1/35 DAK Artillery Ranging Sd.Kfz.254, Sd.Kfz.11, leFH18

Awesome work!

What brand of paint did you use for the RAL8000 on the vehicles?

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Thanks.
Base DAK colour is Tamiya XF-92.

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Cool, thanks.

I’ve got Vallejo, Ak and Mig RAL8000’s and they’re all different! Have a Panzer IV in the works. Will have to look at the Tamiya and see how it compares. Not a huge fan of Tamiya paint, but would be interesting to see.
Have found Vallejo is closer to the RAL8000 the Tank Museum painted their DAK Tiger.

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I thin Tamiya with Mr Colour Levelling thinner and it sprays well. That may work for you. I prefer the MIG RAL8000 colour, personally and use that also.

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Jeremy
All things considered this diorama is outstanding!
This is a nice sized dio and yet you’ve nicely balanced
out all the activity and everything remains related.
Too congested, too spread out, remove this add that,
maybe change the whole layout and lose focus as well.
Being that desert terrain is so straightforward, nothing
to be expected, your story is simple, interesting,
and straight to the point. Well Done

*The figure next to the motorcycle - Verlinden ? :laughing:

Cheers
Dave :slightly_smiling_face:

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I have noticed it works a little better with Gunze thinner than their own stuff, still get a lot more clogging than I do with water based acrylics. My LHS can’t get their hands on Tamiya’s paint retarder.
I will check it out though.
I just find it completely bizarre that we have such a wide variation in Afrika Korps paint shades. They all seem to match up with late war dark yellow, but they can’t agree on DAK paints!

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I haven’t tried Tamiya with any of their own thinners. Mr Colour thinner has been great. Yeah, I agree about DAK colours varying so much but it did change during the war, as I’m sure you are aware. Tamiya also has another DAK colour XF93 for 1942, for example, but I like the deeper colour of XF92 and find it better for modulation with a lighter version.

I’ve also been experimenting with chipping using Tamiya X20 thinner on Tamiya paint + Levelling thinner which has been sprayed on top of a sealed dark grey base. Seems to work if careful…

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Thanks Dave.
For me, the difficulty with desert terrain is the lack of variety, especially for height elements. Personally, I think desert terrain can be difficult to portray convincingly even using references. I think the white rocks add more interest in this diorama.
Yes, Verlinden, well spotted.
Cheers,
Jeremy

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Yeah there was a switch to a lighter tone in 42 for tropical vehicles. 41 were the original and darker RAL8000 and 7008, then changed to RAL8020 and 7027. The Tigers though arrived in the early colours! I do have those from Vallejo, Ak and Mig but haven’t compared them to each other yet. I expect a similar variety!
The variation seen in photos probably does come from paint chipping on the early over painted grey vehicles and the accumulation of dust and sand. Something I will try to replicate.

Again, awesome work on your diorama and all the various figures and pieces. It’s inspiring stuff.

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Absolutely. Magnifies authenticity a hundredfold.

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Saved this posting. I got a lot of reading to do and rereading. Inspirational.

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