75th Anniversary of 1944 Group Build (World at War)

Ben, thats looking very nice. I like the look of that engine and you havedone a nice job on the underside.

Thanks check, its quite a nice kit. FM make there own PE for the 109 kits they do but don't do anything for these, but the detail as is it not bad.

Nice start on the Iowa, always nice to see you guys building these ships.

Continuing with the build, steps 8 - 10. In step 8 you are adding the heater hoses; step 9 is adding the engine and center spine of the lower chassis to the main chassis as well as the rear engine tray; and step 10 adds the exhaust and heater boxes (?). 





Before adding the engine assembly to the main chassis I needed to follow through with adding the custom shifting rod and starter cable. Gluing the engine to the main chassis went off without a hitch. The rear engine tray needed some severe carving to fit properly around the crankcase pully and the exhaust flanges. Tamiya did a fair job on hiding the ejection pin marks as they will not be seen after the exhaust and heater boxes are added. Here is the view after completing step 9. If you look close, you can see the custom starter cable and shift rod. In the second photo you can see the custom gas line coming from the front firewall to the fuel pump:





The exhaust fit perfectly to include the heater exchange units as well as the front and rear exhaust ports. I treated the exhaust to a custom mix of gunmetal, dark gray, jet exhaust, black, and aluminum. Afterwards they were covered in a dirty brown wash. The tips were dry brushed with gunship gray to bring out the relief of the exhaust tip. Here is a photo of the exhaust attached to the main assembly:



The heater boxes were assembled, painted semi-gloss black and then lightly dry-brushed with gunship gray to bring out the details. They fit very snug but settled in nicely. When looking through the holes in the back of the boxes, you can still see the engine case, cylinder fins, and pushrod tubes (nice). Here they are attached to the main assembly:



In preparation for the next step I began painting the parts for the engine box:





The next steps should bring the engine bay to completion. So far, this is a refreshing and enjoyable kit. I received a response from Tamiya USA concerning the regular wheels and tires; they have the sprue but do not have the tires. To me, the sprue is useless without the regular tires. I believe my only other option is to find the resin regular wheel/tires combination from another source. 

Still having fun participating in this GB. The quality of the other builds within the GB are very impressive. I also like the many different subjects. There are definitely some super builders in our forum; I am just happy to be a participant. Till next time, please share your thoughts on my build (feedback is encouraged).

Ben

That is some really nice work Ben, got to get myself one of these.

Superb results, Ben.  Excellent work!

Bish, Thanks mate! I am having great difficulty finding regular wheels and tires for the 1/16 kube. When I do find them listed on a site, they are always sold out / not in stock. I may have to bow out of this GB and just build it.

Checkmate, Thank you.. I am really enjoying this kit even if it is a desert version. As stated above, I cannot find regular tires replacement.  I will not buy another at $80.00+ kit just to get regular wheels. Tamiya USA does not have the tires in stock and do not know if or when they can get them. All the other speciality providers to not have the after-market resin versions either. I believe this one is gong to be a desert vehicle. If that knocks me out of the GB I guess I'm OK with that, just let me know....

I am going to look within Shapeways to see if there are any, but that is my last option.

v/r,

Ben

Ben> I would just go with the balloon tires and paint the vehicle up in its normal Western European paint scheme.  Who knows?  What with the shortage of supplies for Germany, they may have still been using them on regular vehicles in early 1944.

As for Rommel, you might add another officer figure (if you can find one) and say the vehicle is his! 

Good work so far!

Gary

Apparently this is a photo from Tunisia 1944, driving being Senator James A. Mead:

regards,

Jack

Looks like I accidently responded to an old post to the 41 GB. Here's where we want to be.

Didn't bother to submit any photos of the Tamiya Panther build, but it's basically done. (Beautiful kit as expected.) Tools etc missing and much unglued - got to paint in sections.

build2 by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr

Now we start the hard stuff. I've been looking into festivites along the Dnieper in late 43-early 44 leading up to the Korsun slugfest, and there was a lot of armor. By this time most of the Panther Ds were dead - but not all. So we'll get a winter build going - make a vignette. Something desolate and ugly: nothing finer than the Eastern Front in January.

Eric

I did some checking on tires, too, Ben--and didn't find any.

I think you can forge ahead.  Good advice from GAF and a suitable photo from Jack, and I think you're still good to go.  I have no interest in bankrupting you!

I've always liked the lines of the Panther, Eric.  Looks kind of sleek and deadly.  Good job!

checkmateking02: thanks for the feedback and consideration. I believe I am going to follow the suggestion of using the tires but adding the Europran theater camouflage. 

- Continuing with steps 11-13, we are finishing the engine bay as well as starting on the front suspension.



