1/35 Quad Gun Tractor Completed (depicted in service with a German unit somewhere in Italy)

Above: Well, she's finished and very glad I am too!  Not that I didn't enjoy this build, but after three resprays it was all getting a little but repetitive.  My first attempts at a camo job were overly ambitious in my chosen camo pattern, so in the end I opted for something a little easier, although definitely authentic.

Above: my truck depicts a machine that was perhaps captured in North Africa and found its way to Italy, or maybe it was captured in Italy...............either way, it ended up in German hands. My only reason for choosing this option was that I wanted something a little different, and as German-captured trucks had already been created by other modellers, I opted for an unsual camo pattern taken from WWII photos of German trucks.

Above: the worst part of this old kit is the 'glass' and that can easily be fixed; I only replaced the top pieces as they looked really awful from the outside, even if fitted as instructed.  As replacements, I used clear plastic from commercial packaging, such as found when you purchase print cartridges - you know, the clear plastic?  I like to recycle when I can! Cut to shape, with a little excess around the edges, and this new 'glass' can easily be stuck using white glue which is also very easy to clean up and quite strong once dried properly.

Above: an amble supply of Jerry cans (from the Great Wall Hobby set) and a Tamiya oil drum completed the load.  The German Balkenkreuz came from the spares box.

Above: I used many oil weathering techniques on this build including a filter, fading, a pin wash, streaking grime and rust streaks, pigments, pastels.  It was only after the filter that I started to like my build - the filter tied all the camo and base-coat of self-mixed dunkelgelb together.

Above: I quite liked the plastic 'canvas' that came with the kit once painted, but decided to experiment with a tissue and some watered-down white wood glue. I cut the tissue to shape, and placed it on the roof.  I then took an old brush and lightly stippled my glue mix onto the canvas which to my delight instantly started to wrinkle and look just like material! I spent the next five minutes gently dabbing the tissue and 'moulding' it across the frame beneath, using a cocktail stick to gently re-arrange the wrinkles when needed.  I also thought a tear would be suitable for such a well-worn machine used by two different armies; I must admit, that my torn tissue 'canvas' is something I'm quite proud of............ 

Above: the kit's solid plastic grab handles on the top hatch were sanded off and replaced with brass wire; I also added a brass grab handle to the inner hatch door which had nothing in standard kit form. The metal loops to tie the straps securing my canvas roof were cut from an aluminum and the straps themselves made from Tamiya tape cut to shape.

Above: most German soft-skins and some armoured vehicles had white  visibility markings on the bumpers and these I hand-painted. Chipping on these areas and other parts of the truck was done with a tiny piece of sponge held in tweezers. The chain is a cheap jewelry piece from a craft shop, the bucket is from Tamiya, the number plate holder is scratch-built from aluminum and plastic card; decals are for a 'German truck in Italy' which I took from an old Italeri kit. The front windshields are from the kit windows to which I painted window frames.

Above:  again, the number plate holder was scratch-built.  The dust effects were added with Tamiya Buff, which you have to be careful with, especially on a machine this colour as it can obscure a lot of your previous hard work and without the dust effect being achieved. I avoided near-disaster by adding copious amounts of Klear on my build BEFORE dusting began. My first attempt was not favourable so luckily a damp cocktail stick soaked in thinner saved the day - I do NOT advise you to try this as it was very risky. Lady luck was with me that day as I was able to clean off the dust. I re-dusted again, even more carefully, sweating as I went while utilising a fake post-it note to mask areas I wanted left clean.  NOTE TO SELF - in future builds I will mainly save my 'buff dust' for darker-coloured vehicles.

Finally, the wheels were weathered using Mig Pigments for the tyres while the underside and wheel arches were given a mud mixture made from white glue, water and pigments (, dry & fresh mud, and of course my favourite, European dust).

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1/35 M4 High Speed Tractor (Part 1)

I must be crazy but I've started another build!  When you feel inspired and excited to start something new, you've got to grab the bull by the horns and go for it - if you don't the ideas could ebb away and you'll be left with nothing.  Anyway, the kit I'm building is HobbyBoss's 1/35 M4 High Speed Tractor.  

The vehicle itself is a very intriguing design, and although used as artillery/anti-aircraft gun tractors during World War II and  Korea, post-war the U.S. Army obviously had many surplus vehicles that made their way into businesses such as forestry, construction, and even airport recovery and fire suppression vehicles.

Although I love the M4 in its olive-drab paint and white stars, it has been done many times before, and what's more, it's been done excellently.  Therefore I see no point in just repeating what others have done, and maybe not doing it as well. With this in mind my idea is to depict a surplus vehicle and my inspiration is below. 

(photo credit-google images-for conversational/reference purposes only)

While I may not depict this actual machine, the colour will most probably be the same on my model and I may or may not have my vehicle abandoned and dilapidated. I did have the idea of building a exploration vehicle, perhaps one that explored  Antarctica or other such hostile environments.  We shall see...........

If you like your sanding sticks and filler, that's good - you'll need them as there are loads of ejector pin marks on the interior.  The fit of the engine wasn't perfect, but it's do-able with a bit of work and determination.  I'm probably going to have my engine exposed so have dealt with any ejector pin marks, just in case. The road wheels are quite fiddly to build up but are nicely detailed when complete, and luckily there are not that many of them.  

The components supplied are nicely detailed.  As with most kits, after-market components are readily available if you want to throw extra money at your build.  

It's slowly starting to come together.  The road wheels can not be glued in position yet as I need to paint the road wheels. The next factor to determine is whether my vehicle will be complete or have missing/extra components.  It's time to decide the final 'look' of my model.

More soon.................

