DML Stug III G Early

Here is another smart kit from DML. This time it is their Stug III G. This build has just been a blast. This build is completely oob. I started with the interior so I can keep the hatches open.

Note: All airbrushing is done with Tamiya acrylics thinned with automotive lacquer thinner.

The interior was painted in the typical early style where from the bulkhead up it was an offwhite color, and the bottom portion was a greenish blue color. I mixed the colors by eye until they looked right. The white was just flat white mixed with buff and a little skin tone, and the greenish blue was field gray, buff, white, and a couple drops of medium blue. I wanted it to be a little darker becuase it is so far down through the open hatches. After the interior was primed with surface primer, I painted everything their respective colors. I then went back and hand painted the radio equipment with Vallejo paints.







I then did a burnt umber oil wash on the entire interior, followed by a black pin wash in the recessed areas and around details. Then I shipped again with a piece of foam and Vallejo hull red. After all that, I again mixed up ground up pastels and piments and made the interior dirty. I also made a couple posters, a pic of my family, and also a map to customize it a little.











The exterior is now complete, so I will be moving onto that soon.

Here is the completed exterior build. There are a lot of small parts, but it went together very easily.









I am using the magic tracks on this build. I just glued a few links at a time and made up short runs. I have more sag than I would have liked, but it is not too bad.





This Stug is going to be in overall dark yellow representing one from the battle at Monte Cassino.

Now the painting process has begun on the exterior. I am going for a slight variation of the popular color modulation style. I do take a slightly different approach to it though. Instead of picking a point of light from a certain angle, I just tend to highlight raised areas. The keys to doing this style is a dual action air brush, thin ;ayers of paint, and a lot of patients. A lot. Since it is finally nice outside and not too humid, I decided to paint outside.

First: I mixed Tamiya surface primer with automotive lacquer thinner. The ratio was abotu 1:1. I always like to let the primer set for at least 24 hours, but with the lacquer thinner it only needs about 30 min. to set. So that is nice if you need to lay paint down quickly. Since I did not have to lay paint down right away, I let the primer sit for 48 hours.



Second: Preshading. This is usually done with semi gloss black, but since I was out of it, I used flat black. The key to lay it down in all the shadowed areas. Basically think about how the light will be hitting it from directly overhead. I also paint the whole bottom and rear plate.





Third: I lay down the base coat. For this I used thinned dark yellow. The key to this step is thin layers of paint. This is the reason a dual action is better. I am sure you may be able to do it with a single action, but I am no where near that good to do it. The reason thin layers is so important is because I did not want to cover up my pre shading. Too many times i have seen people go thorugh great lengths to preshade, but then cover it all up with a heavy base coat. What I did was basically misted the dark areas just to tint them yellow.





Fourth: Highlight layer. This is dark yellow lightened with deck tan and buff. I did not use white because white tends to bleach out the color, all I wanted to do was lighten it with different shades. Then it was again misted on and built up in certain areas. I use this stage to highlight certain panels just to add some contrast from one panel to the next to help bring out the various details.







Fifth: Higher highlights. This stage brings out the highest areas of higlights where the most light will be hitting. I used the highlight mix but this time I did add white because I wanted a more bleached out look due to the light hitting it.





What you see here is about 2 1/2 hours worth of work. It is quite a bit of work, but to me it is worth it. I know right now it is looking pretty light and not too yellow, but the color will be brought out in the weathering stages. I still have three more steps to go before weathering. Next I have to hand paint the raised details in another shade, then I have to seal the whole thing with clear yellow, then I am going to paint the markings using stencils.