ments, especially present on the lower

side of the fenders creating dry mud

clusters consistent with the time of the

year when the battle for Kursk took

place.

Using the same colors employed to

apply mud on the lower areas I recreat-

ed mud on the tracks, which were pre-

viously given a rusty appearance withAK Interactive’s specific product for

recreating rust on metal surfaces. Then

I did several Vallejo Panzer Aces acrylic

washes and then I applied dirt with the

color pigments. Once we’ve done all

this, the kit is nearly finished; I only

have some work left on details which

bring the kit to life such as dampness,

oil and fuel stains, painting the tools

and doing some details to add some

character to provide a personal touchsuch as the sign post written in Cyrillic

lettering.

On the chart with the materials

employed for this kit I list all the colors

employed and the color references as

used in every step of the way.

In order to get a livelier diorama I

always like to include a figure or two;

here I’ve used an Alpine miniatures ref-

erence and a Dragon Models reference.

The Dragon figure was improved with a

Hornet head and a number of PE piecesto add further detail to the figure. Luis

Solanas painted both figures.



20



21



23

Base paint and camouflage

• Tamiya Color

- XF60 Dark yellow

- XF2 Flat white

- X-22 Clear

• Gunze Sangyo

- H-303 Green FS34102

Filters

• MiG Productions

- P241 Brown for Panzer Yellow

- P245 Brown for Dark Green

Oil paint gradations

• MiG Productions

- Abt 035 Buff

- Abt 155 German Three Tone

Fading

- Abt 001 White

- Abt 140 Basic Flesh Tone

- Abt 092 German Ochre- Abt 040 Faded Green

- Abt 050 Olive Green

- Abt 090 Industrial Earth

- Abt 080 Wash Brown

- Abt 070 Dark Rust

Streaking

• AK Interactive

- AK 012 Streaking Grime

- AK 024 Dark Streaking Grime

- AK 080 Summer Kursk Earth

- AK 013 Rust Streaks

- AK 016 Fresh Mud- AK 074 Rainmarks for NATO Tanks

- AK 046 Wash for Light Dust

Pigments (dirt)

• AK Interactive

- AK 081 Dark Earth

• MiG Productions

- P415 Light European Dark

- P027 Light Dust

- P414 Track Brown

- P232 Dry Mud

- P048 Faded Green

- P030 Beach SandPaint chips, scratches and dirt stains

• Vallejo Panzer Aces Acrylics

- 302 Dark rust

- 313 stencil

- 304 Track primer

- 314 Canvas

- 315 light mud

- 305 Light rubber

• AK Interactive

- AK 711 Chipping Color

Damp spots and fuel stains

- 80 Bitume (Titán)- AK 025 Fuel Stains (AK Interactive)

- Oil and Grease Stain Mixture (MiG Productions)

COLOR CHART



24

P a n z e r j ä g e r T

i g e r

( P ) F e r d i n a n d

( S d . K f z . 1 8 4 ) , s .

P z . J g . A b t . 6 5 4 ,

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,

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P z . J g . A b t . 6 5 4 , 1 º

B a t a l l ó n , 3 ª

C o m p a ñ í a , K u

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1 9 4 3 .

C o l o r e s :

D u n k e l g e l b ,

O l i v g r ü n y

R o t b r a u n



25


i g e r


( S d . K f z . 1 8 4 ) , I I / s .

P z . J g . R g t . 6 5 6

,

K u r s k ( U R S S )

,

j u l i o d e 1 9 4 3 .

C o l o r e s :

D u n k e l g e l b y

O l i v g r ü n


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( P ) F e r d i n a d

( S d . K f z . 1 8 4 ) , s .

P z . J g . A b t . 2 3 1

4 º B a t a l l ó n , 2 ª

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C o l o r e s :

D u n k e l g e l b ,

O l i v g r ü n y

R o t b r a u n



26



27

I got idea for this

project when I got copy

of Panzer wrecks # 14 in

my hands. There was a

great set of pictures of

very rare StuG III G.

After looking and

learning those six

pictures, I found that

this will be my next

project. In pictures, you

can see very oddfeatures rarely seen in

StuGs.

By: Jari Hemilä

pictures of the author

CMK-Dragon 1/35

The vehicle seems to be pieced toget-

her from parts collected from different

vehicles and topped up with field-made

parts. The hull seems to be old regular Panzer III M tank hull with brake cooling

openings and hatches without hinges in

upper front plates of hull. The rear deck

with towing cable clamps, driving light

on left fender, tool box on right fender

and spare wheel brackets bolted on rear

part of fenders are typical Pz III M featu-

res. The casemate seems to be regular

StuG item, the main gun is late model

with Saukopf mantle but the roof is

weird. For some reason, the comman-

der’s cupola has been removed andreplaced with split hatch of loaders. To

beef-up vehicles protection, armor plates

are welded in front of vehicle, in loaders

BACK-ROUND



28

front plate and finally driver got an armo-

red visor. There are also concrete blocks

on both upper front corners of casemate

to give extra protection, as well as lot of

spare track shoes for same purpose. Few

details such rear deck rack and gun sup-

port in front plate are typical late model

features of StuG III G. The same can’t be

said of field applied Schürtzens withpivoting attachment. There are only 3 or

4 Schürtzen plates on left side of vehicle,

on right side there are only those attach-

ment points left.

This very interesting vehicle was com-

pleted with a very fashinating three tone

camourflage. On schürtzen –plates there

is a nice cross pattern, the rest of vehicle

seems to painted over hastingly. All this

offered great subject for a great model,

but also defenately required terrain basefor model.

Interior

was needed. For engine bay, I bought

a new CMK’s set for Dragon models.

Construction was easy even for me, who

is not so familiar with resin. Nice sharp

castings but there were also some defects

in CMK set. Those two longitudial fra-mes under engine need to be tuned, new

holes drilled, to allow torsion bars go

CONSTRUCTION



29

through them. Those holes were totally

wrong places, but job was easily done.

