Die Waffenkammer Armour review

With Christmas rapidly approaching I thought I'd do something totally festive and write about 2 bitter opponents from the Eastern Front, so here is my take on Die Waffenkammer (JTFM Enterprises) T34/76 UZTM turret kit, and also the Panzer IV Ausf H. First up, the T34.

Die Waffenkammer's T34 is a masterpiece of simplicity, comprising of a hull, seperate track units, a one piece turret and a big bag of stowage, as well as a nice commander figure. Next to no clean up was required, apart from a good wash in some washing up liquid to ensure that all the mold release agent is removed from the resin. I also used a grey automotive primer on the tank as this is far harder wearing than a standard acrylic primer. Both these steps are very important due to the nature of the resin used, although this extends to all resin (And metal) models as well.

After leaving the primer to dry for about 24 hours I attacked it with my airbrush, spraying the tank with through a range of green paints, starting with Vallejo 897 Brown Violet and finishing at 857 Golden Olive. Paint was misted on to give a sense of fading and wear to the green. Once this had dried I used artists oils as a wash into the recesses, and any excess paint was removed with a cotton bud. Mud was applied in a similar fashion to the wash, using Games Workshop Agrellan Earth left to pool in the recesses to give the impression of dried dust. a quick bit of googling provided a turret slogan which I painted on with Vallejo Silver Grey, and that was the T34 done!

Die Waffenkammers Panzer IV Ausf H Is just as good as the T34, being a very simple model to build with very crisp detail. I particularly like the Schurzen rail allowing you to have the side skirts separate from the model. This is actually the second one of these kits I have built, and I wanted to base this one on a vehicle from 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich after seeing a colourised photo in a forum. Paint was applied using the same techniques as the T 34, with the Dunkelgelb mixed using Vallejo Middlestone with increasing quantities of white mixed in. Yellow Olive Green camoflage patters were then sprayed on and the whole tank was dusted up with a watery coat of Vallejo Iraqi sand once all the inks and oils had dried.

Both these kits are superb, and fit perfectly with Warlord and Rubicon kits. I will be doing a size comparison once I have built a Rubicon T34 and some more Warlord Panzer IV's. Die Waffenkammer models can be bought either direct from Die Waffenkammers website, or ordered from Great Escape Games for those of you in the UK.