Dragon 5cm PaK 38 auf Zugkraftwagen 1t *Finished*

Eager to see it finished!

Starting to come up..

Have you thought of the painting scheme?

Actually I have garzonh, I am thinking of pazner grey with whitewash camo similar to the this pic...

(for discussion purposes only)

Some more work finished up tonight. Got the suspension mounted to the chassis. 

Also started working on the engine and transmission. The kit comes with a pretty nicely detailed engine if anyone wanted to pose the armor off and the hood open on the vehicle. With a little wiring, it would look great.

This vehicle will be closed up and nothing will be seen so I am not spending much time on the engine.

Still scratching my head as to the design of the drive belt system. It was comprised of the following...

way way too complicated for such a simple thing.

Next up came the gearbox and man what detail was crammed into such a tiny unit. They really had to be pushing the limits of injection molding with some of this stuff!

A dry run of the engine and gearbox with the firewall inserted into the tub. I really like the detail in this kit!!!

Some stowage boxes added to each side.

Hi Eric,

This looks very good, I guess that nice little engine will be hidden away in the finished model?

Very Best Regards

Johan

Thanks and it sure will Johan. There are provisions to open up the engine compartment completely including the srping loaded latches but I've decided to keep it all closed up.

Got some priming and painting done on some of the interior sub assemblies tonight. I have started using Mr. Finisher Surfacer 1500 for primer and I really like how it sprays and lays down. Very very good coverage with a small amount of primer.

Painted the engine and transmission Field Gray. I am really only paying attention to the rear housing on the engine since it is the only thing what will be showing once everything is assembled. A pin wash with some black and a dirt wash with some raw umber oils. 

Moved on to painting the interior tub panzer grey. Painted the base straight from a bottle of Tamiya paint, then came back with some lightened pg and highlighted some panels. Hoping to start weathering this part a bit tomorrow.

A look-see with the engine and tranny just sitting in...

On another note, I think I may have found a few more errors in the instructions. The first part has you drill out these holes in the floor plate. 

Looking forward through the pages, I can find absolutely nothing that will utilize them. I am not sure if this is meant to show the removal of something to accomodate the PaK or if its leftover from another build of the halftrack. Either way, mine are drilled and will stay. I will weather them and hopefully they will pass off as where some previous equipment was mounted.

The other is with the dash board assembly. Its not an error so to speak, but it can make assembly a little bit more difficult.

If you follow the insert, the protrusion on the back of part A37 has to sit in the hole in part A40. Part A43 makes this difficult to fit if you add it to the dash before you sit it on top of A40. I hope that made sense??  I was able to force mine down over it but it opened up a small seem on top where A43 and A37 join.

Ooohhh, that gearbox and the interior are already coming to life..can't wait for future updates and finished product.

Eric,

I love the look of this vehicle---wow, the detail is amazing if you compare it to the old Tamiya halftracks we were used to! It's looking pretty nice so far.

Could those holes be some kind of water drainage holes?

I suspect those holes are a relic from the Flak version of the Sdkfz 10 build that got carried over. Got to love Dragon's instructions in that regard. Very nice work on one of my favorite subjects, definitely puts the old Italeri kit to shame.

Thanks!! I believe it is like Bill said and leftover instructions from another version of this halftrack. I just assumed it was for mounting the PaK and didnt even bother. So lets say for example this vehicle was modified for the PaK and the prior equipment would have been removed. What do you think they would have done with the holes? Maybe a rounded bolt? Left open? I dont think they would have put a regular bolt there as to trip up the crew. Hell, in real life there might not have even been anything bolted down in these positions.

I am kinda leaning towards just leaving them and weathering them. Damn Dragon instructions...

Fascinating to watch this coming along. Might have to spend more time here in armor, looks like great fun.

Hope you keep posting as this build continues, Eric. Thanks for the great progress pics so far!

A wee bit more progress tonight on the track. It was time to start working on the hood/grill area and man it was a challenge. I personally think this was due to the engineering of the kit for this area to be opened if desired. 

The red line indicates where I glued a spreader bar. If you dont, then the whole front end will begin to fold in on the sides at the seam indicated by the green line.

Still some clean up to do but not bad. Most of all the front end is covered by some sheet steel armor as seen here

On from here to the fenders. They are a little finicky with some not so positive attachment points but once they are in position and glued, they are there. The front fenders are just absolutely gorgeous!!! Also, all the vents on the front end are actually molded open!!!

The middle bin in the pics above is just sitting on the fenders. It will need some sanding and coercing to get completely sat down but shouldnt be a problem. 

A few more small details to add to the body and it will be ready for paint. Going to add those and then start working on the PaK next. There aren't very many parts to it so it should build up pretty fast. Till next time!!

As a bonus, I think I found the reference picture that Dragon used for the box art. Very cool pic (for discussion purposes only of course)

It is coming along nicely and square.

Good work!

Looking good, keep it up!