Maybe bigger issue is that there are not

any detailing in batteries/ battery tray. It

looks like there is a sheet metal lid over

battery box but in reality batteries are

visible. Batteries are marked in instruc-

tions but part itself is plain without any

details…Old Aires driver’s area kit was a

nice one, just enough details for removedbrake inspection hatches. Set was desig-

ned for Tamiya kit so there was some

adjustments I had to do before fighting

compartment interior was possible to set

on place. I found it essential to plan and

fit everything very carefully to ease inte-

rior painting and later attaching lower

hull to upper one. For example the radia-

tors were clued to engine deck to make

sure that rear deck can be put in place

after painting. Anyway, I found it busy

enough with these modifications.

Exterior

I took some parts from DML’s Pz III M

kit. Hull front top-plate A22 was extra

part so I took it, as well as those plastic

tow-cable fasteners on rear-deck. Turned

aluminum gun-tube with DML Saukopf

mantle is from RB Models and Friulmodel

trcks completed construction. I shorte-

ned two shock absorbers to get axles in

upper positions and then glued all four on their places. I cut all location pins

from swing axles to let them turn freely



30

to ease installation on ground base.

Mainly the construction was done by

following instructions. The fenders were

lightly modified by thinning them by

grinding then underside, adding some

needed details and making some cuttings

on them.

Concrete blocks were made of Magig

Sculp in two layers. At first I made rough

contour of blocks, let them dry overnight

and continued next day with final surface

of appr. 2mm thick. I kept surfaces quite

smooth as seen in reference pictures.

I cut Schürtzens from 0,25mm plastic

sheet, drilled two attachment holes incenter line and finally cut edges of in jig I

made beforehand. Pivot axles were made

of 0,8mm copper wire, plastic discs and

rough putty weldings. In this particular

vehicle, plates seems to be attached with

washers and nuts, maybe welded in pla-

ce. In other vehicles there have been

washers and locking pin.

Spare track racks on casemate sides

were made of styrene strips. Some of the

extra tracks were attached to vehicle by

using welded and then bent track pins.This was made by 0,6mm soldering wire,

superglued on place and then painted

rusty brown.

I needed a late model roof with loa-

der’s hatch opening to sides but without

pilzens. I had only one DML later StuG

roof available so I decided to reproduce

new one from plastic sheet. It was quite

easy task, some careful measurements

and then cutting and gluing parts toget-

her one by one. After assembly, weld

seams were made of Magic Sculp. Gun-

ner sight device cover plate is from spare

Aber PE-set.

I cut front part of DML’s top-plate

away and replaced it with cutted front

part of PanzerArts resin-part. Extra armor

plates were made of plastic sheet and fit-

ted around air intakes. Here I had to use

some Magig Sculp to make tight fitting.

The gun support was done from plastic

struts and rods with Punch-And-Die –set

bolt-head.



31

The RAL 8012 was a base color for

my StuG interior. Everything was airbrus-

hed with red primer, mixture of reddish

Tamiya paints, then masked off and figh-

ting compartment got it’s semi-gloss

Elfenbein color. All sub-assemblies were

painted separately and then assembled.All details were painted with paintbrush

and different Vallejo colors.

After painting completed, it was time

for washes. I made some dirty grey

brown general washes mixed from oil

colors and then continued with darker

pin-washes. After some touch-up with

thinner, I applied dust pigments on floor

plates, especially to corners where dust

normally accumulates. When dusting

was ready, I add some grease, oil and

fuel marks randomly areas where nee-ded. Braking system also got some metal

pigment treatment in this step.

The exterior painting started by air-

brushing Panzer grey on parts “taken”

from old Panzer III tank. The casemate

got darker, mid-war shade of Dunkelgelb,

as well as new parts like fenders were

painted with primer red.

Details were picked up with paint-

brush. I searched color of concrete for a

while in real samples and decided to use

Deck tan avoiding bluish Blue Tack -

effect as seen sometimes when creating

concrete in models. Some field applied

steel plates got dark brown base color in

this step.

PAINT-WORK



32

After these detail paintings were

made, model was airbrushed with seve-

ral thin layers of hairspray. Work conti-

nued with general layer of faded older

Dunkel gelb. After drying for a while, I

started to make chipping with warm tap

water and set of stiff brushes and pair of

tweeters. I removed lot of paint in lower

hull areas to present old, maybe at fieldapplied, Dunkel gelb paintwork made

over dusty surfaces where paint won’t

stick perfectly. After chipping was done,

I sealed everything with few thin layers

of semi-gloss varnish.

Upper parts of vehicle were again air-

brushed with few thin coats of hair

spray. After drying, surfaces got very

pale late-war version of Dunkel gelb.



33

Upper structure was installed on top of

lower hull for camouflage painting. The

green and red brown camo colors cove-

red quite large areas but were airbrushed

quite thinly. The Schürtzen plates got

quite funny cross pattern made with

both colors. Plates were attached on

wooden block with BluTack to get

correct, continuing pattern but also tomake small overspray effect where plates

are overlapping. The gun tube was pain-

ted in totally different camo than rest of

vehicle. The national insignia, and mar-

kings in generally, consisted only three

black crosses, two in front upper corners

of fighting department and one in rear

upper plate. These were painted by

paintbrush.

After paintwork was done, I applied

general wash with Mig Production

Brown wash. Warm reddish hue turnedoverall appearance of vehicle exactly I

wanted. I also used some darker pin-

washes in details to add more interest

and get details more visible.

I increased chipping efects concentra-

ting mainly on areas originally painted

with Panzer grau. Chipping continued

with light sand and finally some rusty

brown colors. As usually, this extra chip-

ping was done at first with sponge and

then continued with #000 paintbrush.

