nightshiftmodeller

Mini update is better than no update...

Hey guys, 

so today I added a few final details like weld beads around some parts like hinges, periscope covers etc. and some casting numbers on that thing at the back and also on the exhaust armor covers. These casting marks come from Archer and they're 3D waterslide decals, so they need to be treated with decal setting solutions (a lot, because they're very stiff). Then I brushed some diluted putty around them to make them less obvious because they're not so pronounced on the rea...

Alright...

... I think the Tiger is more or less done. What remains is to add a few tiny welds around some hull details and build some of that potential stowage - tank jack, bucket, jerry cans - although I think I might assemble those later... 

Well let me tell you finishing these bigger projects can get overwhelming really fast because suddenly you find yourself jumping from one thing to another and (this happens to me often) you'll burn out very quickly, which then requires a smoke break or...

Today I learned...

... that Tigers are not what they seem. At a first glance they may appear as pretty cool brick shaped monsters, but in reality they're treacherous minefields of countless photoetched tool clasps and other tiny garbage 🙀 I think German engineers went a bit too far with this! 

Needless to say when I decide to build another Tiger, it will definitely be out of the box. Or maybe not, but I'll make sure to ignore the photoetched clasps.

I'm happy to announce that most of the hea...

Slowly but steadily...

... we're getting there! 

So I made the gun cleaning rods and here I took the opportunity to display them in a more "messy" manner. Building them from scratch allowed me to make them assemble like the real thing so I put 2 of them together. Their ends should be metal sleeves which are slightly thicker than the wooden part, but I was too lazy to replicate that. Oh well, I'll have to make the illusion with paint. If I wasn't lazy I would've masked the wooden parts with tape and spray...

Updateee

Hey guys, so the engine deck is done... I think.... still not sure if I'll leave the extinguisher mount empty. I guess that's a pretty important piece of gear and would most likely be present even on a beaten up tank like this. I'm gonna keep the most important tools on the tank, which means the gun cleaning rods and... and the fire extinguisher, I guess?

Speaking of cleaning rods, I'll scratchbuild them tomorrow from brass tubes. Their brackets are already in place, and they needed som...

Half asleep update

Yo, gonna keep this short, today I had to fix an unexpected roof leak in my garage so I only managed to do some modelling in the evening. Just did some work on the engine deck... wanted to do more but I almost fell asleep at the workbench lol. Gonna hit the hay right away, just wanted to let you know I did something today. 

Also I'll respond to your messages tomorrow, please forgive me.

And have a great start of the weekend! 

EARLY EARLY EARLY video

The Rutscher is officially done I guess 😄

https://youtu.be/rzRSCjDXhgk

Late night update

So, the turret is almost done - I still need to make some final adjustments on the loader's hatch - carve the extended hinges into shape and add pivots on their sides. 

Also the rear of the hull is almost done. Let me tell you assembling those exhausts was a  nightmare. I considered just giving up several times on those "caps" on top, but after about 3 or 4 attempts I found a way to align them with the muffler. Glad it mostly worked out (still had to bend 1 support rod to make...

DAILY UPDAYT

Alllllright, the second track is assembled, the Tiger is standing on all fours, and I also got the turret details out of the way. Luckily the turret is pretty barren so it wasn't that much work, except the spare track holders. At first I wanted to skip that and pretend there are no details missing but after trying to bend 1 tiny handle I just couldn't... cuz, you know, it's one of those things when you know it's gonna be a boring task, but you can do it... so yeah. 

The smoke disch...

Daily updateee

I can't feel my fingers!

Today I wanted to get the entire running gear done, but there were some bumps in the road. 

Long story short, one track is on, the other is ready to be assembled.

But let's start from the beginning.

The first thing I did was to make the Tiger sit on its butt, which was a common thing on German tanks with "tired" suspension. This was done by gluing the last swingarm a little higher (I glued it to the bumper stop which prevents it moving any...

HD pics

Hey guys, here are some biiiiiiiiig photos of the Zimmerit. 

They clearly show where I goofed up a little, but like I already mentioned, there's room for improvement! 

I'll be back tomorrow with another daily update. 

Daily update (?)

Hey guys,

today I wasn't able to build or edit... maybe I'll do some stuff tonight, but in the meantime I did a color profile for the Tiger. 

I'm surprised I didn't think about it sooner, dumb me... instead of trying different paint mixtures on pieces of styrene I could've just tested it in photoshop to see which color shades go well together. 

I think with this final picture I have figured it out. The green must be very, very pale, and, surprisingly, the dark grey...

Daily update

Zimmerit is done! 

Turns out the gun mantlet was probably the most fun part. I expected it to be really challenging but again it was all about spreading the putty really thin and then just figuring out which parts to texture first. 

I also reworked the pattern around the hull MG mount... I simply shaved off a few columns and did them again. 

Tomorrow will be quite busy but I'll try to finish the video asap. I think it won't be super in-depth, but more of a fol...

