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Marder 1A2 Schutzenpanzer

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  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: New Jersey
Posted by redleg12 on Thursday, July 22, 2010 7:39 AM

Very impressive.....nice job....I have not seen this scratch side of you before.....excellent stuff

Rounds Complete!!

"The Moral High Ground....A Great Place to Emplace Artillery."

  • Member since
    April 2003
  • From: 41 Degrees 52.4 minutes North; 72 Degrees 7.3 minutes West
Posted by bbrowniii on Thursday, July 22, 2010 7:24 AM

Thanks Nate.  I'll try to make a point to bring it around the next time we get together.

Jetmodeler,

Thanks for checking in.  You are right about the scheme.  Originally, this was going to be built for the Winter Warriors GB, but I pretty rapidly realized it wouldn't get done.  Still, I do intend to paint it in winter cammo.  I don't think there is an 'official' winter scheme for it, but I found a couple of pics of a Leopard that 'changed its spots' so I figure I'll mimic that for this:

 

'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing' - Edmund Burke (1770 ??)

 

  • Member since
    October 2009
  • From: South Carolina
Posted by jetmodeler on Thursday, July 22, 2010 5:44 AM

 I must have missed this post. Never seen it before.

Looks good so far. I really like the scratch building. I think on the first page you said you were going to paint the winter scheme. That should be pretty interesting.

 

  • Member since
    August 2003
  • From: Connecticut, USA
Posted by Nachtflieger on Thursday, July 22, 2010 4:37 AM

Wow, you are really going to town on this one Boyd! Your scratch-building is very impressive. I don't think I would have the patience to add all of the details you are adding. I'm glad to see it progressing , and I look forward to seeing it in person.

Nate

 

 

 

  • Member since
    April 2003
  • From: 41 Degrees 52.4 minutes North; 72 Degrees 7.3 minutes West
Posted by bbrowniii on Wednesday, July 21, 2010 3:25 PM

In the pic (above) that I posted of the actual vehicle, you can also see that there is a grenade pouch mounted to the bulkhead.  There are actually several various pouches mounted on the opposite bulkhead as well.  And there my problems began...  I initially tried to fashion them using tissue paper wet with white glue and water, but was not satisfied.  So then I tried sculpey clay:

First, try to get it flat and thin enough:

Use the kids' playdough cutter to make the basic shape:

And VOILA:

Problem was, I could not get these things anywhere near 1/35th scale.  So it was back to the drawing board and tissue paper.  After a few more attempts, I made a set of about five that I was realtively pleased with, though they are far from perfect:

(Trust me, as bad as that picture is, they don't really look much better in person, but they'll do...)

Then it was time to fashion some periscopes for the boys in back and the driver.  Again, to the styrene and foil:

First, laminate three thin sheets of styrene together, then cut to length and file in an (approximately) 45 degree angle:

Then, cut some foil nice and thin, and put it in the 'Cube' to bend it to roughly assume the shape of an eyepiece:

Mount on a piece of tape and prepare to paint...

So, there you go - you are pretty much up to date on where I am.  I am still really enjoying this project, although the very nature of it results in a two steps forward, one back affair.  It is a challenge to figure out which details to include and then how to make them, but is a also a ton o' fun.

Comments are always appreciated.  Trust me, I got a thick skin.  Be honest...Wink

'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing' - Edmund Burke (1770 ??)

 

  • Member since
    April 2003
  • From: 41 Degrees 52.4 minutes North; 72 Degrees 7.3 minutes West
Posted by bbrowniii on Wednesday, July 21, 2010 3:12 PM

It has been over two months since I have updated this.  Partly because I had a bit of a lull in building at the start of the summer and partly because I just fell behind.  So, here is a pretty big update (sorry for all the pics - I'll try to select a few).  I've basically finished up the details on the interior and am preparing to paint and install everything so I can button it up.

