Zvezda M-3 Scout Car ~FINISHED Pg. 9~

KAYSEE88- Thanks for the comments! For the chairs I'm assuming you mean the cushions. In that case, I simply take the kit supplied part and remove any seams. Then I put a layer of tissue over the pieces. All you do is pour some Elmer's glue in a bowl then add some water. Then you mix untill the glue is dissolved. After that all you have to do is dip the tissue paper in the mix and wrap it around the object you want to cover. However you must split the standard tissue in two by pulling it apart(a tissue right out of the box is too thick.) Once that's done and the tissue is dryed, you paint in the color you wish. After the paint dries, I simply do a grime wash and burnt umber wash to make the seats look used.

As for the wood, I put a base coat of Testor's enamel Wood. After that dries I put a very, very thin later(use an amount that doesn't even cover the base coat in areas) of Tamiya Acrylic Clear Orange. Once that dries I make a wash of burnt umber and apply it. Then after letting it sit for about 5 minutes or less, I take a cotton swab and move the wash inorder to streak the wood in a wood grain direction(this moves the pigments which makes the dark grain areas.) Hope this helps, if not just ask.

Huxy- Thanks for the comments! But don't underestimate your own talent. Your turning out some great builds yourself.

terry35- Thanks a million for the kind comments!

Michael, I just want to add my words of congratulations to the others already posted. Brilliant work, the finished product looks just first rate absolute killer.

Terry.

Mikael, finally I got to check it out....  One thing to say:

How comes everyone are just so freakin' talented!????

That's one BEAUTIFUL model!!!! 

wing_nut- Thanks for the kind comments!

Dre- Thanks, glad you like the finished product! Also like to say thanks for those tips much earlier in the build process, with out them this build would have been a much nastier little bugger.

Mg, all of the extra work in the little details has really paid off.  This looks FANTASTIC! 

You could have just made a weekender out of it, but instead you really made a crude kit far better.  Mad props, yo.

RBaer wrote:

I should've looked in on this one earlier, VERY nice work.

Thanks for checkin' in and for the comments! Glad it doesn't dissapoint.

panzerguy- Thanks for the comments and for followin' the WIP! Yep, I'll be sure to do another run with the graphite pencil.

figure freak- Thanks for checkin' out the build!

Grem56- Thanks a million for the comments! Glad it turned out great......even if it is a Zvezda kit.

Guney- Thanks for the checkin' out the build and for the comments!

sfcmac- Thanks for the thumbs up, glad you like the build!

redleg12- Glad it's detail doesn't dissapoint. Thanks for the comments!

NucMedTech- Thanks for checkin' out the build and for the comments!

panzer88- TLC and a hell of alot of patience. Thankfully my next build won't be needing this much lovin'.

Schnobs- Thanks for the comments and for followin' the build, glad it doesn't dissapoint.

wbill76-  Thanks, I'am proud of the results. Now I hope my next build comes out as good as or better then this one.

I've got to agree with the others. Very nice work.

-Stephen

Mike - Very nice, the detailing is fantastic. Top shelf work!

Rounds Complete!!

This has turned out really well MgM ! Hard to believe this a Zvezda model. Weathering looks fantastic.

Julian

   Michael this is a build you should definitely be proud of! Take a bow sir.

  I don't know if you attend shows but if you do I bet you hear more than one person remark "That's a Zvezda?!"

  My only suggestion would be to use your graphite pencil and highlight the edges of the MG rail.

Yep, it's finally finished and here are those pics.

Interior goodies consist of a PPSH-41, an M3 grease gun, some Ruskie helmets, some ammo cans, and the two maps/document. As for the build overall, the modifications and scratch built parts are way too numerous to list. Heck every single part of this build was modifided in some way, shape, or form(if you really want to know what was scratched/modified then you gotta read through the entire WIP.)

Weathering consisted of a grime and burnt umber wash in the interior cabin areas. As for the exterior, a wash of burnt umber/burnt sienna and a thicker burnt umber wash over that. All the washes were sealed in with Krylon Acrylic Matte finish. Pastels were applied sporadically, and final touches were given with a graphite pencil. Thanks for looking and for all those who followed my build. All comments and questions greatly appreciated.

Schnobs wrote:

Hey Michael, I really like the tissue treatment technique and it looks like you just get it wet and with a little glue that is how you are adding texture right?   Using coffee to age parchment or paper is brilliant! Your stowage is really cool and I have never said to anyone for any reason ever!!!

Yep, all you do is make pour some Elmer's glue in a bowl then add some water. Then you mix untill the glue is dissolved. After that all you have to do is dip the tissue paper in the mix and wrap it around the object you want to cover. However you must split the standard tissue in two by pulling it apart(a tissue right out of the box is too thick.)

Thanks for the comments about the stowage(still gotta scratch the straps) and glad you like the coffee technique.

Hey Michael,

I really like the tissue treatment technique and it looks like you just get it wet and with a little glue that is how you are adding texture right?   Using coffee to age parchment or paper is brilliant!

Your stowage is really cool and I have never said to anyone for any reason ever!!! 

terry35 wrote:

Great progress so far Mikael, this has really been worth all the effort on your part, a great learning process and a chance to flex your talents as a builder ad painter.

Thanks for the kind comments, terry35!

Great progress so far Mikael, this has really been worth all the effort on your part, a great learning process and a chance to flex your talents as a builder ad painter.

tellis wrote:

Looks like your hard work will pay off. I'll watch your progress with interest as I found one at a hobby show for 10 bucks.

