World War II Project, STuG Project - Chipping complete

My wife had a meeting the other night and I was able to sit down for some un-interrupted painting. I finished the chipping on the STuGs and went back and did the back side of the skirts which I had forgotten to do. I also did chipping on the wheels and painted the rubber rims with Dark Rubber from Vallejo from their Panzer Aces collection. I really like this color for rubber.

Going back and looking at the photos I probably over did the chipping work but once I start adding the weathering that will start to get obscured a bit and after I add the baggage to the rear deck a lot more will get covered. I do realize that it seems rather pointless to paint something that will not be seen but I need the practice and it makes me happy knowing that its there even if no one else does.

An overall look at the progress, chipping finished on to more weathering!

The back of the skirts that I had forgotten to do the first time.

There is certainly a lot more work to be done to the tracks but at least I finally managed to get started on them.

World War II Project - STuG III Chipping - Getting Started

I managed to steal a little time and started the chipping work on the STuGs. I  finished the light chipping on the STuGs and the skirts and finished the dark chipping on the skirts. So I'm calling the skirts done at this point and hopefully can find a little time to at least start the dark chips on the STuGs this week.

I tried to add some long scratches to the skirts. Not perfect by any means but not bad either.

World War II Project - P107 (f)/U304 (f) 21st Pz Div Halftracks - Chipping

I had a little time to start the weathering process with the chipping step. This time I started with lighter colored chips using Ammo's Dunkelgelb High Light (A.MIG-904). I then followed that with the darker chips using  Vallejo German Camo Black Brown (70.822). Pretty pleased with them at this point, some of the chipping is way to big but using the sponge technique can be trying. After I let them dry overnight I'm quite pleased with the result. They may need a little more chipping in a couple of spots before I move on to the rest of the weathering.

Light Chipping first with the dunkelgelb

Dark chipping with the German Camo Black Brown

World War II Project - Return to Normandy - The Gangs all Here - Chipping II

I did decide to go back in an add some lighter chipping. I don't think this came out as well. In retrospect I should have done the light chipping first and then followed with the darker chipping. After this I'll move on to the serious weathering.

World War II Project - Return to Normandy - The Gangs all Here - Chipping

I am having a love hate relationship with chipping techniques. If I use a brush I struggle to make it look even remotely like chips but using a brush allows more control. The "sponge" technique seems to work best for me. I grab a piece of foam from a miniature package and tear it up a bit and hold it with a pair of tweezers as I dab it against the side of the vehicle. Unfortunately its much harder to control and I struggle with trying to get the excess paint off the foam before I dab against the surface.

This is the first round of chipping or it might even be the final round of chipping just depends on how I feel about it. Overall I think it came out rather well. I should probably go back on the S307 and chip it with the yellow on the green and brown camo colors. Its just hard to see the dark chip color in those areas. I really am going to need a lot more practice with this technique before I get back to the StuG IIIs. Fortunately I still have those 3 P107s coming up.

Its hard to see the dark chip color in some areas. This is where I should go back and try chipping with the base yellow in those spots.

You can see some spots on the interior where I didn't get enough paint off the foam especially the big spot to the right of the Pak 40.

The chipping looks better on the Lorraines I think. More yellow to really show the chipping off. I see I do need to get in there and do the muffler though.

I need to really practice both the lining and the chipping. I got sloppy on the S307(f) here and it really shows in the fighting compartment and around the tools in particular. There is definitely a learning curve on how long to let things dry before you "clean" it up with thinner. To soon and its not dry enough and you just spread things around, to long and its really hard make a dent in it and you have big swatches of "lining" that aren't really lining. I should be able to cover some of this with the weathering though and tighten things up a bit.

In the end all of these are gaming pieces anyway and are going to look just fine on the table.