Rodlfo, you continue to impress. Some amazing detail.

Ok, Gents... I've enlisted! Here I am ready to go...

This is my first-ever campaign, and the first time ever for me to post any progress pics, so please bear with and don't laugh too hard (I don't want anyone to hurt themselves!).

I'll be doing the HobbyBoss 1/35 SdKfz 223 funk kit. My build will aim to create a mid-later war vehicle in the eastern front theater- spring or summer.

First and second looks: Nice kit, crisp molding, good but not excessive parts-count, mostly correct detail (compared to pics of real thing), nice PE, a pretty complete interior (but, sadly, incorrect for this version, as it lacks the radio sets, the map table and lamp, the big supplies and gear locker inside...), a nice motor, rubber tires.

I'll be making some tweaks and changes along the way, but nothing excessive. I don't think that there are Fruil tires.... .

First pic below is my kit start-up pic: sprues in bags, etc. propped on my computer this afternoon (I used the MSN.com home page as my "/newspaper" date marker, as I don't "take the paper".).

As we had a local club build this afternoon in my kitchen... I started into this beastie with my first fix- those brake actuator rods along the frame rails needed to go! Second pic below shows an original kit frame rail, and its pal, which I have fixed those brakes rods on.





More to come tomorrow!

Bob

Thanks for your kind comments friend!

More updates!

Chips with sponge: 1).- Mix Saddle-brown and Black of Vallejo / 2).- Sponge into the mix / 3).- Remove the excess over a paper / 4).- To apply in the tank and ready!

















Regards,
Rodolfo

Bob, welcome to your first campaign. Never fear, this is a learning experience not a competition. I look forward to seeing your progress.

Hello friends!

Campaign finished!!!. Here is my work. (Some pics were posted in the KitMaker Gallery of the Campaign too).

Panzerbeobachtunswagen III Ausf. H:

It represents: An Artillery fire-support Command vehicle of the Panzer-artillerie-Regiment 12 of the 12th panzer Division during operations in Kursk.

















Regards,
Rodolfo

Rodolfo: Nice, scuzzy-looking Befehls III! I really liked that little sponge-on chipping and wear - think I'll try it on an up-coming DAK build!

Now - my PROGRESS REPORT on the SdKfz 223 build...

"Tomorrow" stretched out a couple of days ( ) but things did happen. Pretty much completed the frame, suspension, and the various melons and blocky bits that fit into it. Got to say the kit builds nicely - there's a little shaving and sanding of flash here and there, and a couple of bits needed to be shoved around until stuff fit, as the pins and locators are sometimes vague...

The worst parts were that radiator and fan housing... which simply did not fit into its hole And there remain some gaps on things that need TLC. The other big frustrating bit is the tranny, which seems to not like its assigned location... but like they say: "Isn't going in yet? Get a BIGGER hammer!"

I did promise some tweaking: So far, I have replaced those brake-rods along the frame (stretched sprue fix Nr 1!), "improved" (altered - with hopes for a positive effect ) the top clips on the suspension springs (in the kit these were solids, in real life, the clip has hollow loop-like ends - a nice easy fix for the X-Acto-happy types!), added the main brake line on top of each suspension unit (sprue fix Nr 2) - a very visible little bit on the real car, and - the BIG EVENT - re-positioned the wheels, hubs and steering rods to depict the 4-wheel steering in action !

Some progress pics are shown below. PIC 1 shows the whole chassis with the mo-mo and radiator in place - you can see the frame brake rods, brake lines, and the steering effect. The rubber tires are of course pressed on for the pic. The mo-mo and radiator are propped on. I'll pull these off for detailing and painting.



Yeah. You can also see that tranny not wanting to sit square . Guess I'll cut it out and do some trimming...

PIC 2 and PIC 3 look at the rear end and mo-mo area. I think the brake rods, brake lines, and spring clip mods show OK in these, as do the gaps and scuz around that radiator and mill... nothing's perfect !





PIC 4 shows the mo-mo area with radiator off. The amount of available detail in this kit is amazing (to me)! All the bits so far have almost led me to consider doing just a frame model of this beast - it's just like one of those really detailed car kits the Shiny-minded folks build!



PIC 5 is the chassis flipped over to show the steering arms. The kit has a pretty complete set of rods with little knobs for the joints. A little creative bending and shaving allows one to reposition almost everything to show the locations for a turn. One lack I found is that there does not appear to be any "true" location or attachment point for the arm to the hub... or I simply missed it . That's one of the "vague" aspects in this otherwise stellar kit. Me? I simply guessed and tucked them in!



