Kit Build/Review; 1/72 Forces of Valor Pz III ausf N

This is my second kit from this company (the first was a King Tiger), and I like it. I bought it 'cause I wanted to build a knocked out tank. So I had a look through several of my Panzer Wrecks titles. I was somewhat surprised how few Pz IIIs there are in the editions of the Panzer Wrecks series I happen to have.

The main bits.

Strange how they have the commander figure on the track sprue!

More bitzenbobz...

Very nice finely moulded running gear!

And the last bits, inc. instructaloids.

A contender for the most paltry decal sheet ever?

Prepping parts for the running gear.

So I wound up using images of Pz IVs, instead. The kit has schurzen, on both turret and body. I noticed many tanks lose their body armour, and yet retain the turret armour. Numerous wrecked Pz IV in the books I was referring to are in this state: schurzen up top, but not below. 

I also wanted to create battle damage, and this kit, quite chunky, presented some challenges in doing that. I also wanted numerous hatches open. Again, not always easy, with this kit. For example, the styrene behind the turret side hatches is very thick. So instead I had the schurzen open, instead. 

A combo of mine damage and a shell penetration ...

... have upset this side.

This side is mostly unscathed.

The wheels as supplied are mostly on two pairs of large strips, to make construction easier. Sometimes I would go with this type of arrangement. But in this instance I knew I wasn't going to go with it, for two reasons: first, the joining parts would be all too visible, and detract form the realism o' the resulting model; second, as a battle-damaged tank, I want the wheels all wobbly and out of alignment.

Turret cupola surgery.

The bulk is built.

Getting into detailing some battle damage.

The commander's hatch is designed to be open. But I didn't want to use the commander figure. The tank is going to be empty/abandoned. I sawed off the 'bucket' below the cupola. I also modelled the storage bin at the back of the turret open, and put some crew gear in it.

Battle damage wise, this tank drove over a mine, throwing off the track. Once immobilised, it's been hit low in the hull, rught where the mine blew up, more or less. There's a shell penetration in the lower forward hull, which has blow a return roller off, and some bent fenders and schurzen, and a few smaller caliber penetrations in the turret armour. The return roller that's been knocked out of position has also come apart, and some of the wheels near the point of the two impacts are knocked out of alignment.

Starting to add stowage.

Turret bin open...

Some growage of stowage. Plus opening turret schurzen.

Poor scribing this side.

Track sag.

Track sag is always a nice touch. but it's not always easy to achieve, and depends to quite a large degree on the type of track the kit uses. This kit has tracks of the better than average but won't glue with model glue variety. I had to glue them using Gorilla Glue superglue gel. The tracks are decent enough looking, detail wise. And I'm pleased with the overall effect.

Much more drastic track sag.

Adding some detail/interest to the rear engine deck.

I really want to start finishing some of my models. This one is intended to be a diorama. But hopefully also one I can still deploy on a wargame table, if desired. Most of my builds thus far have been with mid to late war stuff in mind. But this is finished in earlier war dark grey. I'm hoping I might learn to get better at single colour paint jobs. At present it's just blocked in. Weathering and shading are yet to be begun.

Started work on a base.

Halford's grey basecoat.

Revell dunkelgrau, decals, and a little blocking in of colours.

I don't think I'll be buying the Revell dunkelgrau spray can I used on this again. It took most of the rather small can to do this one model. And at about £5 a can, or thereabouts, that's simply too much. I don't know if I'll regret it, but I decided to put the decals on - using transfers from my spares box - at this stage. I'll work on shading and weathering over and around them, being careful not to obscure them altogether.

I'll end this post for now with a few more pics of the tank as she looks at close of play today. There's still a long ways to go. But at least I'm further on with her than with most models I post, where I more or less stop once construction is complete. I must get better at finishing stuff!

I'm quite pleased with progress so far.

Markings make such a difference!

The open hatches add some interest.

I like this view from the rear, with added suff, and open turret bin.

Just need to work on making the paint job more interesting!

To conclude, I really like the two Forces of Valor models I've built so far. They're less than half the price of certain other brands; Dragon, for example, have long been very expensive. But more recently, and rather depressingly, Revell kit prices at my local shop have gone up to similarly over-inflated levels. These FoV kits are, currently, cheaper than those hoary ol' Airfix 'vintage classics'!!! And they build into really quite good models, esp. with a bit of effort. It's a shame the range is, at present, really rather limited.

Kit Build/Review: Hasegawa 1/72 88mm Flak 36

I quite like building the same thing by different manufacturers. It's nice to have several of any given thing, so one has a unit, for future gaming. In this instance this is my third 88mm Flak gun. One of the others is an Airfix 1/76 version, the other 1/72, by Zvezda. This Hasegawa is the later Flak 36, and comes with crew, ammo and boxes, and the two trailers.

I knew I didn't want to build the crew. For one thing the figures ain't great. And for another, I wanted the crew to be bigger (more figures, not taller or fatter!), better posed/sculpted, and probably dressed differently. I've seen so many pictures of 88mm crews, and very often, due no doubt to the intensity of the physical work, and perhaps the location/climatic conditions, they'll be dressed more casually.

I laid all the parts out, per the steps in the instructions, ready for clean up.

Step one.

Step two.

Step three.

Step four.

Step five.

