Recently posted elsewhere on Armorama:


MAZ-543 AA60 Airport Fire Truck


My AA60 conversion, in process:








Also added at least a minimual correct underbody driveline and oil pan to the old Scud kit: (I just had to!)

My Mother objected to the "soldiers" so she got a huge set of cavalry and indians, complete with fort. Ah, the joys of firing rubber bands and trying to pop the riders off the horses with out knocking over the horse. It worked one out of a thousand. I miss those. One of mu Aunts got me some Army guys.

I think the Soviet 76mm could be squeezed on the F250 truck. There is still plenty of those floating around. I saw a pic of one in Afganistan. On a Madd Max all the electronic engine crud would have to go.

I got the M19 tank mover in yesterday. What a box.

Blitz "what if" 4x6 crew cab searchlight truck with scratch built generator trailer:




I think the loadbox might need a slope topped tool chest in the front like the one on the recent Bussing-Nag with Bilstein crane.

MWS - Medium Goods Half-track












Combination of Tamiya Sd. Kfz. 7 and Italeri Blitz Mule loadbox. (Widened)

Tamiya German 8ton Semitrack w/20mm Flakvierling Sd.Kfz. 7/1 with a twist:


Another of my early conversions but someone is going to have to help me with the proper terminology. The Tamiya kit represents an Sd. Kfz. 7 purpose built with a permanent deck mounted turntable base for the Flakvierling.

I wanted to represent a vehicle that mounted the gun on its' tri-form base where the gun could be dismounted and loaded on a two wheel Sd. Ah. flak trailer when necessary.

Adding the base to the gun made the gun sit higher and made the vehicle (I thought) more visually interesting.

I made sure the folding rear facing seat actually folded up. I also altered the Tamiya cloth top to show that rear bit of the top as unfolded to give the seat some shelter.

The White camo is just water based tempera paint. (I wanted to be able to wash it off if I didn't like it.)

How did you get the sheet styrene to follow the curve of the bulkheads? Is it laminated sheets of .005?

Re: The MAZ AA60 fire truck construction

No Graeme, the skin of the main water tank is a single sheet of thin plastic. As I recall I just started "pre-forming" the sheet by rolling a tall spray paint can across the plastic on a soft surface like a large couch cushion. Then later I switched to a smaller diameter mandrel, using a piece of heavy broom handle to do the same thing to work the plastic into an even tighter curve. That way I progressively "teased" the plastic into a horseshoe shape that was more inclined to follow the shape of the bulkheads.

This process simulates a "three roller press" often found in old water tank foundries or shipyards. They were used to roll heavy metal sheeting into a round tube or to curve it to fit the hull of a ship.

I intentionally used very thin sheet stock because I wanted the ripple affect of the bulkheads to show through the skin once the tank was painted.

I lucked out that the cement used to attach the bulkheads to the inside of the sheet never ate thru to deface the outside surface of the sheet plastic.

Also I put plastic blocks between the bulkheads so the bulkheads were in their final form before I even started attaching the skin. Started attaching the skin along one horizontal edge. I clamped that edge and let the glue dry thoroughly before progressing to slowly attach the rest of the skin on around the bulkheads. Used rubber bands to then hold the skin in place.

Did not try to perfectly aline the skin plastic up exactly with the left and right end wall bulkheads. Just carefully cut off the excess and sanded those edges smooth after everything else had set up.

I hope that helps get you started on your project. Cheers

Mike

Not so much a conversion but an attempt to super detail a model to match a particular museum prototype:

Demag D7 one ton half-track - in this case built by Saurer rather than Demag.

Mike Koenig Photo

Research wise; I had full access to this Sauer D7 in the Keesler Collection; Jeffersonville, IN. As well as the Patton Museum's Demag D7 at Ft. Knox, KY. (At Ft. Knox I actually got to drive the D7 around the motor pool on two occasions! The Demag has a "pre-select" type manual transmission. You select the gear you want while driving - the next time you pop the clutch it shifts to that gear. Very nice as long as you don't have a sudden change of plans! Also has differential style separate hand brakes for left and right tracks to help improve handling on curves. I wouldn't want to parallel park this rig but otherwise it handles very nicely!)





Leather seat cushions and padded arm rests added. Drop sides made to actually work. Tool hold downs and cab detail added.





Note Saurer eagle logo on radiator cowl.







Engine came from a German maintenance crew set.

All photos copyright Michael Koenig 2002

Corrected inner wheelwell profile and added fender supports and headlight/blackout light wiring. Made front suspension workable for better contact with model base. (Not to say the front axle actually springs but if you don't put any glue on that center leaf spring support point and none on that "Y" support rod at the rear of the oil pan. And then if you clip the two front stabilizer bars right behind those heavy supports - just below the radiator - the cross axle spring is still retained but is free to move and rock like a see-saw. This gives the front wheels some vertical play allowing them to adjust to an uneven display base.)