Last time, I had just finished up the driver's area.  Moving into the troop compartment, I knew that I did not want to spend the next five years on this project, so I was not going to do any detailing inside the turret.  Still, since the back hatch will be down, I need to mask that area off to give the impression that a turret basket is there, so away to the styrene I went, cut out a piece of the approximate diameter (a little large actually), dropped it in some boiling water to get it to stay 'round' and, voila, one turret basket:

At the same time, I realized that, if the troop ramp is going to be down, I needed to add the ceiling above it and the walls on either side, as well as the two bulkheads that are visible just behind the turret basket.  On that third pic, you can also see the rifle rack that I fashioned, again with metal foil (one more THANK YOU DUPES, shout out!):

Next, work began on the troop seats.  Just like with the driver, the seats themselves are cut from an aluminum can with a styrene 'cushion'.  The 'mount' for the seats is made from styrene I-bars and squares, ultimately laminated over with sheet styrene because I thought it looked too skinny:

And a test fit:

On the right side (facing aft) bulkhead, is the lever to drop the troop ramp. 

Made that out of metal foil:

More to follow...

 

 

'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing' - Edmund Burke (1770 ??)

 

  • Member since
    February 2004
  • From: Connecticut, East of the River
Posted by tlivancso on Wednesday, May 12, 2010 7:48 PM

Boyd,

Looking very good there, its great to see it all come together. Keep up the great work and sharing the progress pics. Yes

Cheers, Thom

IPMS Member #42958 /  AMPS Member #2091

IPMS Central Connecticut (President)

IPMS Northeast Military Modelers Association (Web Master)

Like Alice "I try to believe in three impossible things before breakfast"

  • Member since
    April 2003
  • From: 41 Degrees 52.4 minutes North; 72 Degrees 7.3 minutes West
Posted by bbrowniii on Wednesday, May 12, 2010 6:38 PM

OK, the last time we left our intrepid adventurer, I believe I was working on the driver's station.  Well, I've pretty much finished up everything for that position:

Other than the instruments, which I believe I posted some in progress pics of already, the seat was the most tricky.  (By the way, before I continue, if you look at that photo, you'll see I put the knife in the pic for scale ref.  As you can probably tell, that instrument panel is a bit oversized.  Two reasons: first, I was eyeballing it, and the ol' Mk I eyeball ain't what it used to be, and two, I don't know that I could have done all the little bits if it was any smaller...)

So, the seat in the Marder looks like:

To roughly approximate that, I started with your standard issue soda can (Ginger Ale for all you rivet counters Stick out tongue).  I drew the basic outline on the can:

Cut it out with scissors and did a 'test fold':

Then, using the tin can as a template, I cut a piece of sheet styrene to shape:

I used my scriber to scribe the folds between the cushions, attached it to the tin, and refolded to shape - you can see the finished product in the first photo.

So that is about where I stand.  I am only a little surprised by how time consuming it can be to make each piece, but it sure is satisfying to work it out...

And, by now, you know the drill - comments of any form are appreciated (well, you can hold off on the 'YOU are a BIG, FAT, DUMMY' - I wouldn't appreciate that one...Wink)

 

'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing' - Edmund Burke (1770 ??)

 

  • Member since
    April 2003
  • From: 41 Degrees 52.4 minutes North; 72 Degrees 7.3 minutes West
Posted by bbrowniii on Saturday, May 8, 2010 3:04 PM

dupes

ALSO glad to see that that sheet metal worked out for you. Good? Bad? Going to try some stuff with it tonight myself.

dupes

I'm sure I'll talk to you long before your archaic internet allows you access back to this thread Devil, but for everyone else - yes that sheet metal worked great.  It is a little thinner than a soda can, so it is a little easier to cut and to bend.  I suspect I'll be using it for a host of various items in the troop compartment!

'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing' - Edmund Burke (1770 ??)

 

  • Member since
    November 2006
  • From: Coastal Maine
Posted by dupes on Saturday, May 8, 2010 1:21 PM

ALSO glad to see that that sheet metal worked out for you. Good? Bad? Going to try some stuff with it tonight myself.

