During mid-October I was rushing to get this piece finished, so that I could take it to the Ajax model show, which was held last weekend.

I will try to give a quick summary of the last steps done in this build:

JSU:

– Added fuel spills on the fuel tank using AK’s fuel stains (025). Just brushed them on with fine brush in two layers, first one using thinned wash and the other applied without thinner.

– Added mud stains at the rear, again using AK’s Earth effects (017)

– Airbrushed smoke stains around the exhaust at the rear deck. Now this was bit tricky. I used Tamiya Smoke acrylic, which looked nice but was glossy. Too glossy. So to fix his I had to put one thin layer of Vallejo Flat thinned with Tamiya Acrylic thinner, afterwards the look was fine.

Base:

After preshading, multiple layers of Tamiya acrylics was applied to the base ground cover, changing from darker to lighter colours: Khaki Drab, Flat Earth, Buff. I take care to only airbrush the paints at the right angle to the base and do not try to cover the ground 100%. This will create natural effects of shade, which can be strengthened using heavy oil washes.

Pieces of concrete and pavement stones were painted in different shades of grey (Tamiya Dark Sea Grey XF-54 and IJN Gray XF-75). I was careful with the weathering as the pieces of the plaster tended to chip away leaving white spots that had to be covered again.

The electric pole and the pieces of the metal construction were painted with a thin coat of the Tamiya Hull Red. On the electric pole I have applied heavy wash using oils of the rust shade. Metal profiles were weathered using mig pigments – Old Rust.

Styrene walls of the base were painted with Tamiya Semi-Gloss Black. The wooden part of the base were stained with Minwax Wood finish and sealed with Minwax Semi-Gloss Polyurethane (both can be bought in Home Depot).

Tarps on the Panther turret and JSU were sculpted from the Magic Sculp.

One thing that I was particularly happy about its final look are the numbers on the turret. These are from a spare decal set which I have applied my trusty combination of Micro Sol & Micro Set – this i really a must for any serious modeller. This was the first time I tried to put on decal on a surface with zimmerit finish and I was very much surprised about the final look. The numbers sat on perfectly, the film around them (I have decided to put them on together fearing that if I apply the decal as separate digits, their alignment will be wrong) little less so but still it is very hard to see this. This is very helpful experience for future projects…

There were few other things I had planned to add such as wires hanging from the electric pole and machine gun on the JSU, which I was not able to find on my desk (I know I had built it, but then it mysteriously disappeared; I am wondering if our cats might know something about it, occasionally they sneak into my basement den…).

So that’s it. The model is declared finished. It was quite interesting build and I have tested bunch of new products and techniques. Already looking forward to the next ones.

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