12 Days of Christmas challenge build A

Here we go with an introduction.

This is Trumpeters kit of this fearsome weapon of which only 50 some barrels were built for this type. It did become the main weapon for the Jagdtiger (around 100 barrels with slight changes) and was slated for the Maus, E-75 and E100.

Above is an original picture showing this in firing mode.

Used either on a cruciform or split trail base, one was known to have been put on a motorised Chassis but I can't find a period picture of this or of any surviving pieces. Firing two piece ammunition it was used exclusivly on the Eastern front and could destroy any soviet armour and saw action very late in the war.

Trumpeter's kit is actually quite a nice one of this little known beast (barrel length 7.023 m (20 ft)) wich gave it an 128mm /L55 designation) and Trumpeter very kindly put in a metal barrel with options of making an etched muzzle and a plastic barrel in 2 halves and a plastic muzzle with drill out holes (0.8mm) but that fits comfortably onto the metal barrel with no alteration. There are two breech options and once together it looks mean and business like.

There are 4 rubber tyres in the kit which will benefit from a coat of Vallejo tyre black and will look really good once done and put on the wheels. There are parts to make up 2 metal cylinders for the elevation/depressin and they will work once done. Why brass tubing was used I don't know when Aluminium would have been better colour wise! Still, a paint job can cure that!

Much on this kit is moveable and looking through the build instructions it may be possible to move it between transport and firing mode and a very small decal sheet provides 3 kill ring options of which either decal 1 or 3 is cited on the colour painting instructions. decal 2 could be for the Waffentrager version.

Crews would also sometimes put what they have killed on the gun shield as well as kill rings on the barrel, using stencils for tanks, guns, vehicles etc and these may be available from AM providers.

Everything you need to build this is in the box apart from paint and glue and you don't need to go round the internet hunting for stuff. A nice kit for a 12 day build!

I never really get much done on Christmas Day and I needed to dash out today and get a new bottle of superglue so now the barrel is ready for priming and painting, the base is put together and time to do the wheels!

Photos later!

I’ll play!  I got the new Tamiya M3 Stuart for Christmas, and after a couple of hours have the basic hull and turret together.

My friend who gave it to me is off to Hong Kong for 2 weeks, so I thought it would be a surprise to show him the finished model when he returns.

This is going to be a build on afterburners, as I am one of the slowest builders on Earth.  The same friend gifted me an Academy M3A1 Stuart (see a pattern?) several years ago, and I finished it in a month.  It had an interior and I opted for the indie tracks, so it was a lot more involved.

OK it’s 5:00 am here, so a quick nap, then it’s outside to do some chores.  I’ll try to post pics soon.

Right,

My Typhoon from Amazon has not shipped yet and I am not likely to get that in time for next week anyway so...

Boxing day is almost over here in Sweden, I have lost a day but I am happy to join with a BTR 80.

Or a StuG III, that would be my shelf queen from back in 2008 :)

I'll have a second Glogg before I decide

Welcome, guys. The more the merrier and it's more a bit of fun and a challenge than anything else.

Next year, it could be developed into a group build with the same rules and time restrictions. This hobby, even the dark side should have a bit of fun every now and again, so off you go, get covered in glue and paint and have fun and laughs over the next 12 days!

Well, I’m in with a Tamiya 1/35 Sdkfz.222. And I guess that I jumped the gun a little bit as I started around 1930 hrs last nite and built most of step 1 after our family activities were done...

I'm in snapdragonxxx with my Willys MB Jeep. I finished most of the undercarriage assembly last night before midnight and started the body assembly this morning. The resin wheels with tire-chains are from a Blackdog kit and not glued on yet. I ordered a World War II BC1306 (SCR-694) radio set this morning which should arrive by December 31st.

This little model is part of my Ardennes, 16 December 1944 diorama titled 'Road to St. Vith' see photo below.

Sergeant, I'll really be interested to see how your diorama is going to turn out. It sounds like a great scene based on the photo you provided. That's an incredible radio set you've got for it! I'll be watching for updates.

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday yesterday and Happy Boxing Day today.

Here's an update.

The barrel is built. Rather than spend hours trying to roll a flat piece of sturdy etch into a muzzle brake I put together the two plastic halves of the muzzle brake and drilled out the marked holes with a 0.8mm drill. There are two breech options in the kit and after a quick dash out to replace some useless superglue I was able to put the barrel together.

