Catch up with PART EIGHT here

Well we’re on target for getting a primer coat on by the weekend, let’s hope the weather holds. The engine bay has been painted and installed. It was painted in a cartoon style with heavy highlights which has paid off as now that it is installed the view through the grilles clearly shows the fan outlines plus enough variation in the engine side to give the appearance that was desired, that being it looks enough like an engine without being detailed enough to see that it has been made from scraps and painted in five minutes.

I’m now working around filling in all the little areas of zimmerit, I just need to finish off the glacis and vision block plate which I’ll do tomorrow. I’m doing these areas using Mr. Surfacer as it allows you to get into small, tight areas with a brush. I find the best way is to apply one coat and let it dry, then two more thicker coats and when those are close to dry add the indentations in the same manner as with the clay. Once that’s done hopefully Friday I’ll get a primer coat on which will allow me to pick out any areas that ned addressing prior to a base coat.

The commander figure has also been 90% completed. His coat has been resculpted around the arms, the belt detail picked out and the shhepskin seams added. He’s had an undercoat which allows me to pick out rough areas that need a bit of a sanding touch-up ( and also highlighted the fact that I completely overlooked the mould seams on the Stg.43 ). Which now is no longer an Stg.43 but has been backdated to an Mkb.42, the prototype predecessor to the Stg.43/MP43 that went to field trials in Novemebr 1942 with 11,000 odd being combat tested throughout early 1943.

And this is where me being me I got sidetracked. I didn’t lie the plastic ammo box I was going to use as stowage so I decided to build my own out of basswood strips ( for those who have never used it it is far superior to balsa as it doesn’t fur up and it has its own grain ). Much research later and I ended up building four early style and one late style crate. As the late style allows the shells to show I had to actually build the complete crate and the shells do actually fit. I still have to add hinges and latches but I’ll do that after I’ve stained them.

And that’s where a simple build that got complicated got even more off track. I didn’t like the look of all the crates stacked onto the small ammount of engine deck left exposed by the schurzen so I came up with the brilliant plan of adding a trailer ( the diorama I have planned is a group of vehicles in a scene during the retreat after Korsun ). I wanted to go with something that encapsulated the feeling of a unit in retreat carrying everything they can in whatever way they can so I’ve used one of the Masterbox hay wagons which I will modify to have a tow ring and to which I will add an assortment of fuel drums, ammo crates, jerry cans, ammo tins, personal gear etc. The photos just show me playing aroundwith stowage ideas.

So that’s where it’s at. All going to plan primer on Friday. Then it’s just the painting while I work on the wagon and the figures and then eventually the diorama base which is envisioned as a group of vehicles waiting at a partly destroyed wooden bridge across a waterway with a lot of snow and ice.

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DIY Zimmerit, Pzkpfw IV ausf G with zimmerit

Catch up with PART SEVEN here

So here we are at the end of the week and is it primed yet ? In a word no. Not quite. But I’m almost there. Spent the week adding zimmerit to the hull sides and scratchbuilding replacement schurzen as the ones that come in the kit were just way too thick. Also spent time doing more stuff I knew I should have done right back at the beginning when I said I wasn’t going to get too carried away with the detailing but knew I probably would anyway.

The kit schurzen is 2mm thick which would be 70mm IRL, not the correct 5mm, so just re-cut each panel from o.25mm plasticard sheet. I did originally place all the hangers using the academy part as a template only to discover most of them just didn’t line up properly so ended up redoing them all one by one to get the positions right. I’ve decided to add a little damage to the front right so left off two panels and damaged the third. The idea is to replicate mine damage so I’m replacing the two frontmost right side roadwheels with ones with later style hubcaps, removed one schurzen fender mount and buckled the fender, then twisted the rail.

