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Italeri Semovente M42


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This is my new project. A vehicle i don't know much about so i have some research to do. The kit itself looks good. Italeri even added some PE parts. The kit comes with a basic interior. 

Verry exited to start with this one. 

I'll keep you guys posted.

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Time for a little update but first some background info.

The Semovente M42 is an italian self-propelled gun based on the Italian m13/40 tank. The idea for this vehicle came from the StuG III. 

The original version was mounted with a 75mm gun. 

sem75_18_side

The Italian army used it in Africa for infantry support and as a tank destroyer. Later in war  Germany seized the vehicle during operation "Achse" and started upgrading them. They also renamed it as Beute-sturmgeschutz mit 7.5 Kwk L/18 wich later became StuG M42. They where then used in the latter of WW2 especialy in Italy, the Balkans and Greece.

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When the German army started using the tank they made a couple of upgrades. M8st noteworthy are the teeth mounted to the drivesprocket to avoid track slipping. They also made upgrades to the gun. Other versions where the StuG M42 75/32 with a longer gunbarrel.

 

My build will be the StuG M42 75/18 used in Italy by the 278 Inf-Division. It was part of the defence and counterattacks during the siege of Monte Casino.

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I started of with some parts of the interior. First impresion is good. Not much excess sprue. Some seamlines here and there but nothing i can't handle.

I had to fill some gaps and ejector pin marks with some vallejo putty. When sanded i will spray the first part of the interior with vallejo german interior white. 

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The drivetrain and driveshaft is dryfitted. 

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As seen there where gaps in the top and bottom half of the drivetrain i had to adress.

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Also there was this alternative bulkhead witch looks much more intresting however i could not get it to fit properly so i had to settle for the original one. 

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So, this is the start of a new build. So far i'm really enjoying it. 

I'll keep you guys posted. 

Edited by Maddoxx77
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Time for a little update. The first part of the interior is build. Side, front and backpanels are installed. 

Some minor fitting issues: the round frontpanel seemed slightly too wide so i had to trim it back a little bit. No big problems. I then sprayed the interior with vallejo german interior white. The drivetrain got a coat of AK gunmetal black and then a thin coat of AK bare steel. After that i did some weathering to bring the interior to life. 

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Some touch ups are needed but so far i'm happy.

I'll keep you guys posted. 

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Nice start Maddoxx, look good. Seems this particular vehicle is getting popular. Might put one on my list to get one day.........interesting to see what an Italeri build looks like. Never built a kit from that maker before.

 

 

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3 hours ago, Redcoat2966 said:

Nice start Maddoxx, look good. Seems this particular vehicle is getting popular. Might put one on my list to get one day.........interesting to see what an Italeri build looks like. Never built a kit from that maker before.

 

 

It's a decent kit. I find that the material Italeri uses is slightly harder then for example Tamiya or Revell kits. This is my second Italeri model and i have to say is good worth for your buck. Details like rivets are verry good and pronounced. There is some excess sprue on some small parts and there are a lot of ejector pin marks to fill, that's the downside. 

This particular kit was presented as All new moulds however it is just a reboxed version. That beeing said, they put some new parts in and they even added a few PE parts. 

Just try a cheap kit and see for yourself if you like this brand. If not, then there is little harm done. 

I know Tamiya also has a Semovente M42 in their range. But in the Netherlands that kit costs twice as much as the one from Italeri. 

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2 hours ago, Pig of the Week said:

Great little vehicle, I wasn't aware the Germans used them either... Watching with interest !

I wasn't either. That makes this tank interesting. 

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Last update for today. Fitted the mudguards and the top back panels.

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There is no engine so i have to keep the back hatches closed. The front however will be open so the drivetrain will be partly visible.

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Also i have spend some time on my knees searching the floor for the petrol cap..... so far i haven't found it 🤬🤬🤬

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When i got back in my seat i started with the radio and control panels. I think they turned out decent.

