Assembly and painting (and Second Life?)

The cool weather over the weekend allowed Tankoberg to really crank up production. The Opel Blitz now has much of the chassis glued together, with the back tray and cab underway. I didn’t assemble all the engine block as the last 2 components are near the bonnet, not near the underside, and so wouldn’t be visible even if I turned it upside down to represent damage from heavy bombing/strafing/a direct hit.

The Marder IIIH now has its chassis completed, all tracks glued on and is now being painted. I haven’t assembled the gun and firing cab, I’m leaving them off while I do the tricky work of painting, washing and weathering the hull and tracks. I’m going to do the hull and firing cab in the “3 colour scheme” adopted in 1943, so I’ve began to with coats of lightly-brushed on Desert Yellow, with Kommando Khaki as the interior colour. Some reading done while breakfasting this morning (Panzer Colours 1, by Culver and Murphy – essential) suggested that the interior of “open, self-propelled guns” would have their interiors painted the same colour as their exteriors (so the interior of mine should be Desert Yellow) but it seems that the true interior isn’t going to be visible from the air anyway, so I’ll just do the firing cab/shield interior as Desert Yellow and leave the interior as it is. Once it’s finished, then I’ll make a decision as the the other 3 in that self-propelled gun platoon.

I was also very pleased to get a lot more work done on (infantry) Company A. The work required is all the tricky, fiddly fine detail stuff like gun barrels, straps on canteens, grenades and entrenching tools etc. All guns were completed, and I didn’t botch any! A vast improvement on my efforts with 1st Platoon. Canteens, zeitbahns and some other small details were all completed. All I really have left that is a fiddly bulk job is to do all their hands (clutching weapons, grenades, binoculars etc), complete the entrenching tools/daggers and then I go onto correcting mistakes. After that, basing and finishing.

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Since it’s getting hotter, I may look into browsing online for more tips and advice on painting and modelling, since I am able to spend less time in Tankoberg painting (that room gets too hot to work in on some days). Second Life (through its users) offers virtual conferences, displays and so on. As a librarian, I’m well aware of a number of libraries already being there and the user access and innovative services being developed and offered. I’ll try to see what I can find for miniature painters and miniature wargamers is offered there and may try to report it back here. Libraries are ultimately using Second Life to improve communication points and communication methods to reach as many library users as possible. This is a good idea, but in my work with Third World students, not going to be of much help to them as they either have no internet or only slow dial-up when they are studying online from their own country.