Sd.Kfz. 7 half-track, post-war

[Jakko]

Yes … I’m wondering about that myself, to be honest. First will be red-brown and green camouflage, though, trying to replicate what is visible in the real photos and improvising the rest in a similar style. Probably tomorrow

 

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
Nice to see this at the paint stage. Tracks are awkward to paint. There always seem to be missed bits.
Looking at the very first photo and given the time of year I'd say weathering would probably be limited to rain streaked dirt. Being newish and not under strong sun faded paint would be minimal even if late in the war the Germans were using poor paint. Any damage has been covered by the build itself.
Jim

 

[Mark1]

Your doing a grand job there jakko.

 

[Jakko]

Looking at the very first photo and given the time of year I'd say weathering would probably be limited to rain streaked dirt. Being newish and not under strong sun faded paint would be minimal even if late in the war the Germans were using poor paint.

I was thinking along those same lines, yes. The paint seems to be in good order in the photos of the real one, even the camouflage covers well so has been applied better than on many vehicles. Sun-bleaching would be minimal, I think. The autumn of 1944 was dark, wet and stormy, and the winter of 1944–45 saw a period of heavy storms, frost and much snow (I just looked it up ) so not much opportunity for paint to fade either.

 

[adt70hk]

Jakko

Yet again, some amazing work. Very well done.

Andrew

 

[Jakko]

Before adding the camouflage, I had to mask the engine bay. I started looking at how to do that with masking tape, when I suddenly had the brainwave of just using the kit’s engine panels, propped up with some Blu-Tack:



The grill is also still loose, as you can tell by the Blu-Tack behind it too, and then I just added the bonnet with some tape:



The tape on the sides of the cab is because if you look at the photos of the real thing, you can work out that it had its camouflage sprayed while the tilt over the cab was on

All that remained then was to spray the camouflage, copying it as well as possible from the photos of the real vehicle:



On the right side of the vehicle, it’s nearly all speculative, of course, because of not having any pictures of that side available:



This used Vallejo 71.043 US Olive Drab and 71.041 RAL 8017 Rotbraun, though note that this particular bottle of the OD is far too green for American vehicles, but probably right for German ones:

Here, I used the one on the left, while for American vehicles I would take the other one.

In the load bed and the cab, I used the Steve Zaloga method of spraying random blobs of a paler colour to break up monotony of the large dark yellow areas.

 

[Mini Me]

Brilliant masking of the engine compartment......almost as if it was made for it!!

 

[Jakko]

You’d almost think that, wouldn’t you?

 

[adt70hk]

Coming on nicely Jakko...... An inspired use of the vehicles parts!!

 

[Jakko]

Though I’m not really a fan of pre-mixed washes, I decided to use a Mig one intended for dark yellow on this model. I did some tests first, on the underside of the load bed and the inside of the chassis below it because those will be largely out of sight, and I concluded that this Mig wash needs to be thinned about 1:1 with water if you’re going to use it as a simple, all-over wash. So I did, by putting some on the model with my brush, then dipping it in water to add about the same amount of that and smearing it out.



On the vertical surfaces I used a large, wide brush to create vertical strokes after the wash had dried a it but was still wet. This went reasonably well, but the wash changes its intensity to some degree as it dries, I found afterward. It also turns the model darker, as I had expected, but what I hadn’t anticipated was that it makes it much more matt as well.

Anyway, to try and lighten the model’s shade a bit again, I drybrushed the dark yellow parts with the Mr. Hobby paint I had used for the main coat. After that, I also drybrushed those same parts with an old Rackham colour called Parchment Yellow, both to lighten the model and highlight the details:



You may also spot that I painted part of the upper surface of the front of the cab with dark yellow, because I suddenly realised I had forgotten that the windshield would almost certainly have been on the vehicle when it was sprayed. So before the wash, I taped off the front half and painted the rear dark yellow with a brush.

 

[RonGlass]

Though I’m not really a fan of pre-mixed washes, I decided to use a Mig one intended for dark yellow on this model. I did some tests first, on the underside of the load bed and the inside of the chassis below it because those will be largely out of sight, and I concluded that this Mig wash needs to be thinned about 1:1 with water if you’re going to use it as a simple, all-over wash. So I did, by putting some on the model with my brush, then dipping it in water to add about the same amount of that and smearing it out.

View attachment 445855View attachment 445856

On the vertical surfaces I used a large, wide brush to create vertical strokes after the wash had dried a it but was still wet. This went reasonably well, but the wash changes its intensity to some degree as it dries, I found afterward. It also turns the model darker, as I had expected, but what I hadn’t anticipated wad that it makes it much more matt as well.

Anyway, to try and lighten the model’s shade a bit again, I drybrushed the dark yellow parts with the Mr. Hobby paint I had used for the main coat. After that, I also drybrushed those same parts with an old Rackham colour called Parchment Yellow, both to lighten the model and highlight the details:

View attachment 445857

You may also spot that I painted part of the upper surface of the front of the cab with dark yellow, because I suddenly realised I had forgotten that the windshield would have been on the vehicle when it was sprayed. So before the wash, I taped off the front half and painted the rear dark yellow with a brush.

Good thinking about the top of that cowl Jakko, I probably would have missed that

 

[Jakko]

So had I

 

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
Masking with the kit parts was a real lightbulb moment. Paintwork looking good. I've never had much luck with water based washes but yours looks good.
Jim

 

[Jakko]

Masking with the kit parts was a real lightbulb moment.

I was looking at the model, holding masking tape in my hand and wondering how I was ever going to neatly tape up the line along the bottom where the camouflage should stop … I wasn’t going to add the bonnet, until I noticed in the photo of the real vehicle that the small vertical front part of the cab was almost entirely painted with one of the camouflage colours.

I've never had much luck with water based washes but yours looks good.

My main problem with Vallejo acrylics is how to clean them out of my airbrush, since water doesn’t really work to clean them out and they don’t want to dissolve in cellulose thinner at all

 

[Mark1]

I use the vallejo AB cleaner, seems to do the job pretty well.

 

[RonGlass]

I was looking at the model, holding masking tape in my hand and wondering how I was ever going to neatly tape up the line along the bottom where the camouflage should stop … I wasn’t going to add the bonnet, until I noticed in the photo of the real vehicle that the small vertical front part of the cab was almost entirely painted with one of the camouflage colours.


My main problem with Vallejo acrylics is how to clean them out of my airbrush, since water doesn’t really work to clean them out and they don’t want to dissolve in cellulose thinner at all

Ive been using general-purpose kitchen countertop spray cleaner (Lysol, 409, etc) for about 5 years now with no problems.

 

[Tim Marlow]

VJ airbrush cleaner or suchlike works just fine for me as well, as does windex window cleaner Jakko.

 

[Jakko]

I may have to investigate and find something like that … I’ve tried water, isopropanol and cellulose thinners, and oddly, water is the only one that sort of works. But even then I still need to scrub the airbrush clean with a rag on a cocktail stick to get it all out.

 

[Tim Marlow]

Amazed that cellulose thinners doesn’t move it to be honest Jakko. It seems to strip anything it touches….Windex is very good, actually. It’s also good for stripping models if you need to refinish things.

 

[Jakko]

Exactly, that’s why I tried it, but Vallejo seems to be impervious to it: the thinner just sits on top of the paint that’s in the airbrush.