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So this is where things are right now. The first photo above shows all the major assemblies put together and the tracks added. I’ve added a couple of spare road wheel mounts on the front and I also had to replace the end of the jack handle which I managed to snap off and feed to the carpet monster somehow. I Still don’t know how I did it, I just noticed that at some point it had gone.

The tarp over the fighting compartment is now on. I couldn’t find a photo of one of these in place no matter how hard I looked so this is best guess based on a Hummel one and the location of the tie down loops. I decided to add a couple of little tears in it to give it a little character though I haven’t yet decided how I’ll paint those. You can also now see why I didn’t bother with a metal barrel as I’ve added a muzzle bag.

The only other tweaks to the kit is adding a small piece of chain to the tow pin and scratchbuilt mounts for the sighting poles. The latter is because this will be on a diorama in a scene where it is set up for action so the poles would be set out rather than still on the vehicle.

Speaking of the diorama the reason for the tarp and the muzzle bag are because I’m hoping to put this into a setting where it is raining heavily. I’m not one hundred percent decided on exactly how I’ll pull that off other than having pools of water in the tarp, a small area with water pouring out, and rivulets running down the side of the vehicle. The ground will also get pools of water and everything will get a “wet look”.

But that’s further down the track, for now the next stage is to get the base paint on so I can do the camo and then start on the various weathering stages. So check back in about a week and I’ll throw up another update once the base colour and the camo is on.

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Righty-ho, time to get back to some plastic and glue and I decided to pick up this one which was started a wee while back so this will just be a short intro to the build and I’ll get back in a few days with where things are being picked up from and where they are headed next.

This is Tamiya’s Sd.Kfz.124 Wespe Self Propelled 10.5cm gun and it’s actually quite a nice little kit. It’ll be a very simple build as I’m only going to swap the rubber band kit tracks for some Dragon Pz.Kpfw.II magic tracks and add a minimum of detailing. I also don’t need to do the interior as this will be getting covered with a tarp due to the diorama that is planned for it.

So these are the major assemblies. I’ve built it with the wheels and tracks in place as a number of photos I’ve found of Wespe’s show what appears to be the camo paint job applied over everything so I’ll be doing that and then doing the paint worn back on the tracks and tyres as needed. So far all I’ve added here to the base kit is wiring conduit for the headlamp, a bit of Mr. Surfacer to the exhaust pipe and muffler, and better latches to the tool clamps. There was however a lot of tedious clean up of mould lines from the road wheels and suspension arms.

That’s it, short and sweet, but mainly just to kick this off. The Wespe build itself should be a short easy build, the figures and base may take a bit longer.

Catch Up With Part 18 : HERE

click images to enlarge ( opens in new window )

And that’s pretty much it. I just need to fine tune the final dusting of pigments to remove some of the excess and then that’s all she wrote, time to move on to something new.

The name plate 

A couple of close ups.

A few playing around shots. Sepia, B&W and an early morning shot showing how it should look at the time of day in which it is set.

And all the rest.

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