Of blue tac and Dunkelgelb...

 My biggest failing/annoyance as a painter is that I don't have an airbrush. Being an equipment snob, I want a DECENT one, so will wait until I can get something nice, but my lack of said equipment mixed with my massive fondness for late war German armour is a real pain, especially when trying to get that soft camo look.
Either I have to spend hours doing something with a brush that would otherwise take ten minutes, or improvise and have a hard edged camo which has atleast got a smooth coat finish compared to the same effect with a brush.
Basically, I map out the desired camo pattern over the dunkelgelb with blue tac, works a treat, but I might add you need a lot! So in future I might just use this method for my 15mm tanks, as it is much more manageable at that size, with kits this big it takes a while to spread it all out.
Stage 1, both complete kits, dunkelgelb sprayed with Tamiya dark yellow (random note, the pot dark yellow seems to dry a slightly different shade to the spray version....barely noticable, but good to know all the same)

 Stage 2...advanced BLUE camouflage over the Tiger ready for its green coat, you can see I've already done the brown.

 Stage 3...The Jagdtiger, freshly coated in brown. Just using the standard Tamiya aerosol paints.

 Stage 4....Peel away the blue tac to reveal, nice smooth edges and flat finish. Ofc I will have to go around touching up edges with a brush, but much quicker than solely using a brush.

 Stage 5....Repeat with the green, and all the base colours are sorted!

One thing that I will say before I forget, throughout doing this I became increasingly aware that I didn't think it through, it would have made more sense to spray the vehicle either brown or green and then do the dunkelgelb last, as that is the larger surface area, would in a way save some tac heh. But quite pleased with how it turned out.

A surprise visit from the Tau empire :O

Right, I have been a warhammer 40,000 fanatic since I was 5....yes 5....my grandad unwittingly bought me a set of empire Halberdiers, ollllld school ones, all in the same fixed positiion, he clearly assumed they were prepainted and all....nope, but I loved them. Hooked ever since.
Now got in touch with a friend recently, she was going to be down my way with her son, so we were planning to hang out, went to Tangmere museum, Sussex (old RAF base) to see some REAL warmachines ;)
Anyway, turns out she had a "box" of warhammer Tau, that her sister had dispensed with, so asked me if I wanted them. Yes please, SOLD!
So got a nice little package it seems in the end, in a non descript brown box, under all the bubble wrap, this is what I found...

 

 A big oooooooh, on my part. This is what was actually in there, quite a nice selection....

 Oh, and this little beauty, Shas'O r'myr's....or lord of apostrophes it seems. But none the less, a forgeworld model, I have never owned a forgeworld item before hah, so is a nice novelty for me :D

 Label detail....even though I am one of those sad hoarders/filing obsessives so I have practical ever instruction booklet/packaging from all my kits/models, ever! (My dads fault, when I was little he showed me that he still had the instructions for his old airfix kits from the late 60's....the idea stuck :D )

Definite update on these beauties soon :)
Oh, and at final count the package contained...
2x broadside battlesuits
1x crisis battlesuit
1x forgeworld apostrophe lord
1x etheral
6x vespids
8x firewarriors
and 3 pathfinders.

Tiger I - 1:35 build.

 Right, these are some progress pics of my Tamiya late model Tiger 1, specifically kit 35146.
This was actually a really enjoyable build, despite the usual hour spent on JUST the wheels heh, anyone who has ever built a model Tiger in any scale will know what I mean....layers upon layers of wheels :D
Nice crisp crafting on the wheels and track sprockets.

 Finished build, I really like the turret, very smooth and the MG34 mount and gun itself are really nice, as well as sturdy.

 Turret close up.

 Shoot it in the ass!

 Hatches as I want them, will be having this as an "at rest" diorama, but haven't yet decided what to do with the chassis hatches.

 Here we have the finished Sherman and the finished (save the tracks) Tiger, I'll mount the tracks after I've got the base undercoating done.

 and herrrrrre, we have the Tiger actually looking small, next to it's bigger hybrid older cousin.

