Building a Wreck - Update #3

Here are a few in-progress photos of the main model. I've finished the turret here and modelled it with all the hatches open, which seems to be a common feature in photos showing blown-up tanks.

I have glued the turret in place so that I can lift up one side to be a little bit higher, giving the impression when viewed from the opposite side of the more damaged side having collapsed. Snipping off the suspension arms and gluing the three remaining roadwheels higher up the hull also gives the impression of the vehicle having collapsed on one side, which also seems to be another feature from contemporary photos.

A few shots of the tank placed in position on the base. The non-collapsed side of the base was built up a little, maybe only by 5mm, but it adds to the optical illusion of the damaged side sagging.

The model has now had a coat of Halfords grey car primer.

The sagging effect is perfectly depicted in this photo:

I used Vallejo Model Air Panzer Dark Grey 71.056 to give the tank a dark base coat and let it dry. I also sprayed a little onto the base to represent scorching of the ground (the tank is going to be partially burnt out).

The next colour was Dark Grey Blue 71.054, which was applied to most of the upper facing panels, followed by a light highlight of Medium Gunship Grey 71.097 on some of the panel edges and raised areas. Following on what I learned when painting my platoon of Rubicon panzers, I have chosen to slightly overdo the highlighting; once the other effects are applied, the stark highlights become toned down, so being too subtle at this stage is just wasted effort.

I've also hand-painted the tracks and super-glued the tank onto the base. I was worried that I kept catching the delicate piece of towing cable that was attached to the front of the tank and that it was going to break. The bit that was attached to the tank lines up with the larger piece of towing cable that is glued onto the base.  The other delicate piece on the front, that was just waiting to accidentally snapped off, was the bar which was holding the extra track onto the glacis plate. I had made that out of a thin strip of plastic and bent it a bit before attaching to the tank.

The next stage will be to apply the decals, then set the whole thing on fire! However...I can't decide on which technique to use for the burnt effects: either the Vallejo chipping effect or Andy's Hobby Headquarters sponge method.

Next update in this series is here.