I started on the winter diorama first but ended up completing the desert one first. It's a simple diorama of the famous Afrika Korps during WW2 and it's built from 2 kits, namely the German Panzerkampfwagen II (sd.kfz.121) and the Kubelwagen, both in 1/48 scale. I was initially planning to get either a 1/48 Panzer III or IV but those are completely out of stock in my country and went along with the Panzer II instead.
The two kits were easy to build and as always, in excellent quality without need for removing flash or hiding ejector pin marks.
I didn't put up any photos of the build process as it's pretty straightforward. Here are instead, photos starting from the priming process.
Panzer II primed and ready for base coat. Although the kit is actually for the French Campaign, I didn't see any major discrepancies for using it in a desert scheme.
Rear view of the Panzer II with some minor battle damage using a soldering iron on some areas of the tank. The exhaust cover in real life is actually a grill with holes which in the kit is replicated by a applying a spotted decal which comes with the kit but after adding the damages, I didn't bother applying the decal.
The base coat was painted in Mr.Color 40 (german gray) and following Youtuber Hamilkar Barkas' chipping technique, I applied Mr.Masking Sol with a sponge, which was later to be removed after painting the second coat of Mr.Color 39 (desert yellow).
Additional photo of the rear side with Mr.Masking Sol applied.
A photo of the Kubelwagen primed and ready for painting.
Second coat of desert yellow color applied.
Removing the masking sol wasn't as easy as I expected it to be. I suppose I'll try the hairspray chipping technique next time. The chipping marks on the Kubelwagen were done with tiny dabs of german gray paint using a sponge.
Painting and chipping completed. Next was weathering the models, then building the diorama. The diorama base was built using paper clay on a small wooden board and the rough terrain was replicated with real soil sprinkled on after applying water diluted white glue. The signs are cutouts from the Kubelwagen box, the rocks were made by ripping apart almost dried epoxy putty and the grass was made using trimmed hemp string strands attached to the surface with CA glue.
