I'm planning on building a diorama depicting a Panzerartillerie unit supporting the last major German offensive of WWII (nope - it wasn't the Battle of the Bulge): Operation Fruhlingserwachen ("Spring Awakening"), conducted in Hungary, March 1945.

The dio will include the Panzer Beobachtungswagen ausf. J that I just finished:



The other vehicle will be an early-type Hummel with the armored compartment for the driver only (late versions had a full-width compartment for both the driver and the radio operator). Some of these vehicles survived to participate in this battle, as confirmed by this photo of both an early-type Hummel and a Panzer Beob. Wg. IV next to it:



(from the book "Tomb of the Panzerwaffe" by Maksim Kolomiets)

For my kit I will be using this Dragon model:



I will be building a full interior - driver's and R.O.'s compartment. The Hummel (and Nashorn) were based upon a hybrid chassis called the Geschuetzwagen III/IV which utilized components of both the Panzer III and IV. A simplistic explanation would be that it utilized the exterior components (except the drive wheel) of the Panzer IV but utilized the internal components (final drive, drive sprocket and transmission) of a Panzer III. I mistakenly bought the Verlinden Panzer IV interior set for this build but soon realized my mistake when I looked at existing photos of the Hummel interior, such as this one from the old AFV Interiors website:



So I decided to (mostly) scratchbuild it, although I was able to use some parts from the Verlinden set (such as the brake housings). The first part was the floor, brake drums, steering levers and seat frames. My philosophy is to paint as I build, to make it easier to get the right colors on small parts.




Next, I added the seats themselves:



And finally the transmission with the connecting brake lines. I then weathered with dark brown and raw sienna with chipping done with dark grey mixed with a small amount of steel:



This close-up shows the three floor pedals on the driver's side - these will be visible once the glacis plate is fitted, believe it or not!



A shot of the left side of the transmission showing the gear selector lever:



And another overview:



I'll continue this build as an ongoing blog so stay tuned...

This update will focus on the radio. The standard radio set for German tanks from the mid-war years on was the Fu 5, which consisted of a transmitter, receiver and transformers for each. There were additional ancillary items which I will also mention as they come up. Here is a pic of the overall setup:



I got the transmitter and receiver from the Verlinden Panzer IV interior set. I added a few items, of course. The small platform on the right was for a telegraph key and the small box on the left side of the radio rack was the Kasten or connecting box used to allow communication within the vehicle - the headsets for the crew members plugged into this.



Then it was on to the transformers. I got the smaller one (for the receiver) from the Verlinden set but I had to scratchbuild the larger one (for the transmitter). I also scratchbuilt the rack for the smaller one:



I wasn't sure where the transformers were located as I could not find good photos of the RO compartment in the Hummel. So I decided to use the Panzer IV setup with the transformer for the receiver located on the floor next to the RO's seat and the transformer for the transmitter located on the hull above the one on the floor:



Then I added the radio set onto the top of the transmission. This is inaccurate as it actually hung from a rack suspended from the ceiling. But the clearance between the bottom of the radio set and the top of the transmission is so small that, in this scale, it is unnoticeable (to me at least!).



The last step is to add the connecting cables. I routed them under the RO's seat so they don't actually connect as a single line - they were easier to install as a partial line from the transmitter to under the seat and a partial line from the transformer to under the seat.





And an overview of the interior assembly so far:

Great build so far Kevin. I followed your build of the panzer 4 with much interest. This Hummel build is shaping up to also be an incredible job as well. Your sractchbuilding abilities are top notch. I am looking forward to your next update. Thank you for sharing with us. Best regards....Dale

Beautiful work so far. I have the same kit in my stash. I'll be watching closely.

Thanks Dale and Dustin - more to come soon!

Next are the various storage boxes and equipment on the hull walls. On the right side is an electrical junction box (behind the transformer) and a storage box for the R.O.'s headset when not in use:





On the left (driver's side) is another headset storage box, a box for spare vision blocks and a fire extinguisher (which I chose to paint in light gray, rather than the more common red):





And then the rear wall with its three engine access panels and first aid kit:



Now glued in place - there is also a pipe or hose which connects the transmission with the engine compartment:







And that's all for this post - the interior is almost finished!

Scratchbuilt a couple of headsets for the driver and R.O.:





And added a couple of personal items on the R.O.'s side:



Next, it's on to the driver's pod. The first items I added to the basic kit part were the two side vision blocks on either side:



And detailed the armored visor by adding the folding struts on both sides:



Then made the driver's instrument panel:



And glued it in place:



Now the entire glacis plate can be attached to the hull:



Following are a series of shots showing the interior from various angles through the hatches:

Radio


Instrument panel


Radio transformer


Rear wall


Driver's steering levers and foot pedals (sorry for the high contrast - was necessary in order to get adequate lighting for the shot)


Driver's side wall


Overhead

Awesome looking work! I'll be following this build.

Gary

Hi Kevin, awesome job so far on the Hummel. I have a quick question for you. I am currently building a Nashorn and I am having trouble finding good interior references. Where the Hummel and Nashorn are both basicly the same chasis, would the interior layouts be the same for both??? If so then I could use your build as a reference for my Nashorn. Any advice you could give me would be most appreciated. I look forward to your next update. Best regards....Dale

Very nice work so far, Kevin.

You need to get the mod to move this thread to the Constructive Feedback forum. I think a lot more people would see it there.

