For my latest project i thought i would tackle the Young Miniatures Bust of Max Wunche (Kit number 1826),the kit is completly cast in resin except for the headphone attachments which are etched metal and copper wire for the all the wiring associated with the headphones, the kit has about 74 parts in total together with the comanders cupola and periscopes.
Wunche is depicted in the cupola holding his map case in his left hand with a map folded on top of the case,a nicely detailed coloured map is also included in the kit.
Care must be taken when assembling the percscope covers on the turret ring as these are not all the same castings,they are lettered from A to F so each one has its own position on the turret,the detailing on the turret is very well done right down to the welds arround all the perricope covers.
Clean up was very minimal and the same with filling as well,all parts fitted together really well,wunche's right hand is modeled so he's holding on to the turret ring with his right hand,the face has been well sculpted as well with a decent likeness to wunche from his wartime photo's.
Although 80% of the kit is hidden when wunche is positioned in the turret i still decided to paint and detial everything even though it would'nt be on view when the kit was complete.
Painting of the inside of the turret ring was completed using an off-white colour as depicted in the Osprey Vangaurd series Panther V,i still have some paint final touches to complete before joining the 2x main turret parts together permantley.
Undercoating of the figure and turret was done using GW (Games Workshop) chaos black.
For the main colours of the cupola i airbrushed a 2 thin coats of Tamiya XF60 Dark Yellow followed by a spray pattern again taken from the Osprey series of Tamiya Red Brown XF64 and JA Green XF13,the model has been produced with wunche wearing the Italian Camoflauge blouse/jacket and trousers which was evident when serving with the 12th SS Pz Div (Hitlerjugend) in normandy in 1944.
I decided to assemble the whole figure except for the head as i did'nt want to be messing arround with the gloved hands after painting,for the base coat of the italian camo i airbrushed 2 coats of Tamiya Dark Green and left this to dry for a couple of hours,once completly dry i hand painted the brown and ochre patterns for the italian como using GW acrylic paints which were Scorpion Brown and Ochre,i left these to dry overnight before i would start the highlighting and shading.
For all the highlighting and shading i used Oil paints throuhout,i started with the ochre patches for which i used Yellow ochre + white for the high's and some umber added for the shadows,i did the same with the brown area's using straight Mars orange for the highs with umber added for the shadows,and finaly for the green areas Olive green + tittanium white for the high's with some tiny ammount of black added for the shadows,final shading was completed in the deeper areas using burnt umber.
Outlining was done using GW acrylic chaos black,there is still some more work to do yet with the figure as its only about 70% finished as of writing.
I dont want to disscuss the rank insignia depicted on the model as this has already been covered in a previous post regarding it's correctness,i think Ebroin has done a terrific job on this piece and i wanted to try and do it as much justice as i can.

Obersturmbannfuhrer Max Wunche was born in 1914 and died in 1995 aged 80,during his time in normandy he served with the 12th SS Pz div (Hitlerjugend),his regiment was credited with the destruction of 219 tanks which gained him the Knights cross and oak leaves.
He was captured while trying to escape the falaise pocket where his unit was trapped and was wounded in the leg,he spent the rest of the war in a POW camp in caithness in Scotland a special camp for high ranking german officers,he was released in 1948 and returned to Germany.

They're will be some extra's i will be adding to the kit,these i will disscuss in a later post.

Brian

Brian, a great start to what looks like another very interesting WIP, looking forward to following.

Cheers Ken

Great start !!!!

Very nice start.
Looks a little bit shiny to me.

Marc

Ken,thanks for your coments,i will hopefully have another update soon

Phillippe - Thanks for your coments

Marc - Thanks also for your coments ,when you say shiny do you mean the turret or the figure,the turret i have weathered with a metal effect of wear ?,if its the figure then i can definatly say it's my photography again that's causing the shine as the camo finish is definatly matt

Brian

Excellent beginning!!!!

Good work Smudge !, promise yer this is gonna look cool when finished the Ita camo looks stand out already. Look forward to your progress.

Hi Brian!
I like it very much so far!
The camo looks very nice! i like the shading

I am working on the same project at the moment!!

i ll be watching this closely...

S.

Another worthy rendition, another reminder of the regret of not owning this kit.

Not only a very good start with the painting but an interesting and informative post. Good stuff I like posts like this.

Roger.

Great start, painting the top of the pulpit and torso.
One question I have to camouflage, this is me not so well known, there is a source for that?
Cheers

Hendryk

This looks very promising , nice work on the turret and camo.

Steve

Thanks Carl


I knew it yet.

Cheers

Hendryk

Brian this is looking very good. Like the cammo alot not an easy one this to crack but this is very good.

That cupola is gawjus

Keep up the good work mate, you are improving with every new piece

Superb

Stu

Hi Brian!

I like the weathering in the Panther cupola and the Italian pattern is great.
I think Wünsche wore black leather trousers or F.grey.

Following!

Hi Brian love what uve done so far mate ! Might we see a bullet belt ?
Sam

Nice work Brian!

Following

Nice start ! have this to do also one day ... watching closely