It's great to be back from vacation! I kid.
After experiencing hobby ennui over the fall, the busy season (read January through April) at my new job kicked in and I got little time in front of the ol' worktable.
But the fall wasn't a complete waste. While I didn't get paint on my Chaos warband in time for Oldhammer Day, I was able to attend the event and had a blast participating in the huge Warhammer battle. That's me in the first picture; handsome devil, ain't I?
In the interim, I decided to jump into Bolt Action (BA) after watching from the sidelines for some time. My parental units, the wonderful people that they are, gave unto me the D-Day Firefight starter kit as a Christmas gift.
It just so happened that Warlord Games was running a sweet deal over the holidays on the Firefight boxset, offering either of BA's newer plastic U.S. Sherman or German Panzer IV kits for free with the purchase of the starter kit. I chose the Panzer.
And while I had several projects sitting on the shelf waiting to be finished, including a couple Cawdor gang members and a Grot tank, I decided to break open the Panzer kit after being inspired by this gorgeous Panzer IV Ausf H by Giuseppe Artqdp (pictures used w/o permission).
The Panzer will be the beginning of a small 500- to 750-point German force I'd like to paint so I can play BA games at my FLGS. The Firefight kit comes with a handful of German infantry and a Hanomag half-track that will be useful for filling out the ranks.
To give the Panzer that lived-in feel and mimic Giuseppe's tank as best I could, I picked up some BA accessories. From left, we have the German Stowage Pack, Jerry Cans, and the Tarps and Rolls Stowage Pack.
The Panzer IV kit itself is fantastic. Both fit and finish are wonderful, and, other than some fiddliness around the turret schürzen, the tank went together like a breeze with the easy-to-read instructions.
And after a couple months buildout, voila:
After experiencing hobby ennui over the fall, the busy season (read January through April) at my new job kicked in and I got little time in front of the ol' worktable.
But the fall wasn't a complete waste. While I didn't get paint on my Chaos warband in time for Oldhammer Day, I was able to attend the event and had a blast participating in the huge Warhammer battle. That's me in the first picture; handsome devil, ain't I?
In the interim, I decided to jump into Bolt Action (BA) after watching from the sidelines for some time. My parental units, the wonderful people that they are, gave unto me the D-Day Firefight starter kit as a Christmas gift.
It just so happened that Warlord Games was running a sweet deal over the holidays on the Firefight boxset, offering either of BA's newer plastic U.S. Sherman or German Panzer IV kits for free with the purchase of the starter kit. I chose the Panzer.
And while I had several projects sitting on the shelf waiting to be finished, including a couple Cawdor gang members and a Grot tank, I decided to break open the Panzer kit after being inspired by this gorgeous Panzer IV Ausf H by Giuseppe Artqdp (pictures used w/o permission).
The Panzer will be the beginning of a small 500- to 750-point German force I'd like to paint so I can play BA games at my FLGS. The Firefight kit comes with a handful of German infantry and a Hanomag half-track that will be useful for filling out the ranks.
To give the Panzer that lived-in feel and mimic Giuseppe's tank as best I could, I picked up some BA accessories. From left, we have the German Stowage Pack, Jerry Cans, and the Tarps and Rolls Stowage Pack.
The Panzer IV kit itself is fantastic. Both fit and finish are wonderful, and, other than some fiddliness around the turret schürzen, the tank went together like a breeze with the easy-to-read instructions.
And after a couple months buildout, voila:
With my inspiration being 1/35th scale and BA models being 1/56th, some compromises were necessary, but I think I managed to capture the spirt of Giuseppe's Panzer.
To achieve the look I deleted the front fenders, right headlamp, and side doors on the turret schürzen, and roughed up the track guards and rear fenders with a Dremel. I used white plastic styrene pieces to build a front bar to hold the extra track links and the side schürzen connector bar.
I also magnetized the turret (forgot to take pictures of this) for ease of storage and transport. Stripped down picture-hanging wire became tow cables and I removed the plastic hangers on the extra road wheels to lay them flat on the front of the tank.
All the metal pieces are from the BA accessory packs. I used Instant Mold and Brown Stuff to make additional track links. And only because I'm a perfectionist did I also chose to fill in some gaps with Green Stuff.
And here is the Panzer after being homogenized with a fresh undercoat in the spray booth:
I'm excited to get some paint on that canvas.
Up next: Could be anything, we'll have to wait and see.
So until next time, keep painting!
