Dragon Aufklarungspanzer 38t mit 2cm **Completed 3/2**

Paint work looks great as do the tires.

Hey Eric, it has been awhile eh? LOL, as I recall I used the engine and interior, plus track from a Hetzer kit, plus etched tool box and etched tools etc.

Liking all the brass work there Eric.

Thanks everyone for taking the time to look!!

Moving this one right along, after a fairly long paint session today while it snowed outside (thank goodness for a heated basement!!) I have the preliminary camo down. There is still much touchup to do with overspray in places but overall I think I am pleased with how it came out.

A little help from some low tac poster putty

The on with the camo

On a side note,  I seriously thinking about switching to enamels. I have the roughest time with tip drying and build up with acrylics.

Thanks for stopping in!

Very nicely done, I've always struggled with masking.  What brand and colors were used?

Thanks ps1scw! The dark yellow and brown is from Tamiya and the green is Vallejo I believe. I will say that the Tamiya line of acrylics spray a thousand times better than the Vallejo green did. That being said, the Tamiya paints still had a bad tendency to dry on the tip and would also eventually start to spit off what seem to be dried paint.

The camo looks great, Eric! I would strongly recommend you to stay with acrylics though--enamels may spray nicely, but they have a host of factors that make them unattractive for armor, in my opinion. The first being that they have to "gas out" to be truly "dry". In fact, in auto modeling, enamels are all but abandoned for that reason. The you have the need to seal them before you can start weathering. That's one more layer of detail-occluding "paint".

If you're having drying problems,you either haven't thinned the paint enough or you're using too low air pressure. You'll get drying problems on the tip every time with that. Especially if you're spraying in the dry air of a heated basement. Try upping both, or either of those.

Now be fair Doog...you're really going to trot out the 'obscures detail' argument when it comes to working with enamels? You've seen what I produce using strictly enamels and unless you're laying on super thick coats, we're talking a difference of microns here in terms of finish thickness when applied properly. Can't argue with your other points though!

Very nice work on the camo pattern Eric, love where this one's heading.

Thanks Bill and Karl! I am still teetering on the edge as far as enamel/acrylic at the moment. Going to keep at the acrylics and see if I can get my technique down.....hopefully......soon!

A bit more work done. Got the exhaust properly textured using liquid cement and a stiff brush to stiple it while it was wet. Pretty happy with its finish

Then on to the road wheels, sprocket and idler. After using my handy dandy circle template, which I wouldnt give a million bucks for, the centers were painted dark yellow. Afterwards a fairly heavy wash of raw umber was slathered all over the rim.

Once it was dry, a q-tip moistened with thinner removed the excess leaving some in the cracks and crevices. Also after making sure that contact was made, the edge of the rim was carefully painted a dull metallic color along with the sprocket and idler.

And lastly for the day, some touching up on some overspray and once done a whole vehicle wash with a dark yellow oil concoction to tone the camo down a bit.

Will do some finer pin washing for the bolt heads, screws, and panel lines another day. I did however start the track runs and so far have gotten 2 runs of 96 links laid down on some low tac masking tape. Hopefully the next session will see them glued and formed around the road wheels.

Thanks for taking a gander. Comments and constructive criticism always welcomed!!!

wbill76

Now be fair Doog...you're really going to trot out the 'obscures detail' argument when it comes to working with enamels? You've seen what I produce using strictly enamels and unless you're laying on super thick coats, we're talking a difference of microns here in terms of finish thickness when applied properly. Can't argue with your other points though!

Very nice work on the camo pattern Eric, love where this one's heading.

You know, I sat here and thought about that, and you're absolutely correct in this sense--in modeling armor, the difference is really minimal. Given that, I retract that warning about "occluding details".   I should explain.

One of the things  that I learned when I "went out to the garage" for a few months building car models was that the enamels of my youth had been generally discarded by today's Auto modeling crowd, because of the nature of painting cars in enamel finishes. When you would apply enamels to a car body, you'd always apply it in several layers--three coats or so, then sand-then add more coats, in order to build up a deep finish and ye be able to still sand it to a mirror shine and have enough paint on the body to not break through to the plastic or primer. Now this technique of layering on enamel coat after enamel coat did indeed occlude details--especially things like body engravings and car scripts that were finely molded. You often see older models and "built"  car models offered for sale on eBay that you can see have thick enamel paint coats--and the details are just buried in it.

So this is the station from where my train of thought always starts out when I think of enamels. But of course, in armor modeling, that's not the case.My brain is just being lazy. And of course, the proof of the pudding is in work as fine as yours. No one could argue against your results.

Eric,

That looks great! The silver rims on the wheels and the muffler colors are perfect, and the weathering is looking sweet already!

The track thing looks like it's working out for you too!

Karl

Eric

Dang that is really nice Jester!!  Great camo, mufflers and wheels!!  Can't wait to see more!

Not much to report so far this week. Done some pin washing, detail painting, and drybrushing on the hull so not much new there. I did paint, was, weather the spare tracks and get them mounted but I forgot to get pics. Will post some next time.