The aerial has been added, though I need to get the curve out of it yet, and the tracks are assembled. The idler can be removed as can the road wheels and return rollers so the tracks will be added at the end and painted/weathered as separate pieces until they need to go on. As I had plenty of links left over I’m going to add several sections of tracks to the glacis as additional armoured based on several photos of vehicles drapped in extra track lengths. As such I didn’t worry overly much about the central zimmerit panels and will finish the zimmerit on the glacis and drivers vision plate once the two halves are together ( have to get the engine painted and installed before I can do that ).

I also redid the spare roadwheel stowage bin to be an Ausf.G style, remade out of .25mm plasticard to represent the sheet metal with the folded lip. I’m going to stow a bunch of jerrycans along the side of the rear deck as well as an ammo box on the right side and an oil can tied to the schurzen mount. The can was redone to add the handle and the helical twist of the cap lid. This needs topping off with a blob of Mr. Surfacer to finish it off. Likewise the jerrycans need Mr. Surfacer added to represent the weld seam where the handles join the body.

So still just a few little things left to do. Mainly getting the engine painted and installed so I can join the two halves and add the final zimmerit. More cleaning up and at the moment I’m redoing a fuel cap to add on the rear deck as well as the two on the left side of the hull in case I decide to leave off one of the left side schurzen panels. The commander has his hand and weapon removed while I resculpt his body as otherwise it just gets in the way. There’s still a few rivets to add, a few to sand down and the towbar to deal with too.

And when all that is done weather permitting we’ll finally get it primed. Which will then just lead to finding all the areas that need touching up. So be prepared to check back in again at the end of next week when hopefully it will at least all be one colour for a short time, because once those last few rivets are done, and the towbar and fuel filler caps are done I don’t think there’s any more alterations to be done.

DIY Zimmerit, Pzkpfw IV ausf G with zimmerit

Catch up with PART SIX here

Just a quick photo update. Got the hull zimmerit finished and have now started assembling the Academy link and length tracks. Don’t you just love cleaning those up. 200 odd links with about 40 down. I’m doing a single run for the bottom on each side then I’ll do a section to go up over each sproket, then I’ll dry fit all the running gear and glue a length across the return rollers, around the idler and back down to the bottom length all in one hit. That way once it’s set I can pull the running gear back off and be left with a single fixed track for each side.

I built a basic, rudimentary engine bay using a photo as a reference and just rough fitting bits of scrap wood and plastic bits to ressemble the engine ( as well as two fans from the Tamiya sprues ). Next to no detail can be seen through the grilles but when this is installed you can see enough to see that there is something in there and once it’s painted a mix of black, red/brown and white it should look the part for anyone who looks down through the grills.

The hatch pad is finished and textured, the latches are in place and the vision port is fitted, though with the figure in place all you can really see is the lower half of this, and only then by really trying. But it’s there. A few more rivets have been added, mainly for the turret schurzen, and the zimmerit has been finished on the rear plate.

I’m going to add zimmerit to the hull sides and I still have to do the glacis and the drivers plate. I’ll do the drivers plate the same way I did the hull sides and rear plate, but for the sides and the glacis I’ll share a little tip with you. For small ( or difficult to work in ) spaces where you want to add zimmerit then using DAS modelling clay has another advantage. If you roll the clay out thinly onto a shiney surface you can add the zimmerit detail to it as a sheet, and then when it is dry it is easy to cut up into small sections with a sharp knife and these can then just be glued to the model. In the photo here you can see a square piece and some smaller strips which are being used to do the transmission inspection and access hatches on the glacis.

Speaking of using a shiney surface, one thing I did forget to mention earlier on when I started adding the zimmerit is that to get the DAS to adhere to the sides the plastic needs to be roughed up with coarse sandpaper and/or scoring with a knife blade. But if any of it comes loose just glue it back on like a veneer. Use a clean, shiney flat surface to roll the clay out onto and when it’s dry it will lift off quite easily.

So now I’ve started on the clean-up and resculpting the parts of the figure that need doing interspersed with doing the track links to stop from getting too bored doing them. The hope is to have it all ready for a primer coat by the end of the week.

