 1/35 DML Stug III Ausf F Kenneth Childres While flipping through Panzer Wrecks Vol. 1 I came across a photo of an early model Stug that had been repainted in Dunkelgelb with no apparent camo and was in sad shape to say the least, missing most of its fenders. I was intrigued at the idea of painting a solid dunkelgelb vehicle and trying to get a used but well maintained look to the little assault gun... I didn't have a kit of the exact one in the picture so I settled for using the DML kit of the Stug F and tried to make the concept of this old soldier my own. So full of ideas I set about building the Ausf F. It went together easy enough, only needing a bit of filler here and there (mostly on the undercut of the fighting compartment that hangs over the engine deck...) The only real changes to the kit were sawing off much of the fenders and adding the bolt tabs to the kit fender supports. I also pressed a piece of thin lead foil over the kit exhaust deflector to make a copy that was easy to deform. For those who are not familiar with Dragons kits of this vintage the photo etched parts included are of stainless steel. While my trusty Block helped tremendously in cutting the stubborn steel I actually broke a # 11 blade in half about 1/4 of the way up while pushing on it with both hands trying to cut a part off the fret. I replaced the rather chunky lifting loops on the forward superstructure with wire measured up in the Bendicator. I resisted the temptation to use AM tracks and went with the kit indi links. (A full article on this process can be found on the techniques page) The foul weather cover (what’s left of it) was made from our beloved Apoxie Sculpt which mixes beautifully and gives a nice long working time. Anyhow... I began the paint job as I always do... I undercoated the whole thing with red brown primer from a rattle can. On top of this came a coat of German gray that was intended to be used in the weathering process but more on that later... So after weathering the gray a bit with several other shades of gray I mixed up the dunkelgelb. Its pretty well accepted that Tamiya's XF-60 is far to dark to be used strait from the jar so I used plenty of white and buff to lighten it, and also added 3-4 drops of red to a film canister full of dunkelgelb to warm up the yellow tone. The red changes the hues fast so if you do this take it one drop at a time and mix it well to make sure you’re not going too far.    I was excited about painting a plain dunkelgelb vehicle for a couple of reasons. 1. I had never done it before and 2. It’s quite a challenge to bring some character to a single color scheme, certainly a light one. In my humble opinion Dark Yellow is probably the most difficult color to weather by itself and still make it believable. After laying down a solid coat of dunkelgelb I sprayed on some future and applied the decals then shot a satin clear over the whole thing to even it back out. On top of this I carefully sprayed several very thin almost transparent glazes of lighter tones of dunkelgelb. Originally I had intended on just scraping through the dark yellow paint down to the gray undercoat with various sharp objects to replicate the chips and scratches. Well much to my chagrin the layers of future had basically made this impossible since future is so hard once dry... Oh well... I continued with the weathering process with filters made from ochre, burnt sienna, black and white oil paints. These filters were kept very light and blended thoroughly as not to darken the base color any more than necessary... Next I hit it with several rounds of pin washed moving line to line and bolt to bolt over the surface till it was all done. Like most of you I have tried about every technique on the block for replicating scuffs and scratches but I was never totally happy with my efforts. After reading a couple of Phil Stutcinskas articles particularly the recent one in Tamiya Model Magazine where he was painting the Kriegslocomotive I was keen to try his technique of using colored pencils to do the scratches and scrapes. I picked up a handful of earth tone colors ranging from very light to dark from the prismacolor range. I was thrilled at the results and control this afforded me. It was simply a matter of adding random ticks and scratches using varying pressures. Using a dark marker then a light one to put a "lip" to it was also very effective I think... As a matter of fact there are NO painted on chips on the model... they were all done with the colored pencils. The tracks were painted with a dark rusty black as a base then treated to various pigment washes from the MIG range. The same colors were used on the undercarriage and groundwork to keep it all tied together. Lastly the old Stug needed a home so I whipped up a base from a cheap plaque and some foam board. I covered the edges with plaster and laid out the groundwork from Celluclay. On top of the Celluclay I sprinkled real sifted dirt and shook on some Dill Spice for grass... Once the Celluclay dried I added more grass and painted the dirt and grass with various browns and greens then dusted the whole thing with MIG pigments.    This was a fun and rewarding project. Not to mention cheap which is always a good thing. Thanks for indulging my ramblings; hopefully it will be of some use to you.  copyright©2006 ausfwerks |