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After a short break i fitted them on the model and finished the weathering on the interior.

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Tomorow i will start with the exhausts and the toolboxes on the outside of the vehicle. For now, time for a glas of whisky.

 

Tnx guys for reading my posts and your comments. They are much apriciated as always. 

Cheers!

Edited by Maddoxx77
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Progress report from the modeling front: 

 

I found the petrol cap 🤟🤟🤟

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After the search i started with the assembly of the roadweels, returnrollers and the drivesprockets.

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It's nice that Italeri gave the option to do the early Italian version without the extra teeth, however i'm doing the German version so the teeth went on.

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The roadweels are dryfitted to check if everything goes together properly. No issues there. However the sprue that they came from had a lot of excess sprue so i have a lot to clean up.

Also i discovered an error in the painting of the interior, the seat of the machinegunner was white. So i corrected that.

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I also did some highlights on the bolts and the SPA engraving on the gearbox. Just used a white grafite pencil. Works just fine.

The return rollers have been sprayed with AK rubber black. And the front cover got a coat of tamiya primer. 

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Now, with a beer on the side, time to clean all the weels and do some assembly on the whole drivetrain. 

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Last but not least, the postman brought me a little present: the Brush Arsenal from AMMO Mig. 😀😀😀

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As always, i'll keep you guys posted. 

Cheers.

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Goodmorning guys. Happy easter everyone! 

I got a little progress report. Yesterday i finished the cleaning and assembly of all the parts of the drivetrain. Detail looks pretty good.

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The exhausts where also assembled. I put some dents in the protection panels to give it a more realistic look. These panels often where made of thin sheet metal so they dented pretty easely

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Then i assembled the main gun. Since i use the the out of the box one i had to drill out al the holes on the front of the barrel and...... mistakes where made......

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So today i will try to fix it.... don't know how so tips are more then welcome. I also looked at a metal gunbarrel online to replace this one but that will put me back more then €25 because of shipping costs. Not an option. 

 

That's it for now guys. I'll keep you guys posted

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1 hour ago, Stef N. said:

Very nice work Maddoxx. Shame about the barrel. The Aber one is nice but costs nearly as much as the kit. How about making a tarp cover?

Could be a solution yes. First i want to try something with masking tape. Also i thougt if i fill the top of the barrel with putty, let it harden and then sand it back and drill new holes.... maybe that will work. Thanks for the tip mate. 👍👍👍

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I filled it up with vallejo putty. Now let it dry and then sand it back and drill new holes.....carefully 😉

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If this does not work i will do a tarp cover....

Edited by Maddoxx77
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It has been a few days since my last update. Today i made some progress on the kit. 

Finnished the interior and fitted the kazemate on the hull. There was a pretty big gap i had to fill with vallejo putty.

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The total fit of the model is not to good. I had to rework several parts in order to fit propperly. Instructions weren't always clear on what parts to use. Since this is a rebox several "old" parts where left on the sprue. Not ideal.

After all the work to fit it all together i put a primer basecoat on the model.

 

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On the barrel front there was no succes.... the putty proved to be too weak to drill new holes.

Tomorow i will start with painting. 

 

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This is the paint scheme. I'm thinking on putting a thin sand yellow basecoat on followed by the green and brown spots. After that i will do the sand yellow linework. 

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The struggle is real! 😵😵😵

This camo pattern is getting the best of me.

I'm really struggeling with the dark yellow outlines. I tried it with a paintbrush....

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And the result looks like a kids drawing.....

I tried the airbrush with a 0.3 needle and that didn't work either.

So i changed to a 0.2 needle and then i had diffuculties with finding the right mixture of acrylic paint and thinner..... in the end i got a bit of a decent result....altough the lines are verry soft..... tried to adjust the pressure and that seemed to help a bit. 

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The result so far is a verry bad looking model.....

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So the plan is to strip the paint on the front and top side ( the lines i did with a brush are thick ) with some AK acrylic paint remover. And then start all over again...... 