Prior to assembly I washed the details with a dirty enamel mix of Model Master military brown and rubber (see last post). The instructions do not identify which part to add first, so I logically chose the items within the engine area before finishing with the walls of the engine bay. I am not sure what the briefcase looking item is to the right of the engine. I've noticed on some of the photos of real kubels that this case is not always there (?). If anyone knows what it is, please share it with us. I am thinking it may be a tool kit or spares for the engine (or both). To ensure the engine bay was squared, I first added the back firewall. As it was drying it was quickly followed by the right side, then the jack was added by fitting it to the back firewall and slot at the base of the engine, and last the left side. The hose attaching the air cleaner to the carburetor was first attached to the carb. On some real vehicles I noticed that the hose from the air cleaner to the carb was not a hose but metal while others were rubber (?). The metal I have seen has been either black or dunlelgelb (tan). I chose to stay with the instructions and paint the hose rubber. A small jewelry piece was added to the top side of the float bowl on the carb to represent a fitting for my fuel line. The carb was painted gold, then a dirty wash, and last antique gold.  The air cleaner was a mix of semi-gloss black, silver (clamps) and rubber (hose). The end of the hose by the left engine bay wall had to be slightly trimmed before it would align with the two attach points on the engine. This provided a solid and accurate alignment point for the carburetor and hose. The last item I added was a custom fuel line from the pump to the carborator. There is a decal that still needs to go on the back of the engine bay, but other then that here it is:

Step 13 began the assembly of the front suspension. So far, this was the worst part to have seams. The remaining small parts of the seams shown in the photos have been removed. It's funny how you think you have the part just right, with all seams removed, but then you see it differently after a photo. Prior to adding the steering box to the axle I assembled the top / side to it, painted it flat black, and lightly dry brushed silver over it. The steering rod going into the box was painted semi-gloss black. I was concerned about the placement of the steering box to the axle, but Tamiya made the notch and tab just right for a solid fit and alignment. The wheel hub is really three parts consisting of the piece that goes through the front suspension arms to control the steering, and the two part hub / brake assembly. The tie rods and linkage fixing it to the lower portion of the steering box look rather odd once assembled, but are indeed correct. The screws holding those parts together are VERY small (jewelers watch size). Great care is needed not to loose or over tighten them. Once assembled I painted them semi-gloss black per instruction callouts. Tamiya provides a very small screw driver to assist the assembly. Alignment of the bulkhead and skid plate are critical to ensure they fit properly to the chassis. Take care when gluing them together as the only alignment is the pin on the skid plate, and there is some slight movement that could possibly effect the proper alignment to the chassis. The photos below show the completion of steps 13-15, which is the steering, suspension, bulkhead, and skid plate. 





 



Finally, step 16 adds the front suspension assembly to the chassis. It fits with two guide pins on the skid plate to the front and flat section of the bulkhead to the lower chassis. After completion of this step, the chassis is really starting to look like a chassis, here are the photos:

Until next time, happy modeling....

Ben

That's very intricate and detailed, Ben.  You're doing a great job with it.  Nice going!

checkmateking02: Thanks for your kind words. I am really impressed with this kit. I have built some very good kits in the past (fine mold engineering), but this one simply begs to fall together by itself (it is that easy). I am enjoying this build... thanks again for letting me participate.

Ben

The easy Tamiya build is over and we're getting into more interesting territory. A lot of armor modelers use some variation of "color modulation" - paint different shades of a base coat over a primer (often gray) to make areas of the vehicle that would get more sun lighter, less sun darker. This also brings tonal variation to the base - much weathering is actually done early. The problem I have with the technique is that it gives a very orderly tonal variation - almost like preshading an airplane. (A variant called "black & white" is more interesting but suffers from the same problem of regular irregularity.) So I'm going to give "black basing" a shot. If you've never heard of "black basing" I really urge you to go to YouTube, search "Black Basing" and watch an 8 minute video by a terrific modeler named Doog - he has an entire series of long videos on it if you're interested. I've used black basing on my last four airplanes and they're the best planes I've built. I think it should work on a tank - we'll see.

Briefly, when black basing you apply a coat of black primer. (That means, for a few hours, I had a Black Panther - that impressed by grandson.) For airplanes I use a sandable lacquer primer in a rattlecan from Duplicolor - it's terrific. I decided to use Stylnelrez here. I thought Stylnelrez was supposed to be matte but I got more of a satin (the flash on the pic amplifies it) but no matter. You then follow up with the "Mottle" stage - you get a good detail brush and use a lightened rendition of the base color and "paint small" making very thin lines. In this case I used three shades - a buff, light yellow and lightened Dunkelgelb. When you apply the base coat over this, you will get a very uneven tonal variation which is what's intended because more weathering is to come. It's essential when applying the base to use a thinned paint that's very slowly built up: if too much goes down the black basing is made invisible. That's like putting too much base coat over a preshaded plane - preshade gone.

