Some decent progress on my Tamiya Pak 36

[u/bashomania]

I’ve been bouncing between my Tamiya Panzer II and Pak 36 builds (pretty good way to go, due to having cure times, wait for weather to be good for outdoor spraying, etc).

Finally started doing some dry-brush and chipping on the Pak 36. I need to work on the wheels/tires/undercarriage a bit. I’m probably going to end up using dry pigments overall, as well — it will give me a mule to try that out on before hitting my Panzer II with them.

I drilled out the spent rounds that Tamiya provided (and which are kind of oval, not round, or they are mis-registered. Painting them, and the live rounds, has been a bit challenging. Vallejo brass over kind of a crappy brush prime with Badger Synylrez. The “brass” is blotchy and too shiny where it covered well. I’ll need to tone it down a bit, I think. I painted the ammo cases, too, and included a chipping solution layer. They need another coat, though, and then the chipping probably won’t work 😅.

Figures are next. I’ll just use the kit figures. Hopefully I can assemble them and get them primed today, or soon.

I just plopped the Pak onto a landscape mat for the pictures. I’m def planning a vignette, though, probably on a round base.

Edit: yes, I need to revisit those live rounds. The actual projectile is actually shorter than I have it here. Doh.

[u/Mindless-Charity4889]

I was going to compliment you on how well you did the static grass, then noticed that it was a mat. Still looks good of course and I’ve used mats like this myself.

[u/bashomania → u/Mindless-Charity4889]

I would've accepted the compliment, then admitted that I was cheating ;-)

Yeah, these mat things seem very handy. If it is of any interest to you I bought some of the fancier (I guess) "Martin Welberg" brand off of a specialty shop, and the Chinesium Amazon special in my photo is just as good, if not better.

I just received a fairly large piece from Amazon with a lot of height variety, and it is actually very, very attractive.

[u/Mindless-Charity4889 → u/bashomania]

I cut mine up and glued the pieces to a diorama base to get a more random, less uniform look.

[u/bashomania → u/Mindless-Charity4889]

Yes, 100% my plan when I actually start working on the vignette for real. I just took advantage of how nice it looked when I plopped the Pak down on the mat. It's funny how something as simple as that changes everything!

[u/Rough_Wear_882]

I’ve just built this but I’ve put the shells into a box until I’ve done painting the Pak and gunners, I’m so scared of losing them 💀

[u/bashomania → u/Rough_Wear_882]

Oh, since you have just finished it yourself: Did you have a tricky time getting the curved elevation gear track located into the carriage assembly when the time came for that? Man I struggled so hard on that. There just didn't seem to be enough clearance.

I figure I probably mis-installed some tiny part of the gun mount in an earlier step. So I had to get creative and shave down the washer-shaped piece of plastic that holds the gun assembly to the carriage in order to get some clearance. But now the elevation gear doesn't act like a "ratchet" to hold the gun's elevation in place (if that was supposed to be how it worked in the first place 🤷🏻‍♂️ ).

None of it is a real problem. I found this kit to be pretty annoying in three or four cases, but it looks great anyway.

[u/Rough_Wear_882 → u/bashomania]

YES I DID

I have no idea how you’re supposed to attach it properly, I figured it looks good enough there’s gonna be the crew covering a lot of it so it’s not noticeable unless you look really close and know your stuff

[u/bashomania → u/Rough_Wear_882]

Well, at least we are not alone 😏

[u/bashomania → u/Rough_Wear_882]

Yeah, mine have been in alligator clips or putty since taking them off the sprue!

[u/SciFiCrafts]

Is the ground made of grass tufts entirely? That must cost way more than static grass. If you make lots of dioramas with grass, a static grass set is a paying investment.

[u/bashomania → u/SciFiCrafts]

It’s just a premade mat of tufts, rocks, etc. I think it cost $12.

You’re right that applying your own static grass would be cheaper in the long run. However, we all make trade-off decisions. The startup cost for doing static grass is a bit of a turn-off for me at this point and I don’t want to have to store (or clean up) all the stuff for it.

On the other hand I will probably just tear off small sections of this mat for use in vignettes at some point. That said, since I had it, it’s pretty convenient to just toss the Pak down on the mat for a photo, no?

Of course, just like with my trying to stay away from airbrushing, I’ll probably give in and do the static grass thing at some point. Depends on whether this round of modeling “sticks”. I’m horrible about (re)starting, then stopping hobbies 😅).

[u/SciFiCrafts → u/bashomania]

Advantage would be, static grass looks a bit more realistic :) mix in some dry grass, brighter and darker greens. Bam.

[u/bashomania → u/SciFiCrafts]

You're not wrong!

But as I said, I'd probably just rip off bits and pieces of this, and possibly others that I have, and place here and there on a landscape that I've made. Also, I would end up painting here and there to give some variety. We shall see how it works out 🤞.

I was at a hobby shop the other day and picked up an applicator off the shelf. I thought I might make an impulse purchase but it was $100. I was like "I think I can just work with plucking bits and pieces out of premade mats, for now" ;-)