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

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.

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

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.

Hi mg.

I'm sorry, I did misunderstand what you wrote, oops, my bad! I am sorry, my wife has been in the hospital for a week now and my son is leaving for his third tour this week as you know from reading my new guy intro. I am trying to keep myself busy running my business, building kits and turning custom parts for people, but my wife has been in the hospital 2 + months total already between last year and now, and with my son leaving for Afghanistan for seven months, I guess I am a little twitchy!
Thanks for your patience! I know you are right about this being my first big German armor build, but I signed into the forums for help and advice just in case, but this customer is paying well for these two to be built, and he has already ordered and payed for 11 models from me in the past so I need to keep him happy! He usually wants modern allied armor, but he read a review of the Dragon kit of the Flak and got excited, soooo..... here I am he called and I said, " I would give them a shot " I don't make them pay until they receive their items and are happy anyway! He is a good customer, I built him an M1A1 AIM about a year ago and the crate got damaged, he flew me to CA to repair it at his expense, he has BUCKS and pays for what he wants, and likes my style of build. So its all good. Thanks again! Please be patient with me I'm old and slow sometimes, but I mean well!

Your Friend,

Newarmorman

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.

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!

Coming along, interesting subject and a nicely done build.

Bill

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.

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

wbill76 wrote:

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

Thanks for the comments, wbill76!

Looking good, keep us posted.

George

gpal wrote:

Looking good, keep us posted. George

Thanks for checkin' out my build, gpal!

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!

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.

Nice work on the guards ! Coming along very nicely.

Julian

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.

  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.

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!

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.

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?

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.

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.)

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.

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!

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!

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!

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

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.

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

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.