  • Member since
    November 2006
  • From: Coastal Maine
Posted by dupes on Saturday, May 8, 2010 1:20 PM

Egads! Now I know why this didn't get finished for WWII-TW! Surprise

What did you make the lower-left-hand-side knobs from? Is that stretched sprue? I'd like to see this with something next to it to get an idea of scale. Probably MUCH smaller than I think it is.

So if you're planning on going to these lengths, I can see how the Squadron book might help you out a bit still! Going to be a while, eh? Maybe those Trumpy equipment sets will be out by the time you're done with the vehicle part of the build. Yes

  • Member since
    February 2004
  • From: Connecticut, East of the River
Posted by tlivancso on Saturday, May 1, 2010 9:03 AM

Boyd,

The build is looking good my friend keep at it, fun is seeing the bits and pieces come together and start to form something that actually looks like the part your striving for.

Quality in this hobby should be measured in how much you enjoyed what you worked on.

Cheers, Thom

IPMS Member #42958 /  AMPS Member #2091

IPMS Central Connecticut (President)

IPMS Northeast Military Modelers Association (Web Master)

Like Alice "I try to believe in three impossible things before breakfast"

  • Member since
    April 2003
  • From: 41 Degrees 52.4 minutes North; 72 Degrees 7.3 minutes West
Posted by bbrowniii on Saturday, May 1, 2010 7:53 AM

the doog

Holy Odds and Ends, Boyd!

You MODEL too?! lol!

I thought you were just one of those "O&E" scrappers who spent more time in the rhetorical battles then at the bench! lol!

Devil

Yup, in all my copious amounts of free time I actually do spend some time pushing pieces of plastic together!!

Geeked

the doog

Good to see your work going down here---it's looking like you've taken an ambitious bent to it!

Yeah, like I've said, this is really just a creative project for me - seeing what I can recreate solely from bits and pieces of scrap I've been accumulating over the years.  Won't come out 'PE-Quality" but it is definately a lot of fun!

'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing' - Edmund Burke (1770 ??)

 

  • Member since
    January 2007
Posted by the doog on Friday, April 30, 2010 8:52 PM

Holy Odds and Ends, Boyd!

You MODEL too?! lol!

I thought you were just one of those "O&E" scrappers who spent more time in the rhetorical battles then at the bench! lol!

Good to see your work going down here---it's looking like you've taken an ambitious bent to it!

  • Member since
    July 2004
  • From: Sonora Desert
Posted by stikpusher on Friday, April 30, 2010 3:41 PM

bbrowniii

Oh Stik,

Those Trumpy items are PERFECT.  Do you have any idea when the are going to be available?  I looked, but didn't see it - was it there and I just missed it.

Thanks for the links, man!

Boyd

You're very welcome Boyd. The one set of Germans in Afghanistan is already out. The KSK guys are not yet. All the weapon sets were announced recently so my guess is they will be out by late summer to fall.

 

F is for FIRE, That burns down the whole town!

U is for URANIUM... BOMBS!

N is for NO SURVIVORS...

       - Plankton

LSM

 

  • Member since
    April 2003
  • From: 41 Degrees 52.4 minutes North; 72 Degrees 7.3 minutes West
Posted by bbrowniii on Friday, April 30, 2010 3:06 PM

OK, so a real quick update with (gasp) pictures - not real good ones, but they'll do...

So I've been working on the driver's station. 

 One of the challenges with this thing is that the engine actually mounts to the top of the hull rather then the lower hull.  The result is, alot of the work has to be done with the build upside down and backwards.  It makes for a lot of pausing to make sure things are lining up right and test fitting with the lower hull, etc.

