Just getting caught up Bill. Lovin that camo. You've got the colors down perfect, as with your previous DAK vehicles. Gonna be going with a similar camo on my PZ IV....if I ever get to it.

Looking good as usual Bill.

What's this.....a Friday preview!! Ready to roll

Rounds Complete!!

Small update to post, I spent some time working on the lower hull and suspension. I detailed the springs with MM non-buffing Metalizer Gunmetal and followed that up with a wash of enamel Rust and also added some light scuffing/wear to the hull elements and road wheels. I used a round 00 brush and stippled some enamel Burnt Umber to simulate wear and then installed the road wheels and return rollers to both sides.

Work continues on the remaining exterior details particularly all the tools and gear for the compartment sides.

Andy, very true! It was hard for me to believe that 10 days had passed between updates but there you go. Will try to prevent that again for the short term at least!

Karl, thanks for the comments as always! Everyone tends to think of desert camo as being monotone and the N. Africa environment as being sand dunes ala the Sahara...when the reality is far different. Take the famous shot of an Me109 for example and you can see that there's advantage to having a "shadow" type of camo that breaks up the color tones into lighter and darker shades.

Tony, I'll take the three and try not to disappoint for the rest!

Mike, thanks as well, getting the exterior painted is always a major hurdle to clear towards the end.

Ernest, that's the trouble with GBs, they suck you in and then take over your life! Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Tropen schemes always add some variety to the mix...this is the 2nd vehicle I've done with the first Tropen scheme, the other was the Pz III G recently published by FSM.  

Dang it Bill!!  I've been so busy completing some builds for group builds I'm in that  I nearly missed this build of yours!!   This is a very interesting and not so common vehicle and you're doing your usual bang-up job on it!  I like how you went with the DAK Tropen scheme, very unusual and I can't wait to see the final results! 

Ahhh...the smell of paint.....looking good

Rounds Complete!!

Oh yeah Bill the paint job looks good dude

Just three stars the other two will be awarded when you're finished, maybe

Tony lee

WOW, that's a weird color scheme, Bill. Pretty unusual, It should give some additional variety to your display cabinet!

D-I-G the camo work!  No worries... at least today is not Sunday.

This one sat a little bit longer than I expected it to between updates but it's time to post the next round of progress.

I used small strips of blue painter's tape to mask off the interior and protect it while I finished the rest of the paint work on the exterior. I laid down an airbrushed primer coat of MM Italian Dark Brown over the unpainted surfaces from before and followed that up with the base coat of MM Afrika Grunbraun to complete the RAL 8000 base paint scheme.

At the same time, I did the paint work for the wheels and return rollers. Same primer coat treatment as the hull followed by an airbrushed application of MM Gunmetal (enamel paint, not the Metalizer) for the rubber portions. I used a circle template to mask off the rubber rims and airbrushed the RAL 8000 for the hubs. The wheels were mounted on wooden toothpicks with small amounts of blue tack poster putty to make it easier to handle them during the painting process.

The wheels were set off to the side to dry and work continued on the hull with the application of the disruptive Tropen camo scheme commonly used in N. Africa at the end of 1941 when the Bisons were shipped over. I used MM Afrika Khakibraun (Testors' version of RAL 7008) to create a disruptive pattern covering roughly 1/3 of the vehicle.

The masking tape was removed and the only spot that will need a little touch up are the tops of the MP40s, otherwise the interior was well protected.

Next up will be getting the road wheels installed and working on the exterior details.

Could be Andy, could be! I think it's more attributable to the green shoots of Spring starting to appear more than anything else though.

Looking great there!  Have you noticed this?  More you post others are doing the same.  It has something to do with Business Law?  

Thanks Sprue! I took my Business Law final for my MBA program on Thursday and now have a 6 week break until my classes resume so should be able to devote some serious time to this one in the next week to get it completed.

Excellent progress on a detailed kit.

Thanks Johan, in the spirit of "equal opportunity" for monitors everywhere...I've added just a touch of black artist pastels to the breech and recoil rails to tone things down a quarter notch.

Bill,
Just shifted to a different screen with a slightly different colour pallet and would like to suggest some graphite on the breach and the gun sled.
Might change with your weathering approach or the next time I change screen :)

Very Best Regards
Johan 

The gun looks like the piece Bill, the Pz.II undercarriage is coming along nicely and the fighting compartment is very convincing.
Just so good to follow your build as usual!

Thanks
Johan

Gamera, the Germans certainly didn't place much of a premium on crew comfort that's for sure! Crewing this beast must have been a nightmare.

Eric, thanks for stopping by and for the comments!

Nice to see you progressing Bill. Getting better by the day.

Bill: She's looking great! Keep the updates coming

BTW: I too am impressed by the size of the fighting compartment- guess you had to be a skinny guy to crew a Bison...

Andy, you're working off an old copy of the TV Guide...my time slot for updates now is variable and no longer tied to Sundays! I'm finishing up my current MBA class (Business law...always a fun topic!) and then get a 6 week break due to already having credit for the next class in the program...so you might see a temporary spike in posting/output over the month of March as a result.

