Thanks for posting your build. I have this one in the stash so I will be following this one. A lot of good information being posted here by a lot of modelers, thanks!
~ Eddy
Thanks for posting your build. I have this one in the stash so I will be following this one. A lot of good information being posted here by a lot of modelers, thanks!
~ Eddy
that’s not much different drive than the hobby store. I’ll have to try to get there sometime. I figure that 500ml works out to about a fourth the price of Tamiya cement.
Just happened to see these on Andy’s Hobby Headquarters website.
It’s a year later but these Value Gear items should be useful wrapping this build. Didn’t want to just slap it on a base etc.
Great build.
Cheers,
Ralph
In the quest to wrap as many started projects as possible it’s back to this Dragon #6392 15 cm Artillery piece for a change of pace.
Felt this old base would be OK w/ground work for the artillery piece…
…fiddling with the Value Gear…
…realized a) it’s too cramped with sand bags and b) I have no idea what I’m doing
Time for a bigger, deeper base.
Will use XPS foam or whatever it’s called to adjust the height.
Tried a few combinations with the larger base.
I dislike the last one the least of the three.
Starting to think back to the smaller base with groundwork and no sandbags maybe the better choice.
I’m no expert in German artillery, but from top of my mind I do not recall seeing any image of them using sandbags -maybe only in Africa. Most are either on built positions or open field.
Not saying it did not ever happened, but I have doubts about this setting
Don’t make the mistake I did on my diorama. I forgot to fit the hand spikes into the end of the trails for large re-aiming movements. You would also need to allow room for these in your sandbagged or dug in position.
Anna-Elizabeth, Carlos & Hohenstaufen, thank you for the input and suggestions.
Speaking of DAK, reviewed…
…and found a few artillery pictures like this …discussion only etc…
On reflection open field/area will be the path forward. Net wise, I didn’t find much German artillery and sand bags.
Time to paint…
Maybe not important, but that is not a 15cm sFH. It is a 21cm gun whose trails do not separate. Most of the ground fought over by the DAK was rocky and hard so little sand for sandbags, and usually just a small depression or sanger was clawed out of the ground to reduce visability of the gun profile. I would forget the sandbags and just use a small depression or behind a small berm if North Africa is the setting.
I was wondering about the North Africa battlefield terrain. Thank you for clarifying.
—mike
@DAKjunkie Jack, thank you. I knew it wasn’t a 15cm and thought it was a 17cm or larger. As Mike mentioned it’s good to know the terrain details as well. Thank you.
DAK is in strong consideration for this artillery piece. I went outside of my comfort zone and shot non-Floqui base coat & color coat. Found a bottle & siphon on Sprue Brothers that fits the MRP bottles perfectly & Paasche. Decided to stay with the smaller color cup as a bottle felt awkward on the VL etc.
Shot Mr Surfacer 1000 Mahogany 40% with 60% Mr.Color Leveling Thinner. Followed with MRP RAL 7021 Dunkelgrau aka Panzer Grey. The MRP RAL 7021 is a near perfect match for RAL 7021 per 14-shades-of-panzer-grey-paint-review.
So after the paint cures will start weathering.
BTW - Kali cat was seriously miffed she isn’t allowed in the hobby room during airbrush sessions.
The MRP RAL 7021 Dunkelgrau looks great relative to this famous old color photo.
It has taken me a bit to find these references. The first is "Operation Crusader, Tank Warfare in the Desert, 1941. By Hermann Buschleb a staff officer in WWII and then a Bundeswehr officer. On page 9 he has this description of the terrain.
“To the west and to the east, it is bounded by the longitudinal lines of Bir Hakim and Mersa Matruh respectively. In broad stretches of this area, the desert is changeable and characterized by a subsurface sometimes mixed with sand and sometimes not. There are also small dunes and cliffs. Frequently, long stretches of this desert are covered with larges stones roughtly the size of human heads. Except where there is deep sand or steeply cut valleys ( wadis ), the terrain is generally passable to motor vehicles.” Later, he states that “sight range extended between 4000m and 10,000m in the morning and the afternoon. After 1000 hrs, heat haze limited line of sight to about 3000m.” Another reference is “Inside Afrika Korps” by Col. Rainer Kriebel who was Ia of 15th Panzer Division from the Spring of 1941 to March of 1942 when he was transferred to the Eastern Front. Under a section entitled, ‘Artillery in the Desert’, it describes “maximum use is made of folds in the ground” and “quick concealment is obtained by digging [shallow] gun pits and using light colored camouflage nets.” Gun pits which have no parapet, being flush with the surface of the ground, are more easily concealed than those which have [parapets]. I believe the concept is that a parapet would leave a shadow marking the position from the air, so eliminate the shadow.
Two other points are made with regard to color camouflage. One being that all glass is smeared with oil or glycerin and dirt thrown at it except for a narrow slit for vision. The second is that a light sand or yellowish colored flat paint is best for obscuring vehicles and outlines are obscured with the use of scrub and sandmats ( also obscuring shadows ). “The barrel and cradle are sometimes painted a dull sandy color, except for a one foot diagonal stripe of light brown or green to break up the pattern of the gun[tube].” I hope this may be useful for others in painting and dioramas.
Really, really, really sick of looking at this model on the incomplete shelf of shame. Started Feb 2023, it’s time to push this over the finish line or into the trash can.
Painted details as I understood them so probably a fair amout of errors. The marker sticks were glued in place and painted white. My master plan was to do the red stripes with red decal film.
Sadly the decal film is old and brittle and shattered. Realized it was purchased in 1994 or 1995…
That really annoyed me.
Decided to raw dog the red, hand paint in place and get this finished. No special order for decal film for this project.
Inspired by this photo…
…decided to go all in and do Massive Pigments!
For better or worse committed to the experiment.
Fixed with Tamiya X20A thinner via airbrush.
While Mr Paint/MRP is an outstanding product and their RAL 7021 Dunkelgrau a nearly perfect match to the actual color, I’m finding it difficult to work with.
Used a wash much darker than my normal mix but it wasn’t dark enough to show up. Neither was the chipping. Looks like a light Sail color wash is probably in order. I really wish I’d stayed with Floquil’s too light Panzer Gray as it would have been easier to weather.
So anyway this one’s a mess and should make a fine example of what not to do.
Beautifully done. Would fit with any theater, but in North Africa, would probably put some disruptive color on part of the barrel.
Thank you, you’re right.
I may try to add a bit more dust to the barrel as it is too clean compared to the color picture.
@DAKjunkie Jack, thank you
Revised with more dust on barrel.
I would taken more pictures but…my crack head TomCat Joey jumped into the weathering box and started rolling in pig-mints…
Bath time for one very stupid Tomcat.
This does open up the possibility of matching colours of Joey or any other cat to each model as they’re finished up! Maybe a new category of pets being colour matched to models?
Aftermath…
I think at heart Joey is an orange cat. He certainly isn’t color coordinated.
Joey was very unhappy (so was I) getting a bath in the bathroom sink. Most of the color washed out of his furr with a few areas stained.
Couldn’t find much on Mig’s pigments etc.
Called the vet, who strongly suggested calling Pet Poison Control. One $85 phone call consultant later with the PPC, it appears Joey didn’t get into anything toxic to cats.
While on the phone with PPC, Joey tried to get the North African Sand pigment bottle out of my hand. The box with the pig-mint dust in it had to be removed from the house to keep him out of it.
Joey’s acting normal and my wife is giving him a second bath in Dawn.