PlaStix Posted December 12, 2021 Share Posted December 12, 2021 Having recently finished my only aircraft build of the year, I have decided to build a small 1/35 AFV to round out the year. With the Christmas holidays approaching I'm hoping I might get it finished by the start of the New Year. I have a number of light tanks in the stash but opted for the 38(t) as I'd built Tamiya's 1/48 version back in 2015 and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. This is how the 1/48 version turned out: The 38(t)s used by the Germans were originally ordered by the Czechoslovak Army from a manufacturer called CKD, but the German occupation of Czechoslovakia prevented the order from being delivered. The German Army liked the design and eventually over 1,400 were made. These tanks were equipped with the 3.7cm KwK38(t)L47.8 gun and had 25mm thick armour on the turret, fighting compartment and glacis. The Ausf.E/F versions, of which there were 525 made between November 1940 and October 1941, had thicker armour of 50mm on the front of the turret, fighting compartment and glacis as well as 30mm on the turret sides and hull. They saw action in Poland, France and the invasion of Russia as well as in other areas and the chassis design would eventually be used for other AFVs including the Marder III. This is a photo of the box art for the 1/35 kit I will be using: I got the kit parts washed in warm soapy water this morning and I'll post some photos of the sprues in a day or so and I'm hoping to make a start on construction next weekend. Comments and suggestions welcome. Kind regards, Stix 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milan Mynar Posted December 12, 2021 Share Posted December 12, 2021 Nice built. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muchmirth Posted December 12, 2021 Share Posted December 12, 2021 Nice stix!! Very nice. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stef N. Posted December 12, 2021 Share Posted December 12, 2021 Looking forward to following along to this Stix. All the best in your build.👍 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazy Modeller Posted December 12, 2021 Share Posted December 12, 2021 Nice! I'm already comfortably sit!😉 Cheers LM 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Longbow Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 Always good to see your projects, Stix 👍 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 13 hours ago, PlaStix said: This is how the 1/48 version turned out: And I've no doubt, that given your expertise with the hairy stick, it's big brother will look just as brilliant. Good choice Stix. John. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andmarsh Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 nice - just built the same kit - just deciding on the paint job now 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatfingers Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 Funnily enough i have this kit built and primed and then shelved it! Really must finish it and i'm sure your build will give me the shove to do so! Look forward to seeing this come together and as John @Bullbasket says above it will be a brilliant job 👍 Regards, Steve 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaStix Posted December 14, 2021 Author Share Posted December 14, 2021 On 12/12/2021 at 19:33, Milan Mynar said: Nice built. Thank you. On 12/12/2021 at 19:35, Muchmirth said: Nice stix!! Very nice. Thank you Muchmirth. On 12/12/2021 at 20:14, Stef N. said: Looking forward to following along to this Stix. All the best in your build.👍 Thank you Stef, I'm really looking forward to getting started - hopefully over the weekend. On 12/12/2021 at 20:37, Lazy Modeller said: Nice! I'm already comfortably sit!😉 Cheers LM Thank you LM - and I shall be popping over to your larger scale build regularly for tips! On 13/12/2021 at 01:19, Longbow said: Always good to see your projects, Stix 👍 Thank you Longbow. On 13/12/2021 at 09:08, Bullbasket said: And I've no doubt, that given your expertise with the hairy stick, it's big brother will look just as brilliant. Good choice Stix. John. Thank you very much John. 20 hours ago, andmarsh said: nice - just built the same kit - just deciding on the paint job now Hi andmarsh, thank you and I hope your painting goes well! 18 hours ago, fatfingers said: Funnily enough i have this kit built and primed and then shelved it! Really must finish it and i'm sure your build will give me the shove to do so! Look forward to seeing this come together and as John @Bullbasket says above it will be a brilliant job 👍 Regards, Steve Hi Steve. Thank you very much and I will look out for your build when you start getting the paint on! Right, as mentioned above - here are some photos of what's in the box at the moment: Some closer views: x 2 x 2 A bit of PE: The decals: Sample of the instructions: A sheet with some details about the actual vehicle are included: It looks to be a nicely detailed kit and it seems to get favourable comments about it online. I'm really looking forward to getting started on this. Comments and suggestions welcome. Kind regards, Stix 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazy Modeller Posted December 14, 2021 Share Posted December 14, 2021 45 minutes ago, PlaStix said: Comments and suggestions welcome. Get started! Cheers LM 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaStix Posted December 20, 2021 Author Share Posted December 20, 2021 I didn't get a huge amount of time over the weekend on this but I have made a bit of a start. On Saturday, these were the bits ready for assembly for stage 1: Later in the day this is where I was up to: ...adding the suspension parts, etc: