Zvezda Ferdinands

I have played quite a few Kursk games but for some reason I've never managed to deploy any Ferdinands despite having a 20mm one and half a dozen (!) 6mm ones. As I have been building up my 15mm WW2 Eastern Front stuff, I didn't really have an excuse to resist the beautiful Zvezda 1/100th scale Ferdinands.

I bought two of them because anything less would just be silly wouldn't it? This pair were a real bargain at £2.50 each. 

They are on the simpler end of Zvezda kits, with only a few parts to clip or stick together. The tracks are very crude but actually look fine when painted up. As ever you need to be a bit careful clipping the parts off the sprues. 

Some of the detail is a bit light but  most of it is deep enough for a wash to work well (the hatches, engine grills etc). I just left these models plain rather than adding extra stowage etc. as I don't think they will be coming out to play much. 

The are finished in dunkelgelb and the endlessly reproduced mid green cris-cross camo scheme that almost every model Ferdinand seems to sport. I just gave them a couple of Balkan crosses and didn't bother with the turret numbers. 

For weathering I did my now usual technique of painting the entire tracks and running gear mud colour. The whole thing then got a dark brown wash, and a final highlight of pale sand to pick out he sharp edges etc. Then is was just detailing (e.g. metal highlights on the track plates), basing and they were good to go. Which in this case was straight into my 'box of silly big German tanks which rarely come out to play', but I do have a specific scenario in mind for these. Just need to get the rules written...