Various German AFVs 1/72

[adt70hk]

All

Below are some pics of the first batch of German AFVs I've built since returning to the hobby. As with my British submission these are all quick build kits.

As you'll see they're not up to much compared to a lot of what's on here, my German camo needs more work and the weathering was is a bit hit and miss but I've got to start somewhere!!

Any observations, comments and constructive criticism will be gratefully received.

Andrew

PS in addition to the models below I got 2 Armourfast leFH 28s and a Zvedza 88 that need finishing off at some point.

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Plastic Soldier Company Sdkfz251 - 4 variants

This was the second kit I bought when starting up again and for me it was a great buy. I'm never going to be building vast quantities so the opportunity to build several different versions was appealing.

The kit comes with 4 models and you can build 4 x 251/D halftracks or one each of 251/8 Mortar Carrier, 251/9 Stummel, 251 /16 Flamm and 251/7 Pioneer - or a combination thereof. It also comes with 37 crew and a huge amount of spare equipment and stowage - which with having absolutely none to start with a big bonus and some of it generic enough to work on Allied vehicles

I ended up mounting the mortar and crew on a very impromptu plastic base rather than mount on one of the vehicles. I also now realise that their uniform tops/smock are should probably be the camo variety but being naive I was following the box art.

Needless to say I will be revisiting the base....but it was my first attempt.

Amourfast Pz IV G

Below is a pic of one of two I have built but the weathering didn't quite work as I was hoping. This one has some stowage from S and S Models on it.

Armourfast Stug III

This is one of the two I have. For some reason I didn't put any stowage on, so they look a bit bare....

Armourfast Panthers x2

These were actually built by my young daughter. She also did the tarpaulin on the back made from tissue paper covering sprue off-cuts. You'll also notice the lack of weathering and additional stowage. They are sort of her's and she didn't want them looking all cluttered and dirty!! She is a girl after all!!

The figures are taken from PSC's German figure and stowage pack - if there are any newbies out there like me with a lack of stowage and crew, then the kit isn't a bad buy.

The cupola mounted MGs were spares from Armourfast German MG Team pack. The brackets to mount them were made two of my plastic aerials glued together to make them stronger, sanded down to make them smooth, cut to length and bent slightly.

Edited November 12, 2015 by adt70hk

[ytareh]

Love this sort of stuff.Do you do any wargaming?( EDIT just saw your signature , I guess that's a yes !) I don't myself but have noticed these kind of kits make fair money on EBay .Probably no more than you paid for them but relative to most built for display models they 'hold' their value well if you're short of space and want shut of a few .

It just seems fun to be able to build a few different schemes/ variants doesn't it although I suspect in many cases there's always one or two left in box .No harm as people are often willing to pay for 'leftovers' also

Edited October 24, 2015 by ytareh

[vindicareassassin]

I'm guessing the Pz IV weathering was thinned acrylic?? I sometimes do a wash of burnt umber acrylic before I gloss coat to dull an over bright yellow down abit, but I do mean very thin, somewhere in the region of 95/5 water/paint and I also add a drop of flow aid, this breaks the waters surface tension and helps it spread easier, a tiny drop of washing up liquid will do the same job, if what you were trying to achieve was a similar effect to what I described earlier with the pin lining then you really need to gloss the whole vehicle first so the wash runs off and finds the gaps and creases, then matt coat it all when its all dry.

I also use alot of artists water colours to achieve some of these effects too, but that maybe for later as its quite hard to master but worth the effort.

You may of guessed by now I use purely water based products, no thinners here, except those I use in the shed for my airbrush with my Tamiya paints, as my bench is at the end of the stairs in the hall of the house, the wife would never allow strong smells in the house!

By the way, you sold me on the Hanomag set, next order will include 1 of these.

Oh, and not always the camo smocks, they were more common at the end of the war, and you have to be careful which camo, as SS and Heer used different patterns, but generally you wore what fitted best when you could get it, the field grey tunic was still in production at wars end just in a different cut pattern to early war, there was even one that looked similar the the Commonwealth tunic.

The most common camo item was the issue shelter quarter/poncho as this was issued to all Heer from just before the war.

Your certainly getting a nice collection together now.

ATB

Sean

[adt70hk]

Sean

Thanks again for all the advice above and also the info on the other post about using surgical gause as camouflage netting!

I've also just realised that there was one version missing from the list above and that was the Platoon commander version fitted with tthe 37mm AT mount.

My list of potential builds gets longer by the day - after seeing your 6pdr AT gun models I'm adding that to the list of prospective buys and I recently found out that S and S Models will soon be releasing a Sexton conversion of an armourfast M4 https://www.facebook.com/204783626370819/photos/pcb.451277988388047/451277018388144/?type=3&theater ,which is something I've been looking around for for a while now.

I've also found out that someone else on this forum has made they're own base for a jalopied version of the PSC M5A1 (http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234971542-psc-stuart-m5a1-with-some-extras-in-172/), they're a bit pricy when compared to the kits but I couldn't resist and it means none of the spares got to waste. Then just to add to the list I also want to have a go at some battlefield scenery and emplacements after coming across this great blog (http://gregswargamingblog.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Flak%20Nest).

That's after I've finished a couple of italieri Morris Qaud tractors that go with my 25pdrs, a Zvedza 88, some Zvezda 3" British mortars and painted getting on for 100 figures!!

Ytarah

Thanks for your interest and comments. I must admit I wasn't aware that there was a market for model spares, I might have a look!!

And yes you're right there's always some spares in the box. I was thinking of doiing some battlefield 'litter' by usings spares from my PSC M4A4 kit to create knocked out tank in a waterfield crater.

It also occured to me that if someone wanted to make the most of the PSC Sdkfz 251/1 kit and needs a large number of vehicles, then they could buy two Armourfast packs (which come with no crew), use the the machine gunners from the PSC 251/1s, mount the mortar on a base (as I have done) and make the four PSC remaing versions.

There are plenty of crew ans spares to go around and you could even separate the PSC driver and co-driver and put them one of the in each of the Armourfast versions - this would give you 8 vehicles for £35 - which is pretty good value for money by my reckoning!!

Regards

Andrew