 I think I pointed out before that despite the box artwork having the tank with full zimmerit the kit itself has absolutely none, which is a tad annoying, seeing as the large majority of the Tigers that were in operation around the mid 44 period, and or survived normandy continued to retain the zimmerit coat.
As you can see below, it's a problem easily resolved, I did have a go at doing it the "manly" way, with putty and a steady hand, but I think I'll save that for when I'm a bit more experienced, as it went pretty wrong, and I think I might need a slightly firmer putty to make it look convincing, apparently Tamiya actually make one for the purpose, so shall have to look into that.
But in the end I nabbed a set of brass etchings, for a Tiger I, from Emhar if I remember correctly, about a fiver. They look good, but in hindsight they are a real pain to get to stick, and they are even more of a pain when working on the turret due to all the curves and angles, as these metal things do not take kindly to bending.
Other main complaint with these is that even after just the base dunkelgelb coat, the zimmerit is only vaguely obvious, unlike the usual ripple that can be seen straight away, shall see if appropriate washes can sort that.

1:35 Jagdtiger build completion

Well I have practically finished the Jagdtiger, the main body at least, here we go in a few stages...
I will mention now, that despite it being on of the last things I had to do, the hooks on the sides for spare track links, while pretty awesome accuracy wise, and useful for having them represented if for example tracks have fallen away, are FIDDLY, and numerous heh ;)

 Above, All the main chassis done, all that remains is the spare tracks, drivers and machine gunners hatches, and the track guards and other paraphernalia.
 

 Nice detailing on the doors, with mobile hinges ofc, though I think I will keep them open, despite the easily removable roof of the gun compartment, it still lends a little character and a peek into the interior

 Rear view looking down into the gun compartment :)

Jagdtiger 1:35 Build begun.

Hello hello, well I'm building the Sherman, and jagdtiger alongside one another, and have half started De-spruing the tiger, my first impressions of the jagdtiger is excellent detail!! Really nice lines and sculpting, and a very substantial feel to the pieces.
it is slow going, the kit comes with a choice of 1:72 rubberised track strip, or individual piece plastic tracks, but not quite as individual as the Tiger which has "Dragon" style totally seperate track links, about 200 of them. This is brilliant for more interesting modelling and realism, but for the jagdtiger I have a very basic display base in mind, so will stick with the simpler rubbers as they still look awesome :)

Just below is a side shot of the finished lower carriage, it's a brilliant angle to demonstrate the sheer length of this beast. Sherman looking sheepish in the background.

 Here's the carriage next to the chassis top, you can see that the rubberised tracks are just as nice as any individuals here, nice convincing sag, at least enough for my purposes anyway.

 heh, I love this picture, the completed M4 side shot with the Jagdtiger, bear in mind here that they are right next to each other, flank to flank. The insane size and caliber difference of the main gun is almost hilarious :D

 Nice close up of the detailing on the gun mechanisms, the breech is beautifully crafted, and the whole gun assembly rotates on a proper style runner and has elevation too, I will point out here for others that the recoil guard is quite fragile, though I think I broke mine by accident getting it off the sprue. Nothing a bit of superglue and gentle smoothing won't fix.

Same angle, with the gun fully lowered, better view into the gun breech.

All in all very pleased with how this is going, no major hiccups or qualms with the kit yet, despite initially being a little vexed at how many pieces the gun itself was in, but the reward of all that detail is more than worth it :)

Tamiya Jagdtiger and friends arrive.

Today my Tamiya orders arrived, had a bit of an accidental checkout fest online ;)
Purchased an early model Jagdtiger, a Late production Tiger I and an M4 Sherman, as well as a selection of figure and accessory kits...

As you can see the box is pretty hefty, I love the artwork, even without my childhood obsession with the ultimate heavyweight of the panzerjager world. It states it's a fruhe (insert umlaut) i.e early model version, typically the earlier test types mounted with an 88mm gun, but from rummaging in the kit it seems you have a choice of building it with the 88 OR the rather chunkier 128mm L55...guess which I'll be going with lol.
The others kits I got in the same order....

It's all by Tamiya, the late model Tiger I at the top, which just to clarify, does NOT come with zimmerit modelled on, which is annoying/vaguely misleading as the artwork has full zimmerit coat. Not to worry I have also ordered a brass details zimmerit set to update it.
The Sherman is an early version, thought it was a good place to start with my first allied tank ;)
The G.I's are for the Sherman, the tank crew will be going on the Tiger I, and the the other two sets, both in winter greatcoats and such, will be saved for a later diorama I have in mind, probably a Tiger II Ardennes....going through the stereotypes here :D
Oh and the lonesome beasty is my first ever 1:35 kit, a late model Panther G, which is vaguely finished, but was all in all a test run of the scale, so there are a few mistakes and painting errors that need rectifying.

Awesome, 12 months worth of kit time here, shall update with progress pics as i go :)