I'm sure that I've read somewhere that the inside of the turret hatch doors were originally white, but out in the field they were painted the same colour as the outside of the tank. Otherwise the off-white colour stood out too much and made a good target. I'll go through a few books tomorrow.
My books are about 1600 miles away, but I seem to remember that the first Pz III Ls were kind of a special limited batch, or so I gathered from the panzer tracts 3-3? I also seem to remember that they may have gone to N. Africa, that being true, could it be that the cast hinge is one of that limited batch and done up a little differently? It could have been. I have other pictures of that vehicle which show the scalloped, welded join flange for the upper and lower hull, so it was an early version most likly. (I think, I am afraid I am beginning to sound as if I know what I am talking about, which definately not true!)
Anyway, it seems the welded hinges are the common type, has anyone a Panzer Tracts handy?
The original german engineering drawings of the side hatches in the Trojca book definitely show small welds around the side hatch hinges for all Ausf from L to N. Equally, they show no welds around the sehslitzplatter or vision ports. There are quite a few non-standard features on the Bovvy Pz III, so I wouldn't necessarily take it as a pattern. Original photos are really the best guide.
Yes I think the welds on the hinges are probably okay, conversely it looks like the welds on the vision ports are not and I need to remove them.
As to the white door interiors, it makes sense whkat has been said, but I imagine either way that after the tank being in action for a while that they would end up being chipped and covered in grime and smoke soot.
Looks great! I can only imagine how nice your PIII will look when your weathering is completed. I don't know about using the hairspray technique, your chips look pretty darn convincing as they are on this tank.
Excellent job!
happy tanking
Tim
"So long as one isn't carrying one's head under one's arm, things aren't too bad." – Erwin Rommel
Weathering is definitely one of those "arts" where knowing when to stop is the hard part.
I definitely think less is more in this case.
I think I just have enough of the RAL8000 left that I bought from www.kommiss.com who now seem to be out of business. I am not going to put a red oxide coat on the turret as it is much easier to cover the gray primer than red oxide, and this paint is hard to apply (takes many coats).
I have a question about the texture you have made,
it looks very good. Can you explain wat product do you use and how you bring it on?
And do you put the texture on the bare metal?
I have just followed the techniques used by others on this forum (thanks guys!)
What I do, is first I spray etch primer on the turret. You could put texture direct on the bare metal, but I think the primer gives a better surface for the texture to adhere to.
Before adding texture I give the primer a very light sanding, then I use Mr Surfacer 500 which I dab on in random areas with an old paintbrush. Then I wait for a few seconds for it to start to set and then dab it again with the paintbrush to raise some texture. Once it is dry, I sand the texture to flatten it out a bit, spray some more primer and look at the effect. I then repeat the process but this time adding fewer patches of texture, some on top of the previous texture, sand and re-prime. Remember keep it random.
I then sand it again to make the texture really subtle. re-prime and then I am done. You can keep repeating this process until you are happy with the look.
Remember that on the Panzer III the metal plate surface is a lot smother than the thicker plate on the heavy tanks so don't over do it. Look at the pictures of the Bovington Panzer to judge the amount of surface texture.
I have now finished weathering the rear deck. As well as adding chips/scrapes to the rest of the deck, I also added some wear marks where the effect of sand and boots have worn through the RAL 8000 to reveal the german gray beneath. I have also add streaking on the rear of the tank to simulate where it has rained and washed dirt/ sand of the tank. I also added some oil marks where I imagine oily hands have held the engine covers, plus oil dropped on the rear deck when topping up etc. Also a considerable amount of oil around the armored started handle cover. (this is based on the photo on page 33 of Panzer Tracts N. 3-3).
Regards
David
Last edited by David Da Costa on Mon Aug 16, 2010 3:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Thank you for the info, the only problem is in Belgium i cant find mr surfacer 500, i know that Tamiya have a liquid surface primer maybe that gives the same texture, that i have to find out.
Or maybe i can use a dremel tool to make the texture, i dont know for the moment wat i'am gonna use
