Plastic Soldier Company Panzer IV Sneak Peek

Hopefully you've all seen the 15mm Plastic Soldier Company T-34 that I recently finished; it was enjoyable to paint and I've been anxious to see what's up next from PSC.  I was talking with Will at The Plastic Soldier Company yesterday and he was kind enough to share these diagrams with me that detail his next up armor release for both 15mm and 1/72.  It sounds like the 15mm box is planned for April and the 1/72 in May.  I'm really looking forward to picking up a few boxes.

I don't know a whole lot about these yet but I think the pictures speak for themselves!  In my opinion, this is great news.  Be sure to checkout The Plastic Soldier Company at their website.  Thanks for sharing these pictures Will!

15mm Plastic Soldier Company T-34's are da Bomb!

I've got lots of finished pictures today as I cleared off several items on my workbench.  I've been very anxious to start painting my 1/72nd miniatures so I think that gave me the impetus for getting my 15mm stuff done.  Before I go any further I have to say that Plastic Soldier Company's T-34's are awesome to paint; I've said this before but I think we are seeing a new movement in 15mm that will change this market's direction for the good.

I guess I'll treat this post more as a "photo blog" post as really I just wanted to share my finished pictures.  So I'll start off with Ernst Barkmann's Panther and Workshop.  Painting this at the same time as PSC's T-34 was tough because I kept wanting to switch back over to the crisply detailed T-34.

I should also mention that a couple of these sets are available for sale on eBay right now.

Next up, are my 15mm (1/100) Armaments in Miniature Me-109's that I recently posted on.  I have a few more photos now that were taken in my light box.  Great little aircraft!

And last, but not least is the Plastic Solder Company's 15mm T-34 with both the 76 and 85 turret options.  This was a very great idea by PSC and obviously allows you to field more options.

Armaments in Miniature, Me-109 Work in Progress Part 2

Finished!  I need to get some better pictures up; these were taken with my cell phone... I'm so lazy :)  I also finished the bases which were pretty quick and easy to paint.

To pickup where I left off from last week, I started by applying decals to the model; these are a mix of I-94 Enterprises decals and the decals that I picked up from Armaments in Miniature (made by "Wargames"); the Wargames decals are a bit grainy and certainly not as crisp as the I-94 product so I only used a couple of them here (nose mascot and red numeral).

After the decals, I used a very small brush to apply the Vallejo Wash (Black) very carefully into the lines.  You can clean-up any mistakes if you're quick but if you wait more than a few minutes, your clean-up won't be very effective.  Oil stains were applied in streaks using very watered down Vallejo Black paint.

Guns were painted Vallejo Oily Steel and then highlighted with Vallejo Model Air Aluminum.  This same aluminum was used to create some chipping on the wings, fusalage, and canopy frame.

The engine exhaust pipes were painted with the three Vallejo Panzer Aces' rust colors - Dark Rust followed by Light Rust followed by Yellowish Rust.  The shading combination of these colors gives a nice effect.

To finish off the aircraft, I sealed everything with a couple of coats of Testor's Dullcote...  maybe next time I'll try an acrylic matte varnish through my airbrush but I had a can of Dullcote laying around that needed to be used.

The aircaft bases were applied with some Vallejo Coarse Pumice Gel and then painted over with earth tones (can't remember the specific color here) and then drybrushed with a lighter color.  The shafts of the stands were painted with the same Vallejo Sky Grey that I used on the bellies of the aircraft.  Dry grass and ground cover was applied to give the impression of fall vegetation or the Russian Steppes.

To sum up the project, I think Armaments in Miniature has a good product and the detail was nice.  Painting was enjoyable and I think everything turned out pretty good.  If you're interested in purchasing these aircraft for your 15mm army keep your eyes on my commissions page as they are likely to go up on eBay in the near future.

If you missed it, checkout Part 1 of this article.