Rubicon Hetzer

I built the Rubicon Hetzer and painted it using a circle ambush camo scheme.

The Rubicon Hetzer is a great kit, and it went together well.  The only criticism I have is the one hatch should be added to the model earlier in the build to avoid potentially dropping it inside a fully enclosed chassis.  Other than that, this kit went together very well and provided an excellent opportunity to try one of the more difficult camouflage schemes.

I like to add weight to my plastic kits to give them a little more heft on the tabletop.  Here, I glued some pinewood derby weights in the the lower hull.

I decided to hold off on adding the treads and wheels to the body until after prime and base color painting

Part B13, the hatch, is the one thing I think should be added earlier  (in Step 3) to the upper hull.  I didn't drop it into the hull, but it could have easily happened.

I think Step 3 is a better place to add the hatch, part B13.

Primed

Base color added and tread assemble attached.  

Creating a mask for the circle camo pattern.  I find that if I attach a piece of blue painter tape to wax paper, I can cut the stencil/mask out easily, remove the tape, and still have enough adhesive on it to attach it to the model.  The wax paper prevents the tools from sticking to the tape as you cut the stencil.

I used a 1/8-inch hole punch to create the camo patterns.

Started attaching the stencil to the vehicle

Airbrushed the camo colors

Carefully removed the tape

Finished painting, adding decals, and weathering

Immobilized Markers

Here's a super simple project that could add a nice detail to your next WWII game.

Using some tank treads from the Rubicon German Stowage Set 1, I created some immobilized markers to indicate when tracked vehicles have been, well, immobilized.

There isn't much of a "how to" with this project; I basically glued some of the tank treads from the Rubicon German Stowage Set to some bases, primed, painted, and added flock.  The pictures tell the story.

The stowage set is awesome, and it will add a lot of detail to several models.

Some finished markers

Place the markers behind your immobilized vehicle to mark it as such.

Speed Painting

I decided to tackle an experimental project I've been considering for some time.  I wanted to try painting figures on the sprue prior to assembly.  This allows for a lot more airbrush work and faster painting.  The big question I had was, "how bad would the final product look?"

I decided to start small and paint a sprue of Warlord U.S. Infantry and a sprue of U.S. weapons.  This results in five figures and a lot of extra arms, heads, weapons, kit, etc.

In the end, the five figures took 2.5 hours to paint, assemble, and base.  I think adding a few more sprues will take advantage of the economy of scale, and my estimate is 20 figures in 5 to 6 hours.  That will be the next experiment.

I started by painting uniforms, heads, arms, and hands.  The paints used are all Vallejo model color except as noted, and I used a Grex airbrush with a 0.3 mm needle for all the airbrush work.

Colors used:
Trousers: 873 US Field Drab
Jackets and Anklets: 988 Khaki
Boots: 984 Flat Brown
Backpacks, webbing, and pouches: 886 Green Grey
Helmets: 887 Brown Violet
Rifles: 875 Beige Brown and P3's Pig Iron

Painting Uniforms

Rifle base color

Back packs, webbing, shovels

I mounted the legs/torsos to their bases, and at that point, I hand painted all the straps and boots.  The rest of the uniforms had already been airbrushed.

The metallic parts of the rifles were painted by hand while still on the sprue.  Sorry for no pictures of those two steps.

I then assembled the figures and found very few places that needed any hand painted touchups.

I decided to use Army Painter Strong Tone Dip to provide the shading to keep with the theme of speed painting.

Painted and assembled

The dip was allowed to dry overnight, and then the I based the figures.

Below are the finished figures.  I think, considering the method used, they came out pretty well.  They pass the 3-foot, tabletop test.