German Neubaufahrzeug [Rheinmetall] ~ Trumpeter # 5528

I love them too.  I built the Cyber Hobby kit, but I'll be curious about the Trumpeter one. 

Hmm. I question the paint scheme. The prewar colours were grey, green and brown, yes; but the brown was lighter, more golden than shown there. And the patterns were usually hard-edged, not sprayed.

Has anyone a relevant photo?

David

Cool subject.  A Google image search did not find anything very conclusive.  95% of the pics are of models or the box.  A few of the tanks repeated any times and only 2 showing the camo sort of clear.  Both were hard edge.  1 was a sort of puzzle pattern and the other was a few large featureless blob shapes.

My plan is to just do an overall grey paint scheme being most pics appear that's what it was.  I just need to figure out what MM paint to use because there is no labelled matching color in the manual.  This Field Grey they call for isn't your typical WW2 german grey is it?  Were early 30's tanks this lighter grey? Or is trumpeter wrong in this?  Looking at a color conversion chart the MM paint that is equivalent to the instructions Field Grey is Dark Ghost Grey which seems way too light to me.

Feldgrau, or Field Grey, is actually a dark green colour used on uniforms and small pieces of equipment. I have never heard of it being a tank camouflage colour.

David

I am more than slightly curious - and a little doubtful - of the colors Trumpeter shows... It (the art) does look pretty interesting and actually rather cool, but I don't think it is really historically correct.

When these prototypes were placed into evaluation and testing, the Heer used the "fire-proof colourful camoflage scheme" - Feuersicherlich Buntfarbenanstrich - a scheme using a sort of "yellow" (I think it was called "erdgelb" or "earth-yellow"), a matt brown, and a matt green. These colors (and the scheme) have been posted elsewhere (but I regret to admit I don't have the site citation!) - they are NOT really close to the colors used in the later-war German "tri-color" schemes.  ALL "tanks" and guns and most trucks and half-tracks were supposed to have been so painted during that period - few vehicles were any plain gray in ca 1936 - 38.  As to being "hard-edged"... I've probably seen the same few pictures about everyone else has!  My guess is that you could go either way - though I would lean toward the hard-edged version, as I think more pics suggest that was the "more common" approach used on most tanks (i.e., Pz 1A and B  ) of the period. 

I am really interested in "hearing" what the kit is like - this is the version I am thinking of building (the Rheinmetall over-under turret)!

Cheers!  Bob

This page:

http://www.network54.com/Forum/47207/thread/1264798292/1265055030/Any+color+tips+for+the+Adler+SdKfz+13-

has a discussion of the prewar colours, and I think they're close to correct.

For my own part, I have a cut-out-and-glue paper Panzer kit that was printed prewar in Germany. It builds a sort of hybrid Pz.1-and-a-half. And it's printed with these same colours.

David

David, please count me in... it is on my Christmas wish list but I am not sure which kit, C-B, Trumpter or Amusing Hobby.  Still undecided at this moment so I will be following your process.  Good luck!

Thanks for the info.  Well, I'd like to try to attempt the early tricolor of earth yellow, dark green and brown.  So now I just need to find the corresponding colors with Testors paints.  Any suggestions?

I've found just one photo of the Rheinmetall tank with a hard-edged camo. Can't see 3 colours. Mail me and I'll send it to you.

David

I've wanted this kit for a long time, really looking forward to your build. However, I must warn you, the Trumpeter tracks are a pain in the @$$ to make. I would suggest getting some magic tracks.

David M. / all;

IF you are thinking of going with a vehicle "in service" from before 1938, the "Buntfarbenanstrich" scheme is probably the way to go.  The next paint scheme - that using a dark gray and a dark "chocolate" brown, went into service in mid 1938 and was not rescinded until 31 July 1940 (thus, all you Poland and French campaign folks should consider that 2-color scheme for your panzers...!).

The 3 colors used for the Buntfar... scheme (RAL Nr. 17 Erdgelb, Nr. 18 Braun-matt, and Nr. 28 Grun-matt) are well-discussed on various sites- I would refer you to Jentz and Doyle's piece ("Panzer Facts #4") on Panzertracts.com as one look at this discussion... and another on Panzerworld.net...  There are others!  No claim for any gray color being part of this appears in these commentaries. 

Bill Cross's review of the DOA Hobbies' German Pre-war Camoflage Paint set, posted on Armorama.com ca 24 SEP 2010 is a nice peek at a good product for the pre-war German scheme crowd!

Given the extraordinary plethora of widely-circulated color plates purporting to show "real" camo scheme and colors now whipping around in the modern plastic kit world (and stacked on the fronts of the stuff in our stash-piles), I would hesitate to jump to any conclusion that ANY given printed panzer paint scheme is actually wholly accurate!

Bob

Thanks for your insight Bob, I'll look into it some more.  For the time being I need to get this thing assembled, so here is today's progress so far.

Yes, my mistake, I shouldn't have said grey. Brainfart à la Rick Perry.

David

David M.;

Start looks GOOD!  That's going to be one large shelf-hog!  I've just got to get into one a these things!  What's your impression at this stage of fit and ease of locating positions in this Trumpeter kit?