Added wooden top support bows and metal mechanism for folding cloth top.







Used clear airplane window glue to form transparent "plastic" folding rear windows for cloth top.





Added windshield wiper motors from the Tamiya Steyr field car kit as well as the gun racks in the rear compartment.

(Note: Some D7 kit instructions sheets actually show that center stowage box turned upside down having a solid top - this is totally incorrect.)


Patton Museum's (now at Ft. Benning behind closed doors) Demag D7.


Yes, that is also the Museum's PAK 38, Hetzer and Jagdpanzer IV behind the Demag! :-)


If interested, check out my Patton Museum album on Photobucket for many more museum event photos:

http://s1061.photobucket.com/user/165thspc/library/Patton%20Postcards?sort=3&page=1

or more photos here on an Armorama thread:

https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/215074&page=1


I consider myself to have been extremely lucky to have been involved with the Patton Museum and it's very active volunteer organization these many years!

Michael Koenig

All photos copyright Michael Koenig 2002

Keep it coming guys; I'm loving this thread!!!

Very nice work on the half track.

My finished Revell Demag with a matching PAK38 from Dragon. (Long before it occurred to Dragon to include the third wheel in their PAK kit I added one to mine - which then also had to include a scratch built fork for that wheel.)




( Sorry for the poor quality of the two photos above but I was literally shooting in the dark! )



And then you might ask; "What did you do with the second PAK38 that you got the third wheel from?"

Ahh, that's clever, Cheers Mike. Now, if I can only remember this trick when the time comes to use it!

And then you might ask; "What did you do with the second PAK38 that you got the third wheel from?"

Well there was a plan a foot!

It started with these two photos found in the Patton Library:


Photos Patton Library


from those two photos came this:





Again this model was constructed well before Italeri came out with their current plastic model of this vehicle.* As someone said earlier; scratch builds and conversions give us the chance to have models not currently available. (At the time.)

The model is a combination of the best parts of both the Revell and ESCI D7 kits plus the excellent Dragon PAK38. I like the look of the front end of the D7 so much that I chose not to model the light metal shielding carried by most of these vehicles. The figures are all the Dragon PAK gun crew but obliviously repositioned to try and match some of the figures in the reference photos.

With the gun mounted this low on the chassis the cloth top could actually be raised to protect & partially hide the gun and the crew. With no windshield to attach the roof to, in those days two leather belts would be used to hold down the front corners of the cloth top when on the move to keep the wind from lifting it..

Once again the snow camo is just grade school white tempera paint.

F.Y.I. "Snow" photos shot simply on a white bath towel.


* One criticism of the Italeri D7+PAK model: The Italeri designers apparently had no concept of how this gun might be mounted to the vehicle. On the Italeri model the gun clearly sits much too high above the armored wind screen and the gun mount itself is just a stepped block of non-descript cheese under the gun. There is no framing or structure to transmit the gun recoil to the frame of the vehicle. In one of the reference photos above you can see a large structural block on each side of the vehicle that the gun carriage is attached to. Then on the top photo you can see some sort of beam running diagonally down to the rear corner of the half-track body. Therefore on my model there are also heavy C channels running downward and out from near the middle of the gun carriage to the rear corners of the D7 body.

A couple more shots of the D7+PAK38 SPG under construction:

ECSI front end (from firewall forward.) Revell/Italeri offering from firewall on back.

Evan & Randall thank you for your support and your comments.

Mike

As said above; With some careful thought as to where NOT to apply glue and just a little judicious cutting almost any of the German half-track models with the transverse mounted front spring can be made to function.



I lost a First Place Trophy once simply because both my front tires were not sitting squarely on the ground (as they SHOULD have been! - I never noticed.) So something like this could make all the difference in a competition.

More super detailing in possibly unseen places:

Resin 20 ton flatbed trailer from Scale-Link.





Posed this on a mirror at the Louisville IPMS show, being pulled by my converted White 666 (HobbyBoss) semi-tractor and carrying the (Mirror Models) D7 Bulldozer. The combined 3 part model took a First Place and the "Best Armor" award!

Here's a question: What would be a "normal" run quantity for a popular brand new kit? 2000, 5000, 10,000 units?

I'm sure it varies widely but does anyone have a general idea?

Ironic, yes, but VERY well deserved!!! Bravo!

For car models it's about 20,000.

Thanks Doc. How about armor models? 20K units sounds high but I may definitely be underestimating the model armor market worldwide.

Beautiful VT-34 conversion to be seen elsewhere on this site at:

http://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/249132

I have a particular interest/weakness for Recovery Vehicles!

A lot of great technique to be learned there!


Photo Credit: Trevor Larkum, preservedtanks.com, Imperial War Museum; Duxford.

Some serious scratch building going on for an interior of the massive T-28 super heavy assault SPG over at:

http://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/223527


Mike Koenig photo