1/48th SdKfz 234 Puma

As I have been on an armor build kick lately that has continued to be productive, I will continue with this Puma build. According to the box this is a "new mold" from Italeri. Which means it isn't old and worn out, though with Italeri who knows if it is even close on accuracy or not. It will give me some experience with the Vallejo paints that I am now using, and as I intend to just build it OOB with simple obvious tweaks to improve appearance that is all fine. The fact that I have the Das Werk kit that is 3X bigger (1/16th scale) is a plus as it will give me a little boost for that build later on.











We shall see just how far I get today. My weekday building has been nada lately though I might get a little boost from starting a new quickie build. Time will tell.

It was nice way back then and still an enjoyable build! Dragon releases were much better but the consultants were a bit bothered by some of the omissions that could have been incorporated. I still have two or three in the stash as it is the perfect base to create this without cutting an expensive kit:

@Sharkmouth
That's an interesting tid bit of info. Thanks for posting it Saúl.
Not even going to try and do a modification for MMM.

Heavens Eagle said:

@Sharkmouth
That's an interesting tid bit of info. Thanks for posting it Saúl.
Not even going to try and do a modification for MMM.

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WOAH! You can tell that I was half asleep (stayed up till 3AM on the Yak) so didn't notice this Italeri kit isn't the 1970s 35th scale gem! My apologies... I will take out my teeth and shoot myself with the gum.

Part of what happened with my build last year was the kit was kind of a mess. It was supposed to be a single seat fighter with the decals that came with it. That meant it should have had a DIFFERENT canopy which it didn't. Then the fit was pretty bad. The fact that I finally finished it was actually a big surprise (even to me).
If I finish this ahead of time (which I "should" be able to do) I will pull out either the Fw190 D9 from several years ago that didn't get finished, or the Do-17Z from even longer ago and finish it. We shall see how that all goes.
Then I really want to get back on the 251.

Well this has gone about like the last few weeks. I spent most of last weekend working on it and got quite a bit done. Did a little work on Monday night, then the rest of the week has been a bust. Finally tonight I decided that I really needed to post something.
So, here it is. Might get it close to done this next weekend. If not it will be only by some small amounts of things.

























I have some minor flubs that need to be addressed. And it will need a bit of brushwork to get it across the finish line, but that is part of it.

Got around to doing the camo tonight. Tomorrow will be painting tires, details, adding the tools etc. Then some weathering.

I used my .15 H&S brush and discovered that if I kept a Q-tip handy, the paint would build up on the needle tip and make spraying fine lines harder. If I jabbed the needle and tip into the end of the Q-tip, it removed the slight build up and it sprayed very fine.

Nice scheme Paul.

Looks great. Didn't know Italeri did 1/48th armor. Gary S.

Just about ready for decals and final flat coat and dust coats. I got the tires painted and all the wash details done (and there was a LOT) it looks pretty good as it sets, but it needs decals and the final weathering etc.

So what's your secret wash blend Paul?

moon puppy said:

So what's your secret wash blend Paul?

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My trick to blend the edges of the wash (placed only where I want it) around raised parts, louvers, handles, and panel lines is very simple. Note this is the Vallejo washes, not their regular paints. The washes are a bit of a different formulation which allows you to do this fairly easy. Yes, it even works over regular Vallejo paints that have been allowed to dry fully for at least a day or so.

The Trick is:

Spit and a Q-Tip
Two bits!

Dampen the Q-tip with some saliva. Doesn't need to be soggy, just damp. Then "lightly" scrub around the edges you want to feather out. Usually you get an edge to the wash when placed over paint, flat or gloss. With the spit dampened Q-tip (I use the small-medium Tamiya pointy ones) you can scrub it to remove the wash. It shouldn't affect the "dried" Vallejo or enamel paints. If it does the Q-tip isn't damp enough or you are scrubbing too hard. The saliva acts as a mild solvent on the wash as long as you have not let it dry for a day. I usually do the feathering as soon as it is "just" dry after putting it on.

I used to do this with Poly-S paints on enamel and it also works with some India type color inks, but it has been years since I did anything with inks.

If you look close you can see the result on the underside panels and wheels in the above photos.