The Wheels are also together and ready for painting. The real rubber tyres will benefit from Vallejos Tyre black.

I have started putting together the cruciform base.

Sarge and Snap, you guys are making nice rapid progress! 

As for me, I finished up the lower hull chassis and suspension. I decided to add the side doors after looking at my previous build of this kit and seeing that the lower sidewalls would really not be visible thru the turret open top...

Here's my entry, tamiya 1/35 StuG IV from 1975 that I got from the secret santa group build this year. Could I use it in both group builds?

I'm planning to scratch the  Schürzen put zimmerit and stowage.

Would there be any ideas on making zimmerit using "basic" items?

I don't have any epoxie so it can't do it that way. Any ideas?

Thanks,

German Armor

Eduard has etched set for zimmeritt, but it may not arrive in time.

Remember the goal is to build a kit within 12 days. You don't have the time to do competition grade, that's not the idea. Just put it together and paint it in 12 days and have fun.

Now next year you will have the time to prepare and get everything together for what you need. This year, get the Stug out and put it together, doesn't matter about Zimmeritt or side armour etc but if you do have AM tracks then use those etc. Remember that you only have until the 5th of January and this year ONLY it is extended until the 6th.

James

stikpusher

Sarge and Snap, you guys are making nice rapid progress! 

As for me, I finished up the lower hull chassis and suspension. I decided to add the side doors after looking at my previous build of this kit and seeing that the lower sidewalls would really not be visible thru the turret open top... 

Stik,

That’s a great little Tamiya classic!  Fun to build and looks the part.

Stik, I’ve been planning my little Jeep project for months and had no idea James was going to have this 12 day rally... However, my weakness is painting. It took me two months to paint my last project.

This time I’m planning to use Tamiya NATO black instead of primer on my Jeep and very lightly paint over the NATO black with Tamiya Olive Drab to get the desired body color. Later I will used some weathering in my diorama.

Harold

Hi Harold.

I hope you and the family had a great time over Christmas and it is fantastic to see you joining in this bit of festive fun.

just do an all over field drab paint job and call it done - that's all it takes for this challenge. You can then do all the weathering etc.

James

Sorry I saw this too late. It would be 11 days for me now. Sounds like fun!

Dragon # 6454 10,5-cm-StuH 42.

The reciept in the box says 2008-07-18.

The gun:

I am following the instructions, not the sequence but the sub assemblies as such, and I think I have made my first misstake.

Step 15 is the gun breach including the recoil shield. I have no clue how to get this into the fighting compartment in step 18.

Unfortunately I am now at the same stage with this kit as with my Terminator in Modern Armor and need to get started on the road wheels.

6 x 2 x 2... just bite the bullet.

Svenne

By the way,
would anyone know if the little bumps that I have highlighted should be removed?

see what the instructions say and dry fit the upper hull and see what the tabs have to do with the fit.

The kit is a very old one and you may encounter all types of issues.

Keep bashing on!

G, the 222 is indeed a fun little kit. I’m almost done with basic construction and will have some more photos up later.

Sarge, you and me both on hitting the speed bumps on painting. I can whip out a basic build fairly rapidly, but once I get to the paint stage, I tend to get into granny gear.

German, there was an old school method of folks using hot knives or soldering irons to add zimmerit directly into the plastic. Not something I would feel confident in myself, but I have seen it done with great results in magazines. No matter how you choose to go adding zimmerit, it is a big speed bump. Or you could forgo the zimm completely. It was no longer applied to vehicles produced from fall 1944 onwards. And just laying oodles of spare track as supplemental armor that was commonly seen would be  quick and easy way to give more visual interest.

Bashing on here snap!

Hi stik, I tried the hot knife method with a soldering iron and "little to big" tip to add zimmerit to my tiger ii, it's not that hard, just have to find the scale of the zimmerit.

What size of flat screwdriver could i use as a template to base my melting of plastic on?

stikpusher

G, the 222 is indeed a fun little kit. I’m almost done with basic construction and will have some more photos up later.

Sarge, you and me both on hitting the speed bumps on painting. I can whip out a basic build fairly rapidly, but once I get to the paint stage, I tend to get into granny gear.

