Friday, December 19, 2014

Panzer III Ausf M Heavy Metal! Tiger Begleitung!

As promised here are some more shots of my latest mad-scientist creations here at Sound Officers Call.  A pair of Panzer III Ms with the side skirts from Plastic Soldier Company.  These are 15mm and I still have 2 more of their brothers to complete.  I'm saving the 5th for the stub-nosed "n" model, the support gun.

 The mighty Panzer III!  You can clearly see evidence of my first DISASTROUS painting attempt.  I used Silly Putty to try and mask the original, botched camo job.  Dont ever do that under any circumstances.  I'm adding that to the wargaming TACSOP...


 The second go around worked much better.  Believe it or not, there are 2 layers of protective finish on these.  I didn't paint all the detail I would have liked to, but again these are for the wargaming table and in my humble opinion, I think they look ok.

I tried some "chipping" and rust with a small foam thing, but it still just looks like dirt.

dont even ask about the TC.  He got all blobbed up with paint from the 2 go-arounds under the spray can...



Look at that unsightly crap all over the skirts!






These will serve either as Tiger escorts or as their own independent unit.  I only plan on buying a box or two of these (PSC REALLY did this kit right!  They were my favorite kit by far to assemble).


I love the Panzer III.  It's one of my all time favorite tanks of the war.  Next 2 or 3 I will not make the same mistakes again.  I was thinking for 1 vehicle, I will paint it in the same scheme as my Tigers, with a slightly darker green pattern first.

Tonight was the conclusion of a 15mm Black Powder game and boy was that a mess.  Command and Control a huge issue and I learned some really important lessons.

Also have a gaggle of T-34s to post as well.  More to follow!!!


11 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. In the next year I'm going to build some forces for the Western Desert, in preparation for Battlegroup Tobruk in early 2016. I'll be doing a platoon or two of Pz IIIs so it's good to get some feedback on these lighter tanks.

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    1. Paul,
      I have the early Panzer III and the heavy Panzer III kits from PSC and both of them are terrific. They are a great fit in with the Zvezda "Art of Tactic" 1/100 Panzer IIIs so I have tons and tons of them. In fact my entire North Africa force is almost entirely Zvezda and PSC.

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  3. Replies
    1. SinSynn,
      Yeah it really let me down. I was horrified when I tried to peel it off and it melted right onto the plastic. I'm surprised I was able to get most of it off.

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  4. Nice job, Silly putty eh? I tried bluetac once...dont do that either!

    Steve

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    1. Steve,
      There is a variation of Blue Tac that I used from elmer's and it works pretty well but you have to move the models inside after you paint them, and you have to take the tac off while the paint is wet. It's a very dangerous affair!

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    2. Indeed it is, im sticking with the paintbrush!

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    3. I wish I had the brush skills to paint good camo on my AFVs. It just never turns out quite right when I try to brush on camo schemes on vehicles!

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  5. They look the part Steven. The Pz III is a good piece of kit you can chuck in any setting.

    Nice work.

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    1. Thanks Paul. I was happy with them but they could have used some more detailing. I'm happy to have vehicles like this in my force - used on every front!

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