Pz III New Build

Stephen White · Post by **Stephen White** » Wed Jul 24, 2024 1:47 pm

Stotten's Pz iii Ausf N has had an outing to Middle Wallop to celebrate its refurbishment. New figures, new spare tracks and the sandbags which appear on original photos of the tank in Tunisia.

The sandbags are close enough to scale size but sit awkwardly and look too pristine. To fix this, I gave them a generous coat of hair spray, which is the secret to getting any material based object to sit where you put it and to keep its folds and creases. I lined the tank surfaces with plastic bags to protect the underlying paint and weathering. Once they're dry, I stuck them together with PVA - this will help with holding them in position.

As with any weathering, it's about layers. The first set of layers were done with three shades of pigment. It's absorbed by the material so doesn't need fixer. The second layer is an oil based wash in a range of shades. Once they're done, knowing when to stop, the result is still a bit stark and unnatural. The final step is to apply a layer of dust - in this case a light, low pressure dusting by airbrush to bring the colours together and tone them down.

The effects after each stage are quite subtle. I've tried to get the white balance of the pictures sorted so they show under artificial light but I normally switch the lights off after each application to check in natural light .

Job done.

: Stotten's Pz III Ausf N in Tunisia showing the original sandbags

: Naked sand bag before hair spray fixer

: After a generous application

: The hair spray holds the folds and shape

: Sandbags fixed together with PVA

: Application of layers of pigment

: Three shades of brown, light, medium and dark brown

: Using oils to make dark stains and oily marks

: Final layer - light dusting by airbrush

: End result

simon_manning · Post by **simon_manning** » Wed Jul 24, 2024 6:01 pm

It's like getting an old Masterpiece out after a long storage period, you forget how good it is, regards simon.

Stephen White · Post by **Stephen White** » Wed Jul 31, 2024 3:14 pm

Simon, thanks, appreciated.

I upgraded the spare tracks on the hull toe plate and the turret top with Liam's outstandingly accurate Pz III steel tracks. This is how I weathered them. It's quite a time consuming process, as with any weathering, to build up layers of colour. The same process works for running tracks too, with the addition of a coat of satin acrylic varnish to seal things. The process stages consist of applying primer/base coat, silvering worn areas, oil paint rendering and pigment colouring to create a patina, application of terrain effects such as mud and, in the case of this Tunisian theatre tank, dust.