Anyways, today I finished up the instruments on the drivers station.  In the Marder Schutzanpanzer the driver only has a steering wheel and a couple of levers in front of him.  All his dials, indicators and switches are on a panel to his left:

I have used an assortment of stretched sprue, bent wire, sheet styrene, sheet metal (thanks Marc!!)  and other bits and pieces to recreate this, as close as possible.  One challenge I initially had was wresting with tiny little bits of streched sprue to get them in place and glued to represent the indicator lights, both on the right side of the panel and along the lower left.  Finally it dawned on me (I'm not the brightest bulb) that all I had to do was drill holes and stick the sprue through to make the process a lot easier:

So here is the finished product minus two things - the row of indicators on the right (5 from top to bottom) and paint:

Any comments are welcome.

EDIT - I just noticed how glaring it is in the pic, but that grab handle on the left is not nearly so bent as it looks.  I'll give it a nudge to straigten it out once all the rough handling is done...

 

 

'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing' - Edmund Burke (1770 ??)

 

  • Member since
    April 2003
  • From: 41 Degrees 52.4 minutes North; 72 Degrees 7.3 minutes West
Posted by bbrowniii on Friday, April 30, 2010 1:11 PM

Oh Stik,

Those Trumpy items are PERFECT.  Do you have any idea when the are going to be available?  I looked, but didn't see it - was it there and I just missed it.

Thanks for the links, man!

Boyd

'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing' - Edmund Burke (1770 ??)

 

  • Member since
    July 2004
  • From: Sonora Desert
Posted by stikpusher on Thursday, April 29, 2010 5:36 PM

Italeri had set of mixed nationality personal weapons, not Dragon. It had M16A1s, AK-47s, FN/FALs, Sterling SMG, UZI w/wood stock, M60 and M2 MGs and a few various pistol types. Dragon's sets are families of weapons, AR-15/M-16, AK-47, AK-74, and MP-5/G3 family. The only mixed sets of modern weapons they did was the Modern Machine Guns and Vietnam War sets.

Here are a few links to the Trumpeter items:

http://www.trumpeter-china.com/war513/products/en_message.asp?id=843

http://www.trumpeter-china.com/war513/products/en_message.asp?id=844

http://www.trumpeter-china.com/war513/products/en_message.asp?id=845

http://www.trumpeter-china.com/war513/products/en_message.asp?id=846

http://www.trumpeter-china.com/war513/products/en_message.asp?id=847

http://www.trumpeter-china.com/war513/products/en_message.asp?id=800

http://www.trumpeter-china.com/war513/products/en_message.asp?id=799

Something in there should work for you...Geeked

 

F is for FIRE, That burns down the whole town!

U is for URANIUM... BOMBS!

N is for NO SURVIVORS...

       - Plankton

LSM

 

  • Member since
    March 2004
  • From: Kincheloe Michigan
Posted by Mikeym_us on Thursday, April 29, 2010 4:29 PM

At one point Dragon had a modern weapons set which had modern Bundeswehr weapons mixed in with other Nato and Soviet Bloc weapons.

On the workbench: Dragon 1/350 scale Ticonderoga class USS BunkerHill 1/720 scale Italeri USS Harry S. Truman 1/72 scale Encore Yak-6

The 71st Tactical Fighter Squadron the only Squadron to get an Air to Air kill and an Air to Ground kill in the same week with only a F-15   http://photobucket.com/albums/v332/Mikeym_us/

  • Member since
    April 2003
  • From: 41 Degrees 52.4 minutes North; 72 Degrees 7.3 minutes West
Posted by bbrowniii on Thursday, April 29, 2010 10:00 AM

tlivancso

You do know now that you have crossed that line there is no cure for AMS it just gets worse Big Smile

Yeah, I'd heard that... somewhere... Geeked

'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing' - Edmund Burke (1770 ??)

 

  • Member since
    April 2003
  • From: 41 Degrees 52.4 minutes North; 72 Degrees 7.3 minutes West
Posted by bbrowniii on Thursday, April 29, 2010 9:59 AM

stikpusher

New  Current German weapons, and some new figure sets for Afghanistan.

I had not seen that, but I will definately be looking!  Thanks Stik!

'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing' - Edmund Burke (1770 ??)

