Panzerhaubitze 2000, 1/24 scale, Scratchbuild

[Vaastav]

Well well, it seems that the sailing howitzer (first of its kind) is looking like one now. Keep up the commentary Steve, never mind your wife and kids (they can't appreciate you the way we do). 

Great work

[Bandsaw Steve]

 

All mixed up.

 

This post was going to be another  'hull' post leaving the next 'wheels' update to another day. But somehow I fear I have incompetently deleted some of the photos I needed and all that's left is a few shots of each operation. So here's a bit of a mixed up pot-puriri of hull and wheels. I hope it gives you a bit of an idea of what's been going on.

 

Here's the front of the hull now skinned with a nice flexible piece of 0.5mm sheet plastic wrapped around the rolled front of the hull to form a nice smooth front.  There's also another length of plastic stuck on the front to form the bit of armour that sits between the rolled segment and the top glacis plate.  In this shot the whole structure is being sanded. There were photos of all of this getting built but I cannot find them now so this is all that's left of the construction photos.  Some more skinning work was going on at the rear of the hull as well, but those photos have gone AWOL also.  Don't worry, you haven't missed much it was just a square of plastic being cut out and stuck on.

 

Here's the front after skinning and filling and sanding.  Still a bit rough but It'll get sorted out. That's it for the hull - at least for now - so let's have a look at the wheels.

 

Similarly I think that there were more photos than these taken - showing how I carefully marked out all the details and used a drill and scalpel to make these shapes.  All lost! All lost to humanity now 😢

 

Oh Dear - How Sad - Never Mind. 

 

Here's the two drive wheels that go at the front of the model. There's still some surface detailing to go but these are basically done now.

 

Now onto the rear idlers.  See - I haven't been idle! 🥴  Groaannnnn….

Here, once again, I'm using the lathe and a triangular file to form the gap between the two tyres / wheels on each idler.

 

Which allows us to make these two little things.

 

Here I'm using a hole punch squashed in a vice to cut out circular discs.

 

Discs that can then be used to create some initial surface detailing on the idlers.  There are some more nuts and bolts and things to go on these but this is a good start.

 

Here the drive wheels are in position and you can see the skinned front of the hull. See this is now prior to sanding the hull so things are a little bit out of order in this post.

 

And here is a view of the side of the hull with all wheels sitting roughly in their final position. Surface details still to go on the idlers - so once again a bit out of sequence.

 

Oh well... of all the things going wrong in the world at the moment, a few photos out of sequence in a Britmodeller thread is probably only about fourth or fifth (possibly even sixth?) in order of importance. 

 

Stay Safe Folks - the world's a mixed up place!

Bandsaw Steve

 

 

 

[Gorby]

That's seriously neat work Steve.

 

Your bloody showing me up again! 

[Redshift]

Interesting change of subject matter! I was going to upload some snark about not really being a wooden build (using balsa??? a man of your calibre?) but its actually looking really promising. You going to turn the barrel on the lathe? Or hand carve it?

[hendie]

lovely and impressive work on those wheels Steve. I know how hard it is to make things like that symmetric and keep everything neat. Kudos to you

[Bandsaw Steve]

2 hours ago, Redshift said:

 You going to turn the barrel on the lathe? Or hand carve it?

Hi @Redshift

 

Like I say - this build is all mixed up with some bits racing ahead and put to one side while other bits lag behind. The gun is already done - have a look on page four (post 85) for details. 
 

I haven’t seen any of your stuff on here for a while. On sabbatical?

[Redshift]

Read a whole thread before jumping in to make uninformed comments? Thats not what the Internet was invented for! Ok, suitably chastened I have now done the homework reading and yes, the turret and gun look impressive. Deinitely a change of aesthetic about this project: planes, ships and subs (and trains) all have an air of romanticism about them, man battling the elements and all that, but artillery is much more functionally brutalistic. Not a criticism, just an observation. Lots of skill on display as usual.

36 minutes ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

Hi

I haven’t seen any of your stuff on here for a while. On sabbatical?

