Hello fellow modellers!

After a couple of months spent in the basement experimenting around with my airbrush, I'm finally starting on my next project: DML's 15cm sIG33/1 auf Fgst. Pz.Kpfw.38(t) 'Grille' Ausf.H Sd.Kfz.138/1.

I have also started a new forum-based website where I will post all of my builds, be they tanks, planes, cars, etc.

Here's a link to my build:

'Grille' Ausf.H

I hope you'll enjoy and if you have any comments or suggestions please feel free to post them here!

Sebastian

Edit: I have shut the site down because the whole point of it was to post my progress on multiple projects. I don't have much time for any model building right now and have therefor decided to commit what I can spare solely to this build. I don't need a website for just one build and will continue the progress report here.

Cool site, sounds like your build will be very extreme

Thanks for the compliment Charles. I don't know what the exact definition of 'extreme' is but I'd rather refer to it as 'involved'.

Sadly, I probably won't get too much time on the bench this weekend but I hope that I can get the sanding work on the lower hull tub done.

Servus Sebastian..

Well, nice model with "Rich" AM stuff. As you know, I have also a Grille I at my workbench..



I will follow your build steps

Gruß

Özgür

That's the one you were talking about right? It'll be interesting to see how your build turns out and you've also got quite a bit of work to do yourself with all that PE. I'll be keeping an eye on your Grille!

Schöne Grüße, hoffe die Teile haben dir geholfen!

Sebastian

(P.s.: der Marder sieht geil aus und den Tiger wollte ich auch schon immer mal bauen)

Just a bit of a 'progress-report' between posts:

I started off by removing the alignment guides for the front superstructure plate.



The ugly has already been taken care of, it's been cleaned up. After that I had to glue the removed parts to the hull tub to close the gap and doing so was also the safest way of ensuring that the front plate would fit perfectly in the end. Here are some shots of test-fitting (the front plate was not taped in place which is why there's a small gap between it and the right plate).





That's all for now.

Sebastian

Off to a good start Sebastian, will be following this one with interest.

Yep!

Its still in build-detail Phase. I take no photos with this one, I will only after build-phase a few photo take. Thanks again for the Parts, they all now on duty

Danke!!

Bill:

I hope I can do as good of a job as you did with yours. I learned a lot about this kit from your build and I want to therefor say thanks for that at this point.
I have a question though: do you by any chance know if the whole antenna mounting on the exterior of the hull was removable on this vehicle? The picture I have of the 'Ursula' Grille that I want to build, showing the vehicle from the left side, does not have an antenna or the little mount that it stands on. It's not an in-combat shot so I was guessing that maybe the whole thing is removed, rather than just the antenna, between battles. The weird thing though is that the rain guard for the radio is also not visible.
Here are some pictures of other 'Grille' without the whole antenna + mount:




Sebastian

Sebastian,

Glad to hear my build was helpful for you! You raise a good question about the antenna mount in relation to "Ursula". The mount itself on combat vehicles isn't removable, it's simply welded directly to the superstructure plate and then the cable run into the radio. No idea why "Ursula" doesn't have one, sorry!

Hey Bill,

it's quite odd that it doesn't have one and even weirder that the rain guard is not present either. Could it be that some production vehicles actually had the same interior set up as the prototype (radio on the right side right next to the driver)? I really doubt this but it would make sense.

Anyway: I didn't get much done this weekend, not because I didn't really have enough time but because getting the hull tub sides smooth is quite difficult. As it is right now, the left tub side and the floor of the tub are done and I only need to do the right side. After sanding the side down with 80 grit sand paper, I tried to do away with some of the deeper scratches by sanding it down with 500 grit paper. After that I sprayed some Tamiya primer on to see what will still show once it's painted. I filled bigger scratches with green putty and sanded it all down again and repeated the whole process. After I was satisfied, I sanded the side with 1000 grit paper, primed it, sanded it and repeated this process a couple of times. The main problem is that the primer always takes time to dry. This is one reason why I haven't gotten everything done yet.
Next, I will be working on some interior details and I will start building the new gun mount, which I have already designed the individual parts for. Here's what I've got:



I will build the gun mount out of 0.5mm styrene. I will post a new progress report on my site once the hull tub has been finished.

Sebastian

Here's the last bit of progress before I head to Italy for a week. Please enjoy and comment!















Sebastian

The possibility that some of the prototype features may have actually entered production is an interesting one but not anything I have any information on unfortunately. Never say never when it comes to German vehicles!

