Blitzkrieg in the West (France 1940) Sept. 18 2011 - March 1 2012

Seems like forever but finally made it back to the bench last night.  This is the results:

Have added the gun pintel, bolt heads on top of the engine cover, Access hatch on engine cover, Engine vent, I guess it is a hand rail (?) on side of the engine cover right side, interior stowage boxes right side, hand rails around the crew compartment, antenna mount, two small pintels on side of crew compartment, stowage box on rear, jack block holder on rear, few other small details in the driver / gunner compartment.

Few more scratch made brass parts and the beginning of the radio.  What does a British / Commonwealth headset look like?  Would it be like the Germans?

The MG and front plates are just dry fit into position to get an idea of how they will look.  After all of these pictures went back over everything and did some final sanding and adjusting then gave the interior a coat of paint.  Had attempted to do some pre shading but this did not work out very well.  Still have problems with my airbrush and am lucky to just get a smooth coat of paint on.  Also gave the wheels and lower hull and suspension area some paint. 

The plan is to paint and detail the interior so that then I can permanently put together then go back to work on the exterior.

Shellback

Rob , Saying you had to cut the grass made me remember the video i saw of a lawn mower being used as a snow blower .....................................

well thank you Shell ... that is a fascinating idea.....I bet I could make it work... if this year is like last year i might need it

tread

p.s. that is my wife Pati, we were digging our way to the cord wood to keep warm !

Thats funny Carl but more so when I lived in MA had tried this method of removing snow.

Rob , Saying you had to cut the grass made me remember the video i saw of a lawn mower being used as a snow blower .....................................

Thanks guys for all of your comments!  I have read them and appreciate them all.  Have had very little bench time or even time to come hear and check in so had some catching up to do.  With that said:

TREAD - Magnificent work on all the details.  They all really do look great and very much worth the time and effort.  Cant wait for your next 16 parts and then paint!

ERIC - Your question on camo - You could go with just the reddish brown on top of the Khaki or you could go the 3 tone and add in a very green color.  For the green I would say something like Panzer Olivgrun #2097 or French Khaki #2106.  These are both MM colors and not sure what those colors are in Tamiya?  I would just say something green like on your King Tiger.

Live long and prosper

WBILL - I too wish you good luck with the MBA.  There's nothing better then furthering one's self.  If your paper's come out just half as good as your WIP post, you should have no problems at all.  Your a master at research and writing

Tough luck with the airbrush  I'm still having problems with mine also and have not been able to order the one I want yet.

Excellent looking IV thus far, great details!  Look forward to the paint.

Do you know if they still make the MK tracks for the Universal Carrier?

MALONE - That is a great looking interior  Looks like she is getting some heavy use.

BILL212 - I'm not very fond of the clear visor hatches on Dragon kits either.  I like all of them being open, they add a lot of character and will really help showing off the interior.  Nice progress.

CARL - You can keep the snow!  I do have to get off my butt though and go cut the grass.

ANDYT - Very good to hear your back and doing well now!  Hope you make a full recovery and get back to the bench soon.  Take care.

Eric, hang in there and don't try to force things...that's usually when bad stuff happens!

Andy (deafpanzer), that indeed would be a miracle result of the MBA...but you never know, I'm just starting out in the program so could have some interesting results before its all over with!

AndyT, sorry to hear that health issues have slowed you down but glad to hear you're back on track with the Gladiator.

Carl, Murphy's Law strikes again! The upside is that I had the ability to quickly replace the airbrush so that helped ease the pain a bit of not being able to work on the kit when the window of opportunity opened up...but others will come along in the next couple of weeks so it will get done, just not sure exactly when yet.

No snow here Carl. No surprise either. It gets so much colder your way.

Today is college football, and my Ducks start at 5pm. Big game. We win this one and we're back in the title hunt.

Andy  ... sorry you have been feelin' bad : (   ... glad its under control and anxious to see new pics of the Gladiator !

get well soon

tread

Sorry I have been absent. Been in and out of thge hosptial twice in the last 6 weeks. Looks like it's under control now. Hope to finish assembly on the gladiator this week.

Snow,,,,,,,,,,,   ACK!  

Eric , go ahead and kick back , you deserve it . By the way , 4 inches of snow today over here .....................

WBill , nothing ever breaks down until you need it , right ! ?

Don't feel alone Bill (wbill), I'm right there with you. 

Nothing to report.....again. I've kind of hit the wall. I have the time, but am mentally challenged. I was all gung-ho to get to the bench today, and instead was watching my Star Trek DVD's that I won off of ebay. Man they are awesome on Blu-Ray. My favorite series of all-time.

I hope to get back tomorrow (gets dark so early here anymore). My goal is to still finish before Christmas. I should be able to, but have to step it up.

Bill #1- Great process on your little Panzer!  I don't understand why DML had to go clear on those.  I just painted them all over on my 234/1 a while ago. 

Bill #2- I think it is great that you are studying for MBA.  Looking forward to see paint on your Panzer when you get your replacement.  It happened to me so I had to grab cheap one from Freight Harbor store and it wasn't too bad.  Now I have a back up!  I hope having MBA degree will help you build those Modelkasten tracks in minutes instead of hours.

wBill,,,   Thanks and I agree,, not sure what their thinking is, but that would make sense somewhat.      Shame about the airbrush.          Those MK tracks sure look like a handful.

