Armortek

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

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

Kind regards
Kent

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.

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

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

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,

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

clever cookie!, very nice, regards simon.

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.

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

I just don't know what else to say.

Kind regards
Tim

Stephen,

That is a beautiful job!

Again

Who would have figured

Thanks!

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

Hello Stephen

Fantastic bin nice work

Lee

Hi Stephen.

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

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