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DIY Zimmerit, Pzkpfw IV ausf G with zimmerit

Catch up with PART FIVE here

I just realised that I haven’t posted an update on this. Lost a couple of days to doing things like the bi-monthly GST return and then ran out of glue ( it’s a half hour drive to the nearest hobby shop ). I have to admit that I’ve got no more zimmerit added as I may have got bogged down in adding little details after I spent time on the schurzen.

Ah the schurzen. Academy obviously never built one of these kits as the schurzen quite simply will not fit if you try to assemble it as shown. I had to completely rebuild the front two hull mounts and reconfigure several of the rest so that the rails could be mounted straight and parallel to the hull. All of the mounts got thinned down by at least 50% and they still look overscale to me. The side rails were cut down lengthwise and had a new section added to give them more of an ‘L’ profile. It took quite a bit of time just doing all the schurzen mounts and rails, but it’s done. Well, I still have to do the side skirts which will be separated, thinned and some minor damage added but the worst is over with.

I’ve sorted out the commander figure. He’ll sit a little further back into the cupola than shown so that the fur coat he is wearing is bunched up around the cupola ring. I’ve started adding filler so now have to rescuplt, sand, refill, resand, etc till I’m happy with him, including redoing the hand holding the Stg.43 so that it grips better and adding binoculars. I realised that there will be a 5-6mm gap in front of him so I scratchbuilt a vision port to go there. It won’t be easy to see but it’s there for the truely anal ( aka “me” ). I’ll paint the interior of the cupola and add a vision block ( with clear blocks for all the rest ) after everything else is done.

I may have got sidetracked adding tool clamps, redoing the headlight and firextinguisher ( that had to be resized and relocated to allow the schurzen mount to be fitted ), adding the headlight cable, cupola hatch latches, the rear cable mount hooks, and lots of rivets and bolt heads. I also detailed the jack block, added details to the tool mounts, added internal latches and hinge detail to the schurzen, and scratchbuilt two ‘S’ shaped Ausf. D-G style cable hooks ( the Ausf.H and J had the ‘W’ shaped ones ) and their mounts for beside the fire extinguisher. All that took up a lot of my time.

I was donated a metal and brass 7.5cm L48 Armorscale barrel suited to a May production Ausf.G ( thanks again to Andrew ) so I’ll be adding that, but for now the gun is lose as I find it easier to remove it when handling the turret. I was going to change the MG34 barrel but finally found a good clear photo showing it to be the armoured version so added the groove to the existing one instead.

Other than that I added the hubcaps to the roadwheels, built the early Ausf.G style sprocket and idler from the Tamiya sprues and built the Ausf.G style aerial which I will leave off till painting time. I discovered that the schurzen mows down the aerial but reference photos still show it in that position with schurzen so I’ll leave it there. Photos did show that it is often in a 40 degree forward angle and many of them look like they’ve been bent several times. Not surprising really.

So that’s what the last week was spent on. Still to go is the rest of the zimmerit obviously, some bolt and rivet detail on the final drive housings, the left side turret shurzen, the side skirts, the commander figure, and a lot of clean up of excess glue and filler. I’m tossing up on adding a row of jerrycans to the front of the turret roof as per a photo I have. I may just assemble them and then sit them on there for a few days till I decide if I like them there or not. Last to do will be the tracks for which I’m going to use just a set of the Academy individual link Pz.Kpfw.IV links with a bit of cleanup added.

So hopefully by the end of this week I’ll be ready to move on to painting, then it’s just waiting for the right weather.

