TeaWeasel

Thanks guys

I considered it, but had the following thoughts: The main hatch on top of the storage is glued shut, would look a bit odd having removed a shell then closing it afterwards. This was a bit of a necessity as gluing that hatch shut was the best way of getting the other panels nice and square. There isn't a figure operating the crane. The best setup I can get of the figures is them milling around, not loading the gun. Maybe I'm focusing too much on the realism here?

That did cross my mind but was a bit reluctant to spend yet more on this project. The string's pretty firmly attached so I doubt I'd be able to remove it cleanly. 14 Days Remaining... So I've been blitzing along with this, can confidently say I'm past the half-way point, and pretty close to a point where I can step back and consider it done. The base has received some additional highlights with Tamiya Buff, same goes for the grass to make it less cartoon-ish. The Panzer it nearly complete. I used the same post-shading techniques as on the Gerat, although I haven't got round to much of the weathering. The shells were simply primed brown, then given a good coat of AK Real Colour green, the shade I originally was going to use for the Gerat camo. The metal shells have flaked a bit so a second coat might be needed. On another note did the shells have any additional detail, serial numbers, etc? They look a bit too plain for my tastes at the moment. The track weathering was just a variety of Ammo colours from their Thick Mud range. I found the products a bit disappointing, as even when given a really good shake and stir, they just seem too thick, the liquid is a bit too solid to really get any good use out of. I ended up mixing it with some leftover Smart Mud and this really helped even out the consistency a bit. Needed a coat of varnish to seal it however as the resulting mix was still soft to the touch even when left overnight. The same mix was used on the Gerat tracks, although these were burnished first. On the Gerat itself, I took a crack at chipping, and wasn't that happy with it. I get they were specialised pieces of kit so wouldn't have been too worn and battered, but my attempts at chipping were pretty awful. I think the shades were a bit off, so it just ended up looking like tiny specks and splodges of brown. I did however use AK's Light Dust shade to give the impression of dust. It's a similar shade to the Buff on the ground which helps tie them together. And just to get a rough idea here's how it look now. I've added a few figures, none glued in yet, just to get some ideas on setting the scene. Still quite a few bits to go, including a bit of veneer that split (hence the tape on the black edge), but fingers crossed I could have this done by the end of next week. Cheers, Joe

Looks awesome so far, must be an absolute monster when completed.

Here's hoping EC get the new rumoured Codex *fingers crossed* Cheers, it's a bit annoying I bought some AK paints I'm unlikely to use, but the headache I saved by giving up on the camo is worth it. Best to use a hosting site like Flickr. It's free and pretty easy to use.

Thanks very much, the veneer proved to be a bugger as I'll explain but some good progress made. Cheers I know the feeling, got a World Eaters army lying unpainted on my desk along with 5 Greater Daemons to finish. Thanks for the info on the cabling, the instructions provided in the kit are dreadful, and that's an overstatement. The link was a great help. So, its April 11th, I have 22 days to finish this project. Made quite a bit of progress despite a rather big setback. So I had in mind to paint the Gerat and Panzer in the typical German yellow/green/brown camo, like on the box. Started pretty well, put down a layer of AK Dunkelgelb, then a small highlight then the camo in green and brown, both again from AK's Real Colours. Just wasn't happy with it in the slightest. I initially tried a bit of pinwashing on the walkways before realising it just looked awful. It's the actual camo shapes that threw me off. I can't find any colour photos of the real thing's camo, and several models I saw had really different styles, some with these long blobs, others with smaller sausages etc. I quickly gave up and just decided to go for German Grey. Quick visit to Jadlam and I bought 3 pots of Tamiya German Grey and some Buff for highlighting. The Panzer is nearly complete, just a few little bits here and there to attach. The crane cable proved to be the most difficult part of the entire project. Trumpeter's instructions proved to be less useful than bog-roll in this case; no indication of the cable layout and photoetch parts that the cable has to be threaded through despite the instructions stating otherwise. The cable is pretty fuzzy, thinking I might run some dilute PVA over it to smooth it out. I've also made a start on the figures. I have a plan in my head for most of the figures, but as they were meant for the Krupp K5 there are a couple which I can't find a use for. With that in mind I picked this up for cheap: Overall the quality is about the same, but the scale is a bit off, some of them are noticeably shorter than the K5 figures. I gave the zenithal/glazing technique a go. I tried this a while back and couldn't get it right, this was a bit more successful on the overalls, but the flesh and lighter shirts were just painted and washed with Citadels. Now, onto the base. The veneer at the rear proved to be a poor fit, I simply applied another layer and used a glue-gun for a much better result. Night Shift seemed to have no trouble using double-sided tape but I wouldn't recommend it at all. Use a glue-gun, will save you hours of hassle. The Humbrol smart-mud worked fine, I then just scattered some debris I picked up from a local shop, and used a cheap static grass applicator I picked up off Amazon to add some patches here and there. Covered in dilute PVA, I left it for a day or two to fully solidify. Onto painting. The whole base was primed in black, then XF-52 Flat Earth provided a nice base. I then added a mix with 25% Buff for a highlight, followed with 50% Buff. The grass was airbrushed XF-5 Green, with similar ratios of Yellow added while the edge was given a decent coat of the same black primer. Here's the progress so far, nothing attached yet. My immediate plans are to use some washes on the base to accentuate the detail, as well as a light airbrush of Buff on the grass to help it blend in a bit better, looks a bit cartoonish at the moment. The German Grey definitely looks better, hopefully I'll have time today to add the first layer of highlights. Cheers, Joe