Well, that's where I'm at! I'll tackle that tranny and maybe some gaps tonite, and add a few bolts to the frame / body clips, and add on a couple of small cover guards on those frame-side rod assemblies (some pics show these, and some don't... yous pays your money and yous makes your vote, as folks have said. Me? It'll be covers!). Not sure what the detailing will be on the mo-mo, yet. Hope to do whatever that'll be soon, and get this stuff off to the airbrush for primer.

Body inners come next

ANY COMMENTS or SUGGESTIONS are, of course, WELCOME!

Bob

Nice build, Rodolfo. Looks great - it has definitely seen some action.

Thanks friend!

Regards,
Rodolfo

Rodolfo: great looking build and thanks for sharing your techniques. I will try a couple as I move into painting mine.

Scott: the Ural sure is an interesting truck. good job.

Bob: nice progress.

Some progress on my end. These are mostly just dry fit. Next is to start the tracks and then paint.





Happy Modelling, -zon

Zontar: Nice looking kit. Are you going to be building the railway carriage as well?

I am getting moving for this campaign. I am building the Luchs in a command version. So far it is a great kit with no fit problems so far.
Work has actually already progressed beyound this stage, so more updates soon.

Matt: Thanks. I will be building the railway carriage for the Railroad campaign in November, with a Pz. III F falling off of it.

Jesper: the luchs is looking good.

Happy Modelling, -zon

Hey Panzerbob, you've lost me with that question, which coil springs do you mean?
By the way, you're very kind not to mention my almighty #####-up , did you notice?

excellent WIP my friend!

Regards,
Rodolfo

Thanks friend!. Your Panzer and train-car looks very good!

Regards,
Rodolfo

Andy:

Hi! The springs... I was speaking of those on the first road-wheel suspension units either side - attach to the hull side with a small triangular mount at the top of the spring? Looks like you cut those bits off? That's what I was asking about! Maybe these were not fitting right or something, or you replaced these rather vague-looking kit bits with something different? (I didn't much like those kit parts myself and ended up tossing them in favor of scratching my own springs and mounts...) .

If I un-wittingly pointed out a fubar, I do most sincerely apologize! I in no way meant to "out" anyone's boo-boo! Certes not in any critical sense!

Bob

Hi Fellow Modellers,

First, I have to congratulate all those wonderful builds that are going on at the moment...the race is on to the finish and it will be interesting to see the final gallery.

I have had a few health problems, which curtailed my modelling for a short while. Things have settled down now and I am back at the hobby bench (dining room table) again. I have managed to paint the SdKfz 263 at last, just the weathering to do now, here are the pictures of the progress so far....















This is Rommel's command vehicle that was used when he was in charge of the 7th Panzer Division (the 'Ghost Division') his number plate was 143149, which is replicated on the vehicle. Just a command flag to put on the front left fender and it is complete.

I look forward to your comments and observations and now it is on with theSdKfz 250 that was his command vehicle in the desert.

All the best,

Paul

Paul: I've always thought that the WWII German armored cars are neat. Built a couple in my day. This one looks the part. Nice job. Looking forward to the weathering.

Hi Matt,

Thanks for the comment, I have done the weathering. I decided to make it a dusty and muddied vehicle as it would have been dashing through the French countryside to keep up with the panzers, I am pleased with the result and have decided the model is finished, I will put it on a base for my wargames army and I have a figure of Rommel and his Aide to add as well. I should be able to complete this before the deadline and will post in the gallery then.

Here is the vehicle weathered, all comments welcome...















That's it then, I have done a bit on the SdKfz250 and will post the progress soon.

All the best,

Paul

Paul: Nice build. congrats on the finish!!

Happy Modelling, -zon

Sorry I haven't posted in a while boys, been busy at work (like 7 days a week busy), I guess this is what happens when you own your own. . . .
Any way, I have given up on trying to cast up wheels for this bad boy and just making the Trumpy wheels work for it. The tires have been washed and now need to be painted along with the hubs. Hopefully this will be able to be accomplished this weekend and when done I will post some updated photos. Cheers.
Here are the shots of the wheels:

Great build, Paul. Very nice and subtle weathering.

I'm having trouble posting my photos in the gallery. I've tried jpeg and jpg. They are too large, so I tried loading the zip file. It says it has loaded, but they don't appear in the gallery. I have them saved in photobucket and on disk. First time I have had this problem. Can someone please advise?

I don't think our gallery knows what to do with zip files. You have 2 choices:

1. Take the pictures with a lower resolution (assuming you are using a digital camera). If you are using a film camera and scanning them in, use a lower resolution in the scanning program.

2. Use a graphics program to re-size you image file or crop off any excess of the image. If you are using a Windows PC, it probably has Microsoft Paint on it. Look in the Start menu under Programs->Accessories. Open the file, choose Image->Stretch/Skew. To shrink it by half, just use 50% for the Horizontal and Vertical Stretch parameters, then use Save As to save it under another name.