Rusty armor plates were made totally

using hair-spray technic. At first I made

very dark brown mixture of Tamiya paints

and then airbrushed it on primered surfa-ces. I add more interest and variance to

base color with speckling technic i.e.

thinned mixture of enamel and oil-paint

was sprinkled over painted surface with

stiff paintbrush. I used both light and

dark shades, both different than base

colour. If you get too big sports you can

remove them with turpentine if needed.

After speclings were dried, I airbrushedcouple of thin layers hair-spray over it.



34

The next step was to add lighter con-

trast color layer on. I used both light grey

and blue paints to do effect. It doesn’t

matter what color you use, I prefer blue

because it adds more interest and shades

to end result. Again, usin warm tap

water and stiff short bristle paint-brush,

nearly all light contrast color was washed

away. When I was satisfied, I let it dry

for a while and then sealed surface with

yes, few thin layers of acrylic varnish.

Rusty surfaces got more hues by orange

layer. After couple of hair-spray layers, I

airbrushed orange color randomly over

painted area. Some areas got thicker



35

layer, others only thin sheer layer of orange. I also used paper masks to

produce sharper rusty marks caused other plates during storage. Orange

color was again washed partly away and then sealed with varnish. I add

more tones to rusty surface, now with oils, both from tube and also dilu-

ted with thinner. I added some marks of burned paint by airbrushing

black color around welded and flame cutted areas. These seams were

also treated with yellowish rust caused by heat during welding. The final

step was to paint fresh weld seams with HU11.

The terrain base was totally new area

for me but especially this model request

it. I had resin section of cobble stone

street. I cut it in better shape and made

sides of terrain base from plastic strips

and sheet. I filled the pot with thin

layers of Styrofoam and add some wood

beams and metal rods in it. I checked

everything with model and then started

to add Das modeling material to shape

terrain. Before modelling material wastotally dry, I sprinkled some real sand,

pushed it on wet surface and sealed it

with matt scenic glue. I let it dry few

BASE



days and then glued terrain base to woo-

den base I made beforehand. In this sta-

ge, I primered both wooden and terrainbase combo with spray stuff and then

painted sides with semi-gloss black.

After masking, I first painted light grey

base color for cobble stoned areas.

Ground work painting continued with

sand colors, as well as I picked up cobblestones with different grey colors. I used

Scale Supply’s pre-colored bricks. They

came in three different colors which I

mixed together to get variance in ground

work. I sprinkled bricks on needed areas

and then glued them in place with scenic

glue. The vehicle was test fitted once

again to make sure that it will fit on its

place later.

The vehicle and terrain base were

weathered simultaneously with Easy Mudproducts. Lower hull and tracks were

weathered before attachment to base. I

started with light dry mud colours and

continued to darker ones. This was done

by both making thin washes and using

thicker mud to get surfaces dirty and

muddy. Washes were also used to createmoistened terrain on left side of vehicle

as seen in reference pictures. I secured

the model to the base with epoxy glue36



37

and metal pins. Thick mixture of Polyfilla

and pigments was placed under tracks to

ensure ground contact. I faded vehicle to

the ground work with both Easy

Mud,bricks and straws. The next step

was tedious applying of mortar on bricks.

I made a thick mixture of plaster, pig-

ments and water, and with a small paint

brush, applied mortar on bricks, on both

sides and both ends, one by one... I also

crushed several bricks and sprinkled

them all over the base. The terrain base

and vehicle were completed with several

pigments and help of some oil and grea-

se stains. The model was finally comple-

ted!



38



The positive results

obtained by the

Sturmgeschutz III, led to

the Stug IV which wasin itself an improvement

over the previous

vehicle because of its

larger combat chamber

and therefore its added

capacity for storing

ammunition and more

room for its crews.

By: Alejandro Quintana

pictures by Rodrigo Hernández Cabos

Tamiya 1/35



42

ASSEMBLY

1. First stage of the zimmerit process; drawing

vertical lines with a separation of 3mm between

each line.

02. Using the welding tool we do the pocks

carefully following the pencil lines.

3. We cover the side of the vehicle and then we

use on the zimmerit a brush soaked on styrene

liquid glue.

4. We can correct a poorly made line with putty and work on it again with the welding tool.

5. The real zimmerit texture was pretty random

and varied a lot between all the different units.

This Tamiya kit was manufactured in 1976, and

does have all of the period’s features. You’ll wonder

why I’ve built such an old kit, and the truth is that

this kit had been lying around on a shelf for quite

some time and I was not planning on throwing it

away. If anybody wants to build the StuG IV, I would

clearly recommend the much newer Dragon referen-ce which is by far a much better kit.

In order to improve this kit I had to use many sets

and accessories, but I would have pretty much done

the same if I had chosen to build the Dragon kit.

The tracks should be replaced because those inclu-

ded in the kit are quite awful. It is also pretty much

mandatory to change the lateral armored planks with

either P.E. pieces or thin styrene sheet. Details such

as the tools, all the other small odds and ends, the

gun, the canvas, the frontal planks will always help

you add a personal touch to your kit.

The first thing you should do to these old Tamiya

kits is to cover up the holes on the frame originally

intended for inserting a small motor. Plasticard,

putty and sandpaper suffice to get the frame ready.

Another period flaw is the large gap left (large

enough to let you see the inside) once you assemble

the superstructure and the frame together. This gap

however is pretty much concealed by the tracks and

the lateral planks, but I chose to do some “extra

handiwork” and covered it with some Plasticard and

putty.

I began building the vehicle by doing the zimme-

rit texture. For those of you which have never

attempted to recreate it there is abundant literature

on the subject and some practical reviews on how to

do it in both Euromodelismo magazine, and Panzer

Aces. Zimmerit was a paste applied on many Ger-

man AFV’s, giving it its special texture with different

tools. This paste was applied with a spiked roll in

the factories, but in the battlefields the soldiers didwhat they could with what they had. I had to choo-

ZIMMERIT

1

2

3

4

5



43

se first the materials to recreate it with;

and as far as I know I had three choices:

50% mix putty, P.E. pieces, and using a

welding tool. As far as I was concerned I

already had more than enough P.E parts

on my kit so I went for the welding tool

option to tackle the work ahead. The

first step is to measure the pock marks

on the zimmerit paste. I had a threemillimeter measurement to bear in mind.

