Early builds

Martin Oostrom
Come on Pete, this album is over two minutes old, where are the pictures?

Martin Oostrom
I like 'm both.
The paint job is beautifully dull, but those whitey white numbers. How do you guys on the dark side deal with the very bright white of the numbers? Is there a trick to fade or dull them? Eager to learn 😄

Peter Hardy
It would be that! Can't fool an Armour builder can you?

Spanjaard
nice panthers 🙂

Peter Hardy
The white numbers are on the rear, hopefully there isn't an Easy Eight sneaking around back there!

Spanjaard
those numbers are decals, but you can also weather them once covered with some clear cote😉
although you can also airbrush them if you want.....

Rene Scheiblich
I usually scrub over them with some off white before applying filter etc. 🙂

Nice Panthers mate. How 'old' are they?😉

Peter Hardy
I built them about 2 years ago when I bought a decent airbrush so I guess it was more about the airbrush than the weathering. I'm not so sold on the heavy weathering as I once was, I did a Jagdtiger that was just ridiculous and it sort of took the point of the effort away.

Rene Scheiblich
2 years ago...🤔
Nice start with the airbrush! These look good. It's easy to overly mud up tanks... But you didn't👍 🙂

Tim Heimer
Nice camera both!

Ingo F
Very nice Panthers. 👍

Peter Hardy
Shut up Tim.

If I get time today I will Lode some pics of the "watershed" Jagdtiger. The model that I spent a fortune in time and money to build and turned me off where I was going with armour. Overdone to the extreme and almost turned me off the hobby.

Martin Oostrom
Just call it a lesson learned.
I like the spelling check from 'load' to 'Lode'. Clearly shows your priorities 👍

Martin Oostrom
Come on Pete, snap out of it. The JagdTiger isn't all bad. Sure, the exhausts could have been drilled out, and the left side decals look not too well. And it might not be in Kerry's or James' class, but hey, not many people are. 😉
At $200 the price of the learning curve sounds excessive, but at just €1,33 per hour, it's cheap! A couple of hours in a bar is way more expensive.
I went through at least a dozen planes to re-learn stuff, you chose to do a massive tank. Without this 'hateful failure', you wouldn't be where you are now. Walk first, then run. Or to qoute Christian Bruer: "A Master doesn't fall from the sky".

Peter Hardy
Nah, it's awful! Water under the bridge and, I have done a Jagdpanzer since that I was much happier with. Very happy at that! Taught me a lesson, and I guess most modellers have learned it. What wore me down was the expense in time I think. A lack of exposure to other modellers was a "root cause" to use a parlance you and I use in our professional lives. Control measures have been put in place and when I review the overall process I am confident that particular hazard won't reoccur. Successful intervention!!

Rene Scheiblich
Wasted effort? Now you're talking crap Peter. It might not be your current taste or skill level, but it doesn't look awful. Actually, some of the effects are quite nice. Like the area around the rear hatch and the shell impacts!
You tried things out and in the end found that you don't like that way.
What Martin said: without it you wouldn't be where you are now mate 👍

Display it along your finest to demonstrate how far you've come!

Peter Hardy
Rene, I think I am very brave and deserve a gold star on my shirt to be comfortable in putting this boat anchor on line. It was a difficult thing to deal with at the time but that time has passed and I just accept that it was just a step on a long walk. I did learn a few things like the battle damage and dealing with metal zimmerit. Best thing I learned was "test it first"! LOL!!!!!

Rene Scheiblich
I bet the list of things learned was quite long with that one!
Boat anchor... 😄
I enjoy when people put up their older works from before they became awesome. Shows newcomers that with practice you can achieve a lot. And what mistakes to avoid.
So thanks for bucking up!🙂

Spanjaard
I actually like that monster, stop winning about it Peter 🙂

Martin Oostrom
google.nl/search?q=g..imgrc=lJB6mKEdAixMOM:

Check this out and you'll feel better Pete WALL OF SHAME: Revell Fokker D VII | Album by Mahoo76

Peter Hardy
Thanks for the gold star Marty! Yep, feel better now! Spanjaard, if you can lift it you can have it!

Spanjaard
thanks for the offer, but i want to have my own models in display at home 🙂

Peter Hardy
I'll pull it apart and rebuild it one day! I'll try to post another past inglorious effort tomorrow!

Peter Hardy
I remember the issue with the tracks! I wanted then slack, sort of a poorly maintained last heroic effort from whatever the defenders of the Reich could muster. Overdid it just a touch??? LOL! Lots of mistakes there Jimbo! I'm sure we all go up a dead end occasionally. This one was a long road I needed to reverse out of! Heck in tomorrow arvo mate, I'll have something I did next that showed I really did learn from my mistakes!

Alec K
Nothing wrong with posting early work. I second Rene's thoughts regarding this 👍

Tim Heimer
Bitch, bitch, bitch , bitch! We all start somewhere, get over it. You thought less of them and now you see the value after we point it out. I've posted most of my old stuff with only 1-2 comments on them if that posted. You have all this support!