So, bit of a roundup. My plan when starting out this project was to have the Gerat and Carrier as a diorama. There's a show coming up in Eastbourne in July in which I entered my first IPMS competition last year, and took home my first two awards (a Gold and a Silver), so I thought "why not have the diorama ready for the next one?". Turns out next one is on our wedding anniversary, and I'll be on a trip in Wales...so I saw another show close by in almost exactly a months' time, and I thought "let's go for it!". This means I have one month to finish the carrier, paint both it and the Gerat, and get the diorama done...time will tell if I've bitten off too much here. Luckily however this update is full of positives. The Gerat is now finished. The last few bits have been attached, with the exception of the exhausts which I'll get to. She's received a basecoat of Mr Hobby Mahogany spray. Decided to use a brown primer to better complement the Dunklegelb I'll be using later on. Here's a quick size-comparison with a King Tiger which is still unfinished in itself 😐 The exhausts were just confusing. The sprues included two long exhausts which span approx. half the length of the chassis, as well as a couple of 90-degree joints. First issue is the joins are easily missed; it was only when doing a final check of the sprue before throwing it out that I noticed them. Second issue is they're not mentioned *anywhere* on the instructions until the final completed diagram. Not a single mention, it's weird. Third issue is they simply don't fit as they should. The corner joints and exhausts simply don't line up right; to assemble it as you would imagine would leave the exhaust simply suspended a half-inch below the footplates. After looking over some completed examples I just decided to leave them off. Have made some cracking progress with the shell-carrier. The final parts were attached to the fenders, overall very fiddly for little returns but I'm over the hump with this kit I'm happy to say. The cassion was next, the other hatch was attached and the mounting brackets were fiddly to say the least. I thought it wise to just attach it to the chassis straight away, otherwise I run the risk of the brackets being glued out of alignment. The crane was a very substantial build, with very small parts requiring a lot of care while cleaning up. The cable drum was a very poor fit and required a lot of sanding before I got a nice smooth motion. I also drilled a couple of small holes for the cable just to make the task of threading it a bit easier. As for the cable itself I can't make out the layout from the instructions, is there a guide somewhere I can look at? And here we have the carrier so far, big improvement on the last update. Now, the diorama. I had quite a few resources from a previous 40k resin-pour project that went horribly wrong, so starting wasn't too difficult. Luckily I had a day off work that I forgot about, so after a quick trip to the shop I had everything I needed to start. I took a spare bit of poly foam, and cut around 1" off one end, mainly just so it'd fit in my display cabinet. I then applied Humbrol Smart Mud (which is just VMS Smart Mud at 2/3 the price) with a trowel, scattered some small gravel then let it set. I used a scrap bit of foam to add a small hill, maybe have a figure standing there or just to add some elevation variation, then glued 0.5mm veneer with PVA glue to the edges. I've heard others using double-sided tape for the edging, which turned out to be useless as it just peels away after an hour or so. Even Gorilla glue didn't want to work, so just settled on a £2 pot of PVA from Tescos. Here's the results of around 2 hours' work. The back edge still needs a veneer, and the edges themselves need filling, but I think if I can keep it up I definitely have a chance of completing this within a month. Cheers all, comments and motivation welcome 👍 Joe