Thanks for the comments and for checkin' out the WIP, tellis! Look for the finished pics up sometime tommorrow. I would have gotten the build finished today, but I have a party I feel obliged to go to, thus my finishing touches can't be done untill night.

glorbes- Thanks for checkin' out the build and glad you like the wood grain finish!

panzerguy- Thanks for the comments! Glad you're lovin' the guns, they took some time to get looking just right.

  Michael this is really turning out to be one sweet build. The fifty and thirty cals look great! I've got to agree; the clear orange was a nice touch.

This is coming along beautifully.  I really love the method you used to achieve the finished wood on the various tools and accessories...a base of brown with clear orange is just so brilliant! 

This is a first for me.......back to back updates.

As for those tarps and bags I gave them the tissue-treatment inorder to improve texture and creases. Scratched straps will be made very soon.

After that was on and dry, I applied a mixture of paints(black, tan, brown) to make a dirty kahki color. I will be going back though, to lighten up the color on one or two bags to make them have contrast(that whey their not all the same color.)

Some of the goodies I'll be throwin' inside the cabin, will include scratch maps and a one page document. For the maps I just size down some regular maps(nothing to fancy) of major cities I find on the web(one is of Paris and the other of Kiev) As for the document (I just took some russian writing and sized that down to size#2 font.) Then I take the maps and document and simply weather them with coffee. I personally use some regular brewed coffee and that's it. I find it makes the perfect effect on paper to make something look old and used.

All comments and questions welcome!! Finished pics will more then likely be up sometime this weekend.

Dre- Thanks for the comments!

Schnobs- Glad your enjoyin' the build and think it's cool!

Hey Mike,

I really like how all the details add to the overall presentation and the paint job is phenomenal,

Great Job Sir!!  You make plain green look cool!

Now that you're in the final efforts on this it is really looking sharp.  Nice work on the guns.

This build is finally starting to near completion.....believe it or not. I'll get up only one more  update after this one. Soooooo, finished pics should be up on Saturday or so.

As for this update, the decals are on. The red star and numbers are from the Zvezda kit. They were actually quite nice, but they kept curling in the corners. Thus one must be carfull not to put down the decal with the corners stuck underneath. The flag/wreath decal on the door was from a Revell kit spare. It went on nicely with just a little bit of vinegar to help it go over some raised detail.(Gotta thank Hans von Hammer for the great tip about using vinegar in place of Micro-Sol!) The instructions did say one more decal of a red star in white circle goes on the hood, but I felt it subtracted from the builds appearance so I let that one off.

Another view of the decals. Also I put the axe permanently in place inside the scratch axe sheath.

Yep the .50 cal has finally got it's ammo belt feedin' in. This belt of bullets came from Tamiya's US Infantry Weapons set. I put half the belt inside the can, with the other half of the belt feedin' in. Just some slight cutting was neccessary to get the ammo belt to curve. Note: the guns are not yet finished more weathering will be coming soon.

The .30 cal is now also permanetly in place. This ammo belt also came from Tamiya's US Infantry Weapons set. Placement was straightforward(just some shortening), since this belt didn't have to curve at all.

Finally the tarps and bags that will be along the hull. I decided to replace all the kit supplied one's with much better detailed ones from Tamiya's Allied Vehicles Acessory Set. The kit supplied ones are okay in front, but as soon as you look to the side of them their completley void of any detail. (I guess you could scribe in fabric folds, but that would take a while, and I was a bit lazy to do all that .) The dark green tarps are Zvezdas and the very light green ones are Tamiyas. I think this pics says it all in just a simple comparison.

The bags and all will be getting more texture ala tissue paper, so I gotta get workin' on that soon.

All comments and questions welcome!

Nice going MgM. Looking good.

Julian

wbill76 wrote:

Making some great progress with this one Michael! The tires in particular are looking good and the little bits here and there are dressing this one up nicely.

Thanks for checkin' in on the WIP and for the comments, wbill76! Glad you like all the little detail parts I'm throwin' in......that said I got the .30 cal installed and the ammo feeding in. Should have a another update up in a day or so.

I hate Z-Kits....:)

But you are working very fine...It'll be amazing...:)

Schnobs- Thanks for the comments! As for the Tamiya Acrylic Clear Orange I can't take credit for it(I picked up that tip somewhere on the forums,) though I'm glad I can offer up some new techniques anyways.

Yeah, Cabella's is a great place to browse and to shop. Only place I like better is my LHS....(if I didn't say that, I'd be comitting modeling blaspehemy.)

panzerguy- Oh yeah, these kits are so much fun. They clearly leave out the detail so the modeler can have fun replacing it.

It does suprise me too, the weird cases of some extra's and detailed parts like the Goodyear tires with PSI numbers on my build. Yet other prominent parts like guns are lacking detail that shouldn't be missing.

   Hey Michael these Z-kits are a real blast huh? Yours is really coming out great though.

  It amazes me that they add extra stuff like engines and rubber tire's with lettering but leave off hull details no clear lenses for headlights and fit issues that will give you fits.

Michael it is turning out great and I love the wood on the tools!  I will have to try that thanks.  I use MM Acryl wood color and then some burnt umber washes as well but would not have thought of applying a Tamiya clear orange.  Very clever and cool I must say.

I have gotten lost in Cabella's more than a few times!