Hard to believe it's been 3 weeks since I was able to post an update but that's what a full-time MBA program has done to my available bench time!

I was all set today to get started on the paint work and had everything prepped and ready to go...

...and my airbrush died before I could even spray a drop! I have a replacement on order and should get it in about a week, so maybe I will be able to paint over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and get this one back on track then.

Speaking of tracks...I have been making progress on the MK workable replacement tracks. This set is taking longer to assemble than normal due to the fact that there's more flash than usual with MK links present, so clean-up of the links is prolonging the assembly time.

I have one full track of 98 links done (will add the 2-3 more that I will need for the full run once I can test fit on the suspension after painting) and have started on the second one. Any progress is good progress at this point and the build is still very much alive, just not having good luck on the timing for the short term.

Nice work Bill on the open ports...I've always been a little bewildered by DML's decision to create the entire assemblies out of clear sprue when only one of them (the actual glass portion) needs to be clear. The Germans used 90mm armored glass blocks for the ports and they are prominent features, but the only reason I can see for DML to do what they do is because they get some kind of economy of scale on cost out of the clear molds or something similar...there's no build/practical explanation for why they do what they do.

Satch, if you've got up to me on your build progress then you should be free to move on as there's nothing left to do build-wise accept the final assembly. Don't let me hold you back!

Probably true Carl.......     on both counts

And,,,  thanks!

Bill , i agree with those hatches being done in clear is a bit over board . When viewed from the outside i dont recall seeing any pictures with an idicating reflection of the glass .Maybe they did that for details on the inside ?

They probably put all of those tabs in to prevent sink holes imo .

Kit looks like its coming together well .

Hi guys,,,   a quick update           nothing super exciting however

I started putting the hatches together....   as much as I like Dragon kits, sometimes they go overboard on the engineering of their kits.      They molded all (but one) of the hull hatches in clear plastic. The only piece actually required to be clear would have been the insert. And seeing that the hatch "slits" are so tiny, who would notice anyway?

But, I went ahead with them and built per instructions.     These lil buggers had 4 pieces per hatch. And the attachment / sprue points were 3 and 4 for the most part.     The "holder" is a toothpick...  sort of gives a perspective of the size.

Clear and Tiny,,,,,,,,,,    luckily I didn't lose any to the rug monster.       I did drop one piece but saw it land was able to snag it.

This pile of scrap is the residue of removing the pieces from the sprue....

Five hatches, 20 pieces,,,,,      I am hoping I don't snap any of these little bastaads off when painting and detailing.   

Now onto painting the insides of these hatches........     And moving on to the outer portion of the little pz I.     

And talk about location points,,,    sheesh

Hope you like............

Bill

Treadplate , man a big list of "to do's" ......almost as big as my wifes "honey do " list on a summer weekend ................oh ya i'm retired so that happens any day of the week .............................

wbill76

Tread, thanks for the good luck wishes...so far so good with the program, but it does take a good chunk of time commitment both in terms of reading and also in research and paper writing...so I've had to work in chunks of bench time here and there when I can. That's fine when things are in the building phase but much harder when its time to paint!

Come on Bill, take a break from studying and get back to the bench!  We(me) are counting on you.  I've caught up with your build log and can't go on til you do.

Shellback

Treadplate ............when is the paint going on dude ?

Hiya Shell.... I have just 16 more fiddly little  parts to make... gonna try to get at it this weekend and make the exhaust covers from brass, and make the leather tool hold down straps and buckles , make brackets and leather straps for the jacks and there are also some tiny brackets to make that go on the front of the fenders and maybe I will make stencils for the decal hearts that go on the side of the turret because the decals have to go over the turret lifting hooks and thats an impossibility or maybe I can successfully cut them off, apply the decal and re glue them.. if I don't mess them up taking them off.... don't worry... I'll make the deadline.... LOL....I am not to worried about the paint part...got that in my head already

I never said I was fast

tread

Carl,,,,                                    thanks pal

Treadplate ............when is the paint going on dude ?

BA , Bill the interior is looking sharp. The radio and M.G came out looking great .

wBill,,,     thanks, even in a command tank, w/multiple radios, that would make sense.

Malone , look at this fsm post .....                     /forums/p/79450/778777.aspx

Standard color for panzer interiors until late '44 was a color called Elfenbein (in late '44 for a period of about 3 months they left the interiors in red oxide primer then switched back to Elfenbein because of crew complaints about poor lighting). It's the ivory/cream color you have. White was never used...when you see it, it's usually due to a museum restoration and not an accurate representation. White was used on Allied vehicle interiors however and since the Allies won, they tended to paint the captured pieces in what they knew.

Bill, those tubes on the hull side are holders for the signal flags used by the vehicle commander to communicate with other vehicles vs. radio. Common thing in pre-war and early war panzers before radios became standard on all vehicles. HTH!

Malone,,,   another pz I interior,,, luv it!     Cream,   white,,,  I've seen some shots where they look either actually. Not sure if it is the lighting or what.       I think yours looks fine!           Now, let me ask you (and the group),,,  in your first pic - -   what are those half cylindar / tubes on the starboard hull sides?   I opted for a set from an Eduard detail pack. The Verlinden version would have taken a long time to replicate.