Hi Fellow Modellers,
First of all, I have to thank a friend, Alessandro, who unfortunately has stopped modeling for too much work (yes, in that there is still someone in Italy ...).
He gave me this stuff, already with correct modelkasten early tracks.

I found this picture on the internet, too intriguing. From there to throw myself over was a snap. But the Italeri is a middle way between the initial version and later. Duty to do some improvements.



Due to the recognizable hole-gap cap on the gun mantlet, this is the No. 112, still running but with the burnt bow, but I have no reference to how and why.

As told, the first thing to do is to change tracks for early pattern ones. Modelkasten are easy to build and realistically workable.



Then all tool and mudguard supports are puttied up / deleted. Early style mudguards followed the lower hull line. This way they were slightly bent downwards.



Hull too needs some putty. This one is waterbased, and all excess is then removed with alcohol, thus it needs no sanding.

A pair of useful books, the left one to know the various changes in tooling fitting, the right one has some interesting pictures about earliest tigers unloaded from fahr prahms in tunisia.



All details are then added with plasticard / pressed tin rods / aluminium food shelves. Tow cable fitting of first tigers was reversed, with loopholes fitted on the back, so all hull hooks are different from the kit's ones.



Back mudguards were of a narrow type, without external hinged plates. Also muffler's armored caps must be omitted, and hinged covers added.
Another typical feature were the bent metal strips on lower hull to support spare track sections.

Beautiful job! All the extra work you've done so far is really worth it.I can't wait to see the finished product.

Jeff

I absolutely love this kind of work, regardless of subject.
Great start!

Thanks so much, Guys !

It's time to start painting, my favourite steps...

Now i needed a rusty and uneven base, to ease subsequent steps. A first layer of "rustbrown primer" was thinned with tamiya acrylic thinner, then airbrushed onto the whole model. The result is a dark brown plain color.

Then a second, randomly sprayed thin layer of the same primer, very heavily thinned with isoprohyl alcohol, adds a very altered and dotted rust effect.
I find this is particularly useful for a first, complex rusty attitude to tracks.






The whole is then left to dry one day, for a good hardening.

Very nice work bringing this old kit to life .. good eye for details.. Very interesting primer painting .. I'm interested to see how it will all come together.. keep the pictures coming .

Rick

The base paint. A slightly more greenish hue, compared to a pure ral 8000. Do not ask me the brand, it's a home made mix of acrylic components, coming straight from raw materials.
The burnt bow and mufflers, are left unpainted. Primer colour is also left to appear here and there through the paint, like on wheels.

To add shape, lights and shadows, I find easier and faster to directly use transparent filters, instead of re-mixing lighter and darker variants of the colors.
This also adds different tones, to an otherwise monotone color.

PAINT FADING 2 was airbrushed on upper spots and plate borders.

A little overdoing is welcome, since the addition of further colors (more filters, red numbering, dirt and so on...) will tone down this step.

giuseppe,

Great work! I'll be watching.

great work guiseppe!

May I ask how long you wait before wiping off the excess putty?
I recently purchased your product and had some really good results with it. The only problem I have is that i sometimes wipe away almost all of the putty!

Very nice, Giuseppe. The kit looks quite accurate. Clean scratchbuild and the paint is top notch.

Great work!.

Regards from the south

Alvaro

Nice work I'll be watching this one for sure
I have a bunch of your products they work great
The paint fading is my favorite of them

Beautiful work so far Giuseppe, looking forward to seeing further progress on this.

Cheers,

Too good comments Guys, ...no critics ??

@ Motives : e mail me a picture and i'll show you how.

Step 2 is an overall filter with "acid filter", a very light and thinned overspray of it over the whole tank to tone it up a bit.
Then shadows added on lower sides and recesses with "grey blue ageing".

Can't see a thing wrong with your build phase, and you seem to be handling the paint well enough so far. Personally, I'm not a fan of the green tint in the base color, but as you pointed out, you still have additional work to be done that may change that.

I sent you a PM!

With a bit of cut-and-reposition, the n.112 can be achieved directly from kit's decals. They are put on with the CRYTAL LOCK method to avoid silvering.



I prefer to set decals after light and shadows, and then harmonize them with some brushed on filters, to achieve the controlled contrast i want between paint and decals.

Now the burnt part, with the filter/colors from "burnt out pack". I did not use the specific primer, using instead the brownish primer, left to show out from the previous painting.

Subsequent layers of the different filters are left to flow, over the water-wet surface, to let them freely spread and fade.

Wow man, great work and top photos. Love the paintstyle

Thanks Stian !

Then, having on hand the "burnt" filters, i used them for a wash over mufflers overtheir primer brown colour.

A first batch of selective filters is now added, with a dark metallic tone.



Just dampen a bit the surface with water, then take a bit of filter with a water wet round brush and run it around raised details and inside panel lines.
This is a little trick to add a subtle metallic effect, which helps removing the plastic-toy look from the model.

Burnt bow apart, i wanted a scarcely worn machine. I just added some light rusty washes with a bit of filter over some flat plates and mudguards.

A thin veil of structured filter rebro rust is spread over the water wet surface, to achieve a soft pattern. The actual amount is much less than shown into picture. Just let the part lie flat, until the filter is almost dry, to achieve a regular pattern.

The gun sleeve was also thinly washed with rust bubbles



And tracks, them too primed in dark brown, randomly airbrushed with two lighter tones of structured filters