DIY Zimmerit, Pzkpfw IV ausf G with zimmerit

Catch up with PART FOUR here

Time for an update. With the weekend devoted to the kids I only got a little done in the evenings. The wheels are finished bar the hubcaps. Being Tamiya and newer they weren’t a direct swap out for the kit parts so had to be drilled out to fit and I did that by hand leaving me with a lovely blister. The right side fenders are also finished with the little springs added. I know I said I wasn’t going to get too much into detailing but it’s amazing how it sneaks up on you. “I’ll just add this” leads to “I better change that too” and suddenly you find yourself at “I better rebuild all that”. I did resist the urge to add a RB Model metal barrel though. Yay me.

The turret has received most of the attention the last few days. The side door fit is shocking and resulted in one whole side of each pair having to be totally rebuilt to fit. I had to fill in the over sized hole, cut away the hinges and rebuild new ones. It would have been a little easier if I hadn’t decided to glue the hinge part into the inside of the turret last week when I put the turret together. If I hadn’t done that I probaly could have just repositioned them where they needed to be then filled in behind them ( there’s a tip for anyone building this kit ). But now they look more like they should, including the handle.

The cupola also got added and the stowage box got detailed with the lid lip added, reinforcing strips and rivets added, and two hasp and staples added, one with a padlock added as well. I had to fill in the mounting holes on the back of the turret though as they were way to deep so filled them in, sanded them back and then added pieces of evergreen strips with weldbeads around the edges for the bin mounts to attach to.

The aerial mount has been added. I had to build one from scratch to represent the rubber mount. There’s still a lot of tidying up to do but I’ll wait till I have the shurzen mounts on and then I can finish off all the weld beads and then do the final tidy up. The zimmerit on the mantlet needs a bit of clean up around the vision port cover and the mg and I might redo the top edge where it’s not as defined as I would have liked.

The plan tomorrow is to get the lower hull zimmerit finished so I can then join the top and bottom and move on to the shurzen. Then I can give it an undercoat and deal to any areas that the undercoat highlights as needing attention.

Academy Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf.G, DIY Zimmerit

Catch up with PART THREE here

The keen of eye will have noticed a subtle change in the title of this build log. Today I was lucky enough to have someone ( thanks to Andrew ) donate me a set of running gear from the newer Tamiya Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf.H kit to use the return rollers from. As well as the return rollers these sprues also held the correct earlier style hubcaps and a set of Ausf.G sprockets. So this helped me to overcome one of the main drawbacks of the Academy kit, that being that it comes with the older style final-drive housings used on the Ausf.D-G rather than the larger, reinforced ones used on the Ausf.H and Ausf.J.

I had originally planned to get around this by doing it as a very early production model, as a few dozen of the very first Ausf.H were built with Ausf.G final-drive housings. But now I have decided instead to backdate the kit to a final production Ausf.G ( May 1943 ). There isn’t a huge ammount of difference other than the final-drive housing, but to make if more of the Ausf.G I’ve decided to relocate the aerial to the front right for use with the aerial trough as this was one of the last things changed on the Ausf.G before it was redesignated as the Ausf.H. I could have left it on the left rear as the last Ausf.G had it there, but I felt it gives the tank a more genuine Ausf.G look with it on the right front.

I’ll keep the pre-filter air intakes as they were added to the Ausf.G in April and May of ’43 ( and because I had already glued them on ). The cupola is still fine as the single hatch Ausf.H style cupola was introduced on the Ausf.G in March ’43, as was the L48 gun, but I’m going to lose the AA ring and MG34 even though some Ausf.Gs were retrofitted with these later on. As I’m setting this in February ’44 I won’t be adding the smoke dischargers as these were removed in May ’43 and I’ll of course be using the Ausf.G sprocket, early hubcaps and rubber tyred return rollers. I’ll also keep the shurzen as this was added to the AUsf.G in October ’43 when the Ausf.H got the newer style as well.

So now we will have a final production ( May 1943 ) Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf.G which will be set in February 1944 with it’s shurzen upgrade, field applied zimmerit, and a whitewashed finish.