I will get there but this kit is close to getting shelved...... 

 

O well.... time for a glas of wine and a good look around on the forum. 

Cheers all!!!👍

Edited by Maddoxx77
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Stick with it! You’ve done some great work so far. These fancy camo schemes are a real challenge, so I sympathise. 
I’d personally try the sand colour as a base and then spray the green and brown using blue-tac sausages for masking. It wouldn’t be perfect, but hopefully soft enough to disappear nicely under the weathering.

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13 hours ago, Model Mate said:

Stick with it! You’ve done some great work so far. These fancy camo schemes are a real challenge, so I sympathise. 
I’d personally try the sand colour as a base and then spray the green and brown using blue-tac sausages for masking. It wouldn’t be perfect, but hopefully soft enough to disappear nicely under the weathering.

Tnx for the tip!!!

13 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

 

I'm not surprised. The darned thing is fighting back but you can still win if you choose. Drink more beer and press on!

🤣🤣🤣🤣 you sir are a wise man!

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Hi, been following this one as I am looking to get the same vehicle myself sometime in the future.....but I have to say, not an easy camo' scheme. In reality I imagine it was brush painted by the crews after an overall base coat of standard Dunkelgelb. I've only to date tackled one German scheme myself, a recent Sturmtiger.

 

Here's the link

 

 

My strong advice when it comes to hand painted camo' is multiple thin layers and not one thick coat. The hard part is staying within the edge of the first coat, then the second coat, etc, etc. As you'll see in the link above. I agree with Model Mate, you could try the method mentioned with blue tack, or similar masking product........but it won't give you the sharp edge of the original tank camo'..........it will have a soft airbrushed edge in places. I would either strip the piece back to plastic and re-prime, then try some practice on some thin layers within mixed shapes on some plastic sheet maybe or an old kit.

 

Painting the thin dunkelgelb line on last for me, isn't the way to go for this one anyway as you have two other colours to deal with. A good example of a camo painted in reverse would work on is the "Rubble Camo" from Malta.......

 

The line painted in standard Olive Green acts as the base coat the tank was issued in,  as the tankers in fact painted the lighter stone shapes. For both of these projects I practiced a bit on old projects that didn't make it to completion.

 

Hope this helps Maddoxx, and don't be afraid to either strip the kit or just respray the base coat again and try again.

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13 hours ago, Redcoat2966 said:

Hi, been following this one as I am looking to get the same vehicle myself sometime in the future.....but I have to say, not an easy camo' scheme. In reality I imagine it was brush painted by the crews after an overall base coat of standard Dunkelgelb. I've only to date tackled one German scheme myself, a recent Sturmtiger.

 

Here's the link

 

 

My strong advice when it comes to hand painted camo' is multiple thin layers and not one thick coat. The hard part is staying within the edge of the first coat, then the second coat, etc, etc. As you'll see in the link above. I agree with Model Mate, you could try the method mentioned with blue tack, or similar masking product........but it won't give you the sharp edge of the original tank camo'..........it will have a soft airbrushed edge in places. I would either strip the piece back to plastic and re-prime, then try some practice on some thin layers within mixed shapes on some plastic sheet maybe or an old kit.

 

Painting the thin dunkelgelb line on last for me, isn't the way to go for this one anyway as you have two other colours to deal with. A good example of a camo painted in reverse would work on is the "Rubble Camo" from Malta.......

 

The line painted in standard Olive Green acts as the base coat the tank was issued in,  as the tankers in fact painted the lighter stone shapes. For both of these projects I practiced a bit on old projects that didn't make it to completion.

 

Hope this helps Maddoxx, and don't be afraid to either strip the kit or just respray the base coat again and try again.

Thanks for your helpfull comments. This afternoon i'll get my paintremover in the mail. I will start working on the model again and go on with trial and error. 😉

Tnx again! 👍👍👍

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