Pz III New Build

[Stephen White]

Applied the base coat to the turret. This is the so-called modulation style, in favour with the plastic modelllers. Thought I'd give it a spin. First stage is to shade the primer to provide a base for the shadows:



Then the base coat is applied using various shades to emphasise panels and surfaces:



Same for the camouflage colour:






Overall effect, although there are a lot more stages to go:





Started on the Rommelkiste. First stage is a card model to get the patterns cut:





The box wasn't symetrical as it had to accomodate the different opening arcs of the two pistol ports. This is quite difficult to capture and I only appreciated it when I compared two photos of the Bovington Ausf L:



The box itself is made up of brass sheet:







Long way to go yet.

Regards and Happy Easter

Stephen

[Kent Wiik]

Impressing beyond comparison Stephen!
Outstanding craftsmanship, very inspiring build to follow.

Kind regards
Kent

[simon_manning]

great to follow and excellent future build advice, i do like these construction posts, to see an item built from scratch and planned is always interesting. superb stephen, regards simon manning.

[Stephen White]

Both sides on now:





Trial fit of Mr Winstone's very fine lid, which has been waiting two years to emerge from the bits box:





Trial fit on the turret:







Regards

Stephen

[Antony Rowley]

Beautiful job Stephen. Your attention to detail is amazing as is your skill in providing a solution. Your Panzer III is going to be as close to the 1:1 as I think anyone can get.

Thanks Antony

[Brian Leach]

Stephen,

This work of yours continues to stun.

I am with out words for what you ahave done, the kiste is fantastic.

I am a bit jelouse of it.

thank you for sharing,

[Stephen White]

Managed a bit more progress on the Rommelkiste. Here with the top cover on:



The rim is fitted next:





Then the rivets. I couldn't accurately position the rivet lines until the unit was assembled, so I couldn't trammel the rivets. I've had to use cyano and trim them as close as space allows:



Lid on:








Just the lid clasps to fit and the lower mounting bracket to make and it's done.

Regards

Stephen

[simon_manning]

clever cookie!, very nice, regards simon.

[John Fitzsimons]

You should go into production. Very nice. I would love to get the new panzer IV but I think the turret bin will let the model down and I don't have your soldering skills. Well done.

[Tim Bowman]

Totally amazing work!....but then we already knew that.

I just don't know what else to say.

Kind regards
Tim

[Brian Leach]

Stephen,

That is a beautiful job!

Again

Who would have figured

Thanks!

[Robert E Morey]

Stephen,
Great work on the bin. Those bends and angles look like a headache to pull together, but you did a fab job. The seams look great. Fantastic attention to detail, right down to the new rubber band holding the cupola blocks in place! Beautiful P3. -Bob

[leesellars]

Hello Stephen

Fantastic bin nice work

Lee

[Paul Morris]

Hi Stephen.

Just want to echo what everyone else has said ... modelling at its best.
Well done Paul.

[Stephen White]

Guys, thanks for the kind comments, much appreciated.

It's always the last one percent of a job that gets you. Really struggled to mount Steve Winstone's catches - the bin acted as a heat sink and I couldn't get the suface hot enough without melting the catches. It laughed at cyano and epoxy, in both cases the catches just fell off. When in doubt, select a bigger tool - closed my eyes and applied a blow torch - magic, the solder took immediately and nothing else fell off:



Bottom mounting bracket:



Wooden isolating strips which prevented metal to metal contact with the radio antenna:





Then came mounting the Kiste. In a moment of madness, I decided to use the prototypical mounting, using the mounting studs for the two top Traghaken:



Fine, but I then realised I'd painted myself into that corner called the inaccessible nut:



Finally got the four nuts on using a lot of profanities and two magnetic screwdrivers:









Now for the pistol ports and painting.

Oh and for Bob, the class rubber band is an accurate representation of a very vital part on the Pz III, the:

Gummi Kommandanten Kuppel Haltering...........


If anyone would like the templates, I'll dig them out and photograph them.

Regards

Stephen