Is there and link to any tutorial on how to do a bullet hole on tank? I would like to do this to my panther to make it look more like a realistic battle tank. It have bend in effect, Not just paint.

Use a pointed soldering iron and plug your nose. Try it in scrap plastic or in an area that cant be seen first. Paint with rust and orig. colors.


DH

A Heat gun and a sharp punch for bullet dents!

The Blitz

Fresh bullet holes leave a bare metal look, so on MG hits on sheet metal as sponson boxes, bussle boxes etc, I like to use a small drill or Dremmel On larger hits like front plate, mantlet etc, a Dremmel with a burr about the size of the "incomming" round maked a nice, peneration or glancing blow. When a tank is hit and riccochets off, the AP round will gouge out a piece and leave a bare metal slice, and will peel off a bit of paint around the edge. Tigers are often seen with deep dents or gouges on the heavy armor where an AP round has hit. MG hits will do the same, espcecially on sheet metal and the paint around the immediate area of the hole will be chipped off. Dremmel or drill the hole and spot it with "steel" paint. A couple photos of how I did a couple Pz IV and tigers based on my own experience . Pershings often had a few small arms holes in the sides of the sponsons. On flat surfaces like Pershing sponson boxes and German bussle boxes as on Pz III, you can drill straight in, but on sloped metal as on Tiger fenders etc, remember the angle of the striking round and drill accordingly, not straight 90 degrees into the fender. Don't paint the fresh gouge if you want it to look combat accurate....paint the gouge steel or silver ....and if the round had hit the mantlet, it may have glanced off the cupola also, so, might want to put a hit there. Look at the angle of the armor and where the round may have gone after glancing off. If the mg hit a water or oil can....put a hole in it and show the leak-dripping. Bacjpacks and canvas gear also get torn to HE double hockey stix.

May I suggest that your strike pattern is just a little too precise. Try spacing the hits out a little (a LOT) more and NOT in an exact straight line. Two additional things: hits from a high cyclic rate of fire weapon (.30 cal Browning) would chip exterior paint, but not dent armor (could punch through things like mud flaps and exhaust shrouds). Hits from a heavier weapon, like a Browning .50 cal would dent lighter armor and gaul heavier armor (also, .50 cal had much slower rate of fire and heavier recoil, so hits would be spaced further apart).

If you want to simulate a anti-tank weapon punch through hit, try drilling hole with a regular drill bit. Then use an Exacto razor knife to cut small and irregular slashes radially out from the center of the hole. Not much need for it ( and not really realistic), but you could start with a dent (warm the affected area of plastic and push in to make the dent. Then drill into the dent. Remember that very few off angle hits were successfull penetrators. They usually have to be perpendicular hits.

Take it for what you think it's worth (free advice is usually worth what you pay for it), but it is something to think about.

Splat

these bullet holes and hits are a bit unrealistic unless a Russian soldier was atanding 5 feet from the tank and opened up with a full drum (71 rds) on a PPSH-41 Burp Gun. That fired 960 rds per minute of 7.62 pistol bullets. I had one and it was a very neat gun and easy to handle. (It was donated by a North Korean soldier who had no further use for it.) [sm=spinnyeyes.gif] MG hits would be sporatic and there would rarely be more than 3-4 hits in the same area..MG or rifle hits on a tank normally come from a distance as no one in his right mind is going to walk up to a tank and cut loose with a MG....unless he's directing attention away from the Panzerfaust team on the other side, is an exceptionally fast runner, tired of living and has already drained his bladder and bowels for the day.[:@] Same for the black stuff around the hit on the turret...paint it steel.

I fired BBs at miine from a distance of about 15 ft. to attain the .50 strikes.

For RPG near misses, I used a dremel tool with a conical tool.

(This is a 1/8 scale)

Checkout this post to get you to some good panzer images: http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_6729554/tm.htm

those are some really great photos. I like seeing older "family' photos from WW II Germany. This collector is top notch.

remember when a bullet goes through the skirts or fenders the ragged edge should be on the inside not bent out. As the round strikes the metal it pushes the metal inwards till the metal separates and the round passes through. Take a metal pop can and shoot a pellet or bb at it and you will see

pzrwest:

Agreed, I'd not waste it on Aber fenders, but for cheaper replicas, sure!

Just put the metal skirt atop a piece of corrugated cardboard box, or better yet, a piece of metal with a larger hole under your impact point, and punch holes in it with the appropriate diameter piece of wire with a a ragged point ground/filed on it. Why ragged? So you get an odd tear to the metal. Also twist the wire slightly as you push it through, remember that bullets are spinning as they punch through.

For styrene punctures/dents, ~don't~ use your soldering iron directly. Use a candle to heat a piece of wire or rod, and use that, and leave it in the hole until its cooled. You don't want the warm tip dragging styrene back out, eh? I often use this for making joints in resin figures, as the fine resin remains are NOT something you want to handle. Works a charm, and also holds the wire joint solid.