Okay here's my update, would have had it up yesterday but I went to Cabela's thus that took a bit of time. I did however pick up a new Gerber pocketknife so I'm happy about that. Then when I did try to get some pics up, my computer was so damn slow. I finally figured out it was the new anti-virus software that made my computer a snail. Thankfully I solved the problem, got the pics uploaded, and now here's the long delayed update.

The .50 cal is permanently in place along with the box and scratch ammo tray. The ammo belt itself will go in at a later time(already painted). The antenna is in place, along with all four wheels. Also put down some future on the hull sides so I can get the decals on soon.

The antenna base is the kit supplied one, just a little bit of sanding is necessary. As for the top antenna wire, I used some copper wire. The kits instructions say to use stretch sprue(no kit supplied part), but its entirely your choice of what material you want to use.

The .50 cal is in place, painted a base color of Testor's Steel mixed w/Black. Then some drybrushing of a lighter shade of Testor's steel also darkened w/black. I drilled out the cooling holes a bit just to give some depth, along with the barrel.

The wheels are all on......finally. Put down a burnt umber wash then sealed them with some Krylon Matte acrylic finish from a rattle can. I also sealed the wheel wells, so I could move onto the pastels with worrying about them dissapering. I then rolled the wheels in a mixture of pastel colors like sepia, burnt umber, and vandyke brown. Yes the hull sides are super shiny but that's the Future.

Yeah, I know this pic is sorta bad so I'm sorry about that. All the tools and guns have got their wooden parts finished off. Used Testor's wood for the base coat, then applied some Tamiya acrylic clear orange, and finally some washes of burnt umber(to darken the color and to get the wood grain.)

All comments, questions, and suggestions welcome as always.

terry35 wrote:

WOW, mikael, that progress is really rapid everything looks great so far and those headlights are stunning work. I wasn't expecting to seeing you having made so much progress after all the delays caused so early on in the project. Terry.

Thanks for the comments and for checkin' in Terry! Yeah, progress had been comin' along at a steady pace. Trying to get this one finished soon, because I gotta a few kits I'm really itchin' to get started on in the stash, plus I have my scratch multiplane that I want to get finished in the coming weeks(preferably before college in the fall.) But I know their's not much chance of me finishin' that build anytime soon.

WOW, mikael, that progress is really rapid everything looks great so far and those headlights are stunning work. I wasn't expecting to seeing you having made so much progress after all the delays caused so early on in the project.

Terry. 

scratchmod wrote:

I'm not much into the olive drab vehicles (yet) but this one is looking pretty cool. The weapons and boxes are nice. That's the part I hate painting the most, the lttle things. I just might venture over to the OD stuff sooner than I planned. Keep up the good work, I keep watching.   Rob

Thanks for the comments, scratchmod! Glad you're enjoying my OD build.

I'm not much into the olive drab vehicles (yet) but this one is looking pretty cool. The weapons and boxes are nice. That's the part I hate painting the most, the lttle things. I just might venture over to the OD stuff sooner than I planned.

Keep up the good work, I keep watching.

Rob

Anyways I'm here now and here's the work, all the accesories are comin' along. Base coats and some dry-brushing done. The two helmets are from a Revell kit, along with one of the guns, a PPSh-41.

The SMG "grease gun" is the only kit supplied gun I'm using. The .30 cal and .50 cal are from Tamiya's US Infantry Weapons Set. These Tamiya molds are pretty old too, but their a hundred times better then the Zvezda ones. The .50 cal mount was scavenged from the kit supplied .50 cal. (It's mount is pre-attached to the Zvezda gun, but a little bit of snipping can take it off.)

The kit supplied ammo cans lack detail, so I decided to use those just as stowage in the cabin. I replaced them with a .30 cal ammo box and .50 cal ammo box from Tamiya's US Infantry Weapons Set. The .50 cal ammo tray had to be replaced though,  since the kit supplied ammo tray is too small for a correct .50 cal ammo box, so I had too scratch the tray for the new ammo box I was using. The .30 cal ammo box fit the kit supplied tray without a hitch.

Yes the ammo boxes are open, but I'll be putting an ammo belt in there that feeds to the gun.

All comments, questions, and suggestions welcome!

wing_nut- Thanks for the comments and for checkin' out my WIP!

I think I missed this one entirely.  gettin caught up on all my missied posts and threads.

Looks good MG.

Schnobs- Thanks for noticing the little details like the headlight wiring(which suprisingly didn't take that long to actually do.) Glad you like the build so far and thanks for the comments!

Dre- You lucky dog, I wish my winshield fit properly.....would have saved me from some smudging glue and what not. As fot the tarps, guns, bags, and etc, a majority of those parts will be coming from other kits(thankfully.)

Grem56- Thanks for the comments and the support.

panzerguy- The Zvezda doors........the horror, the horror. The nightmares persist even now. Thanks for the comments and I'll be looking forward to seeing your Zvezda build!

  Looking good Michael glad to see this guy isn't getting the best of you.

  I'm in the process of building a Zvezda BA3 armored car so I know how much fun these Zev kits can be. Especially those doors!

Great progress MgM, looking good and you evidently have Zvezda's offering under control.

Julian

Great work Mike!  I really like the masking off of the windshield area to outline the wiper glaze.  I am really interested what that process looks like end to end.  I bet it will end up looking very cool.

The glued copper wire off the baxk of the headlight and then glued straight to the fender is a great realistic touch as well.  It's amazing how really simple things like that add to the the overall complexity and tapestry of the final look.

