Rubicon Panzer III M - Finished(?)

Here are some views of the Africa Korps Panzer III.

The model was undercoated black, followed by PSC German Tank Yellow.

Soft stowage was painted various shades of field grey and dark green camouflage. The helmet was also painted dark green. The boxes were painted dark green and black grey. The bucket was painted a mixture of Luftwaffe Grey and black grey. The crates were painted Vallejo old wood and shaded with Agrax Earthshade. The two sand bags were painted Citadel Karak Stone and shaded with Agrax Earthshade.

The track links were undercoated black and dry brushed a mixture of black and hull red. The final dry brush was Citadel Ryza Rust. A shade wash of Earthshade finished the track.

The edges of the armour were dry brushed with Army Painter Skeleton Bone, as was the stowage.

This is my attempt at the view on page 5 of the Osprey book on the Panzer III.

Rubicon Panzer III M - the continuing saga.

Well after a rather long Christmas break, I have returned to the Panzer III.

I made some modifications to the rear deck, removing one of the ventilation structures.

 I used the depression on the underside of the errant ventilator and drilled a series of holes, joined them using a scalpel and then filed it all square.

 I then glued a cover piece on the inside.

And then filled the cut out with some more plastic card.

 I used milliput to smooth out the surface (a Crooked Dice Corporal shares the workspace).

 It has now been undercoated with PSC German Panzer spray paint.

More Rubicon WIP

Well, I have nearly finished the Panzer III, the hole I made on the glacis between the ventilator and the track guard still needs to be filled.

 The white crate is made from layers of Evergreen plastic strip to simulate planks, with a top surface of thin strip. Microstrip makes the reinforcements, and thin microstrip makes the straps. There are fill issues with the HO scale boxes, so I have filled them with Milliput.

Next is the Crusader III tank. Most of the body has been completed, though I have to add the front lights and bend up the guards from wire (a jig is supplied in the kit). The rear fuel tank is proving a problem as there are no fixing points (I might have shaved the locating points from the fuel tank when cleaning it up).

 I do need to add stowage, as the Desert Rats used German jerry cans, I will use the ones from the German Stowage set.

The last Rubicon kit I am assembling is a T34-85 tank. I started assembling the tank just before visiting the Imperial War Museum (IWM). The shape of the turret of the tank at the IWM is different to that of the Rubicon model, the model is not wrong, it is just a different version of the long lived tank. I have modified the profile and added the bulge to house the electric turret traverse motor.

This is going to be a Post-War Central Europe example, so it needs the reflector under the tank, I have modified the tanks to have the forward filler caps and some additional boxes. On the glacis I will add the brackets and the splash board. The mounting points for the smoke canister at the back needs to be removed.

Rubicon Work In Progress

I have two Rubicon Models' tanks under construction, a T34-85 (hence all the pictures of them earlier in the blog) and a mid War Panzer III.

First here is the work in progress Panzer III. My suspicion is that this was the company's first model, as it is not as high quality as their later models, some of the surface detail is poor and the Mantlet does seem to project a long way forward.

 The Osprey book on the Panzer III has a plate (B1) showing a canvas cover over the exposed part of the barrel that recoils to protect it from dust. Though the plate is of a Ausf and the version I am building is an Ausf M, I thought it would be an interesting addition. Obviously added in Greenstuff. The track from the Rubicon German Stowage set was added to the top of the turret (again from an Osprey plate) and held in place with Slaters' Microstrip. I later added a similar bracket to the track length between the bow machine gun and the drivers hatch.

Two jerry cans were slotted in behind the rail on the right rear side and have microstrip straps. The brown box is an HO scale box obtained as part of a set of spurs from Knightwing. As it fitted so nicely in the available hole, I did not check if it fouled the turret, which it does. The turret does turn but care has to be taken.

The rear has the large wooden crate (with microstrip straps) and a hanging bucket (page 13 of the Osprey book - though that is in Russia and this will be a Desert War tank). I have added two War-games factory water bottles to the rear of the turret bin. This is something missing from the stowage set and a feature of pictures of DAK tanks (see page 19 of the Osprey Book).
Subsequently I have added a covered case (two of the HO boxes covered with Greenstuff) between the jerry cans and the crate and a long tarpaulin along the back of the crate that also hides what is holding up the bucket.

The front will have additional sand bags added behind the lights (most of the pictures I have seen of Desert War versions have the lights to the side of the ventilators at the front, but I could not fit them there, there is  a hole there that will need filling/covering from my attempt). The lights are vulnerable, and hopefully the sandbags will provide protection.

Additional Jerry cans will be added.