The rear ammunition boxes have a lot of ejector pin marks to fill. I won't have the bottom section with the shell racks on show, although I have filled all ejectors marks.

With the storage container lifted off there's a nice view of all your hard work - I won't glue this part in place. 

The build itself is nearly complete.  I still have lots of photo-etch to attach but am leaving it off as long as possible - you know how delicate that stuff is!

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1/35 Academy Jagdpanzer 38(t) 'Hetzer' (part 5 - completed!)

Last night I was up until the early hours finishing this one off. 

It depicts Germany, Summer, 1945. A British tank crew discovered an abandoned Hetzer with strange camo; they were well acquainted with the beast, having being knocked out by it two days before the war in Europe ended. However, it seemed the American 463rd Ordnance Evacuation Battalion had already laid claim to the machine, their scrawl adorning the sun-bleached hull, ear-marking this vehicle to be picked up by one of their Dragon Wagon transporters.

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1/35 Academy Jagdpanzer 38(t) 'Hetzer' (Part 4 - added chips, mud, and dust effects).

Here we are one more time with some more progress.  It might seem a long, drawn out build, and in fact it is - however, the stages of weathering take time and patience, and I need to rest and regroup in between modelling sessions.

In the photo above it's clear to see the chips I have begun to add.  It's a tedious, sweat inducing task, and that's no joke. To damage one's model at this stage, after so much effort had been injected would be upsetting, to say the least.  The darker areas represent the older, rusted steel (applied by sponge and brush), while the surrounding areas are carefully brush painted on, in this case using a my 'red-oxide' paint to represent fresh chips.

I still have to work on the tracks, but until I've decided about my base, they can wait.  

For the chipping I used both a sponge and a good quality brush.  

I like my Hetzer both with and without the armoured skirts, so I spent a while taking them on and off. There're very delicately attached so I can I always change them around and I have some spares all painted up and ready to go (I made extra just in case...........). As you can see, I chipped the tool box with my darker, old rust mix.  Any part of the vehicle that is being constantly opened and closed or handled will chip - just look at an old metal tool box in your garage!

For the mud spatter I mixed a small amount of white wood glue with water and added some Mig pigments (Dry Earth and European Dust).

The mixture was first tested on paper and then I used an old brush with cut down, stiff bristles, dipped in my muddy/dusty mixture and the bristles were carefully manipulated with my finger to flick dirt on the hull. I had to be careful to get the scale of the splashes looking natural.  I hold a post-it note in front of any areas I want kept relatively clean.

And finally here's a top view of the weathered machine.  As you can see, the vivid colours have been nicely muted, much to the crew's relief!

See the final reveal HERE

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1/35 Academy Jagdpanzer 38(t) 'Hetzer' (Part 3)

Unfortunately I didn't take photos when I added the dunkelgelb camo, but I can tell you I did it using yellow tac (I hear white tac it less tacky so less likely to pull up your base coat when removing) rolled into sausage shapes and placed gently on the hull and manipulated into shape. It's best to have a rough sketch of your camo pattern before beginning the procedure. 

Once the 'octo-legs' were in place I removed the yellow tac and went in with a paint brush to add the little red-oxide circles. When this stage was complete, I added a coat of satin varnish; it's very important to give your model a protective coat in between each weathering process, so as to protect the paint and all your hard work beneath.

In the photo above my Hetzer has been treated to a filter and a pin-wash using oil paints to bring out panel lines and other details.  I couldn't add the side skirts as yet because I needed to work behind the tracks and also on the road wheels. However, what I did was to temporarily fix the skirts so they could be weathered to match the hull.

In the photo above I'm adding oil weathering to the hull. I added dots of my chosen colour to the areas where they were needed, took a flat brush dampened with spirits, and then gently dragged the paint vertically. Sometimes it's possible to unintentionally remove all the paint, so just add more paint and repeat the process. I was aiming for a faded appearance.

   The wheels were weathered at a later stage as the tracks still needed working on.

As well as fading, I also added some individual streaks of dirt and rust, working small dots of oil with a small round brush dampened with odourless spirits. 

In the photo above you can see there's still more weathering needed, especially in the track department.   

See part 4 HERE

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1/35 Academy Jagdpanzer 38(t) 'Hetzer' (Part 2 - primer and base coat)

With grey primer on the hull I'm able to address any problems that didn't show up before hand, and believe me, there are ALWAYS some!  

My little modifications also begin to 'pop' when the primer's added - exciting! 

Okay, so I have my grey primer down and my fixes are completed.  There are no photos of the next stage but it was just the addition of airbrushing a pre-shade along panel lines. Next up was to add my base coat which is a delicious interpretation of red-oxide.

This paint decision will probably aggravate purists, but I'm building this Hetzer using what I view as a perfectly acceptable philosophy to the late-war situation (plus this is a fun hobby to escape the confines presented by everyday life - not that I need an excuse to do as I wish with my kit! haha.

I'm glad I damaged the rear mud guards/fenders.  In reality they were very thin and most period photos show that they were normally pretty bent of out shape. Like I previously mentioned, I sanded the fenders down so they were pretty thin, and thus easy to manipulate.

The brackets that hold on the skirts bent and broke more times than I care to mention during this build. Maybe it's a good idea to add them nearer the end...................

Hey, someone in the factory found a green road wheel from another Hetzer, and  of course, they immediately fitted it to my machine, just to break up the monotony of red. Notice I have used the later 4-hole idler wheel (Academy kindly supplies this with their kit; in fact they supply 3 different types!). 

Hetzers sporting 4-holed idler wheels were produced and saw action during  WWII - see photos above.  I went on a mammoth photo hunt mid-build and found enough evidence that this was the case (not that it really matters when I'm building a red-oxide Hetzer......ha!).

See part 3 HERE

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