I can't wait to see this one unfold!

Got around to my building my scout car again, been sidetracked by another build I'm scratching parts for too.

About ninety-five percent of all the hull portions are completely on, by that I mean sanded, modified, and painted. Thus soon my work will be moving into the more detailed parts like the guns, gun mounts, tools, tarps, and other random accesories. However here's whats done with the main hull parts. The windshield is in(terrible fit, by that I mean gaps left all over the place.) So I used Testor's Clear parts glue to put the winshield in and to slightly fill in the gaps the best I could on the sides. I also masked off the wiper area(that's why their's some blue-ish tape on the winshield) for weathering that will happen at a future time(will be too hard to mask properly later, so be sure to do it beforehand.)

The upper armor plate on the passenger side is also in place with the scratched hinges also in place. As for the drivers side(it's not in place yet), I'll be leaving the armor plate in the down position. (NOTE: I pretty much have to leave the driver's side armor plate down since it wouldn't fit properly in the up-armored position due to the skate rail. However the passenger side did fit properly up-armored so that's why that side is up. I know strange fit issues.)

As for other parts, I've glued the two gun mounts for the skate rail together. However their fit just isn't bad its non-existent! The pieces look like garbage, so I'm gonna have to putty, sand, and slice till they look presentable. As for the tools they have all had the seams removed and the shovels handle area was drilled out(it was a solid piece of plastic where the opening should have been.)

All comments, questions, and suggestions welcome!

newarmorman wrote:

Mg. Looks absolutely fantastic! Wish I had the time to build right now, but with my wife just out of the hospital, it would hurt her feelings to tell her I am going to build a model or as she says " YOUR TOYS!" Ouch! I love her, so I let it be. I so want to cut some barrels on my Taig lathe! Let me know if you need anything to complete your build! I would love to help, but so far it looks fantastic, reeaally!! Your Friend, Newarmorman

Thanks for the comments! Also glad to here your wife's out of the hospital.

wbill76 wrote:

Looking good Michael, your idea about using plastic shell packaging for the lenses is a good one. What did you use for glue?

Glad you like the tip/idea, and thanks for the the comments! As for the glue I personally used Testors Clear Parts Glue, but if you don't have that Elmer's works fine.

Been getting some work done, slowly but surely. The hinges for the doors(I'm scratching) are still not on, because their taking a bit more work then I expected. Nevertheless, I finished quite a bit elsewhere on the build. The steering wheel is in, the foot pedals were scratched(simply two rectangles, nothing more since its next to impossible to see them clearly), the lower half of the doors are on(luckily the drivers side fit nicely, unlike the passenger side which needed alot of work of which I showed in the last update.) I also finished the armor slats covering the radiator/engine.

The headlights are also on permanetly now. With the wiring for the headlights also done and painted. Simply used some copper wiring and glued one side to the headlight and put a dab of putty on the other end(sticking that end right onto the fender).

All comments, questions, and suggestions welcome!

Still haven't got the doors on permanetly. I've been doing some sanding, filling in of bad gaps, and painting of the base coat. However I did get some work done that's worth mentioning.

I've went ahead and scratched the headlights lens out of clear plastic. The Zvezda kit supplies lens but their out of thick green stryene....thus pretty much useless. Luckily the headlights are hollow aka already drilled out, so time is saved there. I simply cut the clear plastic lens in the size needed from the plastic casing from a Tamiya kit. Most 1/48 Tamiya kits come with a cast hull packaged in plastic, thinking ahead I saved some from my last build. I did this because I realized the plastic was perfectly clear, strong, perfect thickeness, not brittle, and cheap. Thus a great product to make lens out of.

I also started work on getting one of the doors to fit properly. There's too big of a space between the door and the hull.(Yet small enough some flash could have filled it in. Geez!) So I took some stryene scraps I had and after trimming to the miniscule size needed I glued it the side of the gap. The hinges had to go, since fitting would have been alot more difficult(I did save them nevertheless they could be easily scratched.) That's why their's gaps between the styrene pieces I added. Now I just have to putty, trim, sand, and slice the parts I added untill I get it matching the door.

All comments & questions welcome!

biffa wrote:

Glad to see you are still beating this one into submission Mikael i like the extra's you are doing the kit definatly can use a little extra and seems to me you are in control keep it coming i have one to build one of these days.

Yeah I'm still laboring away on this build, took a break from it for about two months and built a Tamiya 1/48 Universal Carrier Mk.II in that time span(I believe one of my best builds yet). After that build was finished I came back to this build, thus that's why it may seem alot of work hasn't been done. 

Thanks for the comments!

TheNakedModeler wrote:

Looking real good and it's painted by hand right. Is this kit able to be built in american service or just as in use by russian?

Yep, it's hand-painted(well at least what I started to paint). And yes, this kit can be built in US service since Zvezda includes US decals(but I have doubts about their quality.)

wbill76 wrote:

Congrats on the scholarship! Not having to worry about your first year's tuition ought to be a huge relief...just don't forget there's 3 (or more) to go afterwards.  Nice work on the scratch details for the light guard, impressive work with the wire.

Thanks for the congrats on the scholarship and for the comments on the build! Now with first year tution paid, I won't go into debt untill my second year.

Congrats on the scholarship! Not having to worry about your first year's tuition ought to be a huge relief...just don't forget there's 3 (or more) to go afterwards. 

