Panzerhaubitze 2000, 1/24 scale, Scratchbuild

[ColonelKrypton]

46 minutes ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

A few months ago I was in my favorite Gundam / 'pop-culture' modelling store (they have all kinds of very groovy stuff for scratch-building)

 

Indeed. I have a couple of local stores that I check out from time to time - lots of good interesting bits of photoetch, plastic add on bits, and decals.  The local dollar store is another favourite hobby store - lots of interesting bits of wood and what not that are easily repurposed.

 

Plastruct has quarter and half round styrene rods in their offerings but I don't recall seeing anything quite as large as the plastic bit you found. One of platruct's markets is the industrial and commercial model builders and have all sorts of interesting bits and pieces. There is a relatively local supplier here in Canada called Model Builders Supply which has a lot of this sort of plastic stuff.  https://modelbuilderssupply.com/  I am sure there must be a similar supplier in Australia.

 

Paper, card, cardstock, chip board - all good for templates and can even be used for bits for finished models, lots of possibilities

 

Panzerhaubitze 2000 is looking good.

 

cheers, Graham

 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday Steve, nice detail on those rear panels, and the side skirts covering the tracks. Regards, Jeff.

[Bandsaw Steve]

Finished...except

 

My mum used to greatly enjoy embroidery and spend many pleasant hours working at this admirable craft.  Unfortunately she developed the habit of completing her work sessions by holding her work up proudly and loudly declaring 'FINISHED.... except for the red' or 'FINISHED.... except for the trees' and so forth.  For this, I regret to say, she was frequently lampooned by other members of the family.  Now as this project drags on far beyond any reasonable timescale I am eager to get this thing 'FINISHED' and find myself declaring 'FINISHED...except' at the end of every minor step forward.

 

The covers over the tracks at the front of the hull need to be built.   These are constructed in a very similar way to the ones at the rear using this plastic 90 degree corner template and sheet polystyrene. 

 

This is the last major structural feature in the entire project so I can now declare the project 'FINISHED... except for a few details at the rear.'

 

At the rear of the hull there are variety of details that are not well represented in the drawings as they are in recessed positions and can only be seen in the direct rear view.  For these parts I need to reference photographs and other scale models. 

I'm not sure what the things I am about to build actually are but there are two of them, they are complex shapes and one sits beside each of the rear doors. I fear that these would be too fragile if built from plastic so I'm using brass sheet. 

 

Brass is really good to work with. Just mark up the shapes you want.

 

Drill out the corners for the interior shapes.

 

use a 'piercing saw' AKA a 'jewelers saw' to cut out the negative shapes.

 

Cut and file and sand and polish to get the final shape / finish.

 

and stick them in place with two-part epoxy. These are the final details that are an attached inherent part of the vehicle so.... 'FINISHED... except for some primer.'

 

Now I spray the rear with primer.   This is the last primer to go onto the vehicle proper... So 'FINISHED... except for a few little things'

 

Here is the 'FINISHED' product.

 

'FINISHED...  except....'  for:

 

- The camouflage pattern,

- Various detachable tools,

- Various detachable pieces of military equipment, (a machine gun, camouflage nets and aerials and so forth),

- National markings - in this case a small Ukrainian flag,

- Weathering,

- A scenic base,

- A label 

 

At the rate I'm going who knows how long all that's going to take... 

 

Best Regards,

Bandsaw Steve

 

 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday Steve, it's a great looking model and it's good to see it finished (except for the bits that aren't done yet). 🙂 Regards, Jeff.

[Dmitriy1967]

The model is great! It is especially valuable that it is made from scratch.

I wonder what these parts that you made of brass are for. If the doors open at the back on a real tank, will these details interfere? Or are they collapsible?

[SafetyDad]

Lookin' great there Steve!

 

SD

[Bandsaw Steve]

8 minutes ago, Dmitriy1967 said:

I wonder what these parts that you made of brass are for. If the doors open at the back on a real tank, will these details interfere? Or are they collapsible?

 

Hi Dimiriy,

 

From the little I can see in various photos I think these things may be hinged independently of the doors but do not appear to be removable. I’m struggling to think what they might be used for but suspect they might be something to do with ammunition replenishment. 
 

If anyone knows for sure, or has a better guess, I’m all ears.

[Dmitriy1967]

21 minutes ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

If anyone knows for sure, or has a better guess, I’m all ears.

 

I looked at the photos online. Quite a lot of photos from behind. It seems to me that these are such external door hinges. They allow the doors to open wide.

But this is just my guess, I'm not well versed in this technique.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry that there are a lot of images, you may have already seen them. But, maybe it will help.

 

Dmitriy

[Bandsaw Steve]

Hmmmm… 

 

Yeah - just massive external door hinges. I hadn’t thought of that as I generally think of hinges as interior fittings. Unfortunately it means my ones are completely wrong because mine don’t even touch the doors. 😱

 

Damn - more work! 
 

🤣

[Dmitriy1967]

I'm sorry, Steve, I didn't want to push back the moment when it would be possible to say FINISHED.

🙄

[Bandsaw Steve]

Dimitriy = Bad, bad man!* 🤣

 

 

 

* Well, not really. Just more observant than me.

