DML Sdkfz 251/22 Ausf D

[wbill76]

Okie dokie gents, paint has been flung!

Tomorrow is my wife's birthday so instead of the usual Sunday update, this one's on Saturday!

The exterior received some quality time in the paint booth today. I used blue painter's tape to mask off the interior and the detail work already done on the PaK 40 to protect it and mounted all of the road wheels on handy toothpick holders using poster putty and went to work. The rest of the exterior received a primer coat of MM enamel Italian Dark Brown to check all the previous assembly and putty work and provide a foundation to work from for the camouflage pattern.



Rather than apply an overall base coat for the camouflage pattern, I instead applied it over the primer coat one color at a time starting with the green (MM enamel Khaki), then the red-brown (50/50 MM enamel Military Brown/Leather) and then finally the dunkelgelb (50/50 MM enamel Light Gray/Panzer Dunkelgelb). After the pattern was down, I applied a mist coat using the highly thinned remains of the dunkelgelb pass from about 12 inches distance from the model to tie the three-tone scheme together. The PaK 40 is still only dry-fit at this stage.





At the same time as I was working on the exterior pattern, the road wheels got their share of attention as well. They received the same primer coat application and the rubber portions were airbrushed with MM enamel Gunmetal. Using a draftsman's circle template with the appropriate diameter holes masked off, I sprayed the hubs the different colors of the camouflage pattern depending on where they will go on the suspension.



Next up will be working on the tracks and the few remaining exterior details like the tools before heading into the weathering stages.

[bigjohn]

Nice update Bill. I'm really digging that camo patern! Those late war patterns are among my favorite and you did this one justice!

[wbill76]

Thanks BJ! Have to agree with you about late war patterns, lots of neat schemes to choose from. Appreciate the vote of confidence on the selection, I used the box art as a guide. Felt good to be painting this one and making some good progress since I didn't get to it last week.

[bbd468]

Sweet!!! Paint has arrived! Looks great Bill and great to see you get some bench time as well. Keep'er comin'

Gary

[deafpanzer]

OHHHHH!! An update on Saturday... a day early and I am loving it! Outstanding work on the camo... I hope to use same camo one day.

Hug your wife for us and tell her she has your FULL attention tomorrow. To help her make it happen, the moderators will suspend your account for 24 hours starting in 45 minutes.

[Deleted]

Nice neat work on the camo,Bill.....she does look purty ;D

[Deleted]

Great build, really like the camouflage pattern

[wbill76]

Gary, felt good to get in some time at the bench...painting is always one of those things that requires a solid block to get it done and yesterday was perfect for it.

Andy, nice try on suspending the account! She graciously allowed me some forum time in the morning so I could say thanks for her for the b-day wishes.

Chris and possum thanks for the comments!

[johnt]

Bill, superb camo with the airbrush! I also like the airbrush filter coat, something I often do also. Just a light mist, to tie in all the different tones. Great stuff mate!

Cheers
JT

[wouter]

woweee, paint

nice one Bill, colors which really are your benchmark, your models can be recognized! Nice camouflage pattern, really looking forward to the weathering

Cheers

[406 Silverado]

Great up date Bill, love that camo scheme, very clean bud.

[bigjohn]

Sept 16, 2012 13:11:38 GMT -5 @dickyf said:

Very neat work indeed and so crisp too......as an AB newbie what was yer reasoning for applying the camo as individual colours rather than over a base coat? Is this to preserve the detail and minimise coverage?

Dicky, If i was to guess, being a late war vehicle. Bill is mimicking the German orders of the time to apply the three colors individually over the factory red oxide primer.

[spud]

That Camo is Banging Bill. i love it

[wbill76]

JT, good to hear that others use the same technique, it's something that has become a standard approach with camo schemes...makes for a good foundation for the weathering to come. Thanks for the comments!

Wouts, had a feeling you'd be happy to see the paint fly! Thanks as always!

Rob and Spud thanks as well!

Dicky while BJ's correct about how the Germans did their camo late in the war...that wasn't really my motivation although I had a similar reason they did for why I didn't lay down a full base coat...I wanted to save on paint (and time)! Since I decided to extend the camo down to the road wheels and the DY was only going to show about 1/4 of the scheme, there wasn't much point in applying a full coat of that color. It also was easier to work from dark to light in terms of cleaning the AB between paint applications. So the motivation was purely practical...I did have to take care to have sufficient overlap between the camo colors so that none of the primer ended up peaking through at the edges but that's really the only concern with this approach. When the DY is more dominant in the scheme, I will go ahead and lay it down as the base coat as a rule. HTH explains the method behind the madness!