Nice work on the scratch details for the light guard, impressive work with the wire.

panzerguy wrote:

Looking good there Mg. I like the little extras, brush guards, axe sheath, springs and tape straps. It's those little things that make a build jump out at ya.

Thanks for the comments and glad you like all the scratch detail!

  Looking good there Mg. I like the little extras, brush guards, axe sheath, springs and tape straps. It's those little things that make a build jump out at ya.

Dre- Thanks for the comments on the build and the scholarship(I'm still suprised I got it!)

Grem56- Thanks for the comments on the light guards. Glad the extra work I put into them paid off.

Nice work on the guards ! Coming along very nicely.

Julian

MG- solid props on the scholarship!  That is truly awesome. 

I like those brush guards- that's a subtle touch as is the axe sheath.  This is really coming together nicely.  Seeing what you are doing to your M-3 makes mine blush.

Today was quite a good day, got a big update, since I finished up alot of scratching and so there's obviously alot of pics. Not to mention, I just learned I recieved a General Assembly Scholarship!!! That means my total tution for my first year of college at University of Illinois-Chicago is completley covered. How sweet it is. Now onto the update.

The jerry cans are pretty much finished, with strap and all glued on. Weathered using a simple wash, and some fuel stains added near the cap were made using ModelMaster Graphite Metalic(it actually makes a greasy appearance if you use it in moderation.) Though I still have to do some more weathering later for finishing touches.

The axe sheath(protective area for blade) that orginally came in the kit was pre-attached to the axe. Thus it meant the detail was pretty sub-par, so I took it and sliced and diced until I had my very own axe. Then I scratched my own sheath(ok not really a sheath) out of some spare stryene and contour putty. Using the axe as reference for size and location.

  Then on a spur of a moment I also decided to scratch the light guards out of copper wire.(mainly because the original pieces look a bit too chunky in detail) Took the original light guards cut out the detail(I cracked one pretty badly, it's the one you see to the right.)Then I sanded the inside the best I could after doing repairs. Then I took some copper wire and cut to size. Curving it slighty to give a better appearance. After finishing the pieces off, I took a tip from Dre and filled in the locating "trenches." I did this with Testor's Contour putty, but before it dried I inserted the light guards in the putty. That way the pieces are on and the putty conforms around the piece. Still haven't sanded away the excess so it may look a bit crude.

All comments, questions, and suggestions welcome!

gpal wrote:

Looking good, keep us posted. George

Thanks for checkin' out my build, gpal!

Looking good, keep us posted.

George

wbill76 wrote:

Making progress, the masking tape straps are a nice touch.

Thanks for the comments, wbill76!

Making progress, the masking tape straps are a nice touch.

Citadelgrad87 wrote:

Coming along, interesting subject and a nicely done build. Bill

Thanks for the comments, Citadelgrad87! Lookin' forward to seein' how your Panther comes along.

Coming along, interesting subject and a nicely done build.

Bill

Progress is moving along, sadly I see some major scratching, modifying, and fixing in my future just to make the build presentable. Nevertheless here's what I've gotten done so far. 

I've put on the rear step plate and drybrushed it. Along with putting on the rear bumper. Zvezda doesn't tell you which way is right side up(for correct placement) nor what to paint the tail lights .....so after doing some research I found the left tail light was a normal light and the right was a black out light. Good thing I looked into it, because Zvezda tells you nothing in the instructions. Thus it took a little work but the tailights are correctly painted now. For those wondering the blackout light was simply done with an extra fine sharpie.  By the way if you see some copper wire, that's the tailight wiring I put in place for some added detail(probably won't be seen though.)

I also did some work on the jerry cans. After gluing them in place, I applied the first wash. I also made some straps out of masking tape. Though I still have to weather a bit more and add some fuel drippage from the caps.

All comments, questions, and suggestions welcome!

No worries, hope your wife recovers from her aliment and your son stays safe in Afghanistan.

Now the real question is where do you meet people that will pay thousands of dollars for a kit, fly you out, and continue buying finished kits from you. That is quite the good customer and in my books you are one lucky modeler to have found a customer with such deep pockets.

newarmorman wrote:

Hi mg, Maybe my terminology is wrong but I have four resources Osprey, Schiffer, Squadron signal, Wikipedia that say it did ? not to mention the side of the Tamiya kit that suggests the towed German 88 mm flak 36/37( sold separately) as an add on kit. Of course the Dragon instructions allow you to build as a type 36 or 37 or a type 18. I'm not sure without further research off the top of my head but I think it is Wikipedia that actually shows a picture of the Sd.kfz. 7 towing a Flak. Most of my research talks about it towing the venerable and powerful 88 once the engines were upgraded in 1939 to the Maybach Hl 57 engine and was used to haul the s. FH 18 the s.10 cm Kanone 18 and the 88 mm Flak. and it was used in both N. Africa and the Eastern front. I also was watching Patton 360 and they complained about the Flak 88 and showed the 7 towing them. So what part of the equation am I missing. Please I'm not being a wise guy, but a collector asked me to build them for him for $1200 and I don't want to make a mistake with an inaccurate build. I researched his request and it seemed right, I do this all the time and they (my customers) are very often incorrect however this one seemed OK? I was even more at ease when I saw the side of the Tamiya kit suggesting the flak as a towed vehicle, but please if you can tell me something I do not know I would appreciate it! Thank you! Awaiting inspiration and information, Newarmorman

Hmmmmm......I think you mis-read my post newarmorman. Because I said if you're having the Flak towed, you'll have no problems.

mg.mikael wrote:

Dre- Yes, it would be nice to see one of the more higher-end companies like Dragon or Bronco release a new mold of this kit, but then again I guess it's false hope. Since it doesn't look like any company will be releasing a new mold anytime soon. wbill76- Thanks for lookin' in. Hope to make some progress this week by attaching the hull parts to the frame.

