#12 Tamiya German Horch 1A mit 2cm Flak38 (Conversion)

Thanks Wayne & Adam for following along and the comedy relief!

  Retraction:

What's the world coming to when an Ex Police officer and Ex Army Ranger loses a vehicle recognition to a Civilian Canadian!  Oh the shame it's time to beat my sword into a plowshare and go back to farming! 

I then sprayed two light coats of A Life Color Khaki color that I had left over from another project that I prefer to use for chipping effects because it chips quite easily with a little warm water and a stippling brush.

 

I then decided to add some aircraft and vehicle kill symbols to the front armor shield so I prepped the surface with two light coats of future and after applying the decals applied another coat of Future.  I then applied a final coat of MM Flat acryl to prep the surface for final weathering.

 

It was now time to pick out the paints for some oil dot fading which I prefer over fading with pigments because I feel like i have more control

After oil dot fading I tried a new product from MIG that I wanted to try and it works very well followed by some dry brushing with MIG Oil and Grease Stain Mixture which provides a nice metallic sheen.  i also dry brushed some Citadel Boltgun metal on exposed chipped areas.

 

I want to know where in the world you got the idea to shoot photos of your TV!

You can get shots no one has!

Nasty-lookin-goon-squad somewhere in Italy '43

SECRETS REVEALED! Dig that weathering on those ammo cans!

Dave:  That is what good old fashion Horse Power is for!  Thank God for Henry Ford!

Boyd:  Thanks Boyd you can submerge and reemerge on my WIP anytime!

Wayne:  I usually use Mr. Surfacer 1200 but for availability and budgetary reasons I started using Tamiya's Metal and Plastic Primer wish does a great job as well.

I am ready to start the the painting and weathering and because I want to introduce depth and color change to the model I am planning to paint and weather each subcomponent separately starting with the weapon.

I admit there is a lot of interpretation of what these guns looked like based otn the different paint schemes I have seen and of course there would of been some variation.  I have found a great walk through that I am going to follow minus 70 years of wear and tear.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://data3.primeportal.net/artillery/carl_dennis/20mm_flak_38/images/20mm_flak_38_13_of_36.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.primeportal.net/artillery/carl_dennis/20mm_flak_38/&usg=__xSzqkCrJKwXBMhdYU9HiYm3lAfs=&h=619&w=1000&sz=257&hl=en&start=111&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=qAiGcORmHwHUHM:&tbnh=92&tbnw=149&prev=/images%3Fq%3DSd.Ah.51%26start%3D108%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26ndsp%3D18%26tbs%3Disch:1

Also i was watching Normandy The Great Crusade on The Military Channel today and I saw my conversion in action.  It was interesting to note that the crew had added a field mod to the front fenders like I did with the Jerry Can racks and they had also lowered the gun deck and based on my math and how close the gun shield is to the driver compartment it is a front facing orientation but that is conjecture it still is not that clear.  Here are a few pictures I took of my television!  I am such a geek please do not tell anyone!

Edmund

I can remain underground only so long, and the stupendous (not often you see that word in this context, eh) quality of your work requires me to resurface and say: "Bravo, sir, bravo!!"

Edmund,

to what G said about cresting a dune and keeping the vehicle from high centering.  I've been racking my brain on where I saw the notation of the spare tires being able to freewheel.  Maybe it'll come to me later. Too many brutal hours at work tonight.  Maybe it'll come to me in a dream today.

Cheers

Dave

  Hi Marc,

Thanks my friend but you are not too late I have three more of these trailers ready to be made in the near future so share away please! 

Edmund that really looks fantastic.  I love it when a project gets that 1st coat of paint, be it base or primer.  Takes all the separate bits and pulls them together into a contiguous piece.

I missed my chance of being able to help.  I had scratched an ammo box a while back so I had all the measurements and refs all ready to go.  But your work paid off 'cause the box looks great.

  Thanks Wayne, Bob and Rob!

Build Update:

Ed once again your attention to detail far exceeds all expectations.  Your freaking amazing my brother and it is an honor to have you as a friend.  Again....your are a Master.

Bob

Pressure, what pressure not from us.

Out freaking standing Ed, if it looks that good in primer then the actual paint is going to be killer. Very nice work on the gun by the way. I've stashed mine where it can't be seen, too scary with all those fiddly parts. The headless dude looks good too.

Rob

www.scratchmod.com

Dave:  Hey Dave I am not sure about having the wheels freewheel in their mounts. As an ex farmer that's not going to happen on anything I drive for obvious reasons.  I would like to learn more about that though  and their reasoning.

Wbill:  Thanks my friend you are a constant!

Rob:  Thanks Rob and I chose not to go with resin wheels on this on for budgetary and practical reasons.  The wheels are plastic not vinyl and should take paint well plus they are well molded IMHO.

Build Update:

I finally bowed to public pressure and primed the Horch and trailer yesterday.  I still have a few final fiddly details on the gun that I saved for last and then I will prime that as well.  I am choosing to mount a gunner figure in the seat which necessitates building the gun around the figure to some degree to guarantee a correct sit and feel.

Very  impressive Ed, I dig that trailer and the flaps, too cool buddy. This is all going to look awesome when the paint goes on, which I'm looking forward to.

I'm surprised you didn't go with resin AM wheels Ed. No sense I guess if the kit one are ok.

