'Kampfgruppe Tunesien'* German Armour Diorama with an Fw190 - ##Finished - in the Gallery## 25/12/16

[Sgt.Squarehead]

You might save yourself some work using the method I described here: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235006256-135-italeri-pzkpfwiv-ausff1-update-2108/page-2

Essentially you are turning your indy-links first into L&L and then into QB track modules.....I'd recommend leaving the outer roadwheels off until assembly & painting is complete.

[Miggers]

Not wanting to hi-jack your thread Stix,but as you've asked.

Meet Tiger 213 of 6 Spz Abt:

These pics were taken around 6 years ago.It's had some work since then(mostly internal)such as lower ratio gearboxes,main gun recoil unit,better heatsinking(for the power FET's) and hull stiffeners.

You drive it like an RC car,i.e,forward/reverse/speed control and turret traverse on the left stick while the right stick controls steering

(left/right),a push up elevates and depresses the "88" and a push down initiates the main gun firing sequence(Bang from the sound processor,Flash from the barrel LED,barrel then recoils back and slowly returns from full recoil).The engine deck mounted RC receiver antenna has also been removed,shortened to scale length and refitted beside the turret with an internal antenna restoring the RC "receive"

properties.

The view that no Sherman crew ever wanted to be confronted with:

Edited August 24, 2016 by Miggers

[Miggers]

Forgot to mention Stix,it also has 94 links per track per side and if you look carefully,you can just make out the link pins

on the sides of the tracks.

Edited August 24, 2016 by Miggers

[PlaStix]

Nice progress Stix, your track bashing is looking good.

Cheers Ozzy Yeah I was beginning to get a bit cheesed off with breaking so many but my 'drill & plastic pin' routine is pretty quick to do and it means I haven't lost any links.........yet.

Good recovery with those track pins, nicely done

Thank you Robert. I am quite pleased I had a suitably sized drill and plastic rod!

You might save yourself some work using the method I described here: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235006256-135-italeri-pzkpfwiv-ausff1-update-2108/page-2

Essentially you are turning your indy-links first into L&L and theninto QB track modules.....I'd recommend leaving the outer roadwheels off until assembly & painting is complete.

Thank you Sarge. I had seen your suggestion in Andy's thread and thought it looks good. I'm now about 3/4 of the way done. I have one side's worth completed and have 40(ish) done on the other side so I'm going to stick with what I'm doing at the moment. Thank you for the excellent suggestion though. Now I'm into the routine I seem to be snapping fewer and I'm quite quick at drilling and pinning.

Not wanting to hi-jack your thread Stix,but as you've asked.

Meet Tiger 213 of 6 Spz Abt:

These pics were taken around 6 years ago.It's had some work since then(mostly internal)such as lower ratio gearboxes,main gun recoil unit,better heatsinking(for the power FET's) and hull stiffeners.

You drive it like an RC car,i.e,forward/reverse/speed control and turret traverse on the left stick while the right stick controls steering

(left/right),a push up elevates and depresses the "88" and a push down initiates the main gun firing sequence(Bang from the sound processor,Flash from the barrel LED,barrel then recoils back and slowly returns from full recoil).The engine deck mounted RC receiver antenna has also been removed,shortened to scale length and refitted beside the turret with an internal antenna restoring the RC "receive"

properties.

Forgot to mention Stix,it also has 94 links per track per side and if you look carefully,you can just make out the link pins

on the sides of the tracks.

Hi Miggers. Thank you very much for posting those photos! Your Tiger 1 does look superb!! I am not jealous in the least.......

Thank you for the information too. I will have to see how many links I actually need to get it looking 'right' once the wheels are on.

I'm hoping I will get some work done on this this weekend but it will probably be on Monday because, as I mentioned in my previous post, I'm going to be taking part in the Blitzbuild GB with a 1/72 Tiger 1.

Kind regards,

Stix

[wimbledon99]

Three for the price of one. You're spoiling us Stix!

[PlaStix]

Three for the price of one. You're spoiling us Stix!

Hi Nigel. Is it fairly obvious that I like German Armour?

Only a very minor update from over the last weekend - I spent most of the modelling time on Saturday and Sunday building a 1/72 Zvezda Tiger 1, which only left me a bit of time on Monday that I spent - first filling in the ejection pin marks on the Pz.III's tracks:

.........and then giving all these tracks a couple of thinned coats of Revell's Anthracite:

I did also do some dry-brushing on these tracks with Humbrol's Gunmetal but didn't get chance to take a photograph.

