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Studio Ausbildings Company: Part Three

Studio Ausbildings Company: Part Four
The Panzer III Platoon
with Mike & Andrew Haught, Sean Goodison & Steven Maclauchlan.

In the final part of this series of articles looking at Battlefront Studio's Ausbilding Company, we present the Panzer III Platoon.

Read
Studio Ausbildings Company: Part One here...
Read Studio Ausbildungs Company: Part Two here...
Read Studio Ausbildungs Company: Part Three here...

Studio Ausbildings Company: Part Four
Mike Haught: Panzer III N
I decided to go with a Panzer III N because I really enjoy that model; it’s short stubby gun gives it a lot of character! As a training tank, I went with an overall beige colour. The details are pretty basic to reflect the nature of a training tank. I’ve put some stuff on the back deck, some extra jerry cans, and spare track. I figure the tank would not have seen much action, so I kept the weathering to a minimum and the damage that I did do was based on training-accident fatigue, such as scrapes, replacement Schürzen, etc. That was about it!
Studio Ausbildings Company: Part Four
I used a basic beige colour (Tan Leather (FWP384)), which the Germans adopted in late 1944 as their standard dark yellow basecoat. It was used for training tanks, and would have been unlikely to have been camouflaged. The painting was pretty straight forward, and I think the result was acceptable. I’m looking forward to actually fielding an Ausbildungs company, and finishing this little tank has helped me come up with some ideas for the rest of the unit.

~ Mike.
Studio Ausbildings Company: Part Four
Andrew Haught: Panzer III M
Well the challenge was fun; I was wondering what I would do with all the time we had to paint a single tank. I figured I would go above what I normally do and plaint to a theme. I figured this is the end of the war and our tanks are going to beat up a bit with some replacement parts. I then went a step further then that and I imagined my tank team had seen the worst this war had to offer, and thought it was only through luck and sheer nerve the tank survived its scraps to fight on.
 
So with that theme in mind I went to town on my tank, the Schürzen seemed like a good place to start. After massively messing those up I went for the turret skirting next. I then added some nicks to the hull and had a spot where a shell once hit the turret. This tank has been through hell and back and is still fighting.
Studio Ausbildings Company: Part Four
So for the painting itself, I choose my Colour scheme from one of Michael Haught’s books with differing Late-war German camo schemes. I really liked it since I am not a fan of the brighter yellow colour that is more common in the German three camo tones.
 
I decided to paint this model really rough so I used my undercoat scheme I normally only use on larger models. I started with a hull red base coat, with a stippling of orange.  I then dry bushed gun metal over the whole model. Next I lightly dry brushed a lighter silver on top of that. That formed my base colour. I then painted my German camo colours over that leaving the edges and the damaged bit the undercoat of silver.  I then went back and painted some of the road wheels hull red to show where they have been replaced and the rest of the detail work. Once I finished inking then highlighting the model I was finished.
 
All and all it was the most time I ever spent on a single tank but I think the result is well worth the effort.  Not the best tank in the army but it is a personal best and that alone made the whole venture worth wild for me.


~ Andrew.
Studio Ausbildings Company: Part Four
Sean Goodison: Panzer III N
When we were first allotted our tanks for this painting challenge I went straight to the platoon entry in Desperate Measures to check the fluff text. Reading up on a bit of background helps me to conjure up ideas for painting and conversion. The text mentions the fact that the Panzer IIIs were often taken from driver training schools. Immediately I latched onto the image of trainee German tankers comically trying their best to maneuver these older model tanks. For this reason I decided to paint my tank in a plain dunkelgelb scheme but with plenty of surface scratches on the front of the hull and down the schurzen. A lack of battle-caused damage should hopefully portray that all the lost paint is simply due to driver error.

Studio Ausbildings Company: Part Four
Well, the painting was all over rather quickly. I think that my decision not to airbrush my base colours set me off with a good head start as they others queued for their turn. The first few steps of the paint job went easily enough as I laid down the middlestone, gave it a wash and drybrushed highlights back in with Panther Yellow and Dry Dust. Then came the fun part, adding all the scratches. This was the most challenging part for me as my fine-brush work is not the best. It also turned out that Devil Red was much more red than I anticipated. When I'd laid down my areas of peeled paint it looked more like my Panzer had been churning through a zombie horde than scraping it's paint. After getting a spot of advise from the other guys I went back over most of my scratches with hull red which dulled them down. The last touch was to add thin silver streaks inside the scratches to show where it had bared the metal.

Then all that was left was to paint the tracks and tools and my driver training Panzer III was complete.


~ Sean.

Studio Ausbildings Company: Part Four
Steven Maclauchlan: Panzer III L
Normally when I paint tanks, I do a platoon or more at a time. Consequently, that mass-produced approach leaves little room for tanks to stand on their own, or tell an individual story. With my Ausbildungs Panzer III, and plenty of time to focus on the tank, I knew I could give the tank a lot of character.

First, I decided on a color scheme. Ultimately, I figured this tank was retired from front-line duty to teach upcoming panzer crews. Thus, I imagine as it came off the train, the eager commander of that particular section of school had all of the old workhorses repainted. By now, the army had fully switched to Dunkelgelb, so the tank was given a fresh coat of it. Camouflage? Why bother? The tank isn’t ever going to see any action! In another few years, when all of Europe is under the thumb of the Third Reich, this tank can be converted for agricultural work or put in a museum. 

So I left the hull without camouflage. It was old, weathered, and a bit faded but otherwise maintained. Sure, it’s better years were behind it, but this tank serves an important purpose and shouldn’t be neglected. 

Studio Ausbildings Company: Part Four
But then the tides turned. When the order came to send all of the tanks forward, this particular Panzer III was more or less ready to go. It’s barrel had been in need of replacement for years, so one of the last spare parts was fitted to the turret. It hadn’t needed schürtzen for many years, so they were hastily scrounged from wherever they could be found - a knocked out StuG here, a rusty pile of scrap there. 

And with that, the tank was rushed to the front where it’s fate has yet to be decided!

My favorite part was working on the schurtzen. The metal schürtzen just look great when they’re all bent up.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with my paintjob. It’s my usual level of “looks good from 3 feet away!” with a bit more detailing. It certainly doesn’t hold a candle to most of the guys here, but I have no delusions of grandeur.


~ Steven.

Studio Ausbildings Company: Part Four


Last Updated On Tuesday, July 7, 2015