With a small ruler and a pencil we trace

the vertical lines on all the areas we’re

going to work on. We should skip the

areas where other pieces will be stuck

later, because if we don’t, we may have

some fastening problems later. There is

for example on the left side of the tracks

a couple of fuel intakes not featured in

this kit which in this case were taken

from a Panzer IV by Dragon to illustrate

this point. The area where these piecesgo should not get the zimmerit texture in

Two component Tamiya putty and a special metal zimmerit-specific Tamiya

knife is used here for the job.

We spread the mixture on the metallic fender. With the 0.7 knife we do the grooves conveying the print

left by the real life rods

The separation line is about 3mm wide. The 0.7mm knife has an end which can be used for doing

the zimmerit strips one by one.



order to be able to glue them properly in

place.

Once we’ve prepared it all we take the

welding tool and begin to do the pock

marks on the vehicle. These are done

from right to left, exactly the opposite

direction used when writing in English.

These are done up and then down tilting

the knife about 45 degrees. It isn’t neces-sary to do a perfectly accurate job. A

perfectly accurate job can be considered

in fact unrealistic; after having closely

examined many pictures of vehicles with

zimmerit I can assure you that not two

vehicles look alike and all are far from

being perfect. So if you get some croo-

ked lines that would actually be OK. It is

however always recommendable to run

some tests on any old kit you may have

around before you begin with your

current kit. All this is in fact much sim-pler than it actually seems.

I began with the track area, because if

any mistakes are made here it is always

easier to conceal it with either mud,

snow or anything you may come up

with. The job seemed easy enough all

right, the first columns looked great and

my confidence grew too much and then

I blundered badly later on during the

process. About halfway down the vehi-

cle I was doing very sloppy work. Some

pock marks were quite crooked, others

not so much… basically a disaster. Not

satisfied with this I remembered that

later on you should put some styrene

glue after the welding work to soften and

get rid of some plastic “hairs” created

during the process. That’s how I took

the glue and spread it, covering all the

zimmerit areas. On those areas where

the job was better done and glue was

used sparsely, the results were fantastic,

but on the areas where the marks werepoorly made I used greater amounts of

glue bathing these surfaces completely,

“erasing” the texture and melting the

plastic surface away, leaving an a pretty

sorry kit to see. Desperate, I tried to

cover up the worst parts with Tamiya’s

putty thinned down on acetone impro-

ving somewhat the disastrous results,

because it covered up some defects and

later on the welding tool could also be

used on this putty and some mistakes

could be corrected with this procedure.I began to fear that the whole zimme-

rit thing was going to get the best of me.

However I was not going to surrender 44

In order to

fasten the tools

we have to usethe PE pieces

manufactured by

both Eduard and

Aber, choosing

the ones better

adapted for each

tool. Some

pieces like the

cranks have

been made out

of copper wire.

Metal fender

manufactured by

Eduard which

fits moderately

well.



specially considering the hefty sum spent

on accessories and other sets bought to

improve the veteran Tamiya reference.

With this spirit I ran and got myself

another Tamiya StuG (thank goodness

these are cheap). The way I see it I was

actually thankful for not having ruined a

Dragon reference and having a chance to

get a fresh start on a “brand new” Tami-

ya StuG.

Now I took the job seriously from thefirst line to the last one. It is actually easy

to do it well, but you should not be

caught with your guard down and rush

the work no matter how easy it may

seem. Get the welding tool warm enough

from the start and test it on another pie-

ce of plastic before you start a fresh line.

I think that when I first screwed up,

the welding tool was not warm enough

and I was doing a good job in the mean-

time. The machine was warming up pro-

gressively but I was doing the same pock

marks but the knife penetrated further

into the plastic and that spelled disaster.The second time around the whole

thing went much better and I didn’t have

any major issues. In spite of the mistakes

and even after having bought a second

kit, the results obtained were great in my

opinion. With a very light layer of styre-

ne glue I could finally admit to be plea-

sed with the results and the welding

tool. I still had to do the zimmerit on the

fenders. Tamiya’s two component polyes-

ter putty and the PE pieces designed by

this brand to recreate the texture had to

do the job there. The fenders are small

and flat, so all this worked out fine. Whi-

le doing this I found out that the specific

PE set was much too specific and saw that the fenders did not fit. The Eduard

set isn’t that specific and worked much

better. I actually used the Aber and

Eduard PE pieces whenever either fitted

best.

A good example is the wrench set.

The Aber one is too Dragon specific and

the Eduard one works only for Tamiya.

Between the Aber and the Eduard sets Icould put all the details on the kit. The

PE work to be done actually doubled

because of this situation. 45

TOOLS

The Bosch headlight is a better quality

metal piece. The one employed here is

manufactured by M4 Model.

Friulmodel track links with a wire

fastening.

The Aber hinges and periscopes are

quite necessary in order to improve

the commander’s cupola.

1The MG-34 will look far better if we

replace the gun for a turned

aluminum piece by Aber. The

armoring for it is the Eduard make.

Another essential detail:

The box containing the

spare Aber wheels

faithfully reproduced by

this brand.



Once the kit was almost assembled

and the details had been taken care of I

assembled the Friulmodel tracks which

are in fact wonderful to work with.

When I measured these I encountered

yet another problem: The tractor wheels

and the tracks did not fit together well. I

sanded the wheels to find out if this wor-

ked, but I was not convinced with the

results. I solved this issue by replacingthe Tamiya wheels for Panzer IV wheels

taken from a Dragon reference and it

worked perfectly.

The real life StuG IV had a couple of

factory glitches. One of these glitches

was that water could get in the space

between the casemate and the gun’s

mantlet whenever it rained. Crews placed

a piece of canvas in this space to fix this,

and I recreated this with two component

blue and yellow Kenadite putty. The

good thing about this putty is that once

it settles it still maintains its elasticityand can be well adapted to complex are-

as pretty much as is needed right here.

