FineScale Modeler – September 2019

Save those foil lids from your yogurt containers and re-purpose them into realistic armored skirts.

40 FineScale Modeler September 2019

Upgrade an old-school tank with scale-thin, inexpensive skirts

BY GARY MAJCHRZAK

Schürzen

from yogurt lids

O

lder armor kits often require

a little help in order to stand

out. Often you’ll have to add

what’s missing and update

what’s needed most. One of

the ways I like to revive old armor is by

dressing it in new, thinner skirts. While

most kit-provided skirts are thick and

clean-looking, period photos show them as

thin, mangled, uneven strips of metal.

Believe it or not, one of the easiest and

most inexpensive ways to re-create this look

is with yogurt lids! Two or three foil caps

per model should do.

To demonstrate this technique, I’ll use a

kit released in 1987 — a 1/76 scale Fujimi

Sturmgeschütz III Ausf.G, stationed on the

Kursk front in 1943.

See, if you eat healthy then you can

model more!

2 3

To get four separate panels out of one lid,

place the kit-supplied skirt on the foil and

trace a sharp hobby knife along the top and

bottom edge of the two middle panels.

1

Working from the center toward the edges,

smooth out wrinkles by gliding your finger

across the foil. Be sure to use the fleshy part of

your finger, not the nails.

Reposition the skirt so that its top is lined up

with the bottom cut just made. Slice the blade

across the bottom edge again. Remove the

sections with vertical cuts before halving them.