Ive mostly been lurking and being gobsmacked as usual by the talent on this site. Ive been off modelling for a while, partly a lack of enthusiasm, but mostly down to work, lots of layoffs and furloughing but those lucky ones of us left still have to hit the deadlines. Theres a RFI in vehicles if you get bored!

 

 

[SafetyDad]

Very impressed with your work on the drive sprockets. That's some serious skill and neatness there!

 

SD

[JosephLalor]

Great stuff Steve.  There was a time when the kind of resourcefulness and skill on display here would have made me feel like giving up!  Now I just admire other modellers' work and bash on with the hobby in my own way.

[Bandsaw Steve]

Making a kitset

 

One of the things that I think sometimes puts kitset modellers off scratch-building is the idea that you have to sort of build an entire kitset with hundreds of parts with perfect fit and so-forth and then put it all together. In my view that's a misconception and would be a very difficult way to go about the task. Scratch-building, I think , is a bit more like painting a picture; you get the big shapes in place first and then add little details until you are content to call the job finished. In my, somewhat limited, experience as a scratch-builder I've never felt that I've been making a kitset for subsequent construction. Until now...

 

Come for a look and I'll show you what I mean.

 

Let's start with some old-fashioned marking up of some wood. It's that same bit of NZ white pine that played such a prominent role in the Avro 504 build. 

 

Cut it with my brand new handsaw that I bought when I finally realised I had a full sized rip-saw, a coping saw and absolutely nothing in between - except for a bandsaw of course, but that can only be used on special occasions!

 

Special occasions like this - splitting that bit of wood into two bits just the right thickness for my plans.  I'm actually pretty happy with these cuts they went nice and straight. See - this is good old fashioned family-friendly scratch-building. Nothing whatsoever like making a kitset!

 

Now these two sponson things (I think that is the right term) get stuck on the side of the hull using some two part epoxy and left clamped like this overnight.

 

The surplus glue can now be gently carved off with a chisel.  It's also at about this point that I realised it was a waste of time skinning the top of the hull since a second layer of plastic is going to go over the top of it soon. It needs to in order to hide the rough wooden cut on the top of the sponsons. Oh well - never mind...  After finishing this I repeated the process to put some sponsons angled down on the sides of the front glacis plate.

 

Now with a bit of cutting out of plastic for the top half of the side skirts and we have this...  

 

And then we can mark out the lower half of the skirts and cut them out to make...  

 

two bits of plastic that can be stuck together.  A bit like a kitset. But not much like a kitset - not really... 🤔

 

Now let's dry fit the thing together and see what we have.....  Hmmm...that doesn't look too bad to me!  The turret is in proportion to the vehicle now, previously the hull looked far too narrow. I'm happy. 😎

Now let's take this thing apart and see what it looks like disassembled.

 

Hey wow!  I've kinda made a kitset!  

 

There's one or two bits missing in this photo, but you get the idea.  I don't think I've ever made a model that is so modular before.  I did not really plan this to work out this way, but I'm kind of pleased it did. It looks good in lots of little bits. It looks like I've been working hard!

 

OK - it's off to bed now.  See you all soon.

 

Bandsaw Steve.

[Courageous]

It's not getting any smaller...

 

Stuart

[hendie]

it'll never float either!

[Bandsaw Steve]

4 hours ago, hendie said:

it'll never float either!

I hope I never find out one way or the other! 

[GMK]

Amazing progress there, Steve. I can only imagine how tedious some of that running gear was to make.

 

You’re almost at the point where the time invested:visible results ratio inverts as you switch to the detail phase. Good luck!

[Bandsaw Steve]

3 hours ago, GMK said:

 

You’re almost at the point where the time invested:visible results ratio inverts as you switch to the detail phase. Good luck!

Yes indeed, the ‘big shapes’ are now almost all done and soon it will be time to start on the surface details. There’s only one major component I have not yet started on...

 

Tracks! 😱

[Courageous]

9 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

surface details.