Gary - thanks for the compliment. Glad you're enjoying it.

Dale - I believe the Nashorn and Hummel interiors would be the same. The fighting compartments are obviously different but there would be no reason for the interior to differ between the early Hummel and the Nashorn. Comparing the driver's side of the two vehicles shows them to be virtually identical:


(from the AFV Interiors website)


(from the Nuts & Bolts volume on the Nashorn)

Unfortunately, similar views of the R.O.'s side are lacking, from what I could find on the internet. So what I have depicted for the R.O. is more speculative but I would be happy to be corrected if others have views of this part of the vehicle.

Good luck on your build - if you need any of my references let me know. And show some pics of your work!

Bob-

Thanks for the feedback. I didn't realize that posts could go into different forums and I just noticed that mine is in the "Modelling in General" forum. I think it would fit much more appropriately under the Axis AFV forum. How do I go about relocating it?

You can't personally do it, but all you need to do is contact the moderator listed at the top of the page (Jim S). He can do it for you. The reason I mentioned the "Constructive" forum is that it's where WIPs are supposed to be.

HTH

Hi Kevin, thanks for the info on the Nashorn interior, thats what I was hoping to hear. Best regards.....Dale

Now that the interior is complete it's time to start on the exterior. First I painted the lower hull walls dunkelgelb (actually, Model Master Armor Sand, which I thought was a good match to DG):



I painted the wheels before attaching to the hull:



The inner edges of the road wheels were painted steel to simulate where the guide horns rubbed against them:



Then made the tracks, forming in short segments and gluing to the wheels (starting with the drive sprocket):



Next I worked on the lower rear hull. There were two different arrangements. The configuration provided in the kit is for the early version, in which the exhausts from both sides fed into a rear-mounted muffler. In later versions, the muffler was dropped and the exhaust simply protruded out to the rear.



I elected to make the later version (no muffler). So I had to fill in all the attachment points for the muffler, cut the exhausts and bent them to the correct angle, and added two spare wheel brackets (from my spare parts stash). Here's the result:



Here's what it will look like (roughly) once the wheels are attached:



And since the tracks are now installed I can add the fenders to the front. I knew from bitter experience (from my previous Nashorn build) that gluing the fenders in place
before attaching the tracks is an exercise in extreme frustration.





And that's all for this post. Next up - the fighting compartment.

Kevin,

Great detailing! Where did you find the placards?

Looking very good sir. Good tip on the front fenders.

Keep us posted.

Cheers,
Dustin

Great progress since I last looked in. She's coming together quite nicely.

Thank for your interest and support!

Frederick - if you mean the labels on the transformers I handmade them using ultrathin sheets of plastic card. I glued one on top of the other to give the white border and then painted the interior (top) one black with some white scribble to look like letters.

Amazing scratchbuilding work there Kevin, you have a real knack for it.

Thanks Colin - glad you-re enjoying it.

Now to start on the fighting compartment. Here is a picture of a Nashorn, taken by me at Aberdeen Proving Grounds back in the 1990s, showing the gun platform, which is basically the same as the Hummel's:



And here is the Dragon version of the same structure. Do you notice a difference?



A close-up of the section in question:



So in order to create this space I sawed off the engine vent housings on each side:



Then scratchbuilt the covers and glued them onto the lower sections:



I added some minor details to the floor on the left side - reinforcing flanges on the sides of gun platform and a cable running along the floor:



Then I added the various parts to the floor and gun platform and the ammo bins in the rear and painted them.







After building the floor and gun platform I turned to the superstructure. The first part is the rear section. There are two MP 40 holders that go into the fighting compartment.
One is located on the rear plate and the other is located on a left side support structure. The ones included in the kit are molded as solid pieces of plastic but in reality they had a channel or groove in the center so that the gun could actually fit into them. So I scratchbuilt two out of plastic sheet. Here's a side-by-side comparison of the kit version and my version:



This shot shows the unpainted MP 40 in the scratchbuilt holder (the kit version is on the left):



Once I fashioned the MP 40 holder I attached it to the rear plate and painted it:



Once the rear wall is glued in place then the right and left walls can also be attached. I added various details not included in the kit but are all documented in the Nuts & Bolts volume on the Hummel (highly recommended if you are building this vehicle). On the right I included a gas mask canister and two cases for spare MG 34 barrels plus brackets. I also added the rivets to the sponsons:



On the left I added another gas mask canister, the second MP 40 holder (with MP 40), a fire extinguisher (on the first triangular support) and a hose which was used to replenish the recuperator fluid (according to Nuts & Bolts). The brackets for holding the hose are included in the kit but the hose itself is not.



Here's another view from a different angle, showing the fire extinguisher and MP 40 holder. The instructions in the kit say to glue the MP 40 holder to the first triangular support but on the other side as the fire extinguisher. However, a photo in the Nuts & Bolts volume shows the holder to be located on the second support so that is where I attached it. The two square brackets above held Kar 98k rifles.



That's all for this post. Next will be the ammo bins, gun shields and the gun...

Nice update. Thanks for the placing info for the small arms.

Gaz

Great build and the detailing is fantastic.

Robert

Lucky me caught this build since I'm in the middle of building the same one, but different scale.

Thanks for the interest and the comments guys. I am alternating posts between this site and the Missing Lynx site so that I don't have to double post every time. So my next update will be on ML in two days - CU later!