Tamiya 1:48 Tamiya Marder III
Since March, when California's social distancing lockdown began, I have been reducing my stash and hone some modeling skills by doing monthly simple no-frills OOB builds from my personal “hobby shop” in addition to working on regular long term projects.
For my seventh monthly (September) no-frills project, I chose Tamiya's 1:48 Marder III--a dandy little kit, as are all of the othe Tamiya 1/48 kits I've done. This was the best kit in my stash to try a full vehicle chipping project--a first for me.
I used Tamiya paints and AK chipping fluid for the basic colors. The chipping process didn't go quite as expected. Rather than gradually rubbing off the white, large swaths came off in several places. I applied a second application of chipping fluid and white paint to some areas where too much came off. I may have applied too much fluid or didn't let the paint dry enough before rubbing it. I'll need to experiment more before trying again.
This was a great learning experience and I had a lot of fun with the muddy weathering which was done with AK pigments, chipping paint and weathering pencils (love those pencils). I also applied some rust and streaks with Abteilung 502 oils.
Nice OOB build, Dennis!
Chipping looks great from here, as all the weathering.
I think its a very nice effect. You may have wanted early November weathering but ended up with late March weathering...I like it!
Wash me! Looks great wearing the Eastern Front so well. Always been a fan of that vehicle, with the big gun on the tiny chassis.
Very realistic, these 48 scale kits have the same amount of detail of their bigger 35th scale brothers, or at least they’re very close. Really wonderful work
Nice! Very realistic finish, It needs a wash, sand blasting and a new paint job.
I agree with the above five, (5) comments, so now I can ask a question. I have seen many tank's here on the web. Tanks move forward on the ground and on paved streets so the treads and road wheels should be almost all "BARE-METAL." All the tank-like models, including mine are covered with paint...
MY ? IS WHY...!
Depends on the ground. For sure the grousers would be metal colour mostly. Note this dozer track on hard, dry ground...
...not so dry ground with this hoe
...and tank during winter...
Hey Rodney, @f2g1d
I'm a former US Army tanker... and just as George @blackadder57
has shown you with his pictures I can help answer your question about this. The road wheels on the Marder had a thin rubber outer ring. Typically the rubber flexes ever so slightly as the vehicle's weight rolls over it, as the outer portion of the road wheel makes contact with the tracks. This will cause the mud to crack off and fall away, but it can still have traces of dirt on the rubber sidewalls. Where the outer flat surface of the road wheel makes contact with the tracks, this area is often fairly clean, as the constant rubbing between the outer flat face section and the tracks will scrub off almost any dirt and debris. This will leave the outer most flat edge looking most like the original rubber color.
Now on some of your other German vehicles that had resilient steel road wheels, (The King Tiger, late Tiger I and some "late war" Panthers), these road wheels would show signs of bare metal where contact was made between the outer portion of the road wheels and the track. It would also show bare metal where the track center guide rubbed against the edges of the road wheels.
Here's a picture showing this on a Tamya Panther model I built about 3 years ago. The shiny surfaces are the side edges of the road wheel, where the track's center guides would have worn the paint off the edges of the road wheel. The rubber outer ring is also shown in the photo. But the Panther has a different track arrangement than the Marder does, and overlapping road wheels, so the center guides will not rub as they do on the Panther.
If the road wheel has a rubber outer ring, (like the ones on this Marder do), there will not be any bare metal visible on the road wheel...unless it was the area that made contact with the track center guides.. Hope this helps answer your questions my friend.
Hi Louie! I gotcha...thanks for the explanation. Now my armor look's ok.
I see that I never finished sending the rest of the F2G data from the DVD/CD that I sent, which you could not open.
I assume you want all of it, so let me know and I'll get on the ball.
All is ok with me and the other 9 members in this family with no Cova-19...
I got started posting my models on "iModeler.com;" and have not got back to taking care of some of my regular stuff.
Cheer's...Rodney
That thing looks awesome! Great job, Dennis!
Beautiful work Dennis, personally I think you got it right. Just think late winter/early spring for the finish. Actually looks really good and would look awesome in some grass and mud with a little snow around the edges in the shadows.
Dennis, @dmeyers
This is a magnificent build ! I really like how you have it weathered and "dirtied up"... I'm a former US Army tanker and can tell you from personal experience that you got it right... Well done my friend. It looks like you went back to 1942 in your time machine, found a Marder and shrunk it down to 1/48 !
Well done buddy. I pressed the liked button too.
🙂 ... Greetings ... 🙂 :
This for sure is a top notch work, congratulations on this fine piece.
When one considers yet the scale ( 1/48 ), you my friend have just done a spectacular job.
The weathering and ground effect are just great.
One can expect this on a 1/35 th. scale model, but you did well on this scale.
You really should consider this one for a diorama, great job Dennis.