Anyhow looks really nice buddy .

Rob

www.scratchmod.com

Nice work on the mud flaps and the underside Ed, making good progress on this one.

Edmund,

That is looking pretty slick.  Correct me if I am mistaken but, didn't the spare tire mount freewheel to allow the spare tires to rotate thus preventing the vehicle from high centering? Random info surfacing in the brain.  Just got off shift. Waaaaaay to long a night.

Dave

  Hey Boyd!!

I am kidding you this has all been smoke and mirrors! 

Before you submerge here is a few pcs with the wheels on.  I need to put on the width indicators and I might have to wait for the wndshield after paint,

I've been lurking this one from the beginning, and if I don't chime in soon, I'm going to explode:

HOLY COW MAN, are you KIDDING me?  Unbelievable.  Awe inspiring.  Superb.

OK, now that the pressure has been relieved, I'm going to slink back into the shadows until the finale... maybe...

Adam:  Popsicles for sale cheap!  THnaks Adam fo rth ekind comments and the support

Jim:  There you are my little friend I am glad to have you on board.

Dave:  OCD is not an affliction it is a gift!!

Bill:  Thanks you BIll you are too kind! 

Bob:  Thanks Bob!

Build Update:

Ed my brother....Looking outstanding as usual, truly a master.

Bob

Ed, this ammo trailer went from conception to "please make me one" in less than one week.  This is really another inspiration for those of us who have only recenlty started or returned to modeling.

You ROCK.  YOU ROCK.

Fantastic.

Keep it up, though....

BIll

Why not a Hyster dio?  LOL.

This is one of the things I like about watching someone else with OCD (whether diagnosed or not) is the continual tweaking of the object until it is deemed just right.  Way to go Edmund!

Cheers

Dave

LOL! nice build!

You're completely out of control Ed

you've gone downhill bad in the last few month you've gone from being an armor modeler, to being a softskin modeler, to now a ice cream cart . What's next? Toyota forklift dio?

Couldn't be kiddin more...........it's all good excellent  ...never stop

Bill:  Well after lots of research looking up Dave's questions I saw more work was going to be necessary on the trailer.  The walk around shots here demonstrate that I needed some mud flaps on the rear fenders and leather strap tie downs on the front fender.  I also saw the need for leaf springs for the ammo box so I added them as well.

That pretty much matches with my impression as well after flipping through a couple of refs, there's just nothing definitive to go by...since the ammo versions were essentially just the towed gun version with a box slapped on top of it to hold the ammunition, I would imagine that the holders would've been retained too. Good point about the 90-degree orientation, hadn't considered that.

The hooks certainly look like some kind of cleat/tie-down type of thing...makes as much sense as anything else I can think of myself.

LOL! Thanks Bill it was fun. 

Great question actually that I have not found as of yet a definitive real world reference picture with the correct angle to determine that,

The lid only is designed to open at a 90 degree orientation so the extra magazine containers should not interfere and I have found plenty of model reference that depict this but of course they are subjective.

My gut feeling about the hooks on the top of the fender is that they represent some type of tie down system for extra stowage.  This is only conjecture on my part and is not factually based.

Trailer looks pretty sharp there Ed, very nice work on the scratch-build for it! Before you know it you'll be building entire models out of nothing but popsickle sticks and hair clippings!

Wish I could offer some insight into the hooks on the fenders, they are an interesting feature but I've never actually come across any real explanation of why they are there or seen them performing any sort of function per se in various photos of the Flak 38 either in transit or in action. Looking at the fenders did get me curious about the containers mounted on the insides of the fenders between them and the ammo storage box. In your research did you see these fitted on the ammo box version of the trailer vs. the towed gun version of the trailer? The reason I ask is that those boxes were designed to hold ready clips of 2.0cm ammunition which makes sense on the towed gun trailer but which may or may not have also been present on the ammo box version. The one on the hinge side in particular looks like it might interfere with the lid opening properly on the box storage. Now I'm going to have to go back and dig up pics to satisfy my curiosity unless you can answer it for me.

Hey Dave,

Sorry I missed you post when I was replying to Karl and Rick.  That is a good question that I do not have the answer for.  Perhaps one of our esteemed colleages could answer that question for us......... nudge, nudge,  Insert answer here _____________ 

Enjoy the Sunshine today Dave I plan to!

Karl:  I am thoroughly convinced you are an awesome guy so don't change a thing!!    Roger that Karl thanks for taking the time to visit with me.  I have a sneaking suspicion that scratch building could become very addictive!

Rick:  Thanks for stopping by Rick and thank you for the kind words. I couldn't;t agree with you more the Ed a year ago would have had a heart attack drifting so far off the page but now it just seems like the right think to do.  Maybe someday I will make a master that will "Rule Them All: HAHAHHAHA 

 Disclaimer:  Tolkien and Star War references are a prerequisite

Edmund,

That trailer is stunning. What is the purpose of "hooks" on top of the fenders? I can't wait to see it painted and weathered. I know, I know..... all in due time.

Cheers

Dave

Hey Edmund,

Schnobs

  ,,,,so I thought why not give a little scratch building a try.  I told myself it's just a box how hard could that be?  Turns out it can be very challenging but doable.   

Well, it looks just great.  The scratch building is a thing all to itself...keep at it, it gets easier.

Rick