After a delay I started again on my German 39H Befehlspanzer Observation Vehicle build (Bronco CB-35003). I was getting some of the last paint work and parts fitment done before weathering and other finish work. I ran into a roadblock with the machine gun mounting/placement. The damn thing completely spans the width of the opening on the top of the tank. The only other access to this vehicle is the front driver hatch. With the MG mounted as instructed and shown it would be next to impossible to enter or exit the vehicle through the top. Standing up and butting the stock against the shoulder to fire the weapon would be flat impossible. If the MG is situated forward enough to allow enough room to stand up behind it and shoot, it puts the gun’s ammo feed outside the armor shield which also means the ammo can is out in the open just sitting on top of the tank. I tried a different MG, an MG 42, but it’s the same length and presents the same problems as the MG 34. I had an MG 34 with a bipod mount and although it looks like it could work with some modification, the problem of the ammo and feed being outside the armor remains. I thought of a prone gunner lying across the back deck, but besides the heat from the engine compartment and the uncomfortable location of the handles, being that exposed in an armored vehicle sort of defeats the purpose. I have considered not using any MG and saying that the crew would use their personal weapons. That would be the easiest way to solve the problem, but I don’t know how it would be in terms of tactical accuracy.

The box art and the instruction sheet both show the same image. Only the MG barrel is visible poking through the slot in the armor plate. I searched the Internet for a couple hours trying to find a picture of the real thing and found everything but.

So, what do you think? How would you solve this?

Here's a side shot with a soldier to show the relative size of things.



Here's the same guy standing inside on the floor deck showing how much of his torso protrudes.



Top view of same.


Here's the MG 34 set on the mount per the instructions. Of course, it would be mounted upright since I don't think there were any Gangsta Wehrmacht using a sideways gun mount!!!



Same problem positional with an MG 42.



Various MG 34s and the MG 42 for comparison. The black one came with the kit and is lacking in detail the tamiya ones have. The experimental coloring is from a Sharpie black magic marker.



This MG 42 image shows how the box shows what part of the MG sticks tout of the armor shield.



Prone soldier on engine deck in position to fire the MG. Exposed and uncomfortable; likely impossible on the move.



The MG in relation to the soldier in the hatch.



The next pictures are the only way the soldier could stand in the hatch and have the MG in a firing position. As can be seen, the ammo belt and the ammo can would be sitting out in front of the shield. I'd have to rig something up to hold the bipod in place as well if i cnoose this route. There may be other vulnerabilities with having the gun this exposed.







Side note: The pictures were taken under a fluorescent magnifying light about a foot over the model. The green looks blue and the paint looks like crap in general. While it does need touched up in a spot or two, in normal light looks much better. The plastic dust all over it doesn’t help much either.

the crew may have removed the stock for mounted mg's.... remote control mg 34's have no stocks and the stocks were removable( but hard to get off) on both mg 34/42 weapons.

With the gun fixed the stock wont be needed in theory and could be fire buysighting and squeezing the trigger, the gun was only for self defence so its praticality wasn't high. on early stug III ausf G's a grenadier on the back couldv'e fired the top mg as it went along... as with the mg installed on the sheild it was hard to get past but they manged to.
if you can scratch build a new front sheild as the kits looks kind of thick the gun could be put on a angle for hatch access like on a stug III.

cheers,
Mat

Hi Matt. The gun as positioned is how it came with the kit. Because this tank was so small and only had a 2 man crew and limited tactical application I wouldn't think the German engineers would spend a lot of effort or money fitting it with a remote MG. Hell, they didn't even put a closable hatch on the top which is strange considering the radio equipment is against the side dorectly below it.

Acording what data I could find about it, only 24 were so modified and put into service.

I agree on the thickness issue. The sides of the shield are thicker than the armor in a couple of Dragon kits I have that have the thin plastic to more accurately represent armor. I already sanded them down quite a bit. I left the front plate thicker than the sides since it would make sense to have thicker armor facing the front. I do like the idea of an off-set mount for the MG. As it is, its field of fire is limited to the direction the tank is facing since there is little, if any, left and right traverse to the gun. An offset post type mount would give more clearance to the hatch and if it swiveled, it would have a wider field of fire. I have a tripod mount for an MG 34/42 I'll take a look at to see if it can be adapted.

