502 Schwere Panzerabteilung Update - Time for the Winter Coats!

Sorry for the lack of update posts, I've been stuck working on other projects and I'm only now getting back the miniatures. I have some time off this week, so I'm madly trying to finish up the winter-themed 502 Schwere Panzer-Abteilung army for the mid-war tournament coming up in a couple of weeks. Unfortunately my first day of vacation, the monsoon season hit here in Oregon - which makes my normal airbrushing set up on the covered deck completely useless.  Cold and rainforest levels of humidity are NOT your friend when you're trying to paint.  So I cobbled together a poor man's spray booth (see below) and persevered... my wife especially liked the Eggo box as a riser.

I had already done the modulation coats on the Tigers, unfortunately putting together the list I realized I needed a few more halftracks and Kubelwagen, so I had some more base coats to do.  It was just as well as I'd unwisely tried to paint in the monsoon.  The first Tiger came out okay - they next one was a flaming disaster, so I had to go back and redo the base coats and shading.  Once that was done I used Panzer Putty (sorry, no in progress photos this time) to mask out the areas to remain gray.  I then modulated the white as best as possible using a two-step process of a panzer gray shine mixed with white, and then pure white.

Above is the Panzer III Ausf N.  Because of the low point total, I won't be able to bring the little escort panzers this time, but I really like how it came out.  You can sort of see some of the modulation in this photo, but honestly the light isn't good enough to see the fine details

I went ahead and did a band camouflage on the recovery half track.  This thing looks really good in person.  I need to get the window, top, and crew painted, but it is coming along nicely.

Next are the 3 Tiger I tanks.  The gray bands on these are a bit wider than they need to be, but overall the effect is pretty close to the "real things."  Unfortunately I noticed an issue with my turrets as I was putting the Panzer Putty on the vehicles.  Instead of the hatch on the right rear, all three should have one an additional pistol port.  I bravely resisted the urge to correct this detail as, well honestly I won't have time to do it before the tournament.  I'll get them for next time around.

All of the miniatures have had a gloss coat put on them and are now ready for the wash.  I'm planning on using a mix of the blue for panzer gray and black washes from AK interactive on these.  I am also hoping to get some custom decals printed for these.  I have a dry transfer system I'm going to use to create transfers which I'll then put on clear decal film.  Hopefully it works!  The supporting infantry and artillery is also nearly ready to go, so I'll be posting them in the next few days as well.