Mike, always glad to get your input on the details! The series of photos that I posted for the gun were "auto corrected" for lighting and color (something I virtually never do with photos) because I was struggling getting the details to show up properly once the gun was built and detailed on my monitor. The correction "brightened" the photos and made some things (like the breech) appear shinier than they really are and also made some things (like the gun sight) appear darker. Go figure.

The details "in hand" matches what you describe, a dark aluminum color and not chrome for the breech and metallic highlights/wear from the dry brusing on the gun sight. DML molded the top facing aperture on the sight extremely tiny for some reason and, while a clear part that would make it possible to show the reflective detail you mention, I was unable to keep the aperture clear when I painted the rest of the sight and that was lost. The eyepiece on German sights has a rubber cup and its drilled out with a spot of silver on the inside but only visible from a specific angle that I didn't capture in the photos (probably drilled the eyepiece a little too deep!). I am going to go back and detail a couple of the knobs on the sight now that I've had a chance to do some research, nice catch.

On the recoil slides, I weathered theem the same way I do bare metal contact surfaces for road wheels and such and wanted a dull appearance. My build isn't going into a dio or including a crew so it's conceivable that the gun hasn't been fired for a while, hence the look I went with.

 Tread, I think Mike's obsession is a manifestation of the little boy in all of us that is fascinated with things that "go boom". That and the fact that he's an engineer...talk about your "explosive" combination! I always appreciate yours (and his) comments!

Mike does have a thing about cannons, Bill  :  )

tread

HOLY EXCREMENT.....Cats and Dogs living together......Blizzards in Florida........Bill doing back to back updates.......what is this world coming to  

Now for my .....

The inside of the breech is a bit too shiny for me. It looks almost chrome..... IMO a dark aluminum or steel. Now with that bright metallic....the panoramic telescope, the top facing froward is a mirror and should be silvered. There also should be an eyepiece which could also be silvered. It appears all black but you could show some wear on the knobs with steel.

Lastly the recoil slides should also be a steel or dark aluminum color.....they look like a mix of steel and a bit of rust. They would only rust if the gun had not been fired for a while.

OK.....that's my 2 cents.......beat me with a stick..... I will say it is up to the usual outstanding Bill workmanship..... I can't help myself.....I have this thing about cannons!!

Rounds Complete!!

GREAT WIP!  I definitely will discard my DML instructions and use your blog instead.  Looking forward to your next update... on Wednesday, right?  Not Sunday as normally scheduled?

Thanks Tony...bob and weave!

That a boy Tex watch out for those right hooks and low blows Dragon always throws.

Good Work Bud

Tony lee

Work has been steady since the last update focusing on the exterior details. I went back through the instructions paying particular attention to Steps 7, 11, and 14 and adding things that I'd skipped over before. The rear deck received the ammo and storage boxes and the intake doors were added in the open position. I also modified the antenna mount using only the base from the kit supplied antenna and drilled it out with a #74 finger drill to take an RB Models brass antenna later on. Instead of the kit-supplied 3-part tool clamp for the wire cutters, I used a Grifon 2-part clamp instead.

Trickiest part of the exterior was the jerry can racks. There aren't any locater guides provided so these were placed using the instruction diagrams as a guide and working from the rear of the hull forward. I used Gator Grip glue instead of CA to allow some work time and flexibility in placing them. After the racks were in place, I added the belt straps with CA gel.

The rear hull also received some details in the form of the mud guards and lights from Step 8 and the lifting hooks from Step 10 that I'd overlooked previously.

I also assembled the jerry cans from Step 12 and have to warn other builders that DML has done their usual trick with the jerry can parts in terms of the PE design not matching the actual kit parts that are provided. The PE parts and instruction diagram show the can halves with three mount pins that the PE part is supposed to fit neatly over as it also has three holes provided. The reality is that the halves only have two pins and neither of them will line up with the PE part...so to assemble the cans, you have to remove the bottom pin completely and eyeball the placement of the PE insert. Normally this is the result of DML just reusing available parts from a previous kit and throwing them in but in this case the PE fret was designed specifically for the Bison II so why they didn't design the PE parts to fit correctly is a bit of a mystery.

I also cleaned up the fighting compartment tarp frame supports as those will be painted separately and installed after the exterior is painted. This will allow me to mask off the interior and protect it from over spray.

Next up will be the remaining exterior paint work and applying the camo pattern.

Thanks Rob! The painting stages on this one are in fits and starts because of the open interior and the wierd front hull arrangements. I may have to do some additional painting on the rear hull and intakes as well before I fit the large box and intake covers but not 100% sure of that just yet.

Tony, I'm happy to be done with the furniture moving on this one for sure...SPGs are fund to work on as you know because of the interior details that are visible but the laws of physics certainly place some limitations on the assembly!

All that office needs is a good lookin secretary and a Remington typewriter Tex.

Real fine work

Tony lee

Hey Bill, up to your usual high standards eh. Been waiting to see the painting stage of this build. Keep it coming, looks great so far.