Winter Warriors GB 2008

Works great for mottle camo!  

Not so much for splinter.

All right!!  The GB starts tomorrow and I bought this today for the build:

It will be built OOB so assembly should be really quick (for me!).  Still not sure how I'll pull off the winter scheme as it will be the first time for me .  Wish me luck....I'll need it!!

and..........HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone!!!

Bufflehead, looks good! I'd like to see some pictures of the inside of that box...

It's go time! I'm sure it'll be a bit before any white paint goes flying, but there should be a lot of styrene and glue getting used up today.

Side note - did any of you fellas send me an email yesterday? I automatically deleted one of those "Finescale Automated Emails" thinking it was a PM...but didn't have any new PM's. Oooops. If it was one of you guys and you want to re-send, please do! 

Snapped a couple of shots of the kits I'll be doing for Winter Warriors:

First one here is DML6358, the Panther A Late Premium Edition. Awful lot of stuff in that cardboard box, so I won't need to add anything other than the Eduard Zim set you can see at the bottom. Never tried etched zim, so this should be interesting. The one I have is for an early A, a little bit of modification and a little bit of home-zim will be in order.

Number two will be a Ju-87B2 Stuka, only a/c I could find in my stash that had a winter scheme supplied with kit markings (out of something like 35 or 40 kits)! Not that I'm disappointed. Should be really neat, and a nice change of pace from the monster Panther project. Will be adding an Eduard Zoom set and some True Details wheels. 

The cat, who is as addicted to cardboard kit boxes as I am to kits, will be adding plenty of his fur (as usual) to the finish of both builds...most likely in one of the most visible locations possible. 

That's it for now. Time to rip open those Panther bags.

dupes wrote:

Bufflehead, looks good! I'd like to see some pictures of the inside of that box...

You have but to ask Sir Dupes!

Didn't get a chance to start it today.  Had to work  

I'm thinking of getting a commander figure for this kit.  Anyone have any suggestions for a good winter clad Panzer commander?

That's a good question about the commander fig...I know I have several panzer commanders that are "summer-weight" but no one dressed in cold weather gear. Anyone have a good set?

So far some hot DML Smart and Premium kits are dominating the Winter Warriors landscape...anyone going to crack into any other manu's kits?

Looking good so far in the box fellas!

Yikes, those are a lot of sprues for each tank!  I'm used to my usually simpler aircraft!

I haven't started yet and likely won't until I finish the War in the Desert build.  Too many projects and not enough time.

C'mon Arki...I know you can multitask.

FIVE AT A TIME! 

dupes wrote:

The cat, who is as addicted to cardboard kit boxes as I am to kits, will be adding plenty of his fur (as usual) to the finish of both builds...most likely in one of the most visible locations possible.

WHY do cats LUV to lay on boxes or paper  And they do it even though you're using the stuff!!  Kats are so silly!

dupes wrote:

C'mon Arki...I know you can multitask. FIVE AT A TIME!

Egads, I don't have room for 5 at a time!  And I'm already multitasking as is with the two projects I have underway!  Plus life's other demands! Ack!

I've built three at once before and I'll never do it again.  The quality started to suffer....

bobbaily wrote:

The more kits/GB's I try to complete at one time, the less fun it is.

I have to keep learning that lesson the hard way.... LOL

I'm looking forward to working on my Panzer III J.  I'm going the long barelled version with the spaced armor serving in the 3 Pz. Gren. Div at Stalingrad 1942.

bobbaily wrote:

The more kits/GB's I try to complete at one time, the less fun it is.

Amen Brother!!  Focus...I need to focus!  ONE....KIT....AT....A...TIME....

You know, up until about a month or two ago, I was ALWAYS a strict one-at-a-time kinda guy...now I'm branching out a bit, trying to do 2 or 3 at a time, seeing if I can make any of the paint/AB work overlap a bit, rather than spending all that time cleaning out the AB for the same color over and over again.

So far it's working out pretty well. I'll let you know.

Scott, btw, rolls in with the 4th DML Smart/Premium offering. Seriously, we should be sponsored by Dragon or something.

There is an economy of scale with building a couple at a time.  Plus if one is drying or curing you can work on the other(s).  But.....

It can get out of control quick and bury a person in just the management of multiple builds.  Apparently quite a few of us have been there, done that.

Tanks galore in this build!