These photos were taken early today and actually represent where I was at by the end of yesterday. Today was spent redoing the other fender and doing some work on the turret ( filling the AA ring holes and redoing the weld beads ). The gun mantlet is made, ready for zimmerit, and I’ve added most of the tools, including a scratchbuilt crowbar which the Academy kit was missing. I’ve also added the fender springs, the fender hinge pins and straps to the exhaust and the muffler for the auxilliary electrical generator. And spent way too long on cleaning up mould seams, filling and sanding. But I’m getting there. Tomorrow’s plans are to finish the cleanup and do some more of the zimmerit.

Academy Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf.H, DIY Zimmerit

Catch up with PART TWO here

A little bit of progress today, and then a slight dilemma. I’ve added zimmerit to the hull tub on one side and tidied up the rear. Light was fading so I’ve only grabbed a couple of photos and have completed the tidy up since these were taken.

The method used to add zimmerit to the hull tub is very simple, in this case using white DAS self hardening modelling clay which is available from The Warehouse art and craft section for around $10 a block and you use maybe 10 cents worth per side ( I use white instead of brown as it contrasts more with the plastic colour which helps in cleanup ). Moisten it with water, spread it on with a small trowel ( I use a wide screwdriver head plus a couple of plasticard strips for the hard to get spots ). Keep it moist as you add it till the whole side is covered.

Once it’s all covered let it start to dry off and use a small jewellers screwdriver ( I used a 4mm wide one ) to add the ridges. I’m going for a field applied look so wider, heavier ridges than facrory applied, mainly as it’s quicker as a factory applied finish is tidier, more consistant and has more, finer, ridges closer together – but also looks more boring. So it’s a simple case of starting at one side and working top to bottom pushing the tip of the screwdriver into the putty. The trick is to not push it in perpendicular, but more of a 45 degree upward motion that creates the ridges. ( The photo has been darkened to bring out the detail ).

Leave the clay to dry completely then using small chisels, a sharp knife, and a very short bristled stiff brush you can clean it up. Remove areas not needed with the knife and chisels ( sharpened small screwdrivers work too ) and the brush for cleaning off around rivets, bolt heads, and just surfaces where you got it but don’t want it. The light outside went before I could get photos of the cleanup or the finished rear end so I’ll put those up tomorrow.

And now the dilemma.

The intention was to model a July 1943 production Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf.H in February 1944, a pre-factory zimmerit version that has had field applied zimmerit added. The Academy kit makes a good July 1943 version as it includes the side vision ports which were dropped in June but still appeared on June and July production versions as existing stock was used up. The zusatzpanzer additional 30mm armour plates that were bolted on were dropped in June also in favour of single piece 80mm plate, which fits with the Academy kit also.

The shurzen rails in the kit are the October 1943 onward style but that’s not a problem as many were updated to replace the older style which got damaged too easily when plates were knocked off. The kit also has the pre-October ’43 welded idlers, so all good so far for a July production version.

But then we hit a wee snag. The Academy kit has the cast return rollers introduced in October ’43 together with the cast idlers. So short of trying to explain it away as having had new return rollers added I really should replace the kit rollers with the earlier rubber tyred rollers. Or at least several of them. The dumb part is once the thing is together and the shurzen is on you won’t see them and most people wouldn’t even know. But I will. So I suspect I’ll be spending a day filling in the cast rollers to be able to make them into rubber tyred ones. Damn AMS.

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Academy Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf.H, DIY Zimmerit

Catch up with PART ONE here

Well I know I said I wasn’t going to get carried away but I ended up spending several hours today just reshaping one front fender, thinning one side and filling lots of holes. Cleaning up the suspension took a while too. So I’m already a day behind schedule and I haven’t done the other side yet. So tomorrow I’ll get that done, get the hull top onto the tub and get the bits and pieces onto the upper hull that won’t get in the way of adding the zimmereit. Then I should be able to start adding zimmerit to the hull tub on Thursday.

A couple of progress shots ( keep in mind that there’s still a lot of final sanding to do and a bit of clean-up, but I’ll do all that once a base coat is on so I can see exactly what needs touching up ).

