M26 Pershing "The Panther Hunter"

Philip De Keyser
Wow Markus, what a masterpiece you have there, it looks wonderfull, congrats with the result, I love it, greetz Phil

Markus Kutsch The Plastic Bench
Thanks Phil! 🙂
I am keeping your projects in my sight (the Mosquito Dio looks great)

Steve Wilson
Very nicely made Markus, weathering to perfection... The guy looking out of the left hand hatch was told to put his helmet on, this is what happens when you do not obey orders, you lose the top of your kopf🙂🙂🙂

Christian Lehmann
Hi Markus, sieht super aus. Bin gespannt auf die Figuren.

Markus Kutsch The Plastic Bench
Lol Steve
Didnt you read the sentence "the Crew is only temporary"??? 🙂

Steve Wilson
Yes!!! but Health & Safety insisted I mentioned it...

stefan natus
I am not a tank guy butt this is great stuff.

Markus Kutsch The Plastic Bench
Hi Lemmy
Oh,the Figures .Body painting will be ok i think but the face and eyes its where i get panic!
@Steve Thanks,Mate 🙂

Markus Kutsch The Plastic Bench
Thanks to you all mates for your comments.🙂

Aghis Barberopoulos
Amazing detail ! My jaw drops every time I look at it...
Really fine work Markus. Love every little part of it!

Markus Kutsch The Plastic Bench
Thanks Aghis (blush) 🙂
The Antennas will be add when i think there is nothing left to do on this tank,because of breaking them off.
And this time i didnt forget to load the Browning (there are bullets loaded in it).
Perhaps i will make a detail Pic. if my camera is able to do it!

Dirk Heyer
Hi Markus,
as I said previously, there is so many dynamic of your weathering and painting job, that it is absolutely exciting to explore this amazing Pershing!
Spectacular!
Wow!
Greetz
Dirk

Markus Kutsch The Plastic Bench
Thanx Dirk !
I saw your models on convention and its an Honour to me to hear this from you!
Thanx very much!
And thanx again to all your great comments ,Mates!! 🙂

Christian Meyerhoff
Outstanding work! Great paint and weathering job!

Markus Kutsch The Plastic Bench
Its time to sleep!
Thanx for all you very great comments!

Augie
amazing!

Kim Branders
very nice markus,love it.Grtz Kim

Holger Kranich
Das ist ja wohl der Hammer! Markus, Du hast ein Wahnsinnswerk abgeliefert! Irre!

Fred Zayas
Its superb work. Right on the money.

Markus Kutsch The Plastic Bench
Hi Mates
After all the work on the Tank is done (only antennas to do),its time for the figures.Please post all your hints and clues (Tipps und Tricks ) that you got especialy for painting Eyes!
How do you paint Faces on 1:35 figures .Do you start with the eyes,or do you paint the skin first?Your advices are welcome 🙂

Steve Wilson
Hi Markus, great job so far, painting figures is not easy as they can end up either looking firstly like Rabbits caught in the headlights of a car or pink & shiny or even both. Start with light colours first and build up to darker ones. Eyes, the temptation is to use white, don't, use Cream. Paint whole eye cream, when dry paint the Iris, finally the Pupil, then with a one haired brush paint a white speck on the Pupil, don't make it big just the merest hint...

Steve Wilson
By the way, use your own skin as a colour match for skin colour of the model...

Markus Kutsch The Plastic Bench
@Steve
I paint flesh first with flesh acrylics and then with oil!I use to paint the eyes at last,but i think i try it this time the other way.Do you paint the eyes first?And what colors do you use ?

Steve Wilson
It's up to you, but I tend to, once white primer is dry, start with the eyes, only because when you come to paint the skin tones, you can adjust the Rabbit syndrome, doesn't matter if you go to far over the eye then. You can give them the Robert Mitchum eye appearance, if you know what I mean Lol!! Study your own eyes in a mirror for inspiration, squint them, wink, stare, worried, scared, happy and tired or any other emotions you can think of. Notice how you skin reacts around the eyes with each look. I photograph them as well, so that when I'm painting the figure I can refer to it... Don't hesitate to ask me questions it's no problem...

Markus Kutsch The Plastic Bench
Thank you very much Steve! I will get my camera and make some pics of my face (oh that will be ugly) 🙂

Philip De Keyser
Sorry Markus I can't help you with your figures, mine figures looks like rabbit's like steve say, I give my figures first a flesh tone, than I bring the darker oil colors on, whap what is to much away and lighted those up till I'm sadisfited, I do the eyes always last,
greetz Phil

Markus Kutsch The Plastic Bench
That is no problem ,Phil.The ones i do are not a lot more better (or as we say in German"nicht das gelbe vom ei" 🙂
Thats why i have started this thread.
I often read that many modellers only add a dark wash to the eyes,because the eyes will not be so much seen from the distance.Its more like squint the eyes.

Steve Wilson
Yep! Markus, that's another way of doing it, but I'd advise not doing it on all models on the same dio etc... as it makes them like the same model figure. Even model figures deserve their own individual identity🙂

Markus Kutsch The Plastic Bench
No,Steve i aint doing this.I agree with you.If you see in my Gallery ,you will see that in the sicily diorama( with the sherman) a few figures got the rabbit stare ( some more or less) but in the normandy dio( with the churchill) i tried a different method and they are a lot better i think.
They were my 3 attempt to paint figures.

Steve Wilson
🙂

Tim Vereecke
Niiice!

Markus Kutsch The Plastic Bench
Thanx Tim and thanx Mates for all your comments.
Next Pics will be with the commander in the turret hatch.

Steve Wilson
And he hasn't lost his head over it...🙂🙂🙂

Acki
Hi Markus, the Pershing is very very good. I´ll often look at this pics.