The plans for the gun mount look sharp, can't wait to see how it looks once you get it all built. Have fun in Italy!

Thank you Bill, I'll try to forget about modelling for just a few days.

The gun mount won't be easy to build but I'm certain that the plans I've come up with are pretty accurate, at least more than the kit supplied parts. I have similar plans for the big ammo box because F62 is too long and the detail on the rear is inaccurate. I guess that's why you had problems mounting it on to the top of B12. I'll make that one out of brass.

As for the whole antenna thing, I guess I might consider making it look like the original mount broke off and instead the crew has reattached it to the interior side of the plate. Does that sound logical? I really doubt the prototype layout of the interior having made it to the production vehicles.

Sebastian

Hello fellow modellers,

I know this topic has been dead for a couple of months but I would just like to inform anyone who was wondering what happened (if there is anyone out there) of what's going on. After my trip to Italy I had one more week to work on the Grille before spending the majority of the next 2 months in planes and foreign places (North-Germany, France, USA) and my last year of school started a month ago. I will be writing my Bavarian Abitur in May or so and until then I've got as much time left to devote to modelling as a chainsaw-juggler has for peeking at his wristbandwatch. I'll continue on this build sometime in May '10 which really sucks ***. I just wanted to let everyone know that I haven't lost interest in the project.

Thanks, see you on the forums and right here next may!

[quote]I'll continue on this build sometime in May '10 which really sucks ***. I just wanted to let everyone know that I haven't lost interest in the project.quote]
Thats a pity Sebastian. It was shaping up nicely too!

Thanks Frank. It's a really cool project to me, I just love the German self-propelled stuff (hence the call-sign) but I really don't have enough spare time to really make a lot of headway. I might be able to add a few small details like bolts and stuff every now and then but really, that's all it'll be.

I gave the whole matter a thought and I'm getting that urge to buy and build kits again but I know I can't justify doing so without finishing this one first. Because finishing the interior will take ages with all the necessary modifications I have chosen to overgo this problem by building the Grille like this:



All buttoned up and sexy! I have never scratched together a tarp before but I'd be willing to try. I'll still add a bunch of stuff to the exterior like PE fenders and small details. What do you guys think?

So I've decided to go ahead and build this one with a tarp covering it and that means that I don't have to build the interior at all. Because the tarp has a few holes that you can look through I've decided to paint the interior flat black so that nothing will be visible. Painting the lower hull's inside was the first thing I did. After that I fitted all of the superstructure plates to the hull with masking tape and glued them in place. I didn't encounter any fit issues which is impressive. At least the fit of the parts is outstanding compared to the accuracy of the interior. I added a few bits of styrene to the interior to give it some more stability. I'll continue on this project on thursday with the painting of the rest of the interior. Hopefully, I will have the PE fenders fitted to the hull with all the details by sunday.



I've begun to experiment with making a tarp out of epoxy vs making it out of tissue paper. Tamiya's epoxy putty is good but I think I'll go with Milliput or does anyone have any other suggestions? I can't start working on the tarp because I have to order more putty. That's why I'll be working on the Friul tracks next week.

Have a good one.

I've spent the last two weeks working on all the bigger and smaller PE details like fenders and straps. The only thing I still have to work on is the gun mount and then I'm done. As you can see the fitting of the tarp supports was done very sloppily but I just went postal on it as I will give it another coat of black once the exterior is painted and the tarp is finished, none of it will be visible so I don't care for its looks at all. I experimented around with Milliput and found that it isn't right for such a large tarp. I'm going to use Tamiya's epoxy which is still on the way.

Please exscuse the following pictures, I no longer have a light box and the model looks a billion times better in rl than on the pics (the wheels are just test-fitted).









That's all for now, next up are the Friul tracks while I wait for the putty to arrive.

Looks good, Sebastian. The extra PE is adding some nice details in scale.

Looking forward to see more

Thanks Jesper, the PE is really worth it but takes a lot of time to make decent use of. It's really my kind of thing but I would still like to get started on the painting phase though. Here are some ghastly pictures of other details that I didn't post sooner. WARNING! Be sure to wear solar-eclipse glasses when viewing!

Scratch tarps are easy. Doped tissue airbrushed to match. You will want to dope the tissue about 5parts water to 1part white glue and set it over the area you wish to cover. Let it set up and airbrush it.