Cheers, it's a bit of a happy accident

Happy Easter everyone! I took a bit of a break on this one, to be honest I forgot this was still unfinished. I was really unhappy with how the snow effect turned out and that just killed my momentum in this one until now. I had another go with the snow effect, the main issue being the snow lost nearly all of its colour as it dried. It's worse than the photos show, with some areas looking like dried PVA, not a good look. This time I added some Vallejo white paint in with the snow beforehand and it looks a lot better. Definitely looks more like snow now. You'll also notice some extra crates on the fender; I was wondering how to make the SMK look more "lived-in", and I thought "What would a Soviet tank have?", first thing that came to mind was "A crate of vodka". I picked up these from Miniart, and while the crates are pretty horrible to assemble they do look the part. Last little touches here and there, the turret MGs received a coat of NATO Black, then a light coating of graphite. Cheers all, comments welcome. Joe

Progressed some more on the shell-carrier, this time filling out the various tools and gubbins along the side skirts. These went together no problem, but Trumpeter have included another sprue with some slightly better tools, see comparison below: The upper one is the default, the lower is this additional one. The quality is obviously better but you can see it's shorter, so wouldn't line up with the mounting holes, which isn't an issue as it doesn't even have mounting pegs. No idea why these were included or why they're that different. First panels of the cassion and doors are now attached. These went together better than I expected. Getting the right angles was a bit tricky, best way was to glue the two folded panels on the left together, then attach them to the next one with the struts provided. While all that was drying I took a look at the figures included with the Gerat. They're not the best I've seen but they're definitely not the worst, pretty nice little addition there. Does anyone know any good guides for painting figures of this scale? Until now I've only painted 40k which allows for far more artistic licence, these may be much trickier. Cheers, Joe

Most of the marks will be visible if you want the cassion open, that's the main issue 🤔

Cheers, the Pz IV's definitely tarnished my view of Trumpeter, up until now never had a dud kit from them. Thanks Not much progress on the Gerat as it's almost complete! Weekend was spent prepping the last few pieces, then subsequently looking for a piece dropped during the last England game in the Six Nations. Only found it this afternoon. Bit of a weird background, trying to get the hang of all the new features on my new phone. As far as I'm aware all that's left is a couple of small brackets on the gun cradle, and the ladder/tools for the driver's end, then priming can begin! The shell-carrier continues to irk me however. Trumpeter have kindly supplied some very nice PE frames if you want to go down that route, but the instructions are a let-down once again. Here's what we're presented with when it comes to the side skirts: The sentence at the top "please cut along this position"...the pieces have no indication or guides as to where the cut is needed. While it's a bit obvious from the context you can very easily mess it up. For some reason they have you attach a metal spring with tacks to the inner face, and for an even stranger reason they tell you to cut the tack in half instead of just drilling a hole. I had a go at bending the PE to create the hinges, realised life was too short for this and just reattached the bits I'd cut away. Altogether not that bad if I do say so myself. Another closeup of the tack/spring combo: Looks a bit oversized, and still no idea why Trumpeter went down this route. Looking ahead to the shell compartment, and they never fail to disappoint. Every single spot is an ejector mark that's been filled with VMS Black. Normally I'm not too fussed about ejector marks, particularly on aircraft where they're deep within the fuselage, but these were just godawful. Proper ejector-craters, that'll be very visible on the final product. Looks like a good amount of sanding ahead. Cheers all, comments welcomed. Joe

Fantastic weathering, and I agree the blue tarp really stands out.

Thanks very much, I'd definitely recommend the Gerat for anyone interested in this era. The Farhgestell (which from now on I'll just call the shell-carrier for my own sanity) however is proving to be more taxing. I've started the last of the major subassemblies for the Gerat, the shell loader tray. You have to be careful with this one as the trays do differ depending on whether you went for the 540 or 600 shells. Either way the assembly begins with this small block, with 4x PE flaps attached to the corners. The frame for the tray went together well, although the end frames needed a bit of filing to fit right. Then the tray itself, block assembly and A-frame were glued together. At the moment it simply sits on the main frame above. You can see below how the whole subassembly simply sits in those indents on the gun mount, there's a lot of movement in the tray, which of course is deliberate but I'm unsure as to how to permanently attach it. I'd like to have a shell ready in the tray while the gun is elevated, but would the whole tray be tilted back in this case? In addition I was also hoping to have the driver's compartment exposed but after looking at this setup I doubt this would have been the case in real life, mainly as the open compartment would take up space used for loading the shell. Anyway, onto the shell-carrier. I'll be honest in that this bit is proving to be a real slog and I'm not particularly enthusiastic at this time. It seems Trumpeter has gone down the road of "make everything more parts than it needs to be, that way it's better", which is just counterproductive in this case. The quality of the plastic isn't as good as the Gerat, and everytime I look at it I see more flash that needs removing. The springs are overly complicated and it'll be very difficult to get workable suspension unless you're *very* careful with the glue. The drive hubs to the left are a very poor fit, filler is definitely needed along the front. This is the quality of what I'm dealing with. Bit of a piddle-take when you consider the shell-carrier costs almost as much as the Gerat. Rear-end wasn't too bad, just plenty of flash that needs removing. Some parts, such as the small lugs on the inner faces of those two low cylinders, would only fit by removing the actual locator lugs. And here we have the upper hull. Overall detail quality is fine, but it seems slightly warped, so more filler will be needed when it comes to attach it to the hull. Thanks all, comments appreciated, Joe

Thanks, the kit is definitely showing its age in some respects, but overall a really enjoyable one.