I had thought about making a framed structure that could be covered with a canvas top to cover the hatch. It would need to be something that could be removed easily for exiting the tank and then pulled over and secured from the hatch area.

Anyway- many thanks!

Hey Jim,
When Trumpeter and then Bronco came out with their kits of this vehicle, I was unable to find any photographic proof that such a vehicle was built.
Obviously, there must be drawings or photos somewhere since both kits are remarkably similar.
I agree with Mathew that the crews may have used an MG34 or MG42 with the butt-stock removed.
The Hetzer and late StuG's used a similar set up.

Hetzer Remote Control MG

Like Matthew says, looking at the thickness of the kit supplied shield, it looks way out of scale and could be replaced with something thinner.
That may solve some of you problem.
You could also consider replacing the MG34/42 with an MP38/40 or a MP44/StG44.
I have seen a photo somewhere of a MP44/StG44 mounted on a late production StuG III or IV instead of an MG34/42.
Anyway, your build looks interesting and can't wait to see the finished kit.
Cheers

jjumbo

Hi! I'm going to check out the link you provided right after I post this. I agree with the thickness issue after looking at the shield again. The sides are measued at .035" which would be about 1 1/4" real world. The front piece is .048" which in real world would be 1.68" thick, or just over 1 1/2". I don't know off the top of my head what average thickness was for such light arms fire protective armor but I'd think 1/2" to maybe an inch would be believable. I removed it and will either make another or something else depending on which way I go with this. I still have another of these Bronco kits stashed away and I have one of the Trumpeter kits as well. I haven't opened the box and looked at that one yet, but the box art makes the hull look taller and fatter. The front slope looks steeper as well. The two Bronco kits are still badged Weijun Models so I assume they are older.

I started this a while ago and had recycled the box into storage for other things. I dug it out to take another look at the box art in case i had missed something. I was able to fit most of the top on my scanner to post it here. What's interesting is that looking closely at the picture, the MG is indeed situated with the receiver portion where the belt feeds in in front of the the armor plate. No ammo boxes are visible and the MG obviously isn't loaded because no belt is to be seen. Kinda silly in a tactical situation! I wish they showed it loaded because having operated tracked vehicles in the Army I'd like to see how they secured the ammo cans.



Note where the instructions show the MG mounts which creates the MG spanning the hatch opening problem. The nub is plainly visible in the picture of the MGs I posted previously.



Most difficult for me to make sense of is the top view in the line drawing. I think the MG is angled upward at the barrel. It makes it difficult (for me) to see the stock:



I don't have a lot of leeway in scratching and positioning a new shield any farther forward because of the binocular periscopes. I'm going to look and see if I can find a drawing or some good photos of a simple vehicle MG mount I could perhaps scratch and adapt. If I can get something believable and stay with the original tank configuration I will go that route. If I have to go creative and come up with an imaginative adaptation, I'm game for that, too. I can always claim it was a field modification! The tripod I have from the Tamiya German Machine Gun Troops set is quite complicated with a range finding optical device and a tray type cradle for the MG. It's too big to adapt cleanly to the tank.

According to the historical data on the instruction sheet it says, " The Hotchkiss H39 was the last type from her family H tank series. It's larger than the H35 and the weight also increase to 12 ton. H39 was equipped with the SA 1938 (37 mm) gun. In the early WW II more than 800 H39 tanks served in the army. Large numbers of this tank fell into the German hand in 1940 invasion. Many of these H tank after modification were issued to German units. After modification 24 H39 tanks became H39 Observation Vehicles issue to artillery troops 21st Armoured Division." Strange English courtesy of Weijun's translators, not me! I'm going to try searching for some info about the 21st Armored Division and maybe see if that leads anywhere trying to learn more about these.

