Dragon 1/35 Maus

Sweet!

Hope you do a WIP thread about your Maus!

Will wrote:

Trust me its sweet but not for the price and tommorow ill start the thread

How much did you pay??

Will wrote:

Im sorta new to armor but have built tamiya tanks. I payed 53 bucks

Whoa and that's an older kit too.

It doesn't give you the color to paint them.

Will wrote:

It doesn't give you the color to paint them.

Will wrote:

What would be a good scheme and for the scheme on the box its main color is middlestone but I can't find that color anywhere.  So I'll be using a different scheme.

It is the standard dark yellow w/ red-brown and green three toned scheme...I bought one of these when they first came out (1995?) when DML was just begining to rock the modeling world...I'd say that it holds up very well considering it is almost a 15 year old kit...I remember the welds and other detail was pretty good...I know you get a LOT of styrene in that box...but I would say that you probably spent a little much for it...

lexesbenz wrote:

Are there any aftermarkets tracks for this kit?

I've had this kit for years and not been able to find any AM tacks. Only AM stuff i could find was an Eduard PE set and a judio barrel for the 128mm.

Bish wrote:

lexesbenz wrote: Are there any aftermarkets tracks for this kit? I've had this kit for years and not been able to find any AM tacks. Only AM stuff i could find was an Eduard PE set and a judio barrel for the 128mm.

Could some one tell me what color is middlestone.

Will wrote:

Could some one tell me what color is middlestone.

Yes, I know this tank wouldn't have really been in the field long, and may not have had the time to sun-bleach, but still, the large slab sides of the hull and turret would "grab" light and make the color appear much lighter. Paint the other two camo (green and red brown) colors straight from the bottle, and then do a light overspray of the same lightened DY base coat to fade them appropriately.

Oddly enough, Gunze's Middle Stone (H71) appears (to me anyway) to be darker and browner than Tamiya's Dark Yellow. 

Gunze's own Dark Yellow (H403) is almost identical in shade to Middle Stone, and, I believe, was a later addition to the paint line and may not have been available when the kit first hit the market, hence the Middle Stone paint reference. Again, it's significantly darker than Tamiya's Dark Yellow and, as Karl suggests above, should be lightened.  

Karl - I find lightening Tamiya Dark Yellow with white can be a little stark - I have found a warmer effect mixing Dark Yellow about 1:1 with Deck Tan.  

I have used the middlestone color on my last two builds.  Rammtiger, King Tiger 101st.  I have to hae found that it was way to dark.  What I have done is spray the other colors on and then lightly sprayed sandy yellow (79).  This has both lighten up the dark yellow, blended the colors and given the vehicle a faded look.

hope this helps a little.

Rob Thanks for that link, i have never heard of Atelier, might try to get hold of those parts. I have the eduard and judio sets he has there. But as for Verlinden, i have been put after useing the verlinden sets on my Tiger I. And i ain't having the engine decks open anyway.

There are a few other issues with this kit. The gun mantlet has been simplified. It is missing several facets. These can be seen by comparing photos or even the box art to the kit part. I corrected the problem on mine by simply sanding the facets into the kit part, or you can replace the part with a AM resin replacement from Artisian Mori.

The front edge of the hull side has been faceted along the weld seam, this is not correct. It can be easily fixed with a piece of styrene stock.

The rotating periscope in front of the commander's hatch should be removed, filled and a weld bead added. This feature was present on the original drawings but not included on the finial vehicle.

The turret pistol ports are too large, in the wrong location and are lacking a plug.

There several other small details to be added as well.

Will wrote:

I'm going to do it as a what if and oob.

Thats the good thing with these kits, you can do what the hell you want. Even though two where built, they were hardly in full production, so who knows how it would have looked given a few months.