Thanks very much. It's certainly an enjoyable build but definitely not for the faint-hearted. So I took a bit of a break on this one to clear my backlog of WiPs, and it's getting a little big for my workdesk... Moving on, the second set of railings are now attached. In hindsight some may prefer to leave them off until the painting's done; they're sturdy enough but still relatively flimsy. One bit I found rather annoying however was the photoetch underneath. I'm guessing they're clamps to secure the railings when folded, but the instructions are very vague on their shape and placement. Even when blowing it up on a screen, it's not 100% clear. As I'm typing this I cna see I've missed PE 9 and 12. Luckily the image of Ziu on Wikipedia has a good shot of PE12 which I found to be the trickiest. The PE was secured with VMS Black which worked perfectly. Little bit of excess but can't really be helped. The gun itself is almost finished, just a couple of odd bits here and there. The breech block is now in place, and is a *very* tight fit. Nice that it's removable incase you want to do a mid-loading diorama, but I don't know if it's meant to be that tight or it's just inaccuracy in the mouldings. The small plastic rod at the top of the assembly promptly snapped as I expected, so this was just replaced with a spare length of .5mm wire that I used for the tracks. The mount itself is also progressing, although there are plenty of issues with this one. Mould-lines, quite a bit of flash, and some areas of poor fit, in particular the flat panels that run along the top edges to the right. I've started to add texture to hide some of these blemishes, looks rather rushed at the moment because it is, I plan to give it another go-over soon. I don't know whether the real thing had such a texture on the mount, but little will be visible once it's in place, as shown below: She's certainly shaping up to quite a beast, but still a lot of work to be done. One of the ladders at the rear (right) is complete, some bloody fiddly, unnecessary photoetch there which I'll get to next time, as well as the loading tray which I haven't started yet. There are also quite a few bits here and there I've missed, such as the driver's seat, small extras and such. I also decided to just glue the road wheels, I can't imagine having to do much behind them and they kept falling off and rolling under various things/people. Cheers, Joe

Some nice progress there 👍 I currently have a Sea Fury on the bench, but I'm stuck as to how I'd get this stripe on the prop spinner. Airfix expect you to paint it, so any tips on getting it even? Cheers

Yeah I wouldn't bother with those, they won't be visible through the canopy anyway. 👍

Looks good. What are you using for the EDSG? I have a Vixen that needs painting but can't find a suitable equivalent for Humbrol.

Ooh good idea, I'll give it a go. Is there anything that can undo the superglue misting?

Fell down the rabbit-hole of tank/armoured vehicle modelling, and with the stash building up it's time to get some planes finished! Plenty of swearing today, as it was time to remove the Eduard masks, and to my absolute delight they left plenty of adhesive behind, and what appears to be superglue misting...but no superglue's been used on this since the cockpit dials... I'm honestly stumped at what this is. It scrapes away somewhat, but you can't get rid of all of it. The more opaque stuff is on the outside, the misting is more faint and on the inside. I gave it a good go-over with some 12k-grit polishing paper, and then dipped in some glass-formula I picked up ages ago at a show. I've saved it somewhat but am still tempted to order a replacement canopy. It's also affected the rear door window. Part of the decal was lost, but strangely all other windows are unaffected by any misting... So let's get cracking with repairs. I just repainted the rear door. They now have a blackout curtain, that's my justification. Bomb doors are attached. Fit is pretty poor, with the instructions not indicating how exactly they attach. A couple of mms must also be sanded from each end for them to fit without warping. I've also painted the collector rings in Vallejo Metal Color, will give them a light wash later on. Canopy isn't reattached but the Florey Wash has been sealed with a coat of ArmyPainter matt varnish. There's a couple of weird spots where the wash looks masked, again I have no idea why this is the case, will probably apply it again over these areas just to mask the effect.

