1,000 Roadwheels - 2009

I think the Ostwind II, at least according to Speilberger's PanzerIV and their variants book, was to be armed with two 3.7 cm AA guns in the same turret setup just altered to accept the extra gun.

Hi 88 -- ah, so basically the same gun mount as the Flakpanzer Coelian?

M

i think it was to be an open turret as with the Ostwind. I have seen pics of the ground mounted twin 3.7cm flak 43, so i wasn't sure if they were just going to stick that in a modified Ostwind turret or make a new mount for it. From what 88 says it was the former, but i don't think it ever got past the bright ideas phase.

Wow, we need to get this GB back on the front page.  My H is getting close to being finished.  I got all the washes, pigments on and the mud apllied.  I made it one muddy panzer.  Enough of me babbling here she is.

Here she is skirtless.

Now with her pretty skirts. She is ready for the ball.

Don't know if this going to show up but a front shot showing the mud on the lower hull.

Next up to finish it is the 2 figures, spare track runs, and the antenna.  I think that will finish it.

Thanks and till next time.

Kim

Very nice work Kim! 

Kim - looking GREAT! I didn't realize you had more to do on her...awfully sweet as-is!

 Hey Moose, the PzIV H is great, with or without skirts, she looks great. Outstanding job, the weathering is spot on. Looking forward to seeing the crew.

Hey Moose, that H looks excellent! Bravo on the mud, I think it'll be a while before I get up the guts to add the splatter!

I just scored a set of brass turret skirts and brackets for a great price from LuckyModel in Hong Kong, and they're even shipping postage-free. Now I can do the Academy/Early Tamiya (35029) H/J as a more historically accurate animal, either a late H or early J, as many are seen without flank skirts but none ever seem to be seen without turret skirts. Now I can hunt out some decent decals and an interesting scheme for her.

Cheers,

Mike

Hey Moose nice job- that is looking like one muddy IV. Any dio base to go along with this and the two figures? By the looks of things- it'd be pretty muddy as well lol

Here's some progress on my StuG IV, the Squadron White Putty is working like a dream so far!! No big roadblocks yet, this might actually turn out to be a nice, straight forward build... hope the tracks don't mess me up too bad...

Your zimm is looking really good! How much time do you have before the Squadron White starts to set up hard and become unworkable? And have you had any shrinkage issues?

Thanks dupes! Actually, what I have done is a little against the grain. Instead of molding the pattern into workable putty, I found that the Squadron putty would stick to my tools regardless of my trying to thin it using Testors cement/water on the tools- tried everything but talc powder...
So what I did, was put a very, very thin layer of White Putty down all over the surface, and it  actually sets up a little quick as it’s so thin, then using everything from old Xacto blades to give some texture, and new #11 blades and clay tools to actually carve away the pattern into the dried putty- I went right back down to the plastic as it kind of chipped off. A little bit of light sanding to keep everything even (as the carving process tends to deposit ridges on either side). What’s nice about this for me, is that I’ve experienced Zim that’s way too thick when using epoxy putty, and I lose all the surface detail, so this is so thin and so easy to remove/chip away while carving out the pattern, that I’ve been able to keep the raised bold texture/panel lines/weld detail etc. Sorry, that was hard for me to explain for some reason, thus the overly drawn out response lol

PS EDIT- the Green Putty on the other hand is suffering from the usual Squadron shrinkage issues... as I'm using it for a gap filler, simple fix of a second coat is working fine though. What's also nice with the White is, as I'm using it after it's dry, any prior shrinking wont damage the pattern work.

 Hey psstoff995, I was wondering myself about the working time of the white putty. The explanation answered my questions. The zimm is looking good. Will be looking forward to seeing updates on the StugIV.

MOOSE;great job on the H,the mud looks muddy and cammo and weathering.one for the top shelf.    FLASH;personal build progress update,atak zim for the brummbar has arrived.photos before paint to arrive shortly.       PSSTTOFF;i may just have to try that method of zimmerit.and the build is progressing quite nicely.

Hi psstoff995 --

The zim is looking very realistic! Squadron white has been my putty of choice for many years and it's great to see this kind of application. You have more guts than me, I could never bring myself to do the "smear and scrape" method, which is why I ended up going with Cavalier (which is looking good, and I hope to get back to the StuG IV before too much longer.)

I'm curious as to why you filled the jointline around the top of the fighting compartment -- was it molded too enthusiastically? Or was there an issue with fit? That division was a natural juncture in the armor, the roof would be removed to enable the engineers to crane out the gun for work. This is shown in photographs in Squadron's StuG III Walk Around book, and the IV was essentially the same superstructure.