And so on...

Nearing completion...

Boom...  done. Now it just needs paint and decals. 

The trio of 88mm guns.

So, the model is made. It's better than the Airfix kit, by a long margin (and bigger). But it's not quite as finely detailed as the Zvezda. Actually this might be better, for wargaming purposes. Too fine detail - as many kits for 'pure' model-makers are these days - and the resulting piece is too fragile. At this point I'm not sure how to paint it. But I'm intending to paint it ASAP, and get the decals on. I need to change my long established m.o. of building and then abandoning kits unfinished/unpainted!

Kit Build/Review: Fw 190 & Me 109, pt II

Upper wing surface balkenkreuz masks.

I masked off the Swiss Air Force markings on the Fw 190, to turn them into balkenkreuz. Being somewhat constrained by their size, these are going to be rather non-regulation. I did try and find some spare decals, but only turned up the two I used on the fuselage sides of the Focke.

Lower ... ditto. Note right wheel broken off!

It was very labour intensive, prepping these. But I did enjoy doing it. I applied the paint with a flat head brush. As I feared, where the masking overlapped, there was some bleed. So I had to go in and touch up the messy bits.

Unmasked...

Bleed most easily discernible on underside.

And below, the end results. I did think that I could've tried to emulate the decals on the Me 109. But in the end I just went with what I had. And I'm happy enough. The temptation to remove the canopy masking is very strong. But I ought to do the rest of the decals first, and perhaps a bit of weathering?

Tidied up...

... with patient brushwork.

As usual, whilst working on the balkenkreuz I knocked a wheel assembly off. That's the umpteenth time in this build (and it's typical of the delicate extremeties in any model build, but seemingly more so with planes) that I've found myself gluing a delicate assembly back in place. It puts me in half a mind to leave these parts off until painting is done. Hmmm!?

Buildings & Terrain: 6mm Russian Napoleonic Tower

Having just read and reviewed Tony Harwood's new book on buildings for the Napoleonic era, I thought I should try my hand at making something. Most of my 6mm and 10mm Napoleonic armies were bought for recreating events of the 1812 Russian campaign, so I'm starting with a Russian building.

My inspiration for this project.

I picked a tower that appears to be part of an Orthodox church building complex. I'm keen in the long run to build lots of Russian buildings, including parts of Smolensk, and the town of Maloyaroslavets. I also want to make lots of ordinary buildings. Whenever I search for buildings of the era, I mainly find the most opulent and ornate Russian churches, or maybe a palace. It's quite hard to get good ref for more ordinary town or country architecture.

Started with plastic card an corrugated card in layers.

Added some paper and toothpick columns.

I also have a bunch of commercially produced buildings, which are mostly either log cabins or churches. That's partly why I've wound up starting on this particular building, as it's neither a log hut, nor a complete church. It also featured a number of things I thought might be fun to model: tiered or stepped levels, columns, porticos, ornament and doors/passages that can be looked through.

Tried my hand at using foam, a la Tony Harwood.

It bulks out quicker than card, but...

Scale wise, I've kind of busked it. I'm doing less levels/layers than the real building has, and simplifying what levels I do have. I'm also drastically squashing the vertical axis. If I built all the levels and stuck to true scale for this model it'd wind up massively tall and very spindly, and probably likely to topple over.

Bit of a jump to three storeys plus tower.

Approaching the 'onion' dome stage...

Already I've learned quite a lot about working with numerous materials. But I can see I still have an immense amount more to pick up. I've used card from bother back and front of old sketch-books, dense black foam from a circle template backer, plastic card, matchsticks, cocktail sticks, and numerous types of glue, including everything from PVA to super-glue. I've also used a Revell plastic putty filler, and DAS modelling clay.

All these each require different tools and skill sets, as well as China the mouse to use the right material or tool at the right moment. Certain materials, especially when working in thus tiny scale, like the foam and the corrugated card, can compress whilst cutting. The foam springs back. But the corrugated card won't necessarily do so.

There are aslo issues like knowing when to glue more detailed parts in place. I glued the matchstick and cocktail stick columns in place too soon. And without properly squaring off the internal corners, meaning that many of the columns lean rather drunkenly. Making the curved roof 'lights' (windows) on the uppermost roof (excepting of course the dome) was challenging. But I like how it's come out.

I had to stop at this point, not having anything to hand suitable for the dome. And then today I bought a few 10mm diameter wooden beads, sawing a small part off one, and passing a cocktail stick through. I reckon it looks ok!?

Wooden bead onion dome with toothpick spike.

At this point I sprayed the building in Halfords grey, so as to get a better sense of what I had so far. All the different colours, materials and textures were making it hard to really see the building clearly. I realised some time before this that I'd diverged from my inspiration/source ref in numerous ways. Which was fine. But one thing I wanted to preserve design wise, was the hermetically contained ground floor level.

Reworking the ground floor exterior.

More detailing on the top tower, etc.

I'm quite happy with how this is developing. Particularly as it's my first such build project since returning to the hobby. I think it'll make a decent addition to my Russia 1812 arsenal. It's great to get started on the scenery side of things. But I'll have to start working faster and more efficiently, given how much I want to build, e.g. a wargame-able reduction of the whole of Smolensk! I must be mad...

The tower at close of play today. Taking longer than planned!