A primary critique I have of this kit is that it only came with one seat. The instructions show two- one for the driver and one in front of the radios mounted to the side. You can see it if you look straight down in through the top hatch. Originally I put the seat in front of the radio rack. After thinking about it, I believe this would be very problematic in actual use. First, there's an issue when standing in the hatch. The radio operator couldn't possibly run the radios at the same time the MG was manned or anyone entered or exited the track. That seat would also be a problem because anyone entering or exiting the vehicle would have to climb on it. So much for boots on the furniture! A gunner would find it awkward to stand on it because he'd be up too high through the hatch and would have to crouch down to shoulder the MG. It isn't quite centered under him so standing on it would place the seat back against the side of his left leg. It's offset from centerd under the hatch enough so that his feet would be positioned to his right rater than directly under him. He'd have to lean his body left to be centered through the hatch. It would be worse when the tank was moving! Standing that way when stationary would be difficult enough much less having to load and use the MG while underway. A misstep and a nasty fall into the vehicle would ensue which would have to cause injury. The location of the radios seems very poorly chosen as well. They are directly under a permanently open hatch subject to rain and snow, use as a step when exiting or entering the tank, a shin scraper, and worse. It makes me wonder if the entire internal layout of this vehicle is in the imagination of the model designer. I can't see the same engineers who came up with a lot of the German War Machine's weapons being that inept.

Some initial mods I did: I added some tie down loops at the top front corners, midway and at the end of the side of the hull. The large frame along the one side fits two jerry cans. I have to fabricate a complimentary frame to sit on top of the fender. I have some rolled up camo netting, some scratched wooden crates, a crude small ladder, some tarps, and bedrolls to heap atop it. I need to find some references for German field gear colors like bed rolls, etc.

Thanks guys, for the suggestions. They are really helping me get over this- what would it be?
modelers block?:D

If you think of more to add, please do!

Hello Jim,

I fear that the dimensions of at least the upper hull of your Bronco kit are wrong what effected a too short roof.

The hatch was proportionally adjusted to this roof and thus is also too short.


I have checked the instruction of the H38 released by PitRoad (which is the same like the H39) and compared the kits drawings.


At first I have marked a line from the roof plate down to the suspension, especially to the roadwheels.

Whilst the marked front line (1) goes right trough the outer wheel, the rear line (2) touches the wheel very slightly.






This distance between the wheel pair serves as a yardstick.


Then I transfered this "yardstick" to the PitRoad drawings.

Again the front line (1) hits the hub at its center whilst the rear one (2) is touched only at its outer rim.





I think you see what I like to show.



Another proof for the mentioned wrong proportions, measures, dimensions of the kit and the drawings is for example the different position of the return roller at the rear I have marked at both the drawings and your pic.






To me it is evident that the angle of the front glacis plate is also too flat, a closer look at the position of the return roller at the front in comparision to both kits' drawings might confirm this.



I am sorry Jim that acutally I could not really help you in the sense of providing a solution how to assemble the MG.


But I have thought that it was necessary to throw light on the basic lacks of this kit.

Thanks for the information Marco. It is as I suspected with the sizing of the hull on this kit. Looking at the PitRoad kit in the link, it appears that this is the same as the Trumpeter kit I mentioned. The box art is identical. When I bought the Trumpeter kit I thought at first it was an entirely different vehicle because of how radically different the hull appeared. Did you have that PitRoad kit? At the site I looked at their MG mount in the instructions and it is indeed more of a 'true" mount than the pin in slotted tab the Bronco/Weijun kit has. I also noted the entire rear part, especially the muffler is totally different between the two kits along with other things.

From the historical data above, is it possible the unit should have been the 21st Panzer Division rather that the 21st Armored Division? I found some info about 21st Panzer in my library, but nothing about this observation vehicle.

I don't think I am going to put the effort into rebuilding this kit into the correct and accurate form. I'll likely just finish it and make it as believable as possible from a functional point. I was hoping to avoid digging out my Trumpeter kit and comparing it. Most of my models are packed into 35 individual 24 X 18 X 10 storage containers. While they are numbered and logged into a data base to make finding a kit easier, every time I need to look at one it is inevitably at the bottom of a stack that's behind all the other stacks! I am glad I was able to see the full instruction sheets at the site you provided.

At this point, I'm going to enlarge the hatch opening in both directions and scratch a new armor shield. I'm thinking about some type of step to get up on the vehicle since as it is, climbing up on it would seem difficult, especially if it was rain or snow wet or iced over. I'm going to keep thinking about the MG mount. I'm partial to the idea of something that would allow for a wider field of fire.

