Link tip and armor surface

Kent Wiik · Post by **Kent Wiik** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 12:23 pm

Hi all,

For all of you Panther builders I would like you to know about this German Panther web site.

http://www.panther1944.de/panzertruppe.htm

The best on the web if you ask me, but...................it is all in German language

Any how it is full of photos and if needed there is always the AltaVista translation site

One other thing I would like to tell you about is how amazed I am looking at all those Armortek Tigers and no one has consider to take care of the very special surface look of German armor plates

In the smaller 1:35 scale it is no problem and common practice to fix it (described how to do in various books) but here in 1/6th no one bother - so I better change that...............
At my on going Hetzer build I had the same problem but in smaller areas as the kit is a plastic/metal one with the surface taken care on the plastic parts.
How I did is described here:

http://www.armorpax.com/Armorpax/Forum/ ... c.php?t=66

And the result looked like this:

BIG difference from the far to smooth kit steel surface!

The look on the real 1:1 Panther:

And how it looks on a 1:16th Panther
(not my 1:6th! - photos taken from the German web I told you above)

I will do an Early Panther with zimmerit but I will do this armor surface on areas left without zimm (around tools, turret escape hatch and decks)
Hope this inspired some of you to do this

Cheers
Kent

Tim Bowman · Post by **Tim Bowman** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 4:10 pm

Kent

Thats funny, I just read about adding that type of texture the other day on a modelling forum. Great photos/examples.

Thanks for sharing the link.

Also, I said it before but it's worth repeating. Your Hetzer is just awesome! The detailing boggles my mind.

Tim

Kent Wiik · Post by **Kent Wiik** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 4:50 pm

Thanks Tim for those kind words

Hope to have the Panther well up to my Hetzer standard, but this all metal kits is all new to me still it is sooooo fun building

Was the forum talking about adding texture on plastic or metal?
On plastic is easy but on metal it is different as it moves more as the temperature changes.
The way I did it I think will work - at least all still seems ok

Cheers
Kent

Rich Stinchcomb · Post by **Rich Stinchcomb** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 10:06 pm

Hi Kent

Great tip, thanks. I'll have to try that on my Tiger's non-zim'ed surfaces.

Rich

Allan Richards · Post by **Allan Richards** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 2:30 pm

Kent,

Your texturing looks superb. I guess that on my original Tiger I didn't do the texturing for two reasons one was not knowing what the look was really like and the other was the lack of techniques to do it. I've run my Tiger a great deal and found that the model takes quite a bashing and has developed a patina of its own after a few bumps and scrapes. I take it that the flat top deck and turrert roofs were fairly smooth with only the thick heavy armour exhibiting the "rough" look. I did experiment with using P38 car body filler thinned down with cellusose thinners. It was rapidly painted on the surface and then I found dabbing a sponge over it made an even rough finish. This was then lightly sanded to give the final effect. It worked well in practice but I never did it on the tank as I had fitted too much detail and it really needs to be done on the bare plate first. I am doing a similar effect on my Sherman, hoping to make a higher standard model this time.

Kent Wiik · Post by **Kent Wiik** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 3:46 pm

Hi Allan

Thanks for your kind words.

To my knowledge all ww2 German Armor plates had a more or less rough surface - it was from the process in making them.
So that does include the horizontal plates as well.
Please look at this photo of the Late Tiger 1 from Lenio-Sengeri in Russia:

Cheers
Kent

Allan Richards · Post by **Allan Richards** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 4:16 pm

Kent,

I can see the very subtle texture to this plate, which would need carefull replication at 1/6th scale to make it look right. To me its more importatnt to make it look right rather than just to replicate it exactly at 1/6th scale so that overall the model creates the right effect.

That looks a strange photo to me in that the palte is without paint and the welds look new. Is this some restoration project I've missed out on? I had heard that a very delapidated Tiger had been recovered in Russia from an open air location.

Kent Wiik · Post by **Kent Wiik** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 4:28 pm

Hi Allan

The Tiger was used for target practise before until someone told them how rare they were................
It is located in an open air museum and has not been inside for 60 years.
Some of the welds are new made to make him look decent.
Here is a link to more photos (sorry if this is off topic

)

http://tanxheaven.com/zbc/TigerILenino- ... irizbc.htm

Some of its loose parts have been stolen and in fact the whole tank was for sale on EBay

a few years ago.
The man who claimed to be the owner was seen smiling in front of the tank in one auction photo - scary country that Russia!

Cheers
Kent

Kent Wiik · Post by **Kent Wiik** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 4:30 pm

Hi all!

Continue this thread as some of you mail me and ask how I do this â€

cedric meyer · Post by **cedric meyer** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 5:14 pm

Very interesting, clear, great, like always....

Adrian Harris · Post by **Adrian Harris** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 5:40 pm

> the welds look new

According to the Tank Overhaul program, the original welds were done (on the Sherman at least) with a Stainless Steel filler rod, so I would imagine they'll always look better than the aged plate around them.

I've certainly seen heavily weathered Shermans with welds showing brightly through the grime.

Adrian.

Fredrik Jorgensen · Post by **Fredrik Jorgensen** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 6:59 pm

Thanks Kent now i will have to redo all of my patterns.!!!

Hahaha naaah just kidding they look rather nice now when i grinded them down.

Great pics of how you do it.....

Freddie

simon_manning · Post by **simon_manning** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 8:17 pm

if there are any royalties world wide for the "kent treatment"dont forget me for coining the phrase,or we could turn it into song for eurovision,one day all tanks will be made this way.

simon manning

Kent Wiik · Post by **Kent Wiik** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 10:48 am

Hi all,

Just to make no confusion please note that I use putty (not Mr Surfacer) when I do the rolled steel surface.
On my Hetzer I used Italeri putty but on my Panther I have Tamiya putty and both work well.

Cheers
Kent