...and that is where the Devil is. And as for the tracks...best of luck.

 

Stuart

[Model Mate]

looking froward to see how you deal with the tracks - this is one thing that encourages me to stick to WWI subjects with their simple plate tracks. good luck...!

[Bandsaw Steve]

Thoroughly Modern Model

 

Just earlier today I was on @Model Mate's Wolseley CP armoured car thread rambling on about 'keeping old skills alive' and 'doing things the old fashioned way' and other such nonsense. You are about to now see what a hypocrite I am as I reveal how I would struggle to build this thing without some thoroughly modern carbon-fibre and high-impact glue and various other modern bits and pieces.

 

On the underside of the hull I am sticking these  hollow lengths of square-section carbon fibre strips.  Doubtlessly the manufacturer expected them to be used as main spars on some remote-control aeroplane, but I have other ideas...

 

Let's use them as axle mountings for an enormous modern NATO Self Propelled Gun!  The axles really are off-set like this on the original vehicle.  Goodness knows why!  

Ha! German engineering eh!!!?    No wonder the British pressed on with the AS90 alone! 🇬🇧

 

Now I temporarily fitted a wheel to check that there would be sufficient room between the inside of wheel and the hull to allow a shock absorber to fit behind without having wheel stick out beyond the sponson.  Truth be told I had to trim a few mm off the back of each shock absorber and they are no longer true cylinders. I don't think anyone will notice just as long as you lot don't tell anyone. 🤫 

 

Here they are, old fashioned wooden dowels cut with one flat surface and stuck on with space-age cyanoacrylate glue.

 

Now the carbon-fibre axles get glued into the centre of the wheels using some more high-tech Selley's sticky stuff.  'Sticks & Withstands Virtually Anything' the packet claims - and it does too!  This is good glue this stuff!

 

Here I am the following day popping off the surplus drop of glue that squeezed out of the bung-hole when the axle got shoved into it.  I only put this photo in because I had to do this 18 times and each time the glue sort of 'popped' off in a most satisfying way. Ahhhh - memories eh! 🙂

 

Road wheels test-fitted and looking good. Note how once again the Germans messed up! The road wheels are not evenly spaced for some reason. Wow - if I was in charge things would have been different! 

 

Now there were four holes remaining to be marked up - two at the front and two at the back.

 

Each one had to be drilled nice and straight so I could dry-fit the drive wheels and the rear idlers.

 

Ta-Da! Here's the result! As you can see - I've jumped ahead a bit with this photo showing the the side skirts and the glacis plate dry-fitted. I'll be writing a bit more about them soon.  

 

I rather like this angle. It looks quite dramatic from down here. It's starting to look quite deadly and - I daresay - thoroughly modern.  

 

See you all soon,

Bandsaw Steve

 

 

 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday Steve, it's good to see some more progress, and you're right, it does look an imposing vehicle from this angle.

 

1 hour ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

Truth be told I had to trim a few mm off the back of each shock absorber and they are no longer true cylinders. I don't think anyone will notice just as long as you lot don't tell anyone.

Your secret is safe with me!

 

1 hour ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

if I was in charge things would have been different! 

You'd have made an armoured fighting vehicle out of plastic and balsa???  🙄

 

Seriously (for Britmodeller anyway), I'm looking forward to seeing more of your interesting materials and methods. Regards, Jeff.

[Murdo]

How do you get a dremel to drill into plastic without it burning it due to the heat build up?

[Bandsaw Steve]

It’s a variable speed drill so just slowed it down a bit. It still partially melts It’s way through though.

[Murdo]

Thanks Steve, mine is variable speed too but I really only use it for ripping large holes in styrene.

 

Not kidding, by the way, there's a reason for that. I'm a terribly sad person.           

 

 

[Bandsaw Steve]

1 hour ago, Murdo said:

ripping large holes in styrene.