Mike Kryza
Ahhh - the commander needs a little bit beach and sun - he actual looks a little bit sickly - :-D

Acki
Hi Mike, he´s like your rat. A little bleach.😉

Markus Kutsch The Plastic Bench
Thanks guys🙂
That are the ones of comments i need 🙂
Belive me , he will get a little more color.
By the way , tell me how you paint your figures ,Mates!!!

Acki
Oh, figures...that´s the most difficult theme. I paint the face in black. Then the eye in white. Next time I´ll try creme, sounds good. Then I do my best with the brush for the Iris. After that I make the skin of the head. Maybe Steve can make some instructions of his way.

Christian Lehmann
Hi Markus,
I always used Humbrol and Oil paint. On my latest project I used a mixture of this and Vallejo colors. On my new project I used Vallejo for the first time for all figures. When the heads are seperated I paint them seperately. This time I painted the body ( clothes) and the skin parallel. In former time I always painted the skin first and the rest of the figures afterwards. Due to my experiance the quality of the face sculpture is imfportant for the result. The driver of the Half track om My FWDio has a very "flat" face. The result is a face that looks like the face of "Constable Odo" of DS9 🙂

Christian Lehmann
PS For the skin I use the "Flesh paint set" of Andrea

Steve Wilson
I can do that Acki. I'll graft something out over the next couple of days or so and post them when I've finished. BTW using cream for the whites of the eyes, takes that brightness away, if you use white it's the first thing the observer sees when viewing the figure. When what you want them to see first is the figure, after the main model of course...

Markus Kutsch The Plastic Bench
Thanx Mates for shareing this thread and your advices.
@lemmy
I got a flesh paint set from Lifecolor.Very good to handle!
I will try Steves hint with the cream color.
And yes Steve ,the Commander allways wears his helmet,not like the co.driver( bow gunner) 🙂

Steve Wilson
😢

Markus Kutsch The Plastic Bench
No, i got the Dust and rust set from lifecolor.The fleshpaint set is vallejo i think.
@ Steve
A brush with one hair???Whats that for a size?? An 0000000000000000000000000000brush ? 🙂
I do the pupills sometimes with a needle.

Steve Wilson
Believe me Markus they exist and work, the japanese have used them for thousands of years, there are two main types long hair & short hair, indeed it was a japanese guy who showed me how to use one. Only any good for very fine line detail though, such as the already mentioned, reflective dot on the pupil, also wrinkles, eye lashes and eyebrows etc... A pin does work, just don't sneeze...

Markus Kutsch The Plastic Bench
Coooool , where do i get those brushes?

Steve Wilson
I'm affraid you can't buy them, you make them from a brush in your tool kit. Choose a brush thats small already like a 000. With a very sharp scalpel knife carefully trim the hairs away until one's left... I also use two hair brushes...

Steve Wilson
Oh! yeah! make sure the enamel paint, oil paint, acrylic or whatever paint you're using is well thinned, or else the paint dries on the hair...

Acki
Markus, you can take the two hair brush from your beard.
Steve: It would be great when can can make a topic with some pics.

Markus Kutsch The Plastic Bench
@Acki
Lol 🙂

Mike Kryza
@Acki - Ahhhh - you are right - this is a beard - I always think it is a brown wash!!!!!!!!! :-Markus, if we meet in Koblenz don't hit me...😉

Steve Wilson
@ Acki, I'm in the process of doing just that Acki...

Acki
Hi Steve, very good. Thanks! So I will wait till I make another figure. Have to buy cream till then...

Steve Wilson
@Acki, remember Gloss enamel Cream, Matt for skin tones...

Markus Kutsch The Plastic Bench
@Mike
Youre right !I used Schmincke Vandyke Brown for this 🙂

Steve Wilson
😢

Jan Goormans
very nice 🙂
will have a good look at this, i am starting my first armour build, a JS2
so great builds like this one do help me a lot

Holger Kranich
Hey Jan, i´m cheating too and look a lot on his WIP pictures in the hope to learn from his colourmodulation😢

Markus Kutsch The Plastic Bench
Thanx Mates for your comments!
Please dont be shy to ask me about my techniques or details.I will try to explain my chaotic workflow 🙂

Mike Kryza
Hi Markus - bring doch mal das Panzerchen am Samstag nach Koblenz mit!!!!

Markus Kutsch The Plastic Bench
Lass dich überraschen , Mike. 🙂

Mike Kryza
:-D:-D

Markus Kutsch The Plastic Bench
Hi Mates
Figures will be paintet later!I got the "modelling blues " with this one.Started on january and now its nearly september !Thats enough!
I think "Ontos "is calling me!
Thanx Mates for all your comments!Scalemates is a wonderfull thing(thanx Tim and all who work on it) 🙂

Philip De Keyser
Hi Markus, I now what you meen, do you start a new project? do you take a braeck? thanks for showing your project to us, greetz Phil

Markus Kutsch The Plastic Bench
Hi Phil !
Thanks for your comment and that you like it ,Mate! 🙂
The guys do a group build about vietnam.I am in,and my work is the "M 50 Ontos".So this will be next.But i think that i will do some work on the figures for my Pershing in between.

Markus Kutsch The Plastic Bench
But i do it veeeeeeeeeerrrrryyyyyyyyyy sloooooowwwwwwwlyyyy 😉

Philip De Keyser
Take your time mate😉

Philip De Keyser
Are you make a Vietnam diorama with the Ontos? or just the vehicle, looking forward to the first pix, the ontos is a nice looking rare one😉 greetz Phil

Markus Kutsch The Plastic Bench
Yes ,the dio includes the Ontos,Phil.It will be more a base for this vehicle!