On another note, the road wheels/suspension on this kit has to be the worst fitting ones I have ever seen. Sooooo much slop between the mounting pins and the hub on the back of the road wheel that its going to be a pain to make sure they are all aligned properly. I did get one set of magic tracks on using Karls toot as a guide.

Overall it wasnt bad at all but would have been tons easier with a decent fitting suspension system. I wonder if all Dragon 38(t)'s fit like this? Not sure if anyone is planning on building this one or any other Dragon 38t, and it may be different for each depending on how much sag you want, but I used 92 links per here. Kit destructions call for 96 but the amount of slack would have been atrocious.

So she is now resting flat and drying. Will try and get the otherside mounted tomorrow and be ready for paint and weathering by the end of the week.......I hope!

Eric,

Those tracks look good to me!

Hey, didja ever think of just gluing a small piece of thin styrene strip inside of the wheel hub and then using a "interference fit" type of mounting to the post? I've done that in the past and it works fine when I come up on a kit that has sloppy wheels. Just stick an .010 piece of styrene strip inside the wheel hub as you're gluing it to the post, and then trim it off from behind after it dries.

Excellent idea doog, thanks for the tip!! Will try it out tonight when fitting the other side tracks.

The wheels look great Eric, as does the camo. What do you use for the metallic?

Thanks Eric!! My local Hobby Lobby actually started carrying some Vallejo paints so I picked up their Gunmetal and Oily Metal. I used the Gunmetal on the wheels and plan on using it on the tracks as well. They brush on very well, and dry brush better than any acrylic I have ever used.

Sorry Eric, forgot about this one. Lovely work, i like the camo. I swear by enamels, but of course they have their own down side's.

Looking REALLY nice, Jester!

How tough were those tiny Nagic Tracks to assemble? I've got a Marder II in the stash and those tiny tracks look scary!

Thanks Bish and Winetanker!! Actually, if you follow doogs toot on magic tracks, they go together really really easy! The hardest part is forming them around the suspension but even that isnt that hard at all.

Here is a link to his tutorial for when you need it. Bookmark it for sure!!

doogs track tutorial

Welp, tracks are done and installed along with road-wheels, idlers, and return rollers. After assembling these magic tracks this way and finishing them, its going to be hard to see the justification for a/m tracks sets if the kit has Magic Tracks!! I forgot the markings earlier in the build so went ahead and applied them. The kit markings are rather boring I think due to a lack of info on this specific vehicle but I did find several sites referencing Großdeutschland receiving about 20 of these vehicles in April of '44 so I added the helmet to the rear of the vehicle in the most obvious place I thought it would go. Not happy with how the pics turned out but oh well. Must get the camera fixed!!!

Next up, securing the already painted tools to the fenders and the etch anti-grenade screens. Actually going to have some quite nice gaps to fill with the way Dragon made the screens. Hopefully by that time my RB KwK38 barrel will be in and I can get the guns mounted. Still planning on some slight chipping as well but probably nothing crazy.

LOVE IT, Eric---the GD helmet on the rear looks proper. Good call on that!

I have to say, your tracks and wheels look excellent all around. You've covered all the bases with them--bare rims, worn guide horns, sprocket contact points, etc---spot on!

Thanks doog!! I am pretty happy with how the tracks turned out!

On another note, finsihed the anit-grenade screens after much CA and dissolved putty to fill those silly gaps in the folds.....thanks Dragon! Went ahead and added just a little bit of chipping here and there, but not a whole lot. I believe this one is done till the RB barrel gets here which will hopefully be Monday or Tuesday. After that is on with the guns and the star antenna.

Maybe you gents can help me figure something out. Since this vehicle is part of GD and let say its sometime during April/May '44, where could it have been fighting?? I really want to try and put it on some type of small base and would like it to be somewhat accurate as to where it was located. Much thanks for stopping in!

This is looking great. Agree with doog about the GD insignia.

Acording to my referance, in April the unit was on the Romanian border and was in action at a place called Jassy. In May, most of the unit was re-equipped, which would suggest it was pulled out of the line.

It's good to see you back. 

That finish is sheer "Perfection".

Really good work. 

Nice job on those grenade screens Eric. The RB barrel will add a nice bit of detail to this one for sure.

Well the barrel finally arrived from Poland today so I set off to attach it to the kit gun. After assembling the barrel I noticed a disturbing difference in the length when compared to the kit barrel

After doing some research, I found on Perth a review that measured up the kit barrel to the actual barrel and stated that Dragon's was 3 mm too long. Considering that its about 3.5 mm longer than the RB barrel, I was more than happy to deal with the difference and roll with it.

After whacking off the kit barrel, drilling, and gluing this is how it looks on the kit.

Primed both the main gun and the MG42 and painted them both with Alclad II Gunmetal. A little bit of Vallejo gunmetal dry-brushing and they were set. Looking at what few pictures there are of this vehicle, the guns look like they have a satin finish and are very clean so that's  how I will depict these.

In the home stretch now. A few more things to do here and there, then the star antenna. Still contemplating a small 5x7ish base for this one.

Thanks for looking! All comments are welcomed!!

Jester, that is lookin sweeeet!!  The RB barrel is a great addition!

Superb job on the tracks Eric. That barrel makes a world of difference.