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Studio Ausbildings Company: Part Three
Mike Haycock: Panther A
My tank was a Panther A, this was a tank that stopped being produced from July 1944 as production shifted to the Panther G. So the story I made up for my tank was that it had been badly damaged on the front line then shipped back to Germany to be factory repaired. Then it was sent to the tank training school rather then back to the front line.
So the look I wanted to get was an old and battered tank that had seen better days. The painting plan was to give it an early 1944 “normal” camo look but then to fade and dirty it up. Plus give it a battered look by adding some shell marks.
So I assembled it but did not put mudguards or schurzen as I did not think those would still be on the tank after it’s use as a training tank. Plus I carved all the tools and equipment off the model as I also did not think they would be on an old training tank. Then I carved one large section of the Zimmerit off as battle damage and used a dremel to gouge some shell marks into the hull and turret.
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Next ask I have had very little experience with an air brush I got Chris to put basic camo paint on for me. Next stage was to dirty it up. For this I used “AK interactive” dark yellow enamel wash. Normally I gloss vanish before using this so that it only goes into the detail but in this case I put it straight on as a general wash which certainly dirtied the tank up. When I put the decals on I also dark washed over them so they were mostly concealed.
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Overall I really liked the look of it in the end and as a mostly social painter I was happy with the final result.
~ Mike.
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James Brown: Panther A
When the Ausbildungs painting project was first discussed, I was immediately intrigued by the idea of spending 12 hours on a single tank model. It seemed like a great opportunity to try something a bit special. And because one of the objectives of the project was to showcase the technical and visual diversity of an Ausbildungs company, one thing I knew straight away was that I would like to attempt a tricky camouflage pattern. The distinctive and complex ‘Disc’ scheme seemed like a suitably challenging undertaking.
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Blake’s excellent four-part article
Hinterhalt: The Art of Panther Camouflage
(/hobby.aspx?art_id=3318) was an indispensible
resource, giving me all the detail I needed to understand this scheme
and attempt to depict it accurately. Blake also gives a couple of clever
suggestions for painting 'Disc' camo. However, as usual, I’m not
satisfied following good advice if I can instead invent a more arduous
approach of my own!
My method was conceptually simple, albeit
time-consuming. The easy part was airbrushing the soft-edged Olivgrün
(olive green) and Rotbraun (red brown) patches over the Dunkelgelb (dark
yellow) base. The final step, which gives the scheme its distinctive
look, is a second application of Dunkelgelb, sprayed through a mask made
up of a pattern of circles of differing sizes, joined at the edges (in
the real world, this stencil was made of a number of metal discs welded
together). |
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Rather than drive myself crazy attempting such an
intricate masking job at such a small scale, I decided to carefully
hand-paint the gaps between the stenciled discs. It took time and
patience to keep the right ‘circular’ look to the pattern. But I think
it was the right approach - for me, at least - to reproducing the ‘Disc’
scheme in this scale, and I’m fairly satisfied with the result. Just
please don’t ask me to paint a whole army the same way!
~ James.
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Blake Coster: Panther G
With James deciding to paint his Panther using the ‘Disc’ scheme, I decided to paint my Panther G (Late) using the Daimler-Benz Ambush scheme. See Hinterhalt: The Art of Panther Camouflage - Part One here for more information. Along with Mike’s standard three-colour camouflage Panther A, between the three of us we’d have three Panthers very distinctive looking Panthers for the Ausbilding Company.
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After assembling my Panther G (Late) and priming the model, I applied the base colour of Dark Yellow to the Panther. Next, I applied interlocking camouflage patches of Olive Green and Red Brown with the airbrush over the entire vehicle.
Once this stage was complete, it was time to add the contrasting dots. The key thing to remember here was the dots on the exposed Dark Yellow patches needed to be Olive Green and Dark Yellow on the camouflage patches of Olive Green and Red Brown.
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After applying a careful pin-wash to the details
on the Panther, I painted the all the details such as the tools, road
wheels, tracks and the commander figure. I finished things up be
applying some decals including my favourite red numbers outlined in
white and the task was complete.
Ironically, the drying time
proved to be the most time consuming aspect of the whole process. But
painting with a bunch of other people allows for some interaction during
these times and helps past the time until it was ready to begin the
next stage.
~ Blake. |
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Casey Davies: Königstiger (Porsche)
Overall I was quite happy with how the day went. I ended up painting solidly from 1pm until I broke at 10:30 pm, minus the hour for dinner of course. I didn’t manage to get my tank finished in that time though, and I probably spent an additional 3 hours afterwards finishing it, so the whole tank probably took me about 12 hours to paint, just not in one day.
The main reason it took so long was I was using some time consuming techniques. After Airbrushing the basecoat I masked off parts of the tank with bluetack before airbrushing on the brown. This was trickier than I first thought, as to ensure a hard edge to the paint I had to get a sculpting tool and push the bluetack into place.
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I’ve been really getting into using enamel washes lately, so the main time sink was rust streaking and dirtying up the tracks. The washes work really well, however they take a bit of time to get right and need drying time between each layer.
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The only frustrating part of the whole process
happened before we even started. A couple of days before the event I was
undercoating the hull and accidentally dropped it onto the concrete
floor. The model was relatively unscathed except for a massive chip off
the corner of the rear deck which I fixed by sculpting a tarp over the
corner. Unfortunately I didn’t notice that the notek light off the front
of the hull broken off as well untill I started painting it. I just
ended up filling the gap so that It just didn’t have one.
~ Casey. |
Studio Staff: Königstiger (Porsche)
With 11 staff, this left 1 tank of the 12 spare. For this we decided to make it a group project and all tackle a step off the painting process each. Each person was assigned a step and was then free to complete the step however they liked, any colours or techniques they chose. Here's who worked on what step:
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Victor – Assemble, undercoat, and base coat dark yellow
Sean – Magic Wash
James – Drybrush/block paint dark yellow
Wayne – Airbrush Green Camo
Blake – Airbrush Brown Camo
Steve – Edge highlight (just a light dusting drybrush of buff or iraqui sand or something)
Andrew – Tracks
Mike Haught – Details (tow cables, exhausts, etc)
Mike Haycock – Decals (a number and cross on each side of turret)
Casey – Weathering/Mud
Chris – Tank commander |
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This was a fun way to take a break from our main tank and added an extra
challenge/interuption to make night more exciting/frustrating. It
turned out really well and considering everyones different painting
styles and techniques, it looks like a cohesive tank.
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