Cheers,

Mike

Moose I realy like your build it looks GREAT I particularly like the mud on the skirts and how faded the paint is

Hi all,

I received those turret skirts from Lucky model today, fast shipping, especially when you consider it's free! The set is by Griffon, #L35A011, early-style turret skirts for Panzer IVGs. the H and J were both repaired with parts from earlier marks, so late-G-style stand-off plates on an H would be nothing unusual. I'll need to read some PE tutes before tackling this set, but it should really set off the old Tamiya 35029 to perfection. I've picked out a set of Echelon decals for a IV with turret skirts but no flank skirts and a three-color cammo scheme.

I'm not sure when I'll get to this one, I was hoping to do the Brummbar right after the StuG.

Cheers,

Mike

PS: Yes, I'll get back to the StuG soon!

Thunderbolt - looking forward to seeing the "old H" all dolled up! Not to mention that StuG...

Gotta love Lucky Model.

Glad to see we've still got people plugging away...a bit of a lull in the action right now, but I'm sure there'll be a LOT more hot builds to come.

Thanks for the compliments.  Still have to get the figures done.  I no longer have nlimited amounts of time.  I got a job this Monday.  After 6 months of umeployement, I was going bonkers.  I back to driving and loving it.

thanks again and I will get on those two figures.

Kim

woo hoo congrats on the job moose, and im lovin your 4. the mud and camo is spot on

Double-congrats on the job, moose, I know what it's like at least looking at the prospect of a fixed income, or, as Red Greene would say, 'an income so broke it just can't be fixed.' I'm a month away from the end of my college grant and I gotta get me a JOB!

TB

Hey, good for you Moose on scoring a new job!

Here's hoping it doesn't keep you away from modeling altogether. Keep cranking them out, brother!

dupes,i was scrounging around in my stash and found a mobilewagen. i was wondering if i could start it up for your tasty GB .i still want to do a late J but the PE zimm is touchy.

                                                                   thanks S.A.R

First of all, sorry it took so long, it's been a long week at work.

detailfreak wrote:

PSSTTOFF;i may just have to try that method of zimmerit.and the build is progressing quite nicely.

Thanks detailfreak, it's pretty straight forward once you get it down, practice on some scrap first

Thunderbolt379 wrote:

Hi psstoff995 -- The zim is looking very realistic! Squadron white has been my putty of choice for many years and it's great to see this kind of application. You have more guts than me, I could never bring myself to do the "smear and scrape" method, which is why I ended up going with Cavalier (which is looking good, and I hope to get back to the StuG IV before too much longer.)

Thanks- it was really just due to a cost issue, limited funds are the only thing keeping me from the convenience of those well detailed Cavalier sheets. They do look much nicer, my brother's used a set or two before- also they include some nicer raised detail for parts that aren't covered in zim- mine now have left over crusts of white putty lol

I'm curious as to why you filled the joint-line around the top of the fighting compartment -- was it molded too enthusiastically? Or was there an issue with fit? That division was a natural juncture in the armor, the roof would be removed to enable the engineers to crane out the gun for work. This is shown in photographs in Squadron's StuG III Walk Around book, and the IV was essentially the same superstructure. Cheers, Mike

Ah- in that case it's more my misunderstanding as opposed to an attempt at going for realism then. For one thing, the gap that was molded in, not sure if it was too enthusiastically portrayed or not, my real issue was, at least in scale- it looked to be too deep/created too much of a shadow for what I thought it would look like in 1/35- also when I glued the roof assembly down to the "turret" walls, the walls are essentially a four sided, kinda bent box shape, think of a half crushed cardboard box, no top or bottom, just sides- and the part was showing it's age with a bit of warpage, instead of trying to re-bend it, I just used the roof to help square it out, so the gap was also not even on all four sides, some were more in scale (for my taste) than others, figured I'd just fill the whole thing and try and replicate any gap with paint later.

That whole assembly is still not attached to the top half of the chassis, and test fitting is showing that it's still a little warped, what wont glue down flush will be filled with green putty as well, then maybe "zimm"ed over with the white. Thanks for checking it out- sorry for the late, lengthy reply lol

 Hey psstoff, I had the very same problem with the old DML Brummbar kit. The sides of the superstructure were bowed out at the edges and sunken in at spots. I caught the front edge bow and straightend it when I attached it to the lower hull, but missed the sides (mainly because I hadn't attached the fenders yet) When I did catch it I had to fill a large sink spot on the port side. Of 4 sides 2 were whacked pretty good. hmm. Anywho, I like the looks of the zimm you've done with the Squadron white putty and the paint on the seam line should work out fine. Looking forward to seeing progress on the StugIV.

