Hi, I just wanted to let anyone interested in Trumpeter's 1/35th kit
of the BR 52 know that it's a really good kit--a really quality
product. I'm a novice in locomotives and train stuff, but I found the
kit to be an easy and enjoyable build. Above and beyond the FSM kit
review that was done several months ago, I would note the following.
First, the roof to the cabin was warped, and it took a fair amount of
bending and glue to ensure a good fit between the roof and the cabin.
As the review pointed out, the boiler doesn't mate easily to its
supports, and requires additional work. The base (tracks, rails, etc)
is made of several segments and there is a fair degree of
filling/sanding work around the edges of the base to make it look good.
It was hard to glue the windows on the cab without getting glue on
them.
Artistically, the main difference between how the BR 52 looks in the
FSM review and how I did it is that I put a ton of black/burnt sienna
sludgewash over everything. I started out with a panzergrau color
(lighter, and bluer, than what I got out of the Testors Model Master
jar), but ended up with a very dark gray tone, to reflect the effects of
heat and exposure to the elements. I also added on the tracks in front
of the locomotive a really cool engineer figure from a French company
"Blast Models", but it's hard to find on the market--if you want it,
you'll need to order directly from that company.
Here's a link to see photos of the build, pre-wash and then completed: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8421275@N07/ I would have preferred to just insert the photo files here, but either I'm just too inexperienced working inside FSM's website or something's not working. FSM says insert a url for the photos, but even though I did what they asked, when I posted nothing showed up.
All in all, this was a great kit and I think Trumpeter has done the
hobby a great service by putting out its line of locomotives and other
WWII-era railway products. I plan with the New Year to do Trumpeter's
diesel locomotive and one of the parts of the German armored locomotive
(the Kanonen und Flakwagen car).
Terry