Hey guys,

A lot of great looking kits in this build!  I love the looks of the Panzer III and IV!  Might have to pick one (or both) of those up one day...  Is it too late to jump on board?  I promise to do something from a different manufacturer (I have a couple Tamiya kits in mind...)!! 

"Orange Tiger VII" - I love it! I may have to change his name now...

As for whitewashing him, I could just toss him out the front door of the house - in the past 3 days we've gotten (best estimate, eliminating drift effect) 28 inches of snow. On top of the 2 or 3 feet of snow we had before. Meh. I'll try to take a picture tomorrow morning before I come in to work - it's totally nuts. Can't see over the snowbanks to get out of the driveway!

BBrownii - it is absolutely NOT too late to get in on the GB! It just got officially rolling yesterday, and only a couple of guys have made real starts to their builds. Just tell me what you want to build and I'll add you to the (extensive and glamourous) list on the first page!

Heh. Forgot I had hosted this pic of me and Boots for another thread. For those of you that wanted to see the "front side" of the Tiger VII:

I DO have another cat...but he isn't into cardboard (or modeling) nearly as much.

Well I never actually got started on New Years day like I planned but last night I did break out the T-34 and de-bag it.

There seems to be an awful lot of parts there for a 1/48 scale kit  

One piece that I did think was quite nifty was the PE engine vent cover which is already attached to the styrene.

Maximum no of kits I can work on at once is about four.  That way I can put one down when I need a break and do some work on something different.

Cheers

darson wrote:

There seems to be an awful lot of parts there for a 1/48 scale kit

Wow, you aren't kidding! Kits like this make me wish I could make myself do some 1/48's some time...but all of that 1/35 in the closet is talking me out of it.

Here's your non-Dragon post up Dupes. It's going to be a bare, (not zimmed) Tiger in white. I found a pic of a late Tiger without the zim and went with it. No real idea if this will be historically correct though. Just finally get to build this.

Dale 

Someone finally broke the Dragon-string...you're killing our sponsorship requirements!

Do you have a scan of your ref pic available? I'm sure someone here can validate it's accuracy for you.

Here's the pic Dupes. Now, I'll be the first to admit my knowledge on dates for this tank is rudimentary at best. Is a 1943 Tiger considered a late version? I've read that some Tigers were coated with Zimm starting in July '43, but not all. 

Dale 

From what I can see (not much), that's a very early mid production model - it has the mid wheels and has lost the Feifel air cleaners, but still retains the originial cupola with the fold-up hatch.

There's currently no kit of this variant available - your best bet would be to base it off an early tiger kit.

Seeing as that's an illustration and not an inerrant photo, it could also be a later early production model, depending on the road wheels (and this picture really isn't enough to tell)

Either way, you'll end up using the early Tiger as your base kit if you want to model that vehicle. It's definitely not a late Tiger (you can tell most easily by the rubber-rimmed road wheels as opposed to the steel wheels of the late production model)

There were some old Tiger I's formed into a stop-gap Kampfgruppe during the winter of 1944/45, although I don't rememeber the name off the top of my head. They had all three variants of the Tiger and some winter-camo lates with no zimmerit. Will look around and see if I can find a picture.

Hermesminiatures wrote:

From what I can see (not much), that's a very early mid production model - it has the mid wheels and has lost the Feifel air cleaners, but still retains the originial cupola with the fold-up hatch. There's currently no kit of this variant available - your best bet would be to base it off an early tiger kit. Seeing as that's an illustration and not an inerrant photo, it could also be a later early production model, depending on the road wheels (and this picture really isn't enough to tell) Either way, you'll end up using the early Tiger as your base kit if you want to model that vehicle. It's definitely not a late Tiger (you can tell most easily by the rubber-rimmed road wheels as opposed to the steel wheels of the late production model) There were some old Tiger I's formed into a stop-gap Kampfgruppe during the winter of 1944/45, although I don't rememeber the name off the top of my head. They had all three variants of the Tiger and some winter-camo lates with no zimmerit. Will look around and see if I can find a picture.

Thanks for the expertise guys, like I said, I'm not very knowledgable on these. Sounds like I need to order the Zimm after all.

I do actually have the Dragon "initial" version in the stash, but had planned on getting really carried away with that build adding the full interior and engine bay. The Tamiya was sort of the break in build into the Tigers, since I haven't done one yet.

All the late Tigers had the Zimm then?

Thanks again guys

dale