I came across this site recently when I was looking for a pair of belt fed, water cooled, late WWI era .30 cal machine guns. I found the guns, cradles, pedestals, ammo belts, and ammo boxes here:

http://www.thebarrelstore.com/index.html

If they turn out to stock as much as the site shows they are a god-send! I only placed the order about 2 days ago so I'm still waiting to to get the items. I will search through their site and see if I can find an adaptable mount. I'm going to nose through some other unstored models I have loose and see if there's an MG mount that will fit the build.

Update: I took the front positioned MG 34, the mounting arm and armored shield from a Dragon Sd. Kfz. 251 Ausf C 3 in 1 kit.(6224). I robbed it from the 251/7 Pioneerpanzerwagen version and will build the 251/1 sMG from the kit. I have a second so I can still build the Pioneer version which was my original intent. It looks like it will work nicely with some modifications already under way.

I think I will end up doing some body work on the H39 since adapting the MG will interfere with the periscope location. Right now my plan is to split the forward part of the hull vertically and build the left side out towards the front further and make the current angle of the hull much steeper. The periscopes will be relocated to there. As a possibility I'm considering making it taller, sort of like a fixed turret looking section and putting the periscopes in it. The area in front of where the MG will mount may need some surgery as well. It will likely be squaring off the front slope some to situate the MG forward far enough for the gun to clear the hatch. I may try to sketch something and post it. It will end up disproportionate at the front like an M7 Priest.

It will either work or it won't. That's the way these things go!!!

You could always just add a figure that is sitting with his legs hanging down into the hatch.

Hi Jimmy! Yep, that would be realistic 'cuz that's the only part of him that would be able to get inside the the hatch with the MG in place! Oh the pain if he suddenly came under fire and in the adrenalin rush tried to drop into the hatch straddling the butt of the '34!! I fell off the back of a tractor once and straddled one of the 1 1/4" thick steel arms on the back that helped hold the the scraper blade. My feet stopped about 6" short of touching the ground when I high- centered perfectly on my crotch with all my weight! I thought I had been killed!

Still, firing the weapon from that seated position would be hard even for a contortionist! And most importantly, I need to get waaaaaay better at figures before I'd even consider showing them to anybody!!!!

I have already cut the top off the thing, and I changed my mind about the modifications because certain physical dimensions will limit what I can do to end up with a workable vehicle. I got the rotating armor shield and MG mount put together and working. I will try to get some pics up later.

Follow up:

I made a loose mock up with my idea of adding a raised fixed turret to the top deck and adding the MG I took from an Sd Kfz 251. It still didn't give me the clearances I wanted. Most importantly, it looked like crap. The results are below:

Top deck amputated:





And the MG mount and shield:



My original idea roughed out is below. Reality definitely clashed with my vision!

Side view from fixed turret side. The periscopes were going in the turret.


Same thing from MG side:



The top:




So, I tore it all off and went back to the original flat deck concept. I made a round hatch further back than the original square one. I extended the deck forward and squared it off the front down to the top of the driver's hatch. I decided on a fixed shield and a swivek MG mount. I'll either use only the MG mount itself without the shield, scratch something, or pirate it from another kit.









The periscopes will be on the left side of the vehicle set in a small covered projection/enclosure on the top deck. As I said earlier, I am developing some ideas for armor shielding that will go on the right like the original shield's position. I'm considering a storage cage or racks for the deck's remaining open area. I'm thinking of ditching the wire on the side that secures the jerry cans. I may move those to the top and leave the vehicle's sides free of large clutter.

As always, suggestions and comments are welcome.

Tough decision to go this route with a model which is almost completed.

But IMO it has been right to do so and at the moment it seems that you gonna be rewarded for your brave and thorough measure.

Good luck for the finish Jim.

Thanks Marco! It's just as much work to do it wrong as to do it right so I don't mind. The practice is always helpful. I wish I would have fit the MG sooner to see the problem so I could have done the modifications before painting and all that. It was just one of those things I think the manufacturer of the kit would get so wrong! Surely they had someone build one. Obviously, that the parts fit together was more important than any practicality the full scale version would have. But, it could always be worse!