[ColonelKrypton]

3 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

'FINISHED...  except....'  for:

 

The never ending story - the more I look, the more I see, the more I want to add.  It just never ends until you decide that you just have to move on ...

 

cheers, Graham

 

[hendie]

even as door hinges my mind is having trouble over figuring out how they work.

nonetheless, nice update Steve.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

2 hours ago, Dmitriy1967 said:

I didn't want to push back the moment when it would be possible to say FINISHED.

Don't you mean "FINISHED AGAIN"? 😁      Seriously Steve, they can't be removed and repositioned? I guess that's the first thing you'd have thought of.  Regards, Jeff.

[Bandsaw Steve]

46 minutes ago, ColonelKrypton said:

 

 the more I look, the more I see, the more I want to add.  It just never ends until you decide that you just have to move on ...

 

Very true.

 

I never thought that this project would be simple but I definitely underestimated just how much work was involved and especially just how many visible external details there are and how long they would take to model. 
 

I’m hoping the SS Xantho will prove simpler but somehow I think it won’t be. 🤔

[ArnoldAmbrose]

1 hour ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

I definitely underestimated just how much work was involved

Gidday Steve, ditto with my current model. But then many of mine seem to end up that way too. But I think they'll be worth it in the end. Regards, Jeff.

[SafetyDad]

As a slight aside, is that chap in picture 5 really standing looking inside the vehicle interior at the rear while the gun is firing?  Surely the vehicle would, at the very least, move on its suspension and give him, shall we say, a bit of a turn?

 

SD 

[Dmitriy1967]

1 hour ago, SafetyDad said:

As a slight aside, is that chap in picture 5 really standing looking inside the vehicle interior at the rear while the gun is firing?  Surely the vehicle would, at the very least, move on its suspension and give him, shall we say, a bit of a turn?

 

SD 

 

In this video at 4:01 video the moment of the shot. It doesn't swing back much.

 

Panzerhaubitze 2000 of the German Army on exercises.

[Niall]

Some self propelled guns lock the suspension before firing to improve accuracy. This is true for the M107, M109, M110, AMX30GCT, AS90 and Pzh2000 - I don't know about others.

[AdrianMF]

Amazing work Steve! I must admit when I first came across the thread at an early stage I thought "hmm" but you have pulled it off!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[ArnoldAmbrose]

1 hour ago, Dmitriy1967 said:

In this video at 4:01 video the moment of the shot. It doesn't swing back much.

 

Panzerhaubitze 2000 of the German Army on exercises.

Gidday, that's an interesting video. Those machines aren't kind to the fields though, unless you want them plowed. But I guess that's not a consideration in combat. Seeing them in action albeit training gives a greater appreciation of Steve's model. Thanks for the link.     Regards, Jeff.

[Bandsaw Steve]

4 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

I must admit when I first came across the thread at an early stage I thought "hmm"

Well Adrian at every turn on this project I’ve been thinking “hmmm”…

 

Now I’m about to start airbrushing in earnest - which I always find frightening so…. “hmmmm”…🤔

[ArnoldAmbrose]

13 minutes ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

Now I’m about to start airbrushing in earnest - which I always find frightening

Good luck with the airbrushing. Regards, Jeff.

[Bandsaw Steve]

Paint it Black

 

In my view the best thing the Rolling Stones ever wrote was 'Paint it Black'.  Although @Gimme Shelter is a close contender.  

 

As per the title in this update the PZH gets a whole lot of black paint thrown at it.  TBH there's probably not really enough content in this particular post to warrant an update but as I am sick today and have spent the day off work and am sitting around doing not a lot I thought I would write this anyway. The first thing to get 'painted black’ is the applique armour. 

 

Which - unsurprisingly - after I squirted two coats of Tamiya rattle can black all over it, turned black. 

 

Following a re-think, for various reasons, the previous green hull got another layer of primer, so now it’s grey again and with one of the several panels of armour in place the whole thing looked like this.

 

Here is the pattern that I'm going to try to achieve.

 

As mentioned before, when airbrushing my preferred paint is now SMS (Scale Model Supplies) Premium. In this case ‘auscam black’ which I’m guessing is essentially identical to ‘NATO black’.  This stuff really flatters even my very limited airbrushing skills.  Beyond a vigorous shake,  It requires no preparation at all. Just pour it into your airbrush and off you go.  it has extremely fine pigmentation and shows no sign whatsoever of drying on the tip or clogging.  As this is a lacquer paint it is extra important to wear a proper a face mask when painting with it because - although I'm no chemist - I'm pretty sure that this solvent going into your lungs would be a very bad thing.

 

Even without masking, just painting 'by eye' this is not looking too bad.

 

Here's the result so far.  Looks a bit like a zebra with a green head.

 

I've intentionally painted the black areas slightly larger than strictly required because from here I'm probably going to mask them out anyway just to give the really tightly controlled fine edges that I'm looking for.

Hopefully I'll be over this cold by the weekend and will make some more progress on the green and brown.

 

Best Regards,

Steve

 

[Model Mate]

Can’t disagree on the Stones assessment - tuuuune!

that’s some very nice, tight airbrush work Steve; are you sure you need to mask? Looks very good to me as it is.