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 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 Tamiya Schwimmwagen - fini! (completed 2014)

Here are the photos of my completed little Schwimmwagen, a really fun and uncomplicated kit. (Click on an image for a larger view).

I originally planned to apply some sort of camo but after mixing and applying my lightened (faded) version of dunkelgelb, I decided against it,

This photo is the only proper one I took of the interior and it's a WIP of effects achieved with oil weathering.

I wanted some colour contrast so added white 'visibility' markings on all four corners of the vehicle.  Try as I might, I wasn't able to find one photo of a Schwimmwagen with them, therefore I'm claiming artistic licence! 

Here you can clearly see the white 'visibility' paint on the front bumper, along with an old chain that I weathered up and added for a little extra visual impact.

In the photo above you can hopefully see the layers of paint, scratches, chipping and fresh rusty patina kept reasonably (for my builds) minimal. Notice the fuel stains around the two fuel caps.

The interior has also been weathered and a few little accessories added. Hope you can see the wood grain added to the oar.

The leather strap for holding up the prop assembly (which is hanging loose in the photo) is made from Tamiya tape painted brown; this was weathered, along with the whole lower chassis, by spraying a thin coat of Tamiya buff to represent dust,  I also added a little wire buckle to the belt.  The belt itself is attached to a bracket made from soda can aluminum.

I applied quite a few layers of chipping to the rear areas, both German grey to represent this vehicle's original colour, and also a darker, fresher shade of dunkelgelb (dark yellow).  To the exhaust guard I added some primer-red chips along with the gray.

Okay, so that's it for this build, so on to the next!

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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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