After the frustrations of last month, I wanted something different, so I grabbed an armor model from my stash - the Tamiya Sturmpanzer.

The kit has two options, one of which has the schürzen and one which does not. I don't particularly like the look of schürzen, and - given last month's experience - I didn't want to make things more complex than they had to be. Plus, the options without schürzen had only two decals, half the number of the option with schürzen.

As is typical with modern Tamiya kits, this went together pretty easily. There were a couple of gotchas, mostly because I did not attach the tools until after everything else was complete. This made it easier to paint. The one thing I would have done differently would be to not attach the rear bracket for the schürzen support rail until after I had attached the rail. I don't think it is obvious from the photos, but I didn't attach the bracket at the proper right angle, so it doesn't line up with the support rail. Interestingly, this happened on both sides. Also, I had a devil of a time trying to attach the tow cable on the right side. In the end, I left it off.

I primed the exterior with Krylon Red Oxide Primer. The primary exterior color was Tamiya XF-60 Dark Yellow. The camouflage was Tamiya XF-58 Olive Green and Model Master Acryl Burnt Sienna. All three of these were thinned with a mixture of denatured alcohol and Createx 4012 High Performace Reducer. I was hesitant to try this with the Acryl, but it worked well.

I used Future as a gloss coat prior to applying the decals, just spraying the sides where the decals would go. I used Mr. Mark Setter on the decals, which went on with no problem. After both decals had been applied, I used Krylon 51301 Gloss Acrylic Crystal Clear to seal them, and to prepare for a wash. I applied a wash of Burnt Umber, thinned with Turpenoid from the blue can. Apparently, I did not thin the paint enough, because it went on heavier than I intended. The post-wash flat coat was Model Master Acryl Flat Clear, thinned with the same denatured alcohol / reducer mix I used with the Burnt Sienna.

Page last updated June 15, 2023.