Dragon already has the M3 cab all they need is a new chassis and fighting compartment and they are all set.

terry35- Glad you like it, hope to get some more work done on it soon(sorta been busy lately.)Anyways, thanks for lookin'!

panzerguy- Thanks for the comments!

newarmorman- Thanks for the comments and for reading my entire WIP! I don't mind the question......so are you gonna have the Sd.kfz.7 towing the 88mm Flak 37? I assume so, because the Sd.kfz.7 never mounted an 88mm. If your gonna have it towing the Flak, I don't forsee any serious problems. Though it is quite an undertaking for your first WWII German build and for that I gotta give you a thumb's up. Lookin' forward to seeing how your build turns out! By the way, here's a review of the Dragon 3 in 1 Flak 37: http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/reviews/vehicles/dragon/dr6287.htm              Hope it helps.

  Mg been checking out your build and it looks like your gonna have your self a keeper when its finished. Kits like this, though challenging, are well worth it since the subject is not covered by other manufactures. 

Great progress there mg.mikael, fair play for sticking in there for so long with this one. The project now seems to be comming together at last, keep up the good work.

Terry.

Okay, here's that update I'd said I'd get up. Been doing alot of work in the front, back, and inside the scout car. In the back I've started putting in the handles and support truss for a step plate. The pieces fit in quite nicely, but a seam does have to be removed on every truss piece.

The doors have also been fixed and painted up. Eash door has three major pin marks on the interior, so those have to filled in, no doubt about that. On the exterior their aren't pin marks, but theirs some shallow marks that could use a bit of putty.

As for the dash, I painted the dials and then filled them with a little Testor's clear parts cement & window maker. The engine wall behind the dash needs just a base coat and nothing more. Thank goodness. When the hood goes on, the engine wall completley vanishes from view(since the dash is in front.)

Finally here's all the work done so far. The hood is on, the window frame is on(front winshield to go in later), and the round frame going around the top is finished. Now, I just got to put in the doors and etc.

All comments, questions, and suggestions welcome!

dbaumi60 wrote:

Hello from Poland I have this kit in my stock and your report inspires me to start it. I will do it in version of the 1. Tank Division (polish) in France 1944. Your progress is great really and I wish you all the best with it. Best regards Dirk

Thanks for the comments and for checkin' out my thread, dbaumi60! Glad my WIP inspires you to get the M-3 out of the stash and onto the workbench.

Hello from Poland

I have this kit in my stock and your report inspires me to start it. I will do it in version of the 1. Tank Division (polish) in France 1944.

Your progress is great really and I wish you all the best with it.

Best regards

Dirk

Thanks for the comments, Dre! I got alot more work done yesterday and today, so it looks alot more like a vehicle, then it does in those pics. Thanks for the tip about the "trenches."

I'll try to get another update tommorrow.......I would have had one today, but I just bought a new MP3 player so I'm rippin' a ton of music from my CD collection and playin' around with all the other gizmos.

Looking better now that it resembles a vehicle!  You might want to consider filling in those trenches that Zvezda has provided for the headlight guards- I didn't and it shows. 

Grem56 wrote:

Zvezda seems to be fighting you all the way mg.Mikael but you are definately winning Looking good and you added a couple of things I must remember (counterweight springs and the tissue covered cushions).

Thanks for the comments, Grem56! Glad you like it and I'm glad it's giving you some ideas. 

Zvezda seems to be fighting you all the way mg.Mikael but you are definately winning Looking good and you added a couple of things I must remember (counterweight springs and the tissue covered cushions).

Had quite a bit of time on my hands today.....so I finally got around to attaching most of the hull together. The fighting compartment was attached to the frame. The frontal hull was put together(the top of the engine compartment can't go in, untill I fix some pin marks and seams.) The radiator was also put in.

The radiator of which you see below had a major opening between two parts. I'm not sure if it was supposed to be there, but I felt it looked better filled in. So I filled it with putty and slightly sanded it out. It's not nice and smooth, but their will be some armor slats that will end up covering it from view, thus I'm not worried about it.

All comments, questions, and suggestions welcome!

Dre wrote:

Nice.LOL But I think he should be sayin' something more politically correct like....."Comrade, where's my vodka?!"  Just thought of a new one....."Comrade, where's my borscht?!"

Dre wrote:

Didja ever find some better decals for this, or are you going to tempt fate and use the ones in the box?

Luckily I did. I found a set of Soviet red stars and the ones with the red flag w/gold wreath in a past kit I built, the Revell 1/35 Katyusha set. So all in all, I have decals I can subtitute in for 90% of the kit's decals that I actually plan to use. The red star in the circle(that is very prominent on the hood) is one of the few I can't replace(but I think I may have a few tricks up my sleeve.)

Dre- Yes, it would be nice to see one of the more higher-end companies like Dragon or Bronco release a new mold of this kit, but then again I guess it's false hope. Since it doesn't look like any company will be releasing a new mold anytime soon.

wbill76- Thanks for lookin' in. Hope to make some progress this week by attaching the hull parts to the frame.

