tigerman

Thanks for the support guys and yes, it's been awhile since I completed the Jagdpanther.

Maybe we should stretch it until September? any thoughts?

I'm just getting back into the GB after a couple months absence.  Same problem here....too much darn work, too little time and energy!   Anyway, I just finished one of my modeling projects which I posted in the Armor forum so now I'm getting back to the Dragon Pz. IB DAK.  

Since your asking about an extension; I'm in favor of it!  Hopefully nothing will get if the way of the Pz IB, but you never know.....

Many thanks, guys, it was a fun project and it looks great in the display case. The canopy problems don't show up well in the photos, and though I know they're there, I'm in no particular hurry to do anything about them, so I guess they're more a perfectionist thing -- I used masks and am used to getting clean, sharp edges, but now and then the dynamics are going to fall down a bit.

I'll get back to armour and am looking forward to talking the scratched details on the Pz. IV, so hopefully I'll have some progress shots before long.

Guess I better grab a badge, too!

Mike/TB379

Mike, beautiful Spit my friend. Always liked those desert  colors.

Looks like we need a bump!

I apologize to all for the long delay, but I'm finally getting back to work on the Dragon Pz. 1 Ausf.B DAK.

I had to go back to page 21, Jan. 6 to find my last update.......  wow   Anyway, I left off with the completed suspension so now its time to work on the upper hull.  I decided to open a couple of the viewports which means I have to do something about the inside of the hull, so I installed the closed hatches and inner parts of the viewports and painted the interior flat black.  Did the same with the assembled engine compartment due to the open slots on the upper deck:

Then glued the upper hull to the lower.

Assembled the turret and dry fitted the kit MG13s

And this is how she looks now:

I turned my attention to the muffler.  It has some molded on mounting bosses that are completely inaccurate and unnecessary so I carved them off with an X-Acto knife and then sanded smooth.

Last month I made the annual visit to the 2014 IPMS Hobby Expo in Petaluma, CA.  While I was there I came across this Italeri Kommando I B kit and for a mere $8 I thought it would be a cool addition to this build!  I was also thinking this could be the "test" build to experiment with the hairspray technique! Its the command/radio version of the Panzer I B and I believe the correct nomenclature is Kleine Panzer Befehlswagen I Ausf.B.  The kit decal sheet includes markings for a DAK vehicle!

I also found an Eduard PE set at the Hobby Expo that I thought would fit this so I coughed up another few $$.  I'm not sure how much of the PE set I'll use though.  I want this to be a relatively simple build.

This looks to be a bit easier of a build then the Dragon kit, but there are a few minor problems to address.  The kit's vinyl tracks HAVE to go.  Don't know if I have another Pz. I track set in the stash though.  The sprockets each have a sinkhole in them that needs fixing...shouldn't be too hard:

Take care all and have a great weekend!

That's some nice progress ernest, I didn't realise Italeri had done one of those, should be fun to watch come together.

Ernest: Very cool, good to see you again and looking forward to seeing the Panzer I get some paint. The command panzer looks pretty cool too, I love those old Italeri kits and don't think they get enough credit, some good stuff there.

Looking really good there, Ernest!

HobbyBoss Sd.Kfz. 222 Panzerspahwagen.

Since I finished the M3A1 Scout for this group build, I started on the 2nd build - the HobbyBoss Sd.Kfz. 222 Panzerspahwagen. I actually have it almost ready for painting, so I’ll bring everyone up to date in 3 posts.

#1. The Kit

The sprues are individually wrapped and the kit comes with some nice photo etch, rubber wheels and decals for 2 vehicles.

This is the paint scheme I’m going for.

HobbyBoss Sd.Kfz. 222 Panzerspahwagen

#2. The kit has you start with the undercarriage. The engine was painted a neutral grey and everything else was airbrushed with a flat black. I then lightly sprayed on Tamiya Dark Brown to give a look of wear and tear and rust. I then lightly dry brushed a 50:50 mixture of Tamiya Flat Aluminum and Neutral grey. I like the look.

The inside was painted white, as directed, and then lightly airbrushed with Tamiya Dark Brown to give a bit of a dirty look.

The upper interior was painted the same and then washed with a Dark Dirt Flory wash. The engine compartment was airbrushed black.

The instrument panel was glued in (decals over Tamiya Gloss Black) and a Flory Sand wash was applied. I left the copywrite info since it would not be seen in the finished model.

Here is the finished inside after the dry brushing and final Flory Sand wash applied. To bad none of it is going to be seen once the upper hull is in place. I should have opened the doors.

HobbyBoss Sd.Kfz. 222 Panzerspahwagen

#3 The upper and lower halves have been fit together and it is becoming apparent that all the interior hard work will not be seen.