The piece of canvas was maintained in

place with hooks and a fastener made

out of 0.3mm copper wire.

The other factory glitch was more of a

design error. This vehicle was basically a

StuG III casemate assembled on the fra-

me of a Panzer IV. In order to fit both

together, the driver’s post was moved for-

ward exposing him way too much. Theengineers came up with a rather inge-

nious solution. Some cement blocks

were placed on the frontal area of the46

TRACKS MANTLET CANVAS

ADDITIONAL

ARMORING

The appearance of this StuG IV is remarkable because of the

detail brought by the PE pieces, the realistic appearance of both

the tracks and the gun, the turned metal machine gun with its

metallic armoring, all helping round up this realistic effect.

- Kit:

Sturmgeschütz IV de Tamitya ref 35087

- P.E. sets:

Aber ref. 35044

Eduard ref. 35357

Schurzen Eduard ref. 35361

Schurzen Lionroar ref. 35051- Aluminum gun:

7.5cm Stuk 40 L/48, Jb Model ref. 35B05

- Panzer Tracks:

PazerIII/IV Ostketten, Friulmodel ref. ATL-83

- Tow cable grips:

M4 Models, ref. 35013

- Tow cables:

M4 Models, ref. 35001

MATERIALS EMPLOYED



AFV. The kit does in fact come with the-

se pieces for assembly. Still, crews, much

wiser than the engineers themselves

decided to put on the vehicle sloped

planks in order to protect better these

vulnerable areas from shells. Crews also

adhered whatever they could find of use

in the battlefield. The plank on the left

side had hinges in order to lift it and gain

access to the transmission. These are

made out of Plasticard sheet with dents

along its edges done with a knife in order to convey the cut made with the welding

iron. The hinges are two sections of a

hypodermic syringe fitted one inside the

other with a piece of copper wire inside.

The periscopes in this area are also newly

made out of Plasticard and PE pieces and

the handle is a piece of copper wire.

At this point I went and worked on the

lateral armored planks or Schûrtzen. The

ones that come with the kit are pretty

thick so I went for the PE pieces. Both the

Eduard and Lionroar sets can be used for this purpose. The hard thing here is to

align these correctly. These were long suf-

fering planks and were removed and reas-

sembled quite often by all the different

crews. In fact, whenever the AFV had

been out for a few months, these were

often displaced bent and disarranged. Do

not be discouraged if a given plank is

slightly disarranged, because it was

actually difficult to see a vehicle in service

with every plank intact and in perfect

arrangement. In fact, period pictures show

us vehicles with a few missing planks and

sometimes all of them were. Now we

check the vehicle making sure that no PEpieces have been harmed or have been

accidentally removed and we’re pretty

much done with the assembly chores. 47

SCHURTZEN

Assembly pictures of Aber and Eduard PE pieces, the JB Models gun, Friulmodel spare track links and additional armoring

made out of Plasticard sheet with hinges. Here we can also see the canvas covering the mantlet’s base made out of Duro.

Copper wire in different widths is employed for making handles, fastenings, springs, etc.



AMBRUSS CAMOUFLAGE SCHEME

AFV hunters of the period were pain-

ted with the “Ambruss” –ambush- pat-

tern which was generally quite dark in

order to conceal the vehicle with the

shadows of the forests. Sometimes spe-

cial small circular patterns were emplo-

yed.

We begin by applying the Tamiya

acrylic base coat. First we’ll apply an

overall layer of XF-59 to cover up the

entire vehicle. Then this is lightened by

adding some XF-2 and about a drop of

XF-57 to the initial color reference. The

green camouflage pattern is made with

XF-13 J.A. Green. Brown is made with

XF-10. Green is applied in a much more

intense hue, and brown is a bit more dif-fuse.

We finish the job by applying a dilu-

ted and lightened coat of our base color

with smooth gradations intensifying the

highlights on the rounded areas.

48

There are four known variants of the RAL 7028 dark yellow color. In order to

obtain one a little removed from the usual fare we use Tamiya’s XF-59 lighted

up with white and adding some Buff X-57. With this treatment we will obtain

one of the lesser known variants of this color, and bearing in mind that theremaining camouflage colors cover up about 70% of the vehicle we don’t need

to work on the color modulation. The Olivgrûn RAL 6003 green is done with

Tamiya’s XF-13 J.A. Green, and the brick red Rotbraun RAL 8012 is done with

the brand’s XF-10 Flat Brown. As we can see on the research pictures, the red

and green spots cover about 70% of the vehicle and are applied trying to

convey the lights and shades of the central European forests.

The Schurtzen get the same colors in

a very diffuse way and in some

instances we will leave the base color

only.

Pigments used in the final stages will help you recreatethe textures of dirt mud and sand which are quite

necessary whenever we recreate an armored vehicle.

The product range for the finishing touches is indeed wide,

and whenever employed in an orderly and logical fashion

the results obtained can be pretty convincing.

Small blots of oil paint colors are left on a piece of cardboardin order for it to absorb some of the oil and obtain a less

glossy effect. A wide range of colors is used here in order to

obtain a greater richness and a realistic effect.

PAINTING



SCHURTZEN

The exterior side of the Schurtzen is

obviously painted with the same three

colors used for the outside leaving on

some instances some planks with twocolors and even just one color –the

dark yellow base coat-.

The overall oil paint treatment is

done in a similar way throughout the

vehicle. Towards the end of the pain-

ting process we do a few well faded

smooth overtones by airbrushing

Model Air’s 035 and some splashes

with 983 and 984 (both Model Color

references).

INSIDE OF THE SCHURTZEN

You don’t really need to work a lot

here. The inner side of the Schûrtzen is

usually out of sight, but in this case we

will paint these, bearing in mind the

mud splash effects created by the

movement of the tracks on these. The

best way to apply paint here in a direct

way is to use a brush soaked with

paint and blow it with an airbrush kit.

