This is the Tamiya 1/35th scale kit of this famous tank destroyer. This
was my first attempt
at applying the Zimmerit anti mine coating used by the Germans to prevent
magnetic mines
from being attached to the sides of their tanks and AFV's. (Could ruin
your whole day!) I
used the fine grain white Milliput two part epoxy for this. There is a
great article in the AFV
link. I will eventually post it here also as it is a wonderful how to. I
could not have done this
without this article. I separated the side skirts and left some off as
they tended to get blown
off during battle. I also applied Zimmerit to the side skirts as some of
the reference photos
showed this was done sometime. Camoflage is standard late war Panzer
yellow with
splothes of red brown and dark green with little "spots" of contrasting
colors called the
"ambush" pattern that simulated dappled sunlight in the woods. Testor's
panzer colors
and Tamiya Red brown were used. After painting, an overall coat of
Tertor's glosscoat ws
applied followed by the decals. The weathering process was started on the
gloss surface
per another article found in that same link. The dark brown black wash was
wicked into the
recesses. After all the grime was applied. The model was oversprayed with
Testor's
Dullcoat. The high areas were then brought out by drybrushing Panzer
yellow. The gun
barrel was dry brushed with charcoal as well as the exhaust area and rear.
I do not believe
in a lot of the established "exagerated" weathering. I like it to be
subtle and more realistic.
This tank kiler was very succesful variant of the Panzer IV chassis. Good
thing that not
many of them were built at the time they were introduced as Germany was
well on its way to
defeat. Crews liked it for it low profile and heavy 75 mm gun.
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