The redone front fender versus the original fenders ( I’ve added some light bends and dents, nothing too over the top ).

The thinned down side fender versus the original side fender. Holes are filled and a small dent added to the side.

Hull tub with the suspension added. The panels are just random panels to cover the holes in the bottom. They shouldn’t be seen anyway but are there just as insurance.

The reworked gap between the engine hatches and the rear plate.

The rear plate with a quick application of zimmerit using putty and the smallest Tamiya zimmerit applicator. As most of this won’t be seen once the exhaust etc is added this area was done by sumply using the applicator to trowel on the putty by scooping a little up then dragging the applicator across the surface on a 30 degree angle leaving the ridged putty. The areas marked in yellow need to be cleaned off to attach parts, or in the case of the bottom one to redo as a seperate part to distinguish the access hatch and its bolts from the surrounding areas.

Academy Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf.H, DIY Zimmerit

After many delays and other things I needed to deal with I finally got around to starting this one today. I’ll be using the Academy Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf.H as the base kit and adding zimmerit using a mix of modelling clay and putty together with mini-trowels and the Tamiya Zimmerit applicators. I have lose plans to finish it in white wash as a 2nd SS Panzer Divison “Das Reich” vehicle on the Eastern Front in early 1944.

Spent several hours on this today but so far I’ve mainly only just got through the clean-up of the lower tub and some additions to the upper hull. There were a lot of seam lines to remove and a lot of injector sinkholes to fill, as well as having to fill in the open sponsons. I also had to build up the rear plate with some evergreen strip to reduce the gap between the rear plate and the engine deck hatches as it was around 1mm wide as is which was way too wide. The scored marks on the rear plate are location lines for the fittings like the exhaust that I’ll leave off till after the zimmerit is added.

I’m trying to be restrained and limiting myself to just cleanups and minor improvements. It’s hard, I really want to go detail happy on it but it’s such a basic kit I’d end up spending months just adding and altering details and I want to get zimmerit on this week so I’ve resisted the urge to buy a set of Griffon fenders and a set of Tristar running gear and will just use the kit parts and sharpen them up a bit. The emphasis afterall is on the zimmerit. It still needs cleaning up to improve the fit of the hull top and bottom, to redo the insides of the front fenders to get rid of the old-style overlap and boxing in of the engine grilles to eliminate the see through aspect.

So this is where we were at when I figured I’d better grab some photos before the natural light failed. Since the photos were taken I’ve cleaned up and added the suspension arms and a few other hull fittings, and filled all the gaps with putty. Tomorrow I should be able to get all that sanded back and get everything ready for the first applications of zimmerit on Wednesday. I’ll be using modelling clay for the tub sides and putty for the rear plate, mainly as the tub sides are large, flat and clear so a good surface to work on, where-as the rear plate needs getting into a few tight areas so is more suited to the faster drying putty and assorted Tamiya Zimmerit applicators.

Academy Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf.H, DIY Zimmerit

With the weather interferring with my plans to add oil washes to the three kits I’m currently working on I’ve entered into a small modelling funk. So what better way to break the funk than to start something new. So here we go with something I’ve been planning to do for a while, a field modified Afrikakorp Opel Blitz 120mm Mortar Truck which will be set in Tunisia in 1943.

The base kit will be the Italeri Opel Blitz. I chose this partly as I had several of them in the stash and partly as I will be redoing quite a bit of it anyway so the base kit didn’t have to be flash. This will have the engine side panels removed as well as the cab doors, windscreen and roof. The rear bed will be replaced with a rebuilt flat deck with a reinforced section and mounting frames to take the mortar base. I’m still debating whether or not I will add treadplate to the deck.

The wheels will be replaced with resin ones which will also backdate them to the early type and an Eduard PE set will be used to add all the cab detailing, under deck detailing etc. Plus Bison decals as I’m thinking of making this a Ramcke vehicle but haven’t made a final decision on that and might still go with a standard DAK vehicle.