To date, the worst model I have EVER seen for being so blatantly wrong was a Chevrolet Chaparral 2H Can-Am race car by Otaki Scale. I think the model's designer never saw the car at all and was given a History of the Chaparrals book with pages stuck together. He got the front half of the mid-winged 2H and the back half of the 2J "sucker car" and all the dimensions wrong.

Onward into the fog!

One step forward and two steps back- that's the Dance of Progress!! Sometimes pre-planning is my worst enemy! After several trips back to the drawing board, I decided to just wing it and engineer on the fly. I left the redone top deck as shown in the earlier posts. Here are the results:

Angled view, right side from rear to front. Ignore the holes on the side. I removed the jerry can holder. I decided to add some steps. The one from the fender is still tentative. I may still keep it, but position the mounting under the fender.



Rear view down the length across the top. The MG mount was taken from a Tamiya Mutt kit. The post was cut way down, the side braces removed, and the base plate sanded off. I left the Angle braces at the bottom and glued the shortened post on a smaller base. The gun cradle is a piece of drilled out sprue, shaped into a U with resin rivet heads on either side to resemble a pivot pin. The side braces for the post are stretched sprue. The primer went on a bit thick on it in places.



Front view.



Straight on shot. Note the relocated periscope/binoculars. The cover was scratched from .020" plastic sheeting which was sanded down thinner. The periscopes accumulated some excess primer and still need cleaned up. The fuzzy stuff along the guard opening is tape residue that attracted some over spray.



Side view from the left. I cut the low spot along side the armor shield to make it easier to get onto and in the vehicle. I wanted to design the components for the best functionality. Ergonomics before their time! I hoped doing this would make these aspects of the vehicle more interesting. The shield is purposely offset towards the right edge in relation to the tank's entry opening. This was done as another feature to compliment use of the cut away on the shield as a hand hold when climbing up on top of the tank and to reduce a trip hazard. The offset position is most visible in the top shot.



Left side showing the periscope guard and armor shield in profile.



Right side.



Top view. Note the armor shield's offset I mentioned earlier. As i said, moving it to the edge like that makes the hand hold easier to use. Inside the shield a small ledge can be a step on or a surface to lay items on. (I noticed in this photo that the weld seams behind the opening don't look absolutely parallel. I think it's a photographic anomaly because it doesn't look that way on the actual model. I will have to measure it and see if it may need attention!)



The last images show a figure set in the hatch and an MG 42 Blu-Tacked into the cradle of the MG mount. The figure is not standing fully upright, but is posed with the knees bent in a slight crouch. If it was standing straight the MG stock would go right into the shoulder, possibly even be a bit below it. These mods solved the problem of the MG completely spanning the hatch making entry.exit to or from the tank near impossible. It also makes firing the MG from the inside doable. Solving these problems were what led to this whole undertaking.



The figure didn't want to stand on his feet and kept falling back against the hatch. I guess if I was missing my arms I would be flopping around, too!









In this last picture he finally co-operated and stood up straight. Note the stock of the MG in relation to his shoulder. Positioning isn't too bad considering he is standing with bent knees. If he stood straight, he could point the barrel of the MG down and create a field of fire very close to the front of the tank and in an arc to both sides. This is a major tactical improvement over the original design.



In summary, I think the MG mounting system it has now is far better than the original. That MG system was limited to up and down movement, and like a StuG's main gun, required the vehicle to be turned left and right to aim the weapon in those directions. The armor shield shape is an improvement over the original because it is taller and provides cover further back along the sides. The rounded front will add deflection capability to the sides. The way the original was sloped at the from made me wonder it some defected rounds couyld hit the gunner. The repositioned periscope/binoculars are at a more practical location. Being up higher than they were with the original tank design would allow the tank to duck behind higher cover and still see over it plus the added height would increase the scanable distance. Moving them to the left side of the tank moves the observer from being directly in front of the gunner and from behind the driver.

