The Kit

I've been waiting, what seems to me like centuries, for kit of this classic tank hunter. I thought, that Dragon will be the first company to enter market with this machine, after all, it already has Grille and Hetzer in its production line. But Tamiya team did it first... And what a kit! Excellent all around, of course there are some, let's say drawbacks, but this is mainly because of technical limits of injection molding process. And all of these are very easy to correct.

CMK detail set is O.K., but I can say, it is far from being perfect.

I used "Grille, Marder III" by MBI (ISBN 80-902238-5-0) as main reference material and I found everything I needed to build my Marder in there. Pictures are clear and you get comprehensive explanation as well and this all for very reasonable price! But if you wish to build super-detailed kit, you will need to get other publications as well. Especially with interior and detailed fighting compartment pictures...

Some exterior detailing...

As I wrote earlier, Tamiya kit is excellent straight from the box, but I made some detailing. I found photo etched tool clips in my spare box, so I used them. But the biggest thing I made on exterior is stowage basket on the rear of the vehicle. This is super-glued together from different thickness of brass wires and it is big improvement against, somehow thick, plastic item. Next thing was scratch building of gun holder lock. It can be seen on upper front plate, just under the main gun. If you want to leave drivers hatches open it is better to sand them down little bit... I didn't do that and these are too thick as you can see on the right.

Painting

I tried to do some winter scheme on this little kit. The idea was to create contrast between dark muddy tracks and wheels and clear top of the tank, which could happen after careful drive through "river of mud".

I sprayed whole model with German sand, don’t ask me about exact shade, I am mixing my own colours from Humbrol enamels... Advantage of this kit is possibility to buid subasemblies and work on them separately until the very end. Then I masked off turret numbers and crosses sprayed them white and hand brushed red and black centrelines.

I used Humbrol Maskol to mask areas around them and did some chippings and scratches. Next was cloudy respray with white, I add one drop of dark grey into final mix to take off some brightness of pure white. After paint was dry and Maskol removed some washes were made with help of Windsor & Newton burnt sienna oil paint. Next step was respray of all outer surfaces with very thin white. Reason: elimination of very sharp contrast between sand and white painted areas. Mud is mix of some spices from my wife's kitchen, dried tea and Humbrol paints. Mix is than paint-brushed all over the tracks and wheels and tank's undersurfaces as well.

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