The front of his thing would've looked great on a radical mod by one of these "car shows" that do "street rods". What a mean looking front chassis! Put that on the front of a limousine-chassis, with a hot tub in the back....man......ATTITUDE!

Shifting that transmission must have been a real buggar!

I agree Karl, those fenders are classic. I can picture the guys from ZZ Top behind the wheel!!

It does look kinda funky doesnt it MECH??

Not much to report tonight. Began work on the PaK and let me say it literally slowed to a crawl. After doing some research, the PaK itself is something like a 10 year old kit. The molding and plastic very much reminded me of some of the older Imperial Series kits by Dragon. Detail was kinda soft and assembly was quite a pain.

Got the carriage mount built and sat in the back of the track. Was curious as to how it was going to sit so I can figure out how I am going to cover those stupid holes in the floor plate.

The main cradle for the gun had several ejector pin marks and some sink marks as well. I hit them with some Mr. Dissolved Putty and they were gone. You can see them before hand below.

And finally, the major assemblies all dry fit together for the gun and sitting on the track. That was ruff!!!

Still lots of seam work to do on the gun. The muzzle brake was a split two piece affair so it is also requiring some attention. In the end I think it will turn out pretty ok, I do think that if they release this gun with many more kits it would be a good idea to go ahead and do a new mold of it. 

Aiming to get the rest of the small bits on the gun and track and at least hit it with some primer this weekend if all goes well. We shall see!!

Looking great so far, Eric! I have one of those kits in my stash so I'll follow this one with great interest...

A little surprised that Dragon re-popped the older Pak 38 molds for this one, but you're whipping it into shape!

Finally got all the little bits and bobs attached. Getting ready to head to the booth for some primer I believe! As with most Dragon kits, there is a lot of genius in design and molding and there are still many doh's along the way. The kit supplied the Notek light but no bracket for the fender. Was easy enough to scratch out of some scrap PE framework.

I was going to add the jerry cans to the sides as seen in the pics above but changed my mind. I had to sand them down significantly to get them to fit between the mounting brackets and its still a tight squeeze without the rib that goes around the outside of them. May find someplace inside to store one or two.

Everything pinned, glued and ready for primer. Will be using Mr. Surfacer Finishing 1500 in grey for the primer. I have the black on order as well. It lays down and spays very nicely!

Very nice Jester.

It looks ready for painting.

Good assembly and startup.

Very nice! Looking forward to seeing it with paint on.

the engine and interior looks great!

Thanks garzonh, BIll, and modeler#1!!

Caught some more bench time finally. Broke out the a/b and thinner and got to work. Primed everything up use Mr. Finishing Surfacer 1500 thinned 1:1 with Mr. Leveling Thinner. Love this stuff and the black version of it finally arrived today!!!

After primer, I sprayed the rubber surfaces on the road wheels, tires, and sprockets using Tamiya's NATO Gray.

Then on with Tamiya PG straight from the bottle for the base.

Added several drops of white to lighten it up and came back and hit the top areas only with the lightened pg.  I left the under surfaces in the darker pg. Broke out the handy circle template and hit all those road wheels as well.

Now, this is the first winter scheme I have ever attempted so I am a bit apprehensive about it. Not sure how its going to turn out. Looking at the paint diagram and box art, there is some hard edge whitewash on the hood armor and the gun shield/barrel. The rest just looks like a worn solid whitewash. I used poster tac for the hard edge. There was some overspray here and there, but no big deal. For the rest of the whitewash, I just varied how much paint I applied in those areas to give it a worn out and beginning to fade look. I think I kinda achieved that look.

And of course the road wheels to match...

I also received some etch ammo cases. The main parts build up pretty quickly but the hinges and straps and other stuff is quite fiddly!! This is as far as I got with them after attempting to build one set of working hinges. Where those hinges are now is anybodies guess.....

Am going to try removing or burnishing some of the whitewash down along some of the edges tomorrow where the crew would have slid on and off the vehicle. So thoughts? Any tips on this winter paintwork are more than welcomed! Thanks for taking a look!!

Looking back at the pics, that white is quite stark in them. It is much less bright and more faded in real life. Will try and get some better pics.

She's looking really nice, Eric!

I just finished a King Tiger with a whitawash camo:

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/29/p/147648/1688499.aspx#1688499

I painted it with Gunze acrylics, sealed the paint with Alclad clear gloss and applied Vallejo Air white on top of it. Then I removed the white paint using Vallejo airbrush thinner.

I'm not sure if this helps you at all, but I thought I'll just share it with ya...

Thanks Clemens , that is one very sharp kitty!!

love that camo job! how did you create the sharp edges? mine always turn out bad.

Thanks! I used poster tac which is similar to silly putty rolled out into "snakes" and applied to the intended areas. You can spray straight down on top of them and give somewhat of a feathered edge or you can spray into the corner where they meet with the work surface for a more sharp edge.

Nice work on the camo Eric! Lots of ways to tone down a ww finish from filters to washes to dry brushing, etc. depending on what effects/layering you're after.