Well, Andy's Stug build has inspired me to delve into the stash and pull this out - I actually pulled out 3 kits, the Academy Grant and Academy Hetzer but this one got the vote

My wife has gone on hols to Turkey with my eldest daughter and there somehow seems less work to do around the house when she isnt here So this is a time filler while shes away!

I plan to set this on a very small base in winter scene of the Russian/German front 1943, but we will see how that goes. BTW, the kit supplied 5 tank crew figures but these only had a 2 man crew so I wont be using them all.

I have the Eduard etch for this but no aftermarket tracks, only the kit separate links supplied, no rubber band tracks either. The kit itself is very simple and wont take long at all if you dont include track links, so I will most likely build this in one day and post the progress pics all at once.
It's the painting and weathering of the winter cammo that will take the time on this one

Hope to update this post later with the basic build complete.

Oooh house to yourself, hope your wife doesn't read your post

Look forward to seeing your weathering process as I'm soaking up all the tank weathering info I can at the moment

Nice start Steve and even better now with the second one going in the dip too

Hi good to see you made start on them both now.looking good.look forward to next update.cheers mick.

Well, I thought Id change the plan, I was going to build these side by side throughout the build but got carried away on the Panzer, I think is was because it was so nice just to build with no interruptions with adding photo etch.

The panzer as said earlier is going to be knocked out with track damage and a couple or three shell holes from a 76mm T-34 having a pop at it. I planned on having the tank blocking the T-70's progress on a mud road.

Anyway, the panzer is nearly complete - I will move on tomorrow with some filter layers to tone it all down, paint the tools, add some fresher rust (more orange) tracks, satin coat and of course the damage. I have some pics of shell damage and the holes are surprisingly small so I plan on one hit on a wheel with scarring and a track break and another hit maybe under the fender.

So the pics below show it as is, bear in mind that the filters will blend things in a bit better tomorrow, mud and pigments wont be added until I have the dio mud colour sorted.

I wanted very heavy weathering on the dead tank, the T-70 will be a bit lighter (not by much though)

Steve

Looks fantastic Steve, I really love the heavy weathering you've done

Nicely done

Looks really cool Steve how about a shell hole in the front idler where the track is broken, that would look good I reckon?

I would remove the front wheel where the track is broken and reproduce damage there as the doctrine of the time for anti-tank gunners was to blow off the tracks first then blow up the tank when it couldnt move. If the first shot was on target this usually removed the front traction gear that usually splayed the vehicle side on for an easy thin side armour shot.

Regards

Andy

Hi Steve looking real good there.luv the weathering on the panther, she certainly seen some service at for sure.look forward to more cheers mick.