[wbill76]

Dicky,

Either way works...so long as you get things nice and clean prior to switching and can avoid doing a full disassembly of the brush in the process. I use an Aztek A470 that uses self-contained nozzles and needles as opposed to other models that have them separate. As a standard practice I flush clean thinner through the paint cup and nozzle prior to switching colors and use a paper towel to remove paint from the cup and lid. That alone is usually enough but sometimes a little bit of the prior paint color remains in the internal mix chamber. Moving up the spectrum there's less chance of paint contamination/alteration happening as the new paint batch is drawn into the nozzle and sprayed. Not a huge deal, any contamination only lasts a couple of seconds so long as the needle was fully closed when the new paint color was added to the cup due to the way the Aztek is designed. A minor thing in the grand scheme of things...but I generally try to follow either the light-to-dark or dark-to-light path when applying colors to avoid potential problems/issues in the whole process.

[wbill76]

One of the neat features in my opinion of DML's 251 family of kits are the workable tracks that they provide. The assembly is fairly straightforward...each link is trapped via a cap block that glues to each pair and if you're careful with the glue, you get workable tracks. The key I've found is to assemble the links in pairs so that the cap blocks have time to dry and be able to do their job of holding the links together. Once the pairs are done, then just daisy-chain them together into groups of 4, then the 4s into 8s, then join the runs together into the single track length needed. I assembled 52 links for each side and will test fit a little further on to determine how many are needed for each side. Because the 251 uses an offset torsion bar suspension, one side will need to be longer than the other...it's just a question of by how much.



With the track runs built, I used them to help with installing the road wheels on both sides. I positioned the inner-most wheels so that the little "D" shaped tab was at the top to provide the most support to the outer wheel halves that attach to them. I also detailed and installed the pot muffler at this point before things got too crowded. The muffler was base coated with MM non-buffing Metalizer Gunmetal and then given an overall wash of enamel Rust. Once dry, the two halves were installed with the top going in first.



I also detailed the pick and axe that install on the front fenders. The metal portions were base coated with the same Metalizer Gunmetal used on the muffler. The tools were lightly dry-brushed with MM enamel Steel. The handles were base-coated with the 50-50 dunkelgelb/light gray mix used on the hull followed by a wash of MM enamel Leather. Once that was dry, I lightly dry-brushed the DY/LG mix to create some variation and pattern and applied a light dusting of raw umber artist pastels to deepen the look a bit. Tools were installed in the PE clamps and secured in place. I also used a bit of Light Gray for the width indicator ball tops instead of white as white tends to be pretty stark on its own. I didn't take a photo but I also detailed the rear Notek convoy light with some Tamiya Clear Green to round things out for the day.



Next up will be sealing it all up and applying the decals (minimal) and getting it ready for weathering.

[multicam]

This is looking great, Bill! Love the camo scheme;)

[spud]

that looks fantastic Bill

[TRM]

Looking real nice there Bill!!! Always looking forward to the tracks getting done and of course the weathering!!!

[bbd468]

Looking great Bill!!! I didnt realize those were workable tracks. They are Dragon Magic Tracks? Looking forward to the next installment Bill.

Gary

[bigjohn]

Nice update bill!!! I bet your glad to get those track out of the way. Its shapping up now, can't wait to see it weathered.

[deafpanzer]

Great update! Nice work on the tracks. Hate to do this but I have to ask you if you are all right? Not using Modelkasten tracks got me very concerned about you... nah, I figured you needed a break sometimes especially if Dragon offers decent tracks.

[bullardino]

Wonderful job, Bill.

I tend to confuse all those german halftracks, they really built too many, but yours is turning into another stunning job

[robbo]

Very nice camo Bill

[wbill76]

Nate, Spud, Robbo, and T thanks for the comments fellas, appreciate it!

Gary, not Magic tracks...they come attached to sprues and have 3 attachment points per link. DML does provide "E-Z" tracks that they label as the "late pattern" type but which were actually a field-tested and rejected all-metal track type so be careful if you build one in terms of which set you use.

BJ, always nice to get the track "knitting" done and out of the way...a repetitive but necessary step...thank goodness it was only a "Half" track and not full per side!

Andy, I know it seems really strange not seeing that familiar brown styrene show up at this stage, doesn't it? ;D No need to go the replacement route with these babies available, nice and durable and workable...what's not to like? Thanks for the comments!

Luigi, I can understand where you're coming from...the 251 family alone had 22 different official variants nevermind all the other HT designs and groups! And many of them are finally seeing the light of day as kits so it is possible for a builder (if so inclined) to specialize almost exclusively in HTs these days!

[406 Silverado]

ah the tracks, always the fun part eh. The Dragon workable tracks go together very nice...and they work.

[panzerman75.]

Hey bill it looks great awesome camo work and you have to love those tracks great work.


Phil

[reserve]

Sweet as usual, Bill.

Regards,
Mark

[wbill76]

Rob, yes indeed...they "work" on multiple levels! ;D

Dicky, my pleasure!

Mark, Phil, and Chris, thanks for the comments as well!

[ogrejohn]

The camo work really looks great! Nice work Bill!