Rick Perry....  Perish the thought!

Bob

The chassis was really easy to put together, it was a breeze; this is one of my cleanest builds, so I'm very impressed.  The wheel assemblies however are different and I'll try to point it out in my future photos.  Step 5 shows the process of putting the wheel assembly together all at once, but there are certain angles pieces A5 and [A8/A7] need to be at so they fit into the chassis.  I think I am going to glue A5 onto the chassis and just bend A11 around them when I'm ready to assemble the wheels.  The only reason I'm doing this is because I want to paint the wheels before I put them together.  So I'll paint the wheels with the rubber and base coat, paint the assemblies, and then continue with the rest of the model and get that painted with the base coat.  Once that is all done I'll put the wheels on.  I'll post the instructions of step 5 up again so you can see what I'm talking about.  Also, the last picture is how I plan to paint the wheel assembly before putting them together.  Share you're opinions, I'm still new at this.  In my mind this is the best course of action but then again, I may be making it really hard on myself.

ozzman

I've wanted this kit for a long time, really looking forward to your build. However, I must warn you, the Trumpeter tracks are a pain in the @$$ to make. I would suggest getting some magic tracks.

You do realise that the Trumpeter tracks for this kit are basically ModelKasten tracks right? though actually for this type of tank DS type tracks wouls actually be better as there really is no sag.

 This version looks great! Has anyone seen anything on another version of this vehicle from a new maker named "Amusing Models"? Out of Japan I think. I've seen them on EBay and ordered one. just wondering if it is actually one of the existing kits released under another name??

Dragon and Cyberhobby have kits, the 3-5 and Prototype 2.  This trumpeter kit is the first Prototype and I believe the Amusing one is a Nr. 3-5 as well.

David M.;

That running gear.... Hmmmm.  Well, it looks pretty involved!  Looking at what you have going, I think I would approach things the way I did for the Italeri Semovente L6/40 da 47/32 I recently completed for the "Under different flag" campaign being run over on Armorama.com. In some ways, the road-wheel bogies are rather similar- paired wheels captured in pairs between 2 plates, which also capture a "bell-crank" which the composite plates-plus-2 paired wheels pivots on. The point being: I love to paint my wheels before I mount them - but how to get this to work given that they are then captured within stuff to get mounted on the vehicle?  My solution: I painted all the plates, bell-cranks, and wheels separately, and then assembled the painted pieces into a completely base-painted unit.  While a little involved, this process worked quite well - primed all the pieces with my weathered black Floquil RR enamel - which serves also as my rubber color. I then masked the wheels and painted the hubs with the base-coat - also all the other bits. So - 2 runs with the air-brush - "rubber" and "primer", base-coat (ModelMasters Italian Sand enamel, in this case). Looking at your instructions and your pieces, this 2-step could, I think, work for you, too.  The trick will be to clean off a little place for glue before you cement bits and add on the PE (using CA, I presume).  After all are assembled, you will want to go back and do a little touch-up with a brush on glue spots, maybe. 

Of course, you will want to paint in the wells before installing the units...!

My task was further complicated as my running gear was going to get some "tri-color" camo added on - which realistically wanted to happen after all was assembled, so that the gear was in the hull pattern...  I don't know if this will be your issue, but it worked, with a little care for me.

As to the Amusing kit: it portrays the 3 armored types. I am hoping that Amusing is maybe going to make a "Rheinmetall" - turreted prototype like the Trumpeter kit, but I'll probably not wait and will grab this one when I can!

Cheers!

Bob

Thanks Bob for your input.  I think for the most part I am going to go about this as you described.  The only gluing I plan to do is the A11's to the A5 piece after painting...it should work I think.  We'll see, I managed to get the rest of the wheel's assembled and ready for paint.  I'll move on further with the project and see what I can get done so I can paint all at once.  I'll have pictures tomorrow.

Here is today's progress. I finished the rest of the wheel assembly and it's ready for paint.  I've also got the upper wheels together and half of the suspension for those attached to the side hulls.  The two MG turrets were very easy to assemble.  I drilled out the barrel with a pin vise as well.

I have a soft-spot for these odd pre-war "land-ship" designs...would never want to be a crewmember in one though considering how thin-skinned and slow they tended to be! Looks like you've got this one well under way David!

A little work on the fenders and exhaust.

I've got the rest of the assembly done for the most part so she's ready for paint.  The main turret had a lot of detail parts, not to mention there was a fit issue of the mantle to the turret which was the only fit issue with the entire kit.

Primed!!!

I was so excited last Saturday that I had this completely built, especially being the fact I received the kit the Tuesday before, that I completely forgot there are these little tracks that needed to be put together...all 260 of them.  cry So far they haven't given me too much trouble and they're staying together.  I've also painted most of the tank with Testors Dark Earth which is really close to the erdgelb I'm going for.  I still need to paint the rest of the road wheels and assemblies.

Very interesting subject. I'm obviously mistaken, but I thought they were all in Panzergrey.

You're doing great so far David. Keep it up.

Making good progress with this one. The basecoat paint choice is a good one IMHO, look forward to seeing it in the three-tone.