Dre- Yeah progess has been goin' slow, but it's not my fault blame Zvezda. As for what I'm gonna fill in the fighting compartment with, I'll make a couple maps and documents to put near the drivers seat. I also got quite a bit of Ruskie guns to stuff in the fighting compartment, also have some other things planned, but I have to see if they pan out.

Citadelgrad87- Yep, silly putty is the solution to pretty much everything......now only if you could eat it. Thanks for lookin' in on my build.

Very cool and unusual build, MG, I like it and your tires look photorealistinc in the pictures.  That silly putty realy has a million uses, huh?

Bill  

MECHTECH wrote:

Michael would the jerry cans still have the [U.S.] on them? I really don't don't know about that one, ie. if the Soviets would have had a different one.

I'm pretty sure that since it was a Lend-Lease vehicle, the Soviets would have recieved the vehicle with the US jerry cans. (the very crude kit supplied jerry cans seem to american in design) Plus, after I scratch the straps that hold in the jerry can, the "US" mark won't even be visible, so I'm not worried about it.

Yep, it's been awhile since my last update(about two weeks).....probably because I got lazy with fixing all the imperfections on this kit, so it's been sittin' to the side of the bench for awhile. However, I finally got around to doing some much needed work on the scout car.

I was pretty dissapointed with the kit supplied jerry cans that were pre-attached to the holder(poor detail & bad molding), plus they would be a prominent piece on the hull, thus they had to be replaced. So I scrapped those pieces, only after using one of them as a guide to scratching my own. Used some Tamiya jerry cans, then scratched the holder out of some stryene and alot of putty. Not to worried abot the interior of the holder, since the jerry can will hide any imperfections when it's glued on.(the jerry can straps will be scratched at a later time)

 I also started the weathering process on the bottom of the passenger compartment. First had to apply a coat of Future to protect the enamel paint dry-brushed on. Then two washes went on, first was a burnt umber/burnt sienna, over that went another burnt umber wash.

All comments, questions, and suggestions welcome!!

terry35- Thanks for checking out the scout car and for the comments! Lookin' forward to seeing that resin Minenraumer 100% finished, weathering and all.

Your right you did get a good session at the bench. Great progress with the work. Good luck.

Terry.

I finally got around to having a good modeling session and did some major work on my build. Yipee! I connected three of the hull sides to the fighting compartment. Suprisingly they went together like a dream, compared to some of the other parts. Just a slight seam has to be filled and some excess glue removed and sanded(but that was my mistake). Then I have to start weathering the bottom of the hull. For some reason the instructions say that the fighting compartment should have been glued on to the main frame a few steps back, but if you do that, you just made weathering a hundred times harder for yourself.

The counterweight in the front of has been connected. Scratched the springs out of some copper wire, and filled in a few holes and etc. However the fit of the counterweight holders to the main frame is terrible. I started filling in some gaps with crazy glue, because it's next to impossible to get putty in between the parts and actually sand it smooth. Argh! I can see this will take alot of time and some luck.

All comments, questions, and suggestions welcome!

Dre- You were right about the seats, the bulge had to be completley trimmed off for the seat cushions to fit. That I did with spure cutters, that's seriously the amount of stryene that had to be removed.

wbill76- Thanks for the comments and for lookin' in!

Here's my progress so far on the scout, going a bit slower then I woud like(probably due to the fact every, single piece needs massive cleanup.) Anyways I got all the seats in finally, and I got all the locating hulls on the bottom of the hull filled in(you got to remeber to do this or it will be impossible later.) The seats are painted with a mixture of Testor's enamel brown & black. As for the drybrushing on the floor and etc. I used a mixture of Testor's Steel & black.

For the upper hull pieces, the marks have been cleaned up and painted. Now I'm just test fitting them, because I just know their's gonna be problems. The fender pieces have also been put together, but they obviously need a ton of cleaning up. Plus on those two small pieces I decided I'm gonna scratch the springs that react w/the counterweight (so some modification had to happen, such as the filling in of locating holes for the kit piece.)

All comments, questions, and suggestions, welcome as always!

Looking good thus far, but a few look-outs that I found on mine.  The bulged out sides on the cushions didn't fit right, so I ground off the bulges to fit the profile of the rolled upholstery seam on the top.  They fit much better this way. 

Really nice touch on the tissue paper, I can't wait to see how that looks painted and weathered.  I'm going to remember this for the future!

I had fit issues with the top hood panel meeting the side panels evenly, so that got glued down in sections for a seamless appearance.  Also watch the decals, while they're OK and in register, they sure didn't want to go down over all of those tie-down lumps on the sides or over the hinges on the top hood panel.  Lots of Solvaset and pin-pricks later, they still don't 'lay down' the way other decals do- a thinner decal with a little more elasticity would have been nice.  If you have any spare Soviet stars and slogans from a better source, I'd use them over the kit supplied decals. 

Dry fitting the wheels on mine showed that only two wheels would touch ground at any time, so I loaded up the body with weights (3 Tamiya paint bottles!) to force all 4 wheels flat and even when I glued them on.  That actually worked out well and didn't give any of the wheels a nasty camber!  I guess that the plastic is soft enough to absorb the difference.

Hope these help and looking forward to seeing your's finished!

terry35 wrote:

MG the seats are coming along well and wow those pin marks look vicious. Progress is slow on this one, looking forward to seeing you progress further. Good luck, Terry.

Thanks for lookin' in! Hopefully I'll get alot of work done this week, since I'm on vacation aka spring break......hopefully.