Comments and suggestions welcome.

Kind regards,

Stix

[PlaStix]

This past weekend we've had the Victory Show taking place near our village, about a mile away from where we live. So we've had a Spitfires, Hurricanes, Blenheims, Mustangs and a variety of other aircraft flying overhead.

Over the weekend I managed to get more time on this project but it was mostly spent working on the wheels.........lots of wheels........

First I brush painted the Pz.III's and Tiger's wheels with a couple of thinned coats of Humbrol 93 before giving them a thin wash with Revell's Gunship Grey. Next I added some targeted washes of Revell's Anthracite. Finally I dry-brushed all of them with a lightened version of the base coat -

Wheels, etc. for the Tiger 1- there are two sets of these:

Wheels for the Pz.III - two sets of these too:

On one of the sprues of Pz.III wheels I managed to start getting the tires painted with Revell's Anthracite:

Because I paint everything with good old fashioned flat brushes I tend to get as much of the basic weathering/etc. applied to the wheels and sides of any armour kits I build before doing any assembly of the running gear.

Paint and weathering started on the sides of the lower hull for the Pz.III:

.....and on the lower hull for the Tiger 1:

I did get a weary at times of just working on so many wheels so I occasionally did some assembly on the upper hull of the Pz.III:

I'm hoping that next weekend I will be able to get all the painting and weathering done on these wheels so I can start doing some assembling of the running gear and tracks. I still need to finish the tracks for the Tiger 1.

Comments and suggestions welcome.

Kind regards,

Stix

[Ozzy]

Nice start on the tamiya kits, sounds like a nice distraction you had over the weekend.

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Ah.....You've discovered 'roadwheel-fatigue'.

Another AFV modeller's rite of passage.....I recommend building five Braille Panzer IVs, simultaneously, after that any future projects will seem almost painless!

[GREG DESTEC]

Shaping up nicely Stix. I like the methodical approach to your modelling. I tend to jump about through the construction phase, which almost always leads to mistakes Cheers Greg

[PlaStix]

Nice start on the tamiya kits, sounds like a nice distraction you had over the weekend.

Hi Ozzy. The Tamiya one doesn't have as many wheels! With regards the Victory show we are very lucky to have such an event so close to us. In the past we have also had the Red Arrows, Vulcan and Eurofighter doing displays above our house. Noisy but great!!

Ah.....You've discovered 'roadwheel-fatigue'.

Yup!! Most of the time it's fine but sometimes I get to a point where I just want to glue something together!!

Another AFV modeller's rite of passage.....I recommend building five Braille Panzer IVs, simultaneously, after that any future projects will seem almost painless!

Nope!! Don't think so!! I'll leave that bit of to you Braille experts!! I can imagine the pain without having to or wanting to experience it!

Shaping up nicely Stix. I like the methodical approach to your modelling. I tend to jump about through the construction phase, which almost always leads to mistakes Cheers Greg

Hi Greg and thank you. I think it's more down to thinking how I'm going to have to paint stuff with hairy sticks rather than actually being methodical.....but it seems to work okay. I always think getting this kind of repetitive stage out of the way early is better rather than later.

Can't wait for the weekend!

Kind regards,

Stix

[John_W]

Comming along nicely there.

[PlaStix]

Hi John. Thank you. Yes it is progressing reasonably well and hopefully I'll be able to get all the wheels at least ready for assembly this weekend.

Kind regards,

Stix

[PlaStix]

Yesterday I managed to get all the tires painted!!!! Wahoo!!

Tamiya's Pz.III:

AFV Club's Tiger 1:

The tracks have had some weathering washes applied:

 

....and I added a couple more bits to the upper hull:

I was going to paint the upper hull before attaching it but a test fit showed there's a bit of a gap at the front where the upper hull meets the lower hull. This is going to require some filler before paint can be applied.

More later I hope.

Comments and suggestions welcome.

Kind regards,

Stix

Edited September 15, 2016 by PlaStix

[Ozzy]

Coming along nicely Stix, painting road wheels is not the best job in the world but it looks like your doing them on an industrial scale.

[PlaStix]

Coming along nicely Stix, painting road wheels is not the best job in the world but it looks like your doing them on an industrial scale.