Two brown acrylic hues are used here

983 and 984 both Model Color referen-

ces. In order to mark the areas that

need staining we’ll prepare some

moveable masking.

TOOLS

Then we’ll paint the tools with Pan-

zer Aces references 310, 311, 312, 301,

302 and Model Air’s 71072 and 057.

RUST STREAKS AND RUSTY AREAS

Now we take to the brushes and

apply an overall wash with AK’s 012throughout the vehicle insisting on the

Zimmerit covered areas. On the upper

areas without it and the gun I use oil

paint Raw Sienna and a little Yellow

Ochre both Titan references. I also

used some German Grey Lights (ref

503) by Abteilung. The first rust effects

and streaks on the hinges, joints and

so forth are made. We use some Burnt

Sienna for it and we accentuate it with

AK’s 013.

49

In order to recreate the splashes on the inner side of the Schurtzen we prepare

some masking with a piece of cardboard with irregularly cut edges and we

splash paint with the air jet of an airbrush kit on a paintbrush loaded with the

chosen color.

We do this again on the remaining Schurtzen (These have previously been

taped together) with the area which we want splashed exposed matching both

the tracks and the wheels. Vallejo acrylics 983 and 984 are used here halfway diluted.

The splashes are smoothened with a lighter hue, obtained by adding some

white paint to the 983.

PINTURA DE

FALDONES



50

PROFILING

Now we do some profiling throug-

hout the vehicle with Titan’s PARDO

TITAN, and we do a wash on the zim-

merit areas with a mixture of Humbrol

enamels H33 and H-98. Once we’ve let it

all dry up for 48 hours we begin with the

dry brush work. On the green surface I

used Molak’s 1102 Army Green. For thebrown surface I employed Humbrol’s H-

118 Matt US Tan, and finally on the

yellow surface I used Molak’s 171 Oak

mixed with Humbrol’s white enamel to

lighten it up but only on the zimmerit

areas.

SPARE TRACKS

For the spare tracks and the additional

armored planks I wanted to apply a

“recent” rust layer in order to convey the

effect that both had been put in placerecently. I did this with slightly orangey

color hues, seeking contrast with the rest

of the vehicle. The colors employed were

Panzer Aces 301, 302, 303, 304 and

Model Air’s 057.

TRACKS

I begin by applying Panzer Aces 304,

several Vallejo brown shades mixed ran-

domly, seeking the widest range possi-

ble. The shades used are 312, 984 and

Panzer Aces Light Rust to lighten up

things and 871 as well. I work on one

track link at a time trying to mix up paint

and avoid using the same mixtures not

doing two links alike. Then we do some

pretty diffuse stains using Light Rust,

851 and 935. The stains pile up one on

Pigments are essential for the lower half of the hull. In

this case we’ve employed here Vallejo’s dark yellow ocre

73103, natural umber 73109, dark ochre 73017 and Mig

Productions’ Brick Dust P239 and Rubber Dust P234.

Pigments in this section of the vehicle have been fixed in place with the

Pigment Binder liquid product ref. 26.233.

First phase for the application of oil

paint colors, selected by following

the needs of use: raw umber, burntumber, naples yellow, cinnabar

green, etc.



top of another and are applied quite ran-

domly. The final highlights are given

with a mixture of 935 and 877 both

Model Color references.

Afterwards we apply a Titan oil paint

wash with Burnt Umber and use Valle-

jo’s Burnt Sienna pigments and Mig’s

Fresh Rust plus Orange Rust.

The finishing touches here are a cou-

ple of Oil paint washes one with Raw

Umber and another one with Burnt

Umber both Titan references.

DIRT ON THE LOWER AREAS

I begin by doing a wash with Hum-

brol’s H-98. Before it dried up comple-

tely, I did large color stains employing a

mixture of Humbrol’s H-93 and H-121.

This is done while the H-98 paint is still

fresh mixing it along the edges of the

stains. Then, and while all this is still

fresh we put on the crevices, plank divi-

sions and all such some Vallejo’s pig-

ments to create some shadings with73109 and 73113 to lighten it up.

51

In the motor area we combine oil

paint raw umber, burnt umber, Black

with Abteilung’s 503 AK German

Grey streaks.

General rust effects and

specific rust effects on

the exhaust’s silencer

have Panzer Aces

Acrylics’ light rust, dark

rust, yellowish rust and

track primer.

The general paint scratch work is done with an old “haywire haired”

paintbrush using dark rust, black and a touch of gray.

The spare tracks have received a treatment similar to the one applied on the

exhaust but using more dark rust, light rust and yellowish rust all Panzer Aces

references.

The ring around the commander’s

cupola was the subject of some pretty

extreme wear, the light stains aremade with the yellow base color

mixed with white a shade of gray,

light rust and dark rust.

The piece of canvas covering the base

of the mantlet is painted with Ger.

Tkcr. Feldgrau I and II all Panzer Acesacrylics. Highlights from this color

range are also applied.



52

PAINT CHIPS

The abundant paint chips and scrat-

ches on the Schurtzen are made with

Panzer Aces Light Rust and Dark Rust

both straight from the can and mixed up.

These are applied both with a paintbrush

and a small sponge.

The fire extinguisher device on the

gun is painted black applying some lights

in it with a little highly diluted gray paint.

The final effect intended is of an opera-

tional vehicle of 1944, reinforced with

additional armoring painted with somber

hues used for the camouflage patterns

employed on the central European

forests.

PIGMENTS ON THE TRACKS AND

LOWER AREAS

We also follow this procedure for the

tracks but we don’t light these up so

much and we include sand colored pig-

ments applying these on a rather chaotic

fashion in terms of color hues and inten-

sity. The Vallejo pigments employed are

73103, 73106, 73107, 73110, 73108 and73109. The Mig ones are: P029 Brick

Dust and P234 Rubble Dust. These are

also used on the track area, fenders,

lower surfaces of the frame, and lower,

frontal, rear and lateral areas.