Normally, at this sort of stage, I start doing the painting and weathering in the areas behind where the wheels and tracks will be. However, on this build I decided, because of the fit and so on with this kit, that I can do a lot more assembly first and then paint everything before fitting the wheels and tracks. So, on Sunday, I got it to this stage with more assembly completed: As usual, the fit of this Tamiya kit is very good. I'm hoping I may be able to get more done on Friday of this week. Comments and suggestions welcome. Kind regards, Stix 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazy Modeller Posted December 20, 2021 Share Posted December 20, 2021 45 minutes ago, PlaStix said: Comments and suggestions welcome. Mine is bigger!!! Now seriously...its going great so far...keep goin... Cheers LM 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
echen Posted December 20, 2021 Share Posted December 20, 2021 1 hour ago, PlaStix said: Comments and suggestions welcome. Looking forward to the painting and weathering process. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamden Posted December 21, 2021 Share Posted December 21, 2021 Is there room for one more? Looking forward to watching you work your magic with the hairy stick! Stay safe Roger 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edjbartos Posted December 21, 2021 Share Posted December 21, 2021 Very nice clean build Stix, looking forward to seeing some more... Ed 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hewy Posted December 22, 2021 Share Posted December 22, 2021 Hello stix, its building up nicely , i like those link and length tracks with built in sag, they look good, and stress free too 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jasper dog Posted December 22, 2021 Share Posted December 22, 2021 The joy of Tamiya! It all just goes together, no messing around no filling, hassle free build! Looking forward to seeing your creativity with the brush. Darryl 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaStix Posted December 31, 2021 Author Share Posted December 31, 2021 On 20/12/2021 at 14:31, Lazy Modeller said: Mine is bigger!!! Now seriously...its going great so far...keep goin... Cheers LM Thank you LM! That made me laugh......and it's true! On 20/12/2021 at 15:11, echen said: Looking forward to the painting and weathering process. Hi echen. Thank you as always for your kind comments and I have made a start on the painting and weathering - please see the rest of this post, below. On 21/12/2021 at 07:36, Hamden said: Is there room for one more? Looking forward to watching you work your magic with the hairy stick! Stay safe Roger Hi Roger. Of course and thank you!! Please see below! On 21/12/2021 at 21:46, edjbartos said: Very nice clean build Stix, looking forward to seeing some more... Ed Hi Ed. Thank you and I have actually managed to do some more since my post above. On 22/12/2021 at 05:06, Hewy said: Hello stix, its building up nicely , i like those link and length tracks with built in sag, they look good, and stress free too Hi Glynn. Thank you. Yes I really like link and length tracks. I have found I have to be patient with them, but, with careful planning, they usually fit really well. On 22/12/2021 at 06:59, Jasper dog said: The joy of Tamiya! It all just goes together, no messing around no filling, hassle free build! Looking forward to seeing your creativity with the brush. Darryl Hi Darryl. It certainly is!! It's one of the reasons why I sometimes choose a Tamiya kit over one from another manufacturer. Sometimes Tamiya aren't quite on the money with accuracy, and sometimes their details aren't quite as fine as on some other kits, but Tamiya kits are usually fairly relaxing to build - part of the reason I do this hobby is for relaxation!! I have made some progress since my post above. I am sorry I have been a bit poor with regards posting on Britmodeller, but other things seem to keep getting in the way these days - or I haven't been quite in the right mindset to get my head around it. Anyway, enough of the feeble excuses!! After getting the main hull part to the state it was above, I made the decision to get all the parts ready for painting rather that do what I sometimes do first, which is concentrate on painting the area where the wheels and tracks go on the hull and then assembling the running gear. You can see, in the two photos below, there was some assembly but a lot of parts are still on the sprues or have sprue parts still attached. This is so I have something to hold on to while painting. For those that don't know - I paint all of my kits with brushes (the hairy stick kind) as I don't own an airbrush, as I have nowhere to use one. I have, on rare occasions, used rattlecan paints, usually in Blitzbuild GBs, where time is of the essence!! I'm not a great fan of rattlecan paints as it's far too easy for things to go wrong very quickly!! So here are a couple of photos of the parts ready for the paint to be applied: You'll see a few parts are separate - the sprue gates on these weren't going to be strong enough for me to do my heavy-handed brushing technique!! You'll see in later photos I supported these on cocktail sticks - sometimes held in place using Blutack. The first parts I got some painting done on, were those which needed to have a basecoat of Revell Aqua's Anthracite. This included the tracks: A closer view: You can see that the Anthracite was applied very thinly. I only ever use water to thin my paints and I normally use Humbrol flat brushes to apply the paints. Then I made a start on getting the other parts painted - all of which were to be given coats of Revell Aqua's Matt Tank Grey. Again, the