Here you see the primer and the mottle coat done. Should note I'll be using Golden High Flow water based acrylic paint which are simply terrific - easily the most airbrush friendly water based acrylic on the market. (That would be Vallejo, LifeColor, AK and Mission Models. I just tried Mission - it's good, but High Flow is better.) Ideally you'd want to use an acrylic/lacquer like Gunze, MRP or Tamiya - all are very good for "painting small." It's a testimony to Golden's quality that you can do well enough from half an inch. For the mottle stage I use a Creos ProConn Airbrush (made by Iwata for Gunze in Japan) - it's a dynamite detail brush, absolutely super and well worth the $85. You could use it for general work - but I've already got both an Iwata Eclipse which I favor - and a Harder Steenbeck Infinity which is now used for clear coating. (I've also got a HS Evolution which I don't use at all: I wish I'd tried Iwata before HS - I would have saved money.)

The problem with Golden is that it's an art house brand (a very very good one - they pioneered artist acrylics in the 50s) and it doesn't come in military colors. But, if you like to color mix that's no problem. Because Golden is made for artists it has several "mixing" colors and all the types are made to combine. I liked finger painting when a kid, and color mixing is very like it. (I also have a very good "color recipe" book for help.) Dunkelgelb will be made with Titanium White, Yellow Oxide, Sepia and a tad of Light Green. I want the color to be lighter than it should be, because the weathering will darken it. Not quite sure how much weathering to do - eventually I'll have a white wash on top. I'll forward a pic of the tank when the base color is applied. (Obviously I've taken off the wheels for individual treatment - they won't go on until very late.)

Eric

blPrimer by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr

Mottle1 by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr

Mottle2 by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr

Quite an interesting technique.

Continuing with the kugel build, step 17 has us adding parts to the interior floor; specifically the foot pedals and the wood subfloor. 



Looking at the pedals of real kugels I noticed that they were normally the tan of the rest of the interior. The accelerator (or gas pedal for us Americans) appears as either a round rubber grommet or around metal spacer on the end of an arm. Likewise the clutch and brake pedal pads are either rubber or metal. I want the pedals to look a little used so I cleaned them up, added the same dirty wash, and dry brushed the pedal faces with silver to appear as having worn the paint off. Likewise I have seen the emergency brake on a kubel either the tan color of the interior or black. I agreed with the instructions to paint it black, but... I left the floor bracket tan, painted the lever semi-gloss black, and the release button at the end gloss black. Last I lightly dry brushed the hand grip of the lever with a slight amount of silver to seem used and worn.

The wood slat sub-floor took some thought. Tamiya molded them with a very fine wood grain on the surface. Any brush paint would hide that feature. The color callout indicates they should be a red/brown or (rust) color and photos confirmed that. I thinned some Valejo (acrylic) rust and used my airbrush to apply a thin coat and let them dry a full day. Next was the same dirty (enamel) wash that i applied to the rest of the kit and let it dry thoroughly. Last was a very, very light brown (acrylic) dry brush over the wood to bring out the contrast and appear worn. Prior to adding them to the interior I needed to paint the rubber nubs on the rear floor as they sit inside the rifle holder bases that are part of the wood subfloor. Here is the completed parts from step 17:



Step 18-19 begin the sub-assembly of the body panels. These parts make-up both sides, the hood (over the rear engine) and the front bonnet (?). Step 18 is adding the heater ducts and inside bracing to both sides. Step 19 added tow hooks and the fuel tank to the front bonnet as well as drilling two holes on the rear hood for an air intake scoop. Prior to attaching anything you should determine if any of the doors will be attached open or closed. If the rear doors are to be closed you need to remove some attach points on the sides of the body. The inside of the side panels have numerous mold ejection pin marks. While some of them will not be seen after assembly, others will so take care to remove them. The gas tank has fine engravings, tank straps, and a fuel petcock or valve. After working through the process, here is the results:

Inside and outside of main body panels:





And here it is with the fuel port, window catches, and the spare tire laying on it. 



The rear hood along with a four piece fuel can with fine engraving, and the tire shown in the previous photo.



This concludes steps 17-19... till next time.

Ben

Eric, that looks like a neat technique on your panzer. I am watching your thread to see how this finishes. Oh!, nice job so far!

Ben

Hi again everyone. Steps 20 and 21; building the body.



This was very simple as the sub assemblies have already been done in the previous step. I added both sides before adding the hood and bonnet. As with everything else in the build, it fit flawlessly. Not much to say as the same technique was used in this assembly. I am soon to be reaching the point of adding the camouflage so I am looking at what needs to be added before the spray. Here is where I'm at today:







Cheers! and have a wonderful weekend....