 

That’s a whole hobby in its own right! 😀

[Bandsaw Steve]

Go figure

 

Well it's been a while - for various reasons - since the last time I posted here. But things have not completely stagnated on this project. Firstly, I have made a firm decision that this gun will be mounted on a suitable scenic base, probably something resembling a firebase in Afghanistan. Here's the gun sitting on an A3 sized picture frame that might suit my purposes. 

 

 

At this point it occurred to me that this model was going to look pretty boring all buttoned-up and with no people either in it or around it. Generally speaking, when these guns are moving the driver's hatch is open and he sticks his head out and looks about. When the guns are firing the rear doors are generally open and soldiers scurry about replenishing ammunition and so forth.  So this model needs people.  Unfortunately 1:24 scale Modern NATO gunners are not easily obtained, so I decided to try something I've never done before. I decided to try sculpting some figures. Just their heads and shoulders however, since both figures will be seated in the vehicle and I only need to model the bits that sick out. I expected abject failure. 👎

 

My elder daughter is a very keen artist and specialises in painting people, so I grabbed one of her text books and drew up a schematic of a 1:24 scale human being using the 'correct' artistic proportions. 

 

 

Then I made an armature out of floral arranging wire and promptly threw it away because it was rubbish.

 

 

I figured that making a plastic armature must be easier, and I was right.

 

 

Once the armature was firmly cemented and nice and rigid, I started slathering milli-putt all over it.  Fantastic stuff this milli-putt! 🙂

 

 

Ohhh - look. about 20 minutes later and I had surprised myself. This almost looks humanish.

 

 

I threaded some floral arranging wire though the hollow tube that made up this guys shoulders and fashioned some arms.

 

 

Then added milli-putt.  His arm are a touch heavy and his hands are like penguin flippers but I don't think that matters too much as this guy is the driver and really only his head and shoulders will be visible once he's in the driving position.

 

 

Let's give him some driving goggles and a scrim scarf. All soldiers like wearing scrim scarfs, they keep your neck warm. Afghanistan I hear can get very cold in winter.

 

 

Now I decided my gun needed a commander. I wanted some dude sitting in the command position in the turret with his head sticking out and looking through binoculars. That sounded like a somewhat more tricky armature to make and I was vacillating about how to do it when - entirely by chance - I found these four little guys in the local $2.00 shop.  Although they aren't any particular scale they are all about 70mm tall - which makes them reasonable for 1:24. Excitingly, the green dude is looking through binoculars!   

 

So all I had to do was cut off all the silly stuff (like the parachute and the big ring on his head) and start adding milli-putt...

 

 

Make a more convincing set of binoculars out of sprue and scrap plastic card...

 

 

Chop the guy’s legs off and add a scarf to hide his not very convincing face. Look at the lovely texture on this guy's scarf. That was just done using the fine file you can see in the background. This sculpting business is really fun and milli-putt is a brilliant, highly forgiving medium to work in.  

 

 

Here are my two dudes after a coat of spray-on 'Mr Hobby' primer.

 

 

And here they are after a bit of preliminary paint work.  There's still a bit of work to go on these guys - oil paint on the driver's face and perhaps some camouflage patterns on the uniforms for example - but I'm really happy with the result so far. I think that they will look good when complete and bedded down inside their PZH. 

 

 

So that's it. My first ever attempt at sculpting figures. Definitely not perfect but I'm happy with this result and am starting to think that I might even get a bit more serious about some figure work in future. I've already dreamed up one or two possible figure sculpting scratch-builds to have a crack at one day. If I do I think they will be in 1/12 scale. 

 

You never know, one day I might just 'go figure'.  🤔

 

Bandsaw Steve

 

 

 

 

[hendie]

 

Still sticking with the aqua theme I see....  Nice Merman Steve!   

 

 

Could be a bit awkward driving though... Won't his flipper hit the brake and the accelerator at the same time?

 

56 minutes ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

 

 

 

Nice job on the sculpting there.  I tried sculpting some faces in 1.24 scale a few years ago and the results were absolutely terrible.

 

So much so that I've never even considered attempting it again.