paint was thinned with water and applied, in this case, with a medium flat brush from Humbrol. In these photos it really is difficult to see it's been painted as it's dark grey paint on dark grey plastic - but I promise these are photos of the painted parts: The front part of the turret is still separate so can fit the machine gun after painting and the base weathering is applied - so I don't have to paint and weather with the machine gun in place. On the tracks I then dry-brushed some neat Acrylic, Humbrol Gunmetal on: On the parts which were painted with Revell's Tank Grey I did my usual weathering process for tanks. First of all I applied a very, very, very thinned wash of Revell Aqua's Gunship Grey. This gives everything a kind of dusty appearance from the off. I know people don't recommend using acrylic paints for washes, but I find they work okay as long as they are very, very thinned. There are occasionally tide marks and pooling, but nothing that can't be 'developed' with later weathering. Once the Gunship Grey wash was dry I then applied a targeted wash of very, very thinned Revell Aqua's Anthracite. By targeted - I mean that I use a very fine, pointed brush to apply the Anthracite wash only in, and around, any surface details. To me, this adds depth and shadowing to details that otherwise don't stand out particularly well. Finally, to enhance the detail further, I dry brush on a slightly lightened version of the base coat (Tank Grey) to make the detail 'pop'!. To lighten the Tank Grey I add a little Revell Aqua Matt White. These photos show the parts after the above stages were done: Hopefully, in the photos below, you can see what the difference is before and after the dry-brushing with the lighter version of the Tank Grey. The sprue of wheels on the left has only had the Gunship Grey and Anthracite targeted washes applied - whereas, those on the right, have had the lighter version of the base coat dry-brushed on: ...and then a photo showing those on the right have also now been dry-brushed: It doesn't show up particularly well in the photos below, but the tracks here, have all had a very thinned wash of Humbrol's Acrylic Desert Sand applied all over: The tracks still need some washes of Light Rust and Dark Earth applying before they can be assembled. So that's it for this year's modelling!! I achieved no-where near the amount of modelling I normally do, but I can't complain....I have enjoyed the bits I have managed to get done. A BIG thank you to everyone who has taken the time to comment in my threads and I would like to wish everyone a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Lets hope we see some improvements on the last two years!! Kind regards, Stix 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hewy Posted December 31, 2021 Share Posted December 31, 2021 Looking good👍 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edjbartos Posted December 31, 2021 Share Posted December 31, 2021 Really good work Stix, looks brilliant, all the best for the New Year, looking forward to seeing more of your amazing work... Ed 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaStix Posted January 5, 2022 Author Share Posted January 5, 2022 On 31/12/2021 at 17:50, Hewy said: Looking good👍 Thank you Glynn. On 31/12/2021 at 20:02, edjbartos said: Really good work Stix, looks brilliant, all the best for the New Year, looking forward to seeing more of your amazing work... Ed Thank you Ed and a Happy New Year to you too! A few more bits done. First off I cut all the clear backing film right back to the printed designs of the decals and then got them applied. I use a scalpel blade and fine scissors to do this. I think by removing as much of the clear backing film as possible it minimises the appearance of any silvering: These were applied straight onto the paint and then, once dry, I gave them a couple of coats of thinned Humbrol acrylic, Matt Varnish. You may not have noticed in the above photos, but I have also attached the one PE part - the grill on the rear: Tyres painted with thinned Revell Anthracite using a fine pointed brush: I have also made a start on the painting and weathering of the exhaust unit: This was initially painted with thinned Anthracite which, once dry, I dry-brushed on Humbrol's Gunmetal. Then I used a mix of Railmatch's Light Rust, Revell's Anthracite and some Vallejo Rust Texture paint - which were all stippled on - to get the effects here. More at the weekend, I hope. Comments and suggestions welcome. Kind regards, Stix 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carius Posted January 5, 2022 Share Posted January 5, 2022 Fast and nice work so far Stix, 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazy Modeller Posted January 5, 2022 Share Posted January 5, 2022 (edited) Without any pretense of criticizing your construction methods, fo course, but I am little curious. Why do you paint the pieces still on the sprues? Doesn't that make it harder later to glue the pieces together? Especially the tracks? And also the part of the pieces that is cut from the respective sprues after having to be painted too doesn't that make it more difficult? Just curious about the method... because you're no newbie on the matter... Cheers LM Edited January 5, 2022 by Lazy Modeller 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted January 5, 2022 Share Posted January 5, 2022 Blimey Stix. You don't hang about. Still on page one, and the decals are on already. But, as usual, it does look good. This is one of the few German tanks that appeals to me, and you're doing a grand job on it. John. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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