The small porthole for the

machine gun appears quite

worn. Paint chips are done

with the yellow base color,

we also have some areas

with Dark Dust, some Dark

Rust, Track Primer and

some touches of graphite

powder or pencil lead.

Comparison between the

tracks with their base color on,

with pigments and a slight

sandpaper work which helps us

reveal the metal underneath

the Friulmodel tracks. A slight

wash will tone down the gloss

of the metal surfaces.

The tracks were covered with Panzer Aces’ IMPRIMACION ORUGAS and werandomly use an array of pigments fixed in place with Vallejo’s own pigment

binder.



54

THREE COLOR CAMO

(Dunkelgelb RAL 7028)

Base: XF-59 Desert Yellow

(Tamiya Acrylics)

Highlights: XF-59 Desert Yellow +

XF-2 Flat White + XF-57 Buff (Tamiya Acrylics)

GREEN CAMO

(Olivgrun RAL 6003)

XF-13 J.A. Green (Tamiya Acrylics)

BRICK BROWN

(Rortbraun RAL 8017)

XF-10 Flat Brow (Tamiya Acrylics)

WASHES

Overall dirt and its hues

AK012 Grime Streaks (Ak Interactive)

Raw Sienna, Yellow Ochre, Burnt

umber (Titan oil paint)

German Grey Lights (503 Abteilung)

AK013 Rust Streaks

SCHURTZEN

Same colors as used on the AFV. Dirt

on the mid to low areas.

035 Camouflage Pale Brown

(Model Air Vallejo)Splashes: 983 Flat Earth

(Model Color Vallejo)

Inside of Schurtzen

984 Flat Brown (Model Color Vallejo)

983 Flat Earth (Model Color Vallejo)

OIL PAINT

Titan

82 Ivory Black

74 Raw Umber

90 Raw Sienna

96 Burnt Sienna8 Naples Yellow

67 Cinnabar Green

78 Burnt Umber

MIG 502 Abteilung

Abt.015 Shadow Brown

Abt.170 German Grey

Abt.050 Olive Green

Abt.040 Faded Green

Talens Van Gogh

234 Raw Sienna

227 Yellow Ochre

105 Titanium White629 Green earth

COLOR



55

RT

DIRT ON LOWER AREASHumbrol

H-98 Chocolate

H-93

H-121 Pale Stone

Pigments Vallejo

73109 Natural Umber

73113 Light Slate

FINAL TOUCHES ON TRACKS

AND LOWER AREAS

Pigments Vallejo

73103 Dark Yellow Ochre73106 Burnt Sienna

73107 Dark Red Ochre73108 Brown Iron Oxide

73109 Natural Umber

73110 Burnt Umber

MIG Production

P029 Brick dust

P234 Rubber Dust

PAINT CHIPS AND

SCRATCHES

Panzer Aces

301 Light Rust

302 Dark Rust

ZIMMERIT AREAS

Add a little white (Humbrol) to the

dry brush hues.

PROFILING

Titan Brown (Titan oils)H-33 Black y H-98 Chocolate

(Humbrol)

Highlights dry brush

RAL 6003 Green: Army Green 1102

(Molak)

RAL 8017 Brown: Mattus Tay H-118

(Humbrol)

RAL 7028: Dark Yellow: Dak 171

(Molak)

PAINT CHIPS AND SCRATCHES

Panzer Aces

301 Light Rust

302 Dark Rust

303 Yellowish Rust

304 Track Primer

Model Air

71057 Black

TOOLS

Panzer Aces

301 Light Rust

302 Dark Rust310 Old Wood

311 New Wood

312 Leather Belt

Model Air

71072 Gungrey

71057 Black

TRACKS

Panzer Aces

Base: 304 Track Primer

312 Leather Belt

301 Light RustModel Color

984 Flat Brown

871 Leather Brown

851 Bright Orange

935 Transparent Orange

877 Goldbrown

Track washes (Titan)

76 Burnt Umber

96 Burnt Sienna

Pigments for tracks

Burnt Sienna (Vallejo)

Fresch Rust y orange rust (MIG)



So it is crucial to fix pigments correctly to the

surface even if we sacrifice a little of the rea-

listic effect sought when recreating dirt. In

this review we will explain two different pig-

ment treatment options: dirt generated bypassing vehicles on a dirt road, and a second

one which would involve the dirt and sand

adhered to the lower areas of a given vehicle

and form clusters generated by its mixture

with grease water, oil etc.

58

We start with a vehicle with

previous dirt treatments and

some very light dirt on.

By: Rodrigo Hernández Cabos

Pictures by the author

A pigment is a colorant in a pure state, without any agglutinant or thinner, it is color

dust, and so even if you apply it, it would not adhere to any surface and it will stain

your fingers when touched, or disappear when cleansing the object it is in.

In order to distribute dirt evenly, we

use a makeup kit, these are cheap and

easy to find and can be purchased in

99c stores.

We will also use a dropper and

several old paintbrushes with

irregular hairs and some cheapbrushes, which can also be bought in

99c stores.



59

- Odorless White Spirit: used for fixing

smoothly the superficial dirt layers on

nooks and crannies and other surfaces.

- Gravel & Sand: product used for fixing

thicker dirt pigment layers, with or

without some thin gravel, grass, etc.

- Watercolor, charcoal and pastel fixing

solution. This is very similar to the

previous product, and it is designed to

fix pastel, charcoal and even

watercolor, so it is perfect for fixing

color pigments on the lower areas and

the sides of vehicles.

- Pigment fixer: a product by AK. It has

an oil base with an enamel resin, and

fixes pigments safely, takes a long

time to dry up, and has a matt finish.

- Pigment Binder AV: this is a Vallejo

product and is therefore different

from the previous product; it fixes

pigments safely too, has a medium

drying time and a matt finish as well.