The mortar crew won’t be used except for a few parts as I’ll be doing DAK figures for it, but the ammo trailers will be used, along with some additional mortar rounds that I’ll need to scratchbuild. I’m also thinking of adding on an MG34 as an anti-aircraft gun. Possibly two on a dual mount, depending where they get put.

I also need to add a radio and crew seating. For the seating I’m going to make ammo stowage lockers along the front behind the cab and on the back corners which will have hinged lids doubling as seating. The radio will either be mounted in the centre of the cab’s bench seat or on the back of the cab. I’ll decide on that once I have the main framework done and I can see which looks best.

Most of the work will be in converting and detailing the cab and engine, the deck should be pretty straight forward and the mortar will just need a little better detailing. The crew will be decided on towards the end though I do have a rough plan for them in mind. It’s the school holidays so I don’t expect this to take off with a hiss and a roar, but rather to come together slowly over the next few weeks as I get the time to work on it in between entertaining children.

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Afrikakorp Opel Blitz 120mm Mortar Truck

This a complete strip down and rebuild of a Tamiya M21 Mortar Carrier that I got in a boxlot of old models I came across on TradeMe. I’ve replaced a lot of broken parts, rebuilt the suspention, detailed the mortar, detailed the M2 Browning .50 cal MG, redone the winch, replaced the bootman loops, opened up the empty morttar shell stowage holes, and added stowage boxes to the rear door. The stars were painted on using an airbrush and a template, mainly as very little of them will be seen once the stowage is on. There are no vehicle ID numbers as these were removed by the crews when in action. I’ve also built a crew and a lot of stowage for it but none of that will go on till after the painting is finished. Right now it’s had the base coats and preshading done, now it’s waiting for good weather to do a coat of Future before I do the washes and filters.

military models nz, tamiya M21 mortar carrier

CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE IMAGES

You can read Part 1 HERE.

You can read Part 2 HERE.

Well the next stage is complete. I’ve added the engine and added a bunch of pipes and wires as well as a battery frame to add detail to the engine bay. Not much of this is going to be seen but I decided to add as much as I could so that what will be seen lends itself to the overall effect. I couldn’t find much in the way of reference photos for the Sd.Kfz 251 other than one with the engine and front end removed so I’ve based the wiring on that and added a few pipes based on the internals of a few trucks.

I also had to rebuild the bottom of the body to house the new engine so boxed it in and added the bolt heads. I also fixed the steering in the position I want it and filled all the holes. I didn’t get too fussy on the underside as I don’t think any of it is going to be seen on the finished diorama but I figured it was better to do it anyway just to be on the safe side.

So that’s it for Part 3. Next up is to add some Mr. Surfacer to the areas of the engine that will be rusted then get an undercoat on the engine bay and interior so I can fine tune any areas that need tidying up.

Tamiya Sdkfz 251

CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE IMAGES.

You can read Part 1 HERE.

Well I said I was going to build this out of the box with only minor scratchbuilding, but god help my little OCD addiction I just couldn’t do it. The lack of interior detail in the Tamiya kit was just too much to live with. I also had the interior from a Revell Sd.Kfz 251 Ausf. B left over from a conversion so it seemed a crime to not use it.

Not that I ended up using that much, mainly just the seat bases, the stowage bins, side bracing and the front seats.

I also had a full and quite detailed engine left over from the Revell kit so I decided to open up the engine hatches on the Tamiya kit. So far I’ve cut away the moulded hatches and rebuilt the inner lip framework. Later on I’ll build new hatches from evergreen sheet as well as detailing the engine bay, installing the engine and adding a battery frame ( as I’m planning to depict this vehicle stripped of everything that could be carried away the battery will be missing ).