German, there was an old school method of folks using hot knives or soldering irons to add zimmerit directly into the plastic. Not something I would feel confident in myself, but I have seen it done with great results in magazines. No matter how you choose to go adding zimmerit, it is a big speed bump. Or you could forgo the zimm completely. It was no longer applied to vehicles produced from fall 1944 onwards. And just laying oodles of spare track as supplemental armor that was commonly seen would be  quick and easy way to give more visual interest.

Bashing on here snap!

 

James, I spent most of Thursday, December 26th running errand, so I’m on the ’night-shift’ with a cup of coffee and extra-thin cement finishing assembly of my Willys MB Jeep. Thanks for asking about Christmas, it turned out very good... With three daughters and six grandchildren, their husbands, boyfriends and sisters, nieces and nephews a family gathering in our home can sometimes be a disaster.

Harold

Ugh, I still don’t know how to post photos from Flickr on the iFruit!  However, I have been making progress on the new Tamiya M3 Stuart, and how can one not?  It’s a stress free build so far.  I wonder how the idler arms will handle the tension from the rubber band tracks? Anyway, gonna do this one OTTB, save for a wire antenna.

Hopefully pics soon.  Inside 10 days.

It seems like everyone is having some fun.

I am hampered a little bit by having the house heating go on the blink so priming and painting is not really possible but it should be fixed today and the house should hopefully toasty warm by this evening allowing me to catch up!

more pictures of my build later

 James

Finished chassis and body assembly tonight and ready to start painting later today. Talk about 'fiddly bits' the windshield has tinny little pieces for wiper blade vacuum motors and windscreen adjustment arms. If you drop something on the floor don't bother looking as I did just get a lint roller out and hope you find what you dropped. You can barely see the rearview mirror in my picture but believe me it's delicate. I sneezed while trying to attach it and broke it in half!

A few parts I laid out separate from the body and chassis get painted semi-gloss black. The engine block is supposed to be flat green, but I've seen enough pictures of the actual Jeep that have olive drab engines, so mine will get the O.D. treatment. The seats get Tamiya khaki XF-49 and there are a few other colors for things like tail lights and dashboard details.

Next step is a base coat of Tamiya NATO black XF-69 that will serve as a shadow coat. Then a light coat of Tamiya olive drab XF-62. The objective is to have enough NATO black showing through the O.D. to highlight details. I got this idea from watching a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQsXFl3yLho . Be patient, the information regarding a shadow coat is 5 minutes into the video. Hopefully it will work for me the way it did in the video.

Harold

Well I have been working on this for much of the past two days and here is what’s up now...

First up I built the turret and armament. The kit comes with a metal barrel for the 20mm gun, and I hollowed out the bore of the MG-34. And I started adding the upper hull fittings...

Then I decided to add some stuff into the interior since you can see into there thru the open turret top. So I hit my spares bin based off photos that I found on the internet. It’s not 100% accurate, but close enough, and gives something where there was nothing to see before... I did not go all out in there due to the 12 day time limit...

Here is how it looks with the top placed on the lower hull

And lastly I’ve been working on some crew figures...

Some from Mini Art

And some from Tri Star

I’m leaning towards the Tri Star figures as the have the best fit in placement...

Never enough free time in the day for more work...

That looks nice and the inclusion of a metal barrel for the main gun just adds that nice little extra.

I would just go with the two figures in greatcoats and as these vehicles were used for light recon, go with the early grey and a very thin whitewash over it.

On my build, the heating is fixed and the house is no longer like a fridge and so it is now full steam ahead as there is stuff to paint! Photos later!

Thanks snap. Yes, the metal barrel is a nice addition. The kit also includes replacement PE parts for the grenade screens on the turret. Much nicer than the original plastic and fabric screen parts.

As far as the color scheme will go... while this kit comes with the markings for this particular vehicle... it’s not quite what I want. Yes, it has the DAK markings, but it is still in gray, which was only in the opening days of the Rommel’s campaigns in Libya

I am more drawn to this vehicle in the “mud” camo applied over the Dark Gray paint on early DAK vehicles before the Tropen paints arrived in Africa. Seeing the crew in the greatcoats here, just seals the deal.

Completed a shadow coat of Tamiya Nato Black XF-69 paint which went on without a problem. I used an Iwata Eclipse HP-SC air brush at 22 psi to give me a smooth even coat of paint. Next step is to apply a light coat of Tamiya Olive Drab XF-62 over the Nato Black that will allow the shadow effect to highlight details. If I have time I may add a very light dust coat of Tamiya Flat Buff XF-57.