The underside - still looking good.

This is the gun platform painted Field Gray and weathered with Flory Black Dirt and Flory Sand washes. Let me say, this was a paint to put together. The instructions left a lot to be desired, especially the placement of small parts. There were several subassemblies and it was all but impossible to test fit. As it is, it’s wrong and I’ll have to modify it a bit to place the weapons and have it fit in the turret.

Here is the fixed gun platform with the weapons attached. The guns are finally level with the turret. They were painted Tamiya Gun Metal and dry brushed with Tamiya Metallic Grey. Not too bad. I left out a photo etched part that attached to the turret. Whoever designed it was a masochist. I just couldn’t put it together and finally cried uncle. It wasn’t going to be seen anyway. Still, it’s frustrating.

I think the Sd.Kfz. 222 is about ready to paint and that should bring us up to date.

Lovely work there Alan, I think we are in for another treat.

Holy Moly, that 222 looks damn fine, Alan!

I still have to get me one of those little armored cars, but I'm not sure which one yet. I think I'll either go for the Bronco 221 (with the Pak) or the Tristar 222. Does anyone have any experience with one of them?

I would like tyo add one of these as well, I don't have any wheeled German armour at the moment. So I will second SS's question. I know Tristar kits usually get good reviews, but I know nothing about Bronco's. And even less about Hobby Boss kits.

No expereince for either one of those kfz kits with me. I have only built the old Tamiya kits. And that is far less intricate than the Hobbyboss one here... Wow! I think on my days off this week I will do more work on my Italian jobs for this GB.

Hey Guys, here are some wip of my Tiger I, tactical # 142 of the 4th Platoon, 1st Kompany, schwere Panzer Abteilung 501. This battalion served in Tunisia from November 1942 to March 1943. The battalion was credited with destroying more than 150 allied tanks. I've done a ton of research and this is going to be my first super detailed model. HOLY SMOKES! There is lots of work to do but it remains fun and calming. In my last post I listed the work that I have done or will do. One thing to add to my list is that I am not going to use the kit rubber band tracks. They really aren't too bad but I have a set of Friuls in my a.m. track stash, so I'll use them. I welcome any criticism or corrections needed. I am always trying to learn. Here's some pictures. I will post more often so as to not overload the site! I tried to put them in order but I had a few problems. I am too old school. One day I will get the hang of it. Thanks to the Stickpusher for his technical help!                                                              Overall view of my progress

http://i1344.photobucket.com/albums/p642/Scottchaz/810_zpsea6a5678.jpg

Sorry for the last photo, I did alot of stowage following hand surgery and infection. More of that kind of stuff will be in the armor forum.

Scott

ps Hey Mr pusher, third times a charm. Thanks Brother!!!

Damn it Chazzer, you make me want to go full AMS on my Tiger as well. That's some very impressive work! I just hope you don't try to put all the stuff in the last pic on your kitten. There wouldn't be anything of the actual tank visible if you did

Are those gray bits from a dragon kit? The color looks familiar to me and I'm pretty sure it isn't resin. If they are, would you mind telling us why you chose to replace the kit parts?

Schatten, I would be happy to. Right you are in recognizing the Dragon kit parts. I found them to be a bit more crisp than the actual Tamiya part. Another reason is that I may leave this hatch empty of crew and would like to have a great hatch to show. That's why this is the only one I replaced.

Please keep the observations etc.. coming.

Scott

Earnest ,Only 8 bucks?!!. Great deal. That will make a neat little model. Can't wait to see i.

Scottt

I have 2 Dragon Tigers in my stash (both late w/ and w/o Zimmerit), so I think I can rob some parts from them as well. One of them comes with 2 sets of tools (blank tools and PE clamps and tools with molded-on clamps) so that gives me some opportunities to improve my Tiger a bit.

Alan & Chazzer: Those look great guys! Love the extra detail you guys are working in there.

Bish: I've got a couple of Bronco kits and only half built one and was very pleased by the fit and detail. Hobbyboss I like too, not as detailed as Dragon or AFV Club but still good kits- again good fit as well.

Well, after thinking about it for a while, I decided not to pimp my Tiger. I'll simply add some of those Dragon tools, an RB gun barrel and some Friul tracks. I want this to be a relaxing and easy build.