The desire to show it stripped also dictated the need for mounting straps rather than equipment inside so using evergreen strips I’ve added the straps for the gas mask canister beside the driver, the MP40s that would normally be mounted either side of the drivers compartment, the MP40 mag pouch and the ammo bags in the rear corners.

I’ve also built a frame for the radio in front of the right hand fron seat, the stowage point for the spare armoured glass blocks and the frame that holds the butts of the four stowed rifles in each forward stowage bin. The front part of the rifle racks are from the Revell kit and I’ve just realised I need to add the retaining bar and clip on each.

I had to add detail to the steering wheel and change the angle from the Tamiya version but I didn’t bother getting too carried away as little of this area will be showing once done.

I decided to go with the horsehair filled, leather upholstered seats rather than the wooden ones so that I can give them a heavily tattered look in keeping with the overall long abandoned look. For this they were all reupholstered in soft paper so that I could add age creases, cracks and rips. The larger rips will later have fine hairs cut from a sable brush added to represent the horsehair stuffing poking through. The seat bases are from the Revell kit with the hinges detailed with stretched sprue bits.

I’ll be using the rear doors from the Revell kit so I’ve removed all the mouldings for mounting the Tamiya doors, opened up the rear opening so that it’s closer to how it should be ( the Tamiya opening was both too narrow and not deep enough, leaving a large lip above the floor ). I’ve also thinned down all areas where the edges will be showing to get a more scale thickness and removed the tabs on the top half of the Tamiya kit that are used to line it up with the bottom as they aren’t there on the real thing.

The next stage will be to detail the interior walls of the top half and build up the engine and an engine bay. Then I’ll need to paint that as well as the interior before moving on to the exterior. So my quick and easy build has become a little more detailed, but what can I say, I’m anal.

tamiya sdkfz 251 hanomag

This is another work in progress that I shall be posting up progress photos of.

This one is part of a diorama of a forward command post of a unit from the Herman Goering Division in Sicily prior to the Allied landings. The vehicle will portray a kubelwagen that has been evacuated from Tunisia just prior to the capitulation of German forces there in 1943 and as such will still carry it’s DAK paint job though heavily worn. It is set up as a scout vehicle with the roof, roof frame and windscreen removed to lighten it and allow better use of the weapons mounted.

The base vehicle is an Italeri Kubelwagen with extensive scratchbuilt detailing - open the doors, add door handles, add MG34 and mount, add MG 42, ammo belt and mount, add petrol cap retainer, add rear jerrycan stowage frames, redo the seats to show torn seat upholstery, add the gas tank, addweapons catches to the cross bar, add exhaust pipes, and annimate the wfront wheels into a slight turn.

I’ve used the standard tyres instead of the desert ballon tyres as these would have been more suitable to the rocky terrain in Sicily. It still has stowage to be added, mainly the jerry cans and weapons and ammo in the rear. There will also be a crew of three though only one will be seated in it on the rear deck, the other two will be outside the vehicle.

It currently has the primary colours basecoats and from here will be weathered and worn, washed, drybrushed and pigmented so I will post photos of each stage as I progress.

herman goering division sicily, italeri kubelwagen

Over the next month I will be building a small diorama and posting photos of the work in progress along the way.

This diorama will feature the Tamiya Sd.Kfz 251/1 Ausf. C, an older kit that I am planning to build out of the box as much as possible with only minor scratchbuilding. I will also be using the arab on a donkey figure from the new Masterbox “AfrikaKorp : German Tankmen”. The Tamiya figures in the 251 kit won’t be used, nor will the DAK tank crew from the Masterbox kit.

The diorama will depict a long abandoned Afrika Kops Sd.Kfz 251 that has been left to be reclaimed by the desert after being lost in an earlier battle. The figure on the donkey will be off to one edge portraying a passing nomad looking over the half consumed wreck. Half consumed as I plan to display the vehicle as being slowly consumed by a sanddrift over time.

So check in from time to time to see how this progresses.

Masterbox afrikakorps german tankmen, Tamiya Sdkfz 251