Trumpeter E-25; Done!

Here it is, the E-25 done. Like it or loathe it as it's a 'paper panzer what-if 1946 blah blah blah' but I'm quite pleased with and also it's been nice to actually finish something :o)

Hopefully this will make it into Model Military Int'l magazine in the new year sometime

Trumpeter E-25 update

I added a few decals just to jazz the thing up a bit;

The next time you'll see this is when it's finished so stay tuned people :o)

Trumpeter E-25; Painting complete.

While I'm on a roll I added to the camo scheme by spraying dots of all three colours used;

It still looks fairly hideous but I'm hoping the weathering will turn it down from 11.
Tonight I'll add some decals from units that would have used Jagdpanzers and some numbers just to make it look half-decent.

Trumpeter E-25; Back on it

Well I've put all my toys back in the pram after a couple of days away from the bench and the last bout of modelling frustration and re-sprayed the E-25. As posted earlier I was having problems spraying the new Ammo paints by Mig which could have been down to my idea of using Tamiya acrylic thinner with them, although to be fair I DID experiment with this combination before I committed to painting the model and the thinner and paint seemed to mix well.
ANYWAY I'm sticking with Tamiya and Mr Hobby paint in future as they work fine for me.
So back to the model and I resprayed the base coat in places where needed then the camo was sprayed freehand, retouching with the base coat to remove any over spray. This time the colours are darker than originally planned as I used a 1:1 mix of Tamiya XF-65 Field Grey and XF-71 Cockpit Green for the...err...green bits and XF-79 Linoleum Deck Brown with a bit of the base colour thrown in for the red-brown.
I'm not sure whether to leave it like this or try again with the 'ambush camouflage' style of dots using the three colours alternatively placed over the model;

I shall have a think about that one.

Trumpeter E-25 painted

As it's a 'what-if, paper panzer etc' I can pretty much do what the hell I like with this so today I tried some paints from the Mig Productions set 'Late German Camouflages', colours that were allegedly used in 1944-45.
All I have to say is that there are some 'interesting ' shades of paint;

Talk about BRIGHT??? Kee-rist!! :oD
Hopefully the colours will darken down a bit more with weathering. I painted the barrel and IR sights with the darker 'Dunkelgelb' included in the set for some contrast.
Hmmm....

Update; after today's spraying session (23rd August) the model will now be repainted as I just could not control the paint and it resulted in 'spiders legs' in a lot of places AND I put my fingerprint into the paint (AGAIN) which will need to be sanded out. To be honest the model was nearly thrown across the loft where I have to spray but I did'nt do it and it's in a box waiting.
Next time I'll just stick to Tamiya colours, the Mig set just does'nt work for me I'm afraid.

Trumpeter E-25; paint is on

I've managed to get some time at the bench today so I touched up the black undercoat then sprayed the base coat;

I've used Tamiya XF-78 Wooden Deck Tan for a basecoat as it more or less matches the German Dunkelgelb which was used in the later stages of WW2 plus it will darken with weathering.
You might notice that it's shiny, this is because after applying pin washes to the very matt finished SS-23 I had no control over them and they left 'tide-marks' everywhere on the model.
This time around as an experiment I added Tamiya X-22 Clear varnish to the base coat rather than gloss the model after so we'll see if this method works better for washes. Camouflage-wise I'm thinking of an 'ambush' style, hardly original but a scheme I've been wanting to do for ages. I may put some unit markings, crosses and numbers on too.

Trumpeter E-25 rescue

A good modelling buddy of mine gave me this kit a few years ago as he got bored and was going to throw it away so I just HAD to give the poor thing a good home. Fast forward to 2015 and you may recall an earlier post in April of this year where I was cleaning up the tracks, well here's the built model.
I WAS going to post a few pics on the way but I completely forgot having been wrapped up in the SS-23 saga;

I can hear the collective groans of " Ohhhhhhh gawd it's a panzer and a paper one at that!"
To be honest I was never a fan of 'paper panzers' either but this have given me a sorely needed break from research-heavy subjects and it has been FUN to do as basically I can do what the hell I like with it construction AND painting wise. I used the Voyager etch set and an RB Model barrel to jazz it up a bit but even then I did'nt use all of the etch (basically because I was getting fed up with the stuff).
Anyhow like it or loathe it but it's built. So there! Ner ner nerner ner :o)