Ben

Great progress, Ben.  The detail is wonderful!

Hello again,

Not too many in progress photos, just a couple of shots of upper hull.

I should have painted camo colours on the superstructure and funnels with them off the deck. Much harder to do once in place. Got a gloss coat of Vallejo gloss acrylic varnishon it to prep for decals and washes. Seems to go on smoother and shinier than the alclad aqua gloss

" alt="Trumpeter 1/700 HMCS Huron 1944" />

Ben, your work on that really does continue to impress. This is going to be one kit build once done.

Nuckss, that looks pretty good to me.

My 410 build has slwed down a bit the last week or so, but finally started to get some where. With the main construction finished it was masked up and ready for some paint.

Then after the primer some paint. First did the light blue on the tail and patches on the side, followed by the grey and green.

I tried for a patchy effect underneath but once again went a bit to far, i keep forgetting my own rule that when it looks like it needs one more pass leave it.

Then time for the decals. There is a seperate sheet for the stencils but this says for the A-1/3 variants. But i did use some that were above the black undersides as this would have covered the lower ones.

Also touched up the underside with some lighter areas and added the exhaust stains. Not sure where that lighter band came from, tried going over it with the thinned colour i was useing but didn't cover it up. I decided to leave it rather than make it worse.

Next up some light weathering washes and add the remaining parts.

Bish, Nice work so far on the 410. 

scalemateking02 and bish, thanks a lot... it has been wonderful to build. Instead of Rommel and the soft cap driver, I am proceeding with the build to make it appear as a northern Italy vehicle to include the driver and possibly other figures. I will most likely use after-market decals for the SS Panzer Corp in Northern Italy during 1944. While I know the tires are normally for the desert, I understand that during the later parts of the war, with parts shortages and troop movement, it would not be totally uncommon to see the balloon tires in southern Europe, what do you think?

If I elect to close the rear engine cover, all of the engine detailing will be lost. I may choose to fix it open with come kind of maintenance being done (?). I've also obtained some resin tarps and an ammo (grenade) box that I may add in the storage area behind the rear seat. That would mean I would have to leave it open too. The problem with that is it would limit my figure options as most I find are sitting on the storage cover behind the rear seat, hmmm..... your thoughts?

Ben

Thanks Ben.

I like your ideas. You could simply display those areas open and leave out the figures. Figures are limited in that scale, i could not find any that would fit the scene.

I have continued to look for European wheels and tires with no success, so I will have to go that route with my build using the baloon tires. Speaking of build, here is the progress for Steps 22, 23, 25, 26, and bits and pieces from other steps. The reason for jumping around is because of the preparation for painting the camouflage on the main body. I will still need to add small parts like the lights, etc., but once the doors and small stuff is on, it will be time for the airbrush. The wheels are step 24 and remain off until the camouflage paint is complete. 





The seats were painted german dark green, then dry brushed with O.D. Green, and last a very thinned wash to bring out the material wrinkles and age the color. The dash was painted according to the callouts and the decal was used versus a painted dial option. The rear stowage compartment has been fixed shut in anticipation of some recently purchased figures that will be sitting on it. The figures I found were specifically made for this kit by Jeffshiu's Minitures: http://jeffshiu.lsft.com/product73.html

I believe I will be going for a camouflage something like the photo below (excluding roof). Looking at the region, there was some in just green, some in just brown, and some on green and brown (the German Military codes of course). Not sure how it will be exactly, but it will be done in this kind of effect.



In the meantime, here is what it looks like to this point:







Every time I stop in to post my progress I am amazed at the great builds happening on this thread. Then I look through the other subjects and find more and more of things that fascinate me. To you ladies and gents building now, you need to pat yourself on the back. Your work, subjects, and skills are both outstanding and inspiring! Keep up the good work.....til next time.

Ben

Nuckss:  That is a fantastic looking ship!  You've done some great work with such tiny parts.  Well done!

Bish:  That is excellent paintwork!  You have a deft hand with the airbrush to accomplish all the sublety you've achieve.  Good job!

Ben:  sounds like a very good plan, if you can find the figures you want.  Otherwise, just the vehicle will do very well.  The Italian campaign sometimes seems to get neglected, despite being pretty intense with lots of nasty fighting.  You've done a really exceptional job with the assembly and painting.

checkmateking02: thank you for the compliment and input. I have indeed ordered the 4 figures shown in the link above. I found them at another link for 1/12 the cost. I also ordered the decals for an SS panzer unit in north Italy as well as some SS uniform decals from Tamiya, Alliance, and Peddinghaus; I hope to have them soon. I am really excited to add the figures to bring activity or life to the kit.

Until everything arrives I will move forward with the kubel.

Ben