- Thinner/cleanser Humbrol: for

enamels; it cleanses completely the

pigments you apply, giving you the

option of starting all over again if

you’re not pleased with the results

obtained.

Thinners and fixing products necessary for the color pigment treatments.

Range of colors which can be

used to convey thin dirt,

superficial dirt, dirt clusters,

compacted dirt. We’ll begin with

these Vallejo references: green

earth 73111, natural siena 73105,

natural umber 73109, dark yellow

ocre 73103 and light yellow ocre

73102. These colors give us the

color range predominant in the

Kursk area, a region with reddish

and yellow sands.

The vehicle

we’re

working

with has the

basic colors

and a light

dirt patina.

Colors are placed in a palette, using

eight of its compartments and

leaving two blank ones to place thefixer and the thinner.

Two kinds of droppers, these will

be used to apply a certain

amount of fixer solution to thepigments applied without

touching these.

Fixers and thinner used for this

occasion, because we will treat here

color pigments as if these were enamels.



60

We’ll begin by soaking the lower areas with a coat of

fixer, applied with a flat brush.

With an old brush and our soaked surface, we apply

natural umber.

The difference between a humid area and a dry one.

The front area is done with the same colors we’ve used

previously on the sides.

We apply green earth light which is a very luminous color

which gives us color richness and chromatic variation.

Once it’s all dry we brush off pigments which have not

properly adhered to the surface using a stiff haired paint

brush.

The natural siena color is brighter and can be used to

lighten up some areas.

When wet, pigments are darker than what they’ll end up

looking later. These areas are going to be blow dried

now. We can repeat this operation as many times as we

need.



In the flat surfaces such as the spares

box, pigments should be fixed in

place without touching these with a

brush; we’ll simply use our dropper to

apply the fixer.

Dirt is shaped in stain like shapes and trails in a vertical and very realistic way.



EDITORIAL

The AFV hunter concept of “a vehicle without a turret” is born out of the need of theGerman Army to face the superiority of the Russian tanks creating an easier to manufactureinstrument than a regular tank. Doing away with the turret and gaining some room for a gunof a larger caliber and a lower profile were the results obtained. This “improvisation” gavesuch good results that a string of vehicles with these features. Some of these are featured inthis issue.

Jari Hermilla shows us a vehicle of this characteristics; a Stug III. As usual, Jari shows ussomething rare and different; there is nothing usual in his Panzerjaeger: not the schurtzen, notits structure nor its casemate. Everything is unusual about it; even its paint. Once more we seehow we can do some interesting vehicles with very common kits.

The reports of the Russians concerning the “Ferdinand” hardly match the reports of itsmanufacturers in Germany. The Russians were surprised that none of the Ferdinands capturedor destroyed was affected by shells hitting its combat chamber. Only once was the driver’schamber hit by a shell coming via its tractor wheel. The Russians figured that once theseminor glitches were fixed, this AFV hunter would become a tough weapon to neutralize. Thecomplex manufacturing process of this vehicle was the real cause of its downfall.

Mario Gabas has recreated one of the Ferdinands who fought in the battle for Kursk. Thecharisma of this monster of a vehicle has been perfectly captured here while undertaking theZitadelle Operation.

The production of the StuG IV was never massive because the Panzer IV took a lot of themanufacturing resources for itself. Most Stug IV’s first saw the battlefield in 1944. In thisperiod the Russian Steppes were no longer the fighting grounds; the central European forestsforced the camouflage patterns with dominant green, brown and yellow colors. Paint isaltogether darker in order to mimic the lights and shadows of the trees. This is what AlejandroQuintana has sought to obtain mimicking to perfection the real vehicles. Here we can see thefull effects of the camouflage pattern in the midst of an autumn diorama; an outstandingachievement for this hobby.

The Jagdpanther was without a doubt the best AFV hunter of its time. These vehicles arecredited with the failure of freeing the Arnhem Bridge. Jose Luis Lopez reproduces a vehiclewith the three color pattern applied with the latest techniques for miniature AFV’s. The vehicleis in the 1/48th scale but the effects obtained, make it look larger. Consistent with the time of

the year, yellow base color here is almost covered by the other camouflage colors. A base witha railroad track section rounds up a fine piece of work.

Probably some of our readers will miss the larger Panzerjaeger; the Jagdtiger. Lovers of thisvehicle will have to fetch the latest issue of Model Laboratory: Model Laboratory issue 5.

We close this issue with a review of the ways to fix color pigments with differentprocedures, applicable depending on the results which we want to obtain.

www.euromodelismo.com

www.facebook.com/PanzerAces.

Magazine?ref=hl

Director EditorialRodrigo Hernández Cabos

Redactor JefeRodrigo Hernández Cabos

Han colaborado en estenúmero

José Luis López Ruíz,Mario Gabas,

Jari Hemilä,Alejandro QuintanaFotógrafosRodrigo Hernández CabosFernando Cañellas Planchuelo

IlustracionesRodrigo Hernández Cabos

Diseño y maquetaciónKOMMAD S.L.

ImprimeImprimia Artes gráficas

FotomecánicaACCIÓN PRESS, S.A.

J. David Hernández ChacónInfografía

J. David Hernández Chacón

Redacción, Equipo Técnico,Administración y PublicidadACCIÓN PRESS, S.A.c/Ezequiel Solana, 1628017 MadridTel.: 913 675 708

914 086 135Fax: 914 085 [email protected]

SuscripcionesMarisó Chacón y

Fernando CañellasTel. 913 675 708

EditaACCIÓN PRESS, S.A.

Depósito LegalM-51328-2003ISSN: 1886-4457

Queda prohibida lareproducción total o parcial defotografías, textos y dibujos,mediante impresión,fotocopiao cualquier otro sistema, sinpermiso escrito de la editorial.Panzer Aces no se hace

necesariamente solidaria de lasopiniones expresadas por suscolaboradores.



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