 

Hi Chris and Mobius --

Ah, Dragon strikes again! (It is the Dragon kit, right?) Their motto seems to be 'never use one part where five will do,' giving rise not only to minimal retooling necessary to crank out other variants from the same molds, but warpage and fit issues. I think you did the right thing filling the gap if it was uneven all around, you could potentially recreate the joint line with a pencil and rule over the paintjob later.

Tamiya tooled the whole upper hull for each of the IV derivatives in one piece, from fenders to roof, and only the rear section of the fenders were seperate, allowing for molding of the intake protectors. This means no gaps other than those tooled. That cuts both ways, though -- if you wanted to build the beast with its lid raised and engineers pulling the gun, you'd have to scribe/saw out the roof panel, whereas Dragon gives you the individual part.

Cheers, hoping to post some progress soon,

Mike

Yep! The Dragon kit- sorry to hear about that Brummbar Mobius. Thanks for the comments on the zimm and the support with the paint method, hope I can pull it off lol

Their motto seems to be 'never use one part where five will do,' giving rise not only to minimal retooling necessary to crank out other variants from the same molds, but warpage and fit issues.

Yeah, I guess I like the selection, and my spare "random tank part thingies" box isn't complaining. In some spots, the extra parts give way to better detail, but having built the Tamiya PIV I think they get away with some crisper detail due to the larger pieces... if not maybe a teeny tad bit exaggerated for scale in some instances. I think it's a toss up, depends on what one looks for. What's nice is if you can make it through a Dragon kit's instructions and not miss a part or subassembly along the way- you can do anything!! lol

They actually don't call out two of the large tow hooks on the front plate... I'll have to dig around all my sprus and try and find those...

I think you did the right thing filling the gap if it was uneven all around, you could potentially recreate the joint line with a pencil and rule over the paintjob later.

Thanks again for the support- I like the pencil idea- I'll give that a shot before I try and paint a straight line lol

Yeah- I think if I was going to do something like that, or perhaps a blown vehicle with the roof plate off or something, I agree, Dragon’s the way to go, but for what I’m doing, I wonder if it would have been a lot simpler just to go the old Tamiya route. Sometimes I get stuck in this “superdetail” mindset and think I must go Dragon or go AM and I think I forget that some of these older Dragon kits, like this Imperial Series StuG were pre 3 in 1 and Smart Kits and all that and build up with the same Tamiya style detail in the end. Although I do like the inclusion of some clear plastic side skirts, a creative way to get that etched brass thickness at a cheap enough price to include it with the kit. There is a little bit of PE included, but only because it was the only real way they could get some of the upper hull detail on seeing as I have what looks to me like a PIV upper hull. The bolt looking brackets around the rim of the “turret” that are probably molded right onto your finders came PE in my kit. I’ll show you next update, and give some examples using the instructions of just how crazy some of this was. With all the unused plastic... I’m surprised their minimal retooling actually saved them money haha

Hi psstoff995 -- Good point, especially on the 3-in-1s, there's so much unused in the box you'd have to wonder if they're driving the price up by providing all that spare plastic.

Very true -- other than the early Dragon Russian armor released by Zvezda, I have yet to alleviate my Dragon-virginity. I've been hankering to do their Hummel, if I have time later in the year it would be a good evolution for me!

I think your stuG will be a real eye-catcher and I can't wait to see paint over that zim!

Cheers,

Mike

 Hey Dupes, I got side tracked on a couple of wingded projects but have started on the SdKfz 162. Mostly just masked off the areas that I dint want the putte to be. Not sure if I'm going to use the PE on this one, had it saved for a SdKfz 162/1. Anyhew, I removed the mg port covers and added the mg port detail to the RO's station. Masked both the front plate and the Topfblende. Also test fit the Jordi Rubio 7.5cm pak39/L48 into the saukopf. Heer's a photo of what I've got so far. The casting texture on both the inner and outer mantlets is really good, I hate to cover it up.

 

 Not much but it's a start. OBTW, checked the superstructure with a straight edge, not bad.

Thunderbolt379 wrote:

I think your stuG will be a real eye-catcher and I can't wait to see paint over that zim!

Thanks a lot! I'm going to try some soft edge/airbrush camo for... the first-ish time, so I'm hoping that will turn out. I'm not sure if I want her in Italy or somewhere on the Eastern Front in the winter/urban environment.

I’ll be looking through color plate refs in the meantime lol

 Mobious, masking's always tedious for me, so while you might not think of it as much of an update- it still looks very well done to me, and an important part of builds that I have still yet to master, either paint pulls with the tape or more likely, seeps underneath.

Not sure if it’s the tape technique or my heavy handed rattle can technique lol
Looking forward to seeing the putty down