Early video

Let's have some track action

https://youtu.be/LIcqa3FKR6I

Daily update + small tutorial

Got the hull done! 

This process is incredibly fun, I guess it's the appeal of getting out of your comfort zone and trying out something new. Tomorrow I'll get the turret done, and something tells me the gun mantlet will be really interesting...

I also made a short and quick photo guide on how to spread the putty really thin and how to create the pattern. The pictures are quite self explanatory but if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask! 

Daily update 2

Wooo! This is really enjoyable, but it also takes time... especially when you're trying to film the entire process! 😄

More Zimmerit action tomorrow.

Daily updateee

Just about to start applying the Zimmerit 😁 

The left side should be pretty accurate as I reproduced the chipped pattern using available photos and made a lineart in Photoshop.

The rest is made up, I just used photos of other damaged Tigers as inspiration while trying to keep the damage consistent with the left side. 

More progress later! 

Sum HD pics

First official photos of the Tiger 😁 There will be no photos in the video because I have no bloopers... but I filmed my Maya interrupting me while I was narrating... she sometimes thinks I'm speaking to someone and wants to talk too... so yeah, we will have a puppy blooper 😅

Daily update

Tiger got shot up 💥💥💥

I used the same methods like in that tutorial video I posted last year, although for some impacts I used an electric rotary tool. 

Sometimes impacts look good while they're just drawn in pencil, but once you sculpt them something will be off, just like that one filled impact on the gun sleeve, which was too symmetrical with the other one near the mantlet. 

Anyway, it's now ready for the main event - ZIMMERIT

But first, let me ma...

Daily update

Hey guys,

got all the main welds done. For this tank I had to make 2 extra welding tools, so now I have a total of 4 for various types of weld beads 😄And I guess I'll include making one of them in the video. 

Also made a few welds around details, because some of them will be partially covered with Zimmerit, There's still a ton missing but I'll add these later down the road. 

I'll also smoothen the flame cut edge around the turret with dissolved putty. It won't b...

Daily update

Tiger has the sexiest weld beads. You know it's gonna be something special when the weld is thicker than the armor plate 😁I actually had to make a new, bigger welding tool for this model. 

Other than that, today was weird. I wasted like 2 hours with those spare track holders trying to get them aligned correctly. Funny thing is when you look at last update I had them glued in a completely wrong position. I glued them like that even on the "old" version of this model and I'm shock...

Early vid

Yooo it's getting dirty

https://youtu.be/60gl-TENzXA

Late night update

Hey guys,

so I spent most of yesterday and today fixing everything wrong with this Tiger. Oh and yeah, in case you missed it, I chose to build this one as the next project. 

If you remember this model from the My First Zimmerit video, there was a lot of stuff which wasn't exactly up to date. 

So I removed the old crappy Zimmerit, scraped off almost every weld bead and scribed in new lines (they either didn't look good or had a noticeable gap between them and the ar...

I guess we have a winner

So the point of this test was to figure out how the F13 paintjob will look like and I think after some small tweaks it will be exactly what I had in mind.

I think the best approach is to paint the entire model with the hairspray technique to show how it was continuously repainted with dark yellow and then green. I assume the yellow paintjob was applied at the factory where the tank was upgraded and the Olive Green was applied later in the field, so I sprayed it in very uneven and cloudy...

A metric ton of final Rutscher HD pictures

Enjoy mates, so glad it's finally done 😊😊😊

(Sort of) daily update?

Hey guys, today I was a bit busy with other things so I only managed to write a script for the last Rutscher video, but I wanted to show you my ideas for those 3 models I mentioned yesterday.

The T-35 is a Mod. 1938 variant with conical turrets. It would be painted in 4BO and although these tanks were fairly new and haven't seen much action, pictures show they sometimes got pretty dirty. The second photo of a Mod. 1935 shows what type of weathering I would do on the hor...

Daily update

Rutscher is finished! 

And if everything goes well, the video will be finished tomorrow. 

What I'm most happy about is that I found a way to recreate wet stains on enamel and acrylic dust effects.

The thing is this... the only advantage of pigments (in my opinion) is that they allow us to create very realistic water and moisture effects by simply applying enamel gloss on top of them, as it will turn them darker showing the paintjob underneath, just like in real lif...

Daily update

Hey guys,

just a little update tonight, I kinda took a day off so I didn't do that much, but basically I swapped the left track so it's heading in the right direction and I also polished all the contact points on every wheel with pencil. Also the entire running gear is finally superglued in place. Probably the most noticeable addition are the grease stains on some wheels. Those were done with AK's Dark Wash for green vehicles. Then I added a tiny amount of AK's Wet Effects Fluid on top ...

Early Video

Yeah, it's detail time!

https://youtu.be/Zuo6WJCQp9I

My photo & video setup

As requested, here's where and how I film videos and shoot photos. Pretty ghetto setup, nothing professional for sure 😁