 

  • Member since
    February 2004
  • From: Connecticut, East of the River
Posted by tlivancso on Thursday, April 29, 2010 9:08 AM

Boyd,

Great looking build, love the scratch work that your doing. You do know now that you have crossed that line there is no cure for AMS it just gets worse Big Smile

Cheers,

Thom

IPMS Member #42958 /  AMPS Member #2091

IPMS Central Connecticut (President)

IPMS Northeast Military Modelers Association (Web Master)

Like Alice "I try to believe in three impossible things before breakfast"

  • Member since
    August 2003
  • From: Connecticut, USA
Posted by Nachtflieger on Thursday, April 29, 2010 2:36 AM

Take your time Boyd, it's taken me years to be able to finally take half-way decent pics!Smile So far, the work looks very good. I like all of your scratch building. Keep up the good work!

P.S. Your other pics look fine.

Nate

 

 

 

  • Member since
    July 2004
  • From: Sonora Desert
Posted by stikpusher on Wednesday, April 28, 2010 10:02 PM

Poor photographer? You and me both my friend! BTW, have you seen the new Trumpeter stuff due out or out lately ? New  Current German weapons, and some new figure sets for Afghanistan.

 

F is for FIRE, That burns down the whole town!

U is for URANIUM... BOMBS!

N is for NO SURVIVORS...

       - Plankton

LSM

 

  • Member since
    April 2003
  • From: 41 Degrees 52.4 minutes North; 72 Degrees 7.3 minutes West
Posted by bbrowniii on Wednesday, April 28, 2010 9:37 PM

OK, I've hit a snag.... not with the build, specifically, but with the pictures.  Currently, I am working on the drivers station and, so far, all the improvments I have made are pretty small and using white styrene sheet.  So, when I take a picture of it.... you see a washed out white shape of indefinate origins.  So, please be patient, I'll post some pics as soon as I have something that actually shows up...Geeked

Please don't hate me for being a poor photographer...

'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing' - Edmund Burke (1770 ??)

 

  • Member since
    April 2003
  • From: 41 Degrees 52.4 minutes North; 72 Degrees 7.3 minutes West
Posted by bbrowniii on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 5:56 PM

stikpusher

Post pics!Geeked

I'm workin' on it!  Jeepers, ya slave driver, cut a guy some slack...GeekedAngel

'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing' - Edmund Burke (1770 ??)

 

  • Member since
    June 2009
Posted by Guney on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 5:54 PM

Fine start...Good luck...:)

  • Member since
    July 2004
  • From: Sonora Desert
Posted by stikpusher on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 5:12 PM

Post pics!Geeked

 

F is for FIRE, That burns down the whole town!

U is for URANIUM... BOMBS!

N is for NO SURVIVORS...

       - Plankton

LSM

 

  • Member since
    April 2003
  • From: 41 Degrees 52.4 minutes North; 72 Degrees 7.3 minutes West
Posted by bbrowniii on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 10:06 AM

Hey guys,

I wanted to give this a little bump as I prepare to go back down and put some more time in on this build.  I had set it aside a couple weeks ago as I was prepping some other stuff for ValleyCon, and then got busy at work so had to delay returning to it.  But, I've got a couple of 'quieter' days at work so I hope to spend a few hours at the bench this week.  I'll actually be headed down there as soon as I am done typing this, armed with a pile of reference photos.

Hope to have a real update up soon!

 

'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing' - Edmund Burke (1770 ??)

 

  • Member since
    April 2003
  • From: 41 Degrees 52.4 minutes North; 72 Degrees 7.3 minutes West
Posted by bbrowniii on Wednesday, March 17, 2010 7:22 PM

Thanks for the info, Stik.

Yeah, looking at the pic, it looks like they covered the brown with brushed on white.  It looks like most of the green and black is still there.  I kinda like how the NATO camo base is pretty 'precise' and the white is just slopped on...

'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing' - Edmund Burke (1770 ??)

 

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