Spanjaard
i have also my hall of shame, some of them were not that bad, some of them i am glad the fotography can be quite forgiving 😄

Peter Hardy
Tim, leave your dog out of it! Come on, I'm over it now, just being brutally honest with my mates. One thing I am guilty of is I don't take either myself or my hobby too seriously. I'm having fun and that's all that matters. I'll post some pics today of a Jagdpanzer today that I did 18 months ago. I liked it then and I like it now. Not down on myself, just had a bump in the road. Each and everyone of you have had a walk down the same road. I over invested too much of me in the Jagdtiger, took it too seriously, failed miserably and suffered the consequences to my confidence. 2 years ago now! Built a bridge and got over it l-o-n-g ago.

Tim Heimer
We are glad to hear that because you can be your worst enemy, your work now shows you're a quick learner! You just put steering wheels on the wrong side!

Martin Oostrom
d e n i a l ?
Just kidding. Where are the JP pics to be found?

Peter Hardy
Uploaded 14 pics!

Greg Baker
Wow... it's a good thing I started flawlessly. That's easy when you have low expectations. 🙂

Actually, I started building models about 2 years ago (after that familiar story of not building anything for 20-30 years since we were kids). At the time, it was a very steep learning curve and it hasn't gotten much flatter since. I really credit my "Mates in Scale" for the invaluable feedback - especially John Thomas who helped me realize the joy of building accessories from scratch rather than just trying to apply a photoetch or resin upgrade every time.

I do agree that none of it is wasted work... and I'm pretty sure most of us are not doing this as our career to put bread on the table. So the value in terms of time or money spent is whatever you can afford.

Peter Hardy
I'll stick to my last comment Greg! You never fail to get a "What the f..." out of me. I love your inventiveness and your creativity. I'm just a touch jealous of your grasp on electronics too!

Martin Oostrom
I'm starting to think Peter Hardy doesn't exist. Is this a second account from Kerry or James?
That JP looks really good.

Peter Hardy
Yeah, was happy with this one at the time and can still look at it and feel I had exorcised my demons. Did it about six months after the boat anchor. Thanks for the encouragement Gentlemen!

Rene Scheiblich
Yep. Definitely showing the lessons learned on the Jagdtiger mate! I'd be happy to get a result like that. You set out to achieve a certain look and got it. Great work! 👍

By the way... Are the old, now cheap considerably worse than the newer ones? Build-wise I mean.

Peter Hardy
The newly tooled Tamiyas are very well detailed and the fit is unbelievably good but, it is the accuracy of the new kits I think that makes them worth it. I will still buy an old 70s kit if I can get it cheaply but I will use it as a test horse. In the case of armour the dimensions of the old kits are sometimes way off. A 70s Panther is very close to the size of a 90s KT. Way back, a kit was rarely assembled and placed in a collection so it didn't really matter, but now with the unbelievable competition from manufacturers for my dollar all of a sudden the parts fit, and go together to build a realistic miniature representation of the particular item. So, in answer to your question, rather than saying the old kits are considerably worse I would say the new ones are considerably better. I think the new kits are infinitely more enjoyable to build. Long answer but I think fairl accurate!

Rene Scheiblich
So the old ones are also ok to build, but lack accuracy compared to the newer toolings. Better not put the generations next to each other in the cabinet then.

I'm asking because you see people sell older Tamiya kits often... Sometimes cheap, sometimes to the price of a current Takom release of the 'same' subject. I grabbed my Tamiya Chieftain for a good price... It's the old 70s kit. James told me it builds nice so that is fine. But it seems to be waaay off when it comes to depicting a Mk5 😄
Good to know about the issues with the veteran kits, will keep my eyes peeled! Thanks Peter 👍🙂

Peter Hardy
One thing is for sure, there will be a lot of cheap Panthers on the market soon. With all the new releases this year, with and without full swish interiors, the older kits will be very hard to move off the shelves. I can't wait to get my grubby little paws on one of the new Ryefield Panther kits. Or the Meng. Or the Takom.

Rene Scheiblich
I'm thinking about getting one of those myself 🙂
Panthers are missing in my stash...
But full interior seems a bit overkill.
The oldest are relatively cheap. But they seem to have their issues, dimensions and accuracy. Good training objects, as you say!🙂

Peter Hardy
I keep an old Ukrainian model Panthe I use as a test rig. TAMIYA will fit pretty well and go together quickly.

Willem van Schaardenburg
Nice bunch of models you got there Peter. I like the Jagdpanzer IV very much. The sagging in the tracks looks fantastic ! And the paintjob is very well done. Got one (Tamiya) on the stash myself. Can't hardly wait to start on this one, but first it's time to finish some of my other kits. Sadly i got a lot of unfinished ones.

Peter Hardy
Yeah, getting a bit of a collection of them too! Thanks for the nice comments on the Jagpanzer. Did that a long time ago now but it was a brilliant kit. Typical Tamiya Gold! The fruil tracks were I thought about half a link to long and I just couldn't get the adjustment to absorb it. Take the link out and it was too tight. Anyway it does have a nice sag!