An improvement I didn't make is relocating the radios. I went through the problems i saw with their location earlier in this thread. If I had it to do over I would move the radios and the radio operator;s seat against the rear bulkhead. That would solve the problems of the inaccessibility of the radios with someone in the hatch and the awkward location of the radio operator's seat for the gunner. An added benefit is the escape hatch in the floor would be accessible easier since a seat wouldn't be bolted down over it. Relocating the radios would save them from potential damage by debris, rain, and snow falling through the open hatch onto them as well as getting kicked or stepped on as crew climbed into or out of the tank through the hatch.

I have a few holes in the hull to fill, some clean-up work on the periscopes and other places where the primer went on a tad thick. I'm going to re-shoot the whole thing rather than try to match and blend the colors and restore the original camouflage pattern. I have Fruil tracks to install and other items. Still some work, but it's all minor compared to the reconfiguration effort.

I thoroughly understand it's now a vehicle that never was, but I think I made a pretty good set of improvements over the original. I think they are functional and were things that wouldn't be out of line with the design changes that the Germans made to the original Hotchkiss H39 tank. At least it is more functional than the original kit design.

As always, comments, suggestions, critiques, etc. are most welcomed.

Is this the same vehicle?:



Looking at side views on the internet, I think the model may not be dimensionally accurate. The front of the model looks steeper than the drawings. That would push the shield back and make the manhole smaller.

Hahaha. Should read the whole thread before I post. Nice conversion.

-Doug

Hi Doug. Thanks for posting that picture! That's one of ONLY two picture of this vehicle I have ever seen!

You are correct. There were issues with dimensional accuracy for sure with this kit as Marco illustrated above. That's what led to the modifications I made. I have the Trumpeter kit of this vehicle and it's supposed to be much better in terms of accuracy. I know the box art looks better than this!

I have some more pictures coming for this build as tracks get installed, the paint gets done, and the remaining parts get installed.

Please tune in again!

A little more progress. This beast had a lot of paint on it so I reapplied the colors with ultra diluted coats of Life Color paints. I wanted to maintain a field applied look so I used a brush to lay out the green and brown parts of the camo pattern. What I will do next is use an airbrush to spray the edges of those two colors to soften them onto each other and the dunkelgelb areas. I'll take care of any light spots then as well. There are a few pieces along the fenders that have lost some clarity of detail from all the paint/primer which will be attended to. I will remove them by cutting and sanding, replacing them with photo etch fret bits or thin plastic.

I had a set of Fruil tracks already made up for it. I treated them with a track blackening product that didn't work despite following the instruction to the letter. In my frustration at the stuff barely affecting the finish of the tracks in repeated treatments I allowed them to soak for an extended period. Big mistake!!! The result was a very minute change in color, but corrosion similar to what can be found on a dirty car battery terminal appeared all over the tracks. Although I cleaned it off by brushing and extended rinsing and asoaking in a baking soda solution to neutralize any acidic residue, the damage was done. The metal became brittle. The smallest amount of handling caused the thin material at the holes where the links are pinned together with the wire to crumble and tear through. Lesson learned! I just completed assembling and prepainting a new set of Fruils which are drying as I write this. I gave them several initial coats of a burnt umber and raw earth mix.

Obviously, some items such as the pioneer tool, muffler, and machine gun need installed. I need to finish the periscope lenses with Vallejo lens finish. And decals. And weathering...

Front view:



Left side:



Rear:



Right side:



Top:



Slowly, but surely it's coming along. I have over a half dozen other builds all going on right now and bounce back and forth from one to the other as the mood strikes me. I have a couple other kits I want badly to dive into, but these are already awaiting completion so I am forcing myself to do these first:

Tristar Panzer I ausf A (decals, install tracks, weathering)

RPM Sd Kfz 135 Ambulance (a MAJOR construction/reconstruction project as I try to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear! i cut off all the molded on tiedown hangers and replaced them with scratched brackets and wire loops. bought a seconf kit to fit the rear compartment exterior hull walls into the interior to duplicate the rivet and other details on the inside surfaces. scratched medical supply boxes to mount on the bulkhead. I ordered a PE set to improve the suspension appearance. the biggest problem is figuring out how to rebuild the rear access doors and rear hull section so it is like the real thing or at least practical to be able to get wounded -and the healthy for that matter- in and out of the rear compartment. as it is, that would be next to impossible. out of the box it has even greater design impossibilities and flaws than this 39H did.)