Cheers Ozzy.

It does feel a bit repetitive at times but at least once they're fixed in place there's only final bits of weathering to do on them. I have now got all the wheels attached on the Pz.III and the tracks fitted on one side. The L&L tracks fitted beautifully. I'll try and post some more photos later.

Kind regards,

Stix

[PlaStix]

Yesterday I managed to make a fair bit of progress on this project - mostly on the Pz.III.

First off I finished the weathering I wanted to apply, at this stage, to the sides of the hull and then I started adding the drive sprockets, return rollers and idler wheels:

 

I then added the wheels:

 

I have to say all these fitted really easily:

 

I then added the link and length tracks to one side:

As with the wheels these L&L tracks fitted perfectly - the last piece just dropping into place with now fiddling about.

At this stage I wanted to find out how well the AFV Club Tiger 1's wheels fitted so I had a quick experiment:

They seemed equally as good as the Tamiya ones.

Then I added the link and length tracks to the other side and so here are some photos to show how the Pz.III lower hull looks with both sides of track-work in place:

 

 

 

I'm pretty pleased with them. Tamiya do an excellent job with this style of track.

Finally, yesterday, I started adding more wheels to the Tiger 1. You'll be able to see from the photos that some of these wheels are held on with small screws. Again the fit seems excellent:

 

I might try and find some time during the evenings this week to get the rest of the Tiger's wheels fitted. It would be good to have both tanks at a similar stage next Saturday........of course I still need to finish making up the tracks for the Tiger!

Edit: I meant to say that, if you intend to make this kit at some point, to be aware that the parts numbering in the instructions for attaching the wheels is wrong in places. The diagrams are correct but the numbers make no sense at all in places. Having said that the diagrams are a bit difficult to see too - so take your time!

Comments and suggestions welcome.

Kind regards,

Stix

Edited September 15, 2016 by PlaStix

[Ozzy]

Nice sag,

[PlaStix]

On 9/12/2016 at 6:20 PM, Ozzy said:

Nice sag,

.........oh I see what you mean! Nothing to do with me - all down to the good people at Tamiya.

This evening I decided I wanted to get the tracks for the Tiger completed. Just 50 links needed to be added to one run and then they were done:

 

I had a few more repairs to do where I broke the pins but I got quicker and better with practice.

I also added a few more of the Tiger's wheels to its lower hull but didn't take any photos.

Comments and suggestions welcome.

Kind regards,

Stix

Edited September 15, 2016 by PlaStix

[wimbledon99]

That's a lot of wheels!! They do look good though

[John_W]

The Tamiya Pz III does build nice, even I couldn't fail.

[PlaStix]

On 9/13/2016 at 0:21 PM, wimbledon99 said:

That's a lot of wheels!! They do look good though

There certainly are!! Thank you.

On 9/13/2016 at 8:42 PM, John_W said:

The Tamiya Pz III does build nice, even I couldn't fail

That looks excellent John! Very well done. Are there any more photos or a WIP of it on Britmodeller anywhere?

I added another couple of rows of wheels on the Tiger yesterday evening:

 

Not many more wheels to go!

Comments and suggestions welcome.

Kind regards,

Stix

Edited September 15, 2016 by PlaStix

[John_W]

That looks excellent John! Very well done. Are there any more photos or a WIP of it on Britmodeller anywhere?

No WIP, on this one, and that is the best of the photos. I was a bit of an experiment in weathering. I used Games Workshop washes, highlight dry brushing and then grey, silver and 2B pencils to simulate paint wear and bare metal. Came out quite well, but the Tamiya 1/48 are a joy to build. Except for painting tyres of course.

I like the weight the metal hull gives them, they do sit nicely.

[PlaStix]

No WIP, on this one, and that is the best of the photos. I was a bit of an experiment in weathering. I used Games Workshop washes, highlight dry brushing and then grey, silver and 2B pencils to simulate paint wear and bare metal. Came out quite well, but the Tamiya 1/48 are a joy to build. Except for painting tyres of course.

I like the weight the metal hull gives them, they do sit nicely.

Hi John. No problem - just thought I'd ask. It's always useful to see other people builds of something I'm making - I often learn a lot - especially from such good builds as yours - the weathering experiment really did pay off! It looks superb!

Kind regards,

Stix

[Ozzy]

Nice progress Stix, your tracks are looking good how many links are there on a run?