It’s now time to starting to think about a colour scheme. I have never seen a period colour image of one of these final variant vehicles. I imagine most would have left the factory in plain dark yellow (Dunkelgelb). There are period images showing the ‘blotchy’ pattern applied pattern and then there is the ubiquitous spaghetti type. Not sure either could be labelled schemes as they were applied in the field.
Although the elaborate large, banded pattern applied on the restoration vehicles below looks way too nice to have been airbrushed in the field, it's something I have considered.
I am edging towards copying the factory fresh monochrome finished vehicle shown on the cover of the Panzer Tracts book and one that the kit decals depict.
For this project I have choosen MRP & Tamiya lacquers and acrylics.
The small fragile gear controls will be added as the cab is painted and many other small parts kept separate until now, like the Notek light, the clear headlights, and width indicators, will all be added once the two cab sub-assemblies have been attached.
After all
the sub-assemblies received a coat of Hobby colour grey primer, MRP lacquers
were then mixed to create some different shadow coats. There is no need to thin
MRP paints so you can spray really close with the pressure turned down. I set
to around 10-12psi. Getting a decent opacity does take time to build up the
layers but it sprays on lovely and smooth. In the case of the chassis, this allowed a controlled application of paint into the multitude of nooks and
crannies.
For my shadow coat I started off with Dark Yellow and Red Brown. Each
sub-assembly received a slightly different tone of the mix. Once the main
sub-assemblies were painted and to streamline the process, without cleaning the airbrush I then
added a little black, then white, and then played about with paint mix ratios.
I eventually ending up with a grey colour which was the perfect tone to base
coat the engine, gearbox and exhaust.
The chassis in a fetching caramel hue!
The cab-assemblies in a weird sort of Mahogany tone!
The wooden cargo bed in a delicious chocolate brown!
The wheels ended up a medium brown
The tilt cover received a disrupted coat of various tones of grey
Only the sump of the engine will be visible so that received a coat of dark grey too
Shadow coats complete
For the first Dunkelgelb base coat I used MRP-037 followed by a lighter coat mix of MRP-037 and MRP-004. A further lightened coat with a drop more MRP-004 will be misted over just the uppermost areas.
Airbrush work almost complete on the Dunkelgelb base coat. A little more work to up the highlights and shadows in a few prominent areas is still required.
The steering wheel, tyres, and track link pads were all airbrushed with Tamiya tyre
black. The track link pad colour was then protected with a couple of coats of
hairspray before both track runs received an airbrushed mix of Tamiya Dark
Iron, German Grey, and Flat Earth. Once dry the pad surfaces will be dampened
with water, agitated with a brush so that the tyre black colour will be exposed
again.
Brush painted tyres with Vallejjo dark rubber and the cab seat have received a black base coat.
A test fit photo session of all the painted sub-assemblies has its first casualty.
The kit decals have now been added, not that there are many! Just licence plates and instrument dials. Satin varnish was applied before and after. All the track wheel rubber tyres were hand painted with Vallejo dark rubber acrylics.
Kit decals taken after an initial oil paint pin wash
Next chapter
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