Funnily enough I found the missing handle last night. The Carpet Monster giveth and the Carpet Monster taketh away! 🙏 I decided to take a break from the lower hull and start on the cannon. Lots of umm-ing and ah-ing but I went for the 540mm in the end, just looks more imposing I think. This narrows the choice of gun to two: Odin or Thor. I think I'll go with Odin. The gun itself went together fine, although there are some large sprue gates so sanding the barrel halves nice and flush took a long time. The instructions only show the 600mm barrel in later steps so a bit of common sense is needed to work out the 540. I'm really impressed but also puzzled with the recoil mechanism. It's a really nice touch, a fully-functional recoil mechanism using aluminium pins and springs, but I'm puzzled as to why they included it in the first place. If you wanted to model it mid-shot, you wouldn't need the springs. The superglue residue is from attaching the photoetch detail around the muzzle and barrel ends, they just refused to stick and placement had to be 100% perfect otherwise they'd foul on other parts if you made them recoil. Two more sets of springs were added then the whole assembly was encased within the main housing, and some texture added afterwards. I gave the barrel a coat of primer just to check for any blemishes, and the sanding paid off in the end. The railings was an area I was dreading due to their fragility; in some cases the sprue gates are thicker than the railings themselves. Attaching the unfolded walkways was tricky, as there's no real way to ensure everything's square. It's not perfect but you wouldn't notice. For the railings I cleaned them up then attached them with tape to ensure the right order. The key was to start with the rightmost upright beam on the lower walkway, as this contains a diagonal truss to ensure it's square. Once that was set, add the leftmost upright and the crossbar, then the leftmost upright on the upper walkway. Confused? Good, you're on the right track. The leftmost upright on the upper walkway fits into the lower crossbar, then you can add the upper walkway crossbar all the other uprights in order and the end result is still fragile, but overall more solid than I imagined. Let's hope it goes this well on the other side! Cheers, Joe

Work continues on the upper hull. There's a substantial number of parts here so this will take a while. The first part of the driver compartment attached. I'm not sure what the interior colours would be, can't find any reference pics. Which colours should I go for if I played it safe and just went for "generic German interior"? I had a go at adding some weld lines to these large A-frames, but once the texture is applied they're nearly invisible so didn't bother with the rest. The side panels in front of the frames aren't the best fit, which is a shame. While that was drying I took a look at the Munitionschlepper, or however you spell it. The box is packed out with sprues as well as other gubbins I'll get to. Overall quality seems good, but couple of minor issues I'll get to. Plenty of photo-etch, and very little appears overly complicated. The best part is a lot of it is optional, so if you're not that confident with PE it's not the end of the world. The way the PE is packed is also a very nice touch, in this cardboard frame within the box, much less likely to deform in transit that way. Two more aluminium shells which is a plus, and extra parts for cables, the crane and some weird springs/tacks. Took me ages to find them in the instructions, and they seem a bit of a letdown in terms of assembly. And a nice single-piece hull. Simple as that, but detail is very good. So I started with the return rollers for one side and one set of running gear. First impressions are less positive than the Karl; overall quality is good, excellent detail in some areas, but the plastic appears quite a bit softer. A couple of light passes with a file to remove any blemishes and the roller is already getting deformed. Assembling the moveable suspension was very fiddly and required opening up the holes somewhat. The size difference is already quite evident. Plan is to have the MS lower hull completed, then complete the Karl's upper hull before deciding whether to go for the 540 or 600 cannon. Cheers, comments welcome. Joe

Yeah looks like the guys included are for the K5. Bit disappointing, but seems a few of them are in "generic artillery" poses so I could make some use of it. Managed to get half of the wheels assembled, still some sanding needed but thought I'd get an idea of the running gear, see if any changes needed. My previous worry about the uneven torsion bars wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be, the sag underneath the wheels is making it appear more than it really is. My only issue is the tracks; the late Karls should have 94 links per side, but getting the tracks attached was a real struggle, some tension in the links, if I'd built it in travelling mode it'd be even worse. I might add a couple of extra links just to give a more convincing sag effect. I've also started the upper hull. Added some texture effects with Tamiya putty, the lifting jacks you can see had very problematic ejector marks which needed a good deal of filling and sanding. Close up of the engine bay and the texture effects. Not sure if the real thing had this texture here but it's still rather subtle. One handle was lost to the carpet monster, so I had to fashion one from fuse wire, only took a couple of mins. This is already sizing up, a quick comparison with the SMK I've been working on. Will get a couple of shots with a King Tiger, but the SMK it already slightly larger than a KT so you get the idea. Cheers, Joe

Looks awesome, don't think I'll have the room for a K5 anytime soon though, sadly.