The Pz.IV is going to get some special treatment though:

That Dragon kit (#6264) includes a whole bunch of goodies already, but I think i can take it a bit further. Included in the kit are:

• Dragon "Magic Tracks" with a jig for the proper track sag (nothing special here, but better than vinyl)
• A fully functional suspension system (with losa fiddly bits)
• Turned Aluminum gun barrel (it has no rifling though)
• Pre-bent PE/wire parts for 2 versions of spare-wheel mounts
• 2 shells of brass ammo (not a whole lot, isn't it?)
• Some other small pre-bent PE and wire bits (like the shovel clamp)
• A whole array of PE-parts for tool clamps and clampless tools and fenders without locating holes to go with them
• PE bits for several other thingies
• 3 vinyl(?) cacti (let's be honest, what am I supposed to do with 3 cacti?)
• A Guderian figure (looks nicely cast and might come in handy for a diorama at some point, but I think it's really just in there for the lols...)

The amount of exterior detail is simply superb on this kit. Dragon provides you with all the optional parts and decals to build either a DAK vehicle (my choice) or a normal Pz.IV Ausf.E both with and without additional armor. The turret includes a pretty nice interior and the gun breech looks quite nice too. A turret basket is included as well. All the hatches on the hull and turret are designed to be displayed either open or closed). All in all this is one of the most impressive armor kits I've seen so far.

So what are the downsides of this kit (the places I want to go full AMS on this build)?

• The biggest omissions are visible on the interior - there is none other than the turret basket! You can open up every single hatch on the tanks but you have nothing to put behind it.
• The Magic Tracks look nice, but this kit has a pretty complex workable suspension, so I want to have this nice feature on the completed model (in short: the kit tracks have to go)
• The fenders look nice, but are on the thick side, so they kinda drag the kit's overall look down a bit
• It's extremely overengineered in certain areas - The final drive housings for example have the damn gears included as separate parts and details on both sides of the covers! I'm actually thinking of exploiting this and removing one of the sprockets and the cover in a maintenance scene (I'd have to practice some figure painting first though because I'm horrible at that)
• the lenses for the headlights are foogy and don't really look like lenses (small fault, but good looking lenses would definitely look a lot better)
• The tow cables are those steel wire bundles Dragon likes to put into their kits and I absolutely HATE them.

So here's what me, myself and I are going to do to our "patient":

I'm not too sure about the gun barrel, so I moght add a RB one - those things only cost 2-3 bucks anyway:

I'll replace the fenders with one of the Voyager sets just for the pain fun of it. I always wanted to try using one of them and this seems like a good opportunity.I'll probably try to solder them (provided I can teach me how to do it - any help is appreciated)

The magic tracks are an easy fix: Friul to the rescue!

The interior gets some "light" treatment too:

I'll add a verlinden upgrade set for the interior:

It includes all the parts for the full interior. I'm not too sure If I'll open up the engine compartment too (although I imagine it would look nice - maybe a bit overkill, but nice).

I heard mixed opinions on those Verlinden sets though and the driver's compartment is going to be the most visible when I'm done with her (driver's/radio-operator's hatches open as well as the transmission hatches) so I'm thinking of getting the CMK set for that area as well:

It looks a lot better than the Verlinden parts and I have plenty of other Pz.IVs in my stash for the leftover bits of the Verlinden set.

I'm absolutely clueless about those lenses, so I hope you guys can help me out with that one.

So what do you think of the crazy thoughts that swirl around in my head? 

I just realized how much I wrote in that post. Sorry 'bout that guys, but I just lost track for a wee bit (who am I actually kidding?)

Hey Clemons that's insane- in a good way! Love all those extra details but the fenders scare me, I know they look more to scale but that many folds- well I just don't have the guts to tackle something like that!

Well, as for me, the Crusader is sorta kinda done. Not totally happy here, but then again I'm never totally happy with anything I build. I wish I'd used a darker grey for the tires/tyres and the wash is heavier than I wanted.

If anyone can suggest anything to change without repainting the whole darn thing lemme know.

Schatten, I am eagerly following your build. So much detail to be had!! Thanks for the kind words. They really do have a wonderful effect on my building.

Scott

Gamera, Great job with your build and weathering. The dust build-up is superb.I hope I can attain that level of skill!

Scott

Looking really damn nice there, Cliff! I actually really like that dark wash. You could try covering the tires with a black sludge wash to darken them a bit...

I just noticed that the ammo racks of the Verlinden set look downright horrible. They are just junks of resin with really circular holes in them. Do you know of any PE ammo racks to replace them? I think I saw some PE bits just for the rear end of the ammo, but I can't remember where. Getting a bunch of those for 75mm rounds to glue into the holes in the resin pieces would greatly improve the look of the ammo racks (the top part is the only thing you are really going to see anyway) and I would save a lot of time because I could just skip painting the shells. I could just drill out the holes and insert some brass ammo instead, but I think that would be a lot more frustrating and definitely more expensive. Any ideas?

Gamera, I do like that Crusader. It looks great on my phone screen... Looking forward to seeing it on a normal size monitor.

Stick, I got it right...finally!!!

Tanks!

Chaz