RPM Ford M.M.G.S. WWI Model T Scout Car (done and came out nicely! waiting for Resicast Vickers MG to arrive to install and complete it. still figuring out a way to use something else for the headlights because the kit ones would be almost 20 inches across in real life. it doesn't look bad without them, though! I scratched a bed mounted dual spare tire carrier and made a nice little engine starting crank handle.)

RPM Ford TC Model T WWI Armored Car (everything is done but both the body and turret needs painted and weathered. I added wire handles on doors and hatches, cut vision slot in turret. thinned armor plating were thickness is visible. added driver vision slot visor, cowling area rivets, hood tiedowns, wire light support. it will likely get the second barrel/gun in the Vickers MG set I ordered for the scout car)

RPM Tankette Ciagnik Pancerny CP artillery tractor (about half done. tiny little thing so it's a bit frustrating to work on for long. some part fitment issues are challenging because of the small size, too! i dislike the tracks -plastic sections of various length, the type I like the least to install because they have to be exact or they don't look right. did I mention how small this was?)

RPM Japanese Ko-Gata (Renault FT-17) (nothing done but trying to figure out accurate rivet locations on turret. too many photos are difficult to use as references. the rivet patterns in the pictures showing the round riveted turrets either don't have all around views, are shot at angles making accurate locations difficult to tell. some show different patterns and/or different size rivet heads throughout or mixed. most photos are of the octaganol turret or the round smooth one. I need to find a mechanical engineering type schematic or blueprint)

Tamiya Quad Gun Tractor with 25 pndr. field gun (Two trucks, one cannon- one done in desert colors and one in OD green with Mickey Mouse camo) ( trucks both about 50% to 60% done, gun is done & needs painted. one will be heavily detailed with PE enhancements and the other, not so much. these are a struggle for me to get motivated on because for some reason, they just bore me. I'd rather work on something else and often do.)

Trumpeter Geschutzwagen Tiger fur 17 cm Kanone 72 (Sf) (this is one BIG one ass track! the camo paint needs completed, cannon and final vehicle assembly needs done. it sat for several months until I was able to find enough LifeColor olivgrun and schokoladen braun to finish the camo. I'm debating about getting Fruils for it because it would probably need two sets unless they have a single set available)

Tamiya Russian SU 122 Tank Destroyer (about 90% done as it sits. needs the already assembled and painted Fruils installed and and the whole thing weathered. I think I may need to raise the grab rails along the side of the hull higher up. source info varies about their location as best as I can tell. I mounted them per the instructions but have seen them much higher on models but photos of the real vehicle seem to show some leeway. I am still kicking a few ideas around about the extra fuel drums and brackets on the back. I have a PE set for them, but I don't know how good they will look using the super thin brass as the drum hangars. I have considered leaving some off, partially removing some in a battle damaged fashion and/or replacing a few missing ones in a field repaired fashion, ugly but functional. it has a metal barrel and a few other neat little detail items including extra Fruil track links drilled and mounted as spares)

Comments, as always, most welcome!

Tracks installed and what a challenge they were to get on! I shouldn't have glued the rear idler wheels on until after I fit the tracks. I knew better, but just wasn't thinking when I did it. It was damn hard to get the track between the top of the idler and the underside of the fender!

There may be a tad too much track sag, but for right now that's fine by me. It was everything my sausage fingers could muster to pin these wee little bits together! I should be able to distribute the sag around more. If it still looks like too much after that I'll bite the bullet and remove a link or two. I'm going to think about coming up with some sort of track stretching tool that would gently let me pull the ends together and hold them. I just about need a miniature third arm growing out of my forehead to ease pinning the two ends together!

Final paint detailing is not done yet. I'm leaning towards using the MG 42 rather than the 34. I may see if I can find a 3 dimensional (non- flat PE) ammo belt to add and an ammo can.

Some parts still need installed such as the pioneer tools, muffler, rear antenna, and MG. I need to scratch a real license tag/tail light assembly. Decals need to go on and then weathering and other finish detailing.



I had a bit of super glue seepage and it stuck a couple links together at the bottom run. Nothing a wee drop of nitro-ethane and gentle persustiion from a dental pick won't fix!





Comments welcome.