MG the seats are coming along well and wow those pin marks look vicious. Progress is slow on this one, looking forward to seeing you progress further.

Good luck,

Terry.

Yeah, I know it's been awhile since I last posted an update, due to the fact I got sidetracked by my Universal Carrier. But with that completed, I can once again start work on this build.

 I started the upper hull parts of the scout car. I think the pic below says it all. It needs massive sanding, and a ton of putty. These pieces that are just plain riddled with ejector pin marks. And I mean riddled, heck some of the ejector pin marks almost seem to be in places impossible to sand without wrecking the detail. If their's a carpet monster, then theirs one that's ten times as grim, and that's the ejector pin monster. This one bites.....hard.

The head rests for all the seats have two holes(not all the way through, but almost), like for positioning on each one. However there's no positioning marks on the seats(geez) so I gotta be careful when gluing so it doesn't melt the thin plastic.

As for the seat cushions themselves, I finally put on the tissue to give them more texture. But you gotta remove a pestering seam that can show even through the tissue.

Finally the seats themselves, a little flash had to be removed. However here is where the kit's aging molds shows once again. The tops of the seats have just plain bad molding(it's an old mold), so quite a bit of sanding is neccessary, of which you can see also in the pic.

wbill76 wrote:

Making good progress MG, looking forward to the next update.

Thanks for the comments, wbill76!

Huxy wrote:

That looks sweet....  Tell me, you know of any acrylic that match the weatherd black? It looks spot on.

I've used Tamiya's NATO black XF-69, It makes a really nice weathered black for tires and such. I picked up that tip from someone on the forums here, so I'm not gonna take credit!

Nice work, by the way, Mg! I got one of these in the stash, and I've been following this for tips.

Huxy, thanks for the comments. As for the question, I currently use Floquil enamel Weathered Black. As for an acrylic, Floquil nor any other company makes a paint that is like this to my knowledge. Their is the PollyScale acrylic Grimy Black, but I don't know how this paint looks when dryed, since it's more of a weathering paint like the colors mud and grime. If you want to check the paints Floquil/PollyScale offer here's the link to the paints they offer: http://www.testors.com/category/133504/Floquil

I was able to get quite a bit of work done yesterday an today on my scout car. I finished the muffler, axles, suspension, and everything else on the bottom half of this vehicle. With all the parts in place I was able to start drybrushing some dark-steel paint, made from a mixture of Testor's enamel Steel and Flat Black. I also start painting the cabin with the MM acrylic Olive Drab. 

The tires have also been finished, so here they are without the Silly Putty mask. Though it will be awhile before they can go on permanetly.

Now construction will be moving to the cabin, where work on the eight seats will commence. It should take awhile, since I want to upgrade each seat with more of a realistic fabric texture. Thanks for looking, all comments, questions, and suggestions welcome.

Finally started painting my M-3 scout car. I'm using Model Master Acrylic Olive Drab, and as you can see the base coat has been applied on the lower support structure of the vehicle. Later today I'll get the axles and suspension in place.

I also masked off the tire hubs with silly putty, so now the tires can be painted. They'll be painted using Floquil enamel Weathered Black.

As always all comments, suggestions, and questions welcome!

terry35 wrote:

Is that not the old Italeri mould, if it is then I always thought it was O.K. but then I never had the kit. Terry.

I had it as the Peerless kit before. I hope they improve on it somehow.

Well ,what you have done so far looks good. Can't say much for now but I'm very curious about how this one will progress, I seem to remember the Italeri box model being painted by Verlinden, when I was younger I was always impressed by this, it looked great, then you stated it was a 40 year old mould,,,,,,,,WOW......... that was an eye opener.

Terry.

Here's what I finished so far on my scout car, construction is going quicker then I thought. The tires are finished and the seam is sanded away, had to use three different grits. Along with a few other random parts inside the cabin.

The ejector pin marks on the lower hull have been sanded down and filled with Testor's contour putty. As you can tell there were alot.

A part of the engine has been put into place, alot of putty had to be put around it. Since it had no fit at all with the other parts, it sort of just floated around in that spot. (there were no locating marks/pins at all)

Finally both axles are finished, abit of seam sanding and filling in of incorrect molding(Zvezda's fault) was neccesary.

 Thanks for looking, all comments and questions welcome.

I wish this kit had vinyl tires, all I get is stryene ones that are in two pieces." border="0" width="15" height="15" /> I can see alot of sanding in my future.

Never met any vinyl tires that didn't need to be sanded either... In fact, they HAVE to be sanded to get any kind of "used" look to 'em...

Rob Gronovius wrote:

I think I still have one of the older issues that come with vinyl tires, canvas top and crew figures. Those Peerless Max kits were way ahead of their time, most came with vinyl tires, the 155mm gun came with a metal barrel and metal recoil springs.

 I wish this kit had vinyl tires, all I get is stryene ones that are in two pieces. I can see alot of sanding in my future.

terry35: It's old alright, but most of detail still looks good, however some parts are showing their age. Thanks for checkin' out my build.

Didn't realise it was that old. I only remember the Italeri release, any good luck withthe project.

Terry.

biffa: Huh, didn't even know their was a PE set avaible. Oh well, I'm sure I can make this kit work without it.

terry35: It's a re-box of the 40 year old Peerless Max M-3 Scout Car that has also been re-boxed by Italeri, Testors, and Airfix.

Is that not the old Italeri mould, if it is then I always thought it was O.K. but then I never had the kit.

Terry.