I bought my first 1/35 kit around the end of February. I've completed 4, abandoned 1, and have a couple more in progress. I've made smaller scale stuff but jumped into 1/35 first to see what it was like, then, liking it, due to the wide availability of subjects. I thought I'd share thoughts on my first 5 kits.
The 3rd kit I started was a Dragon T-34 (kit 6424, soft-edged type). I built quite a bit of it, then just gave up. I think that if I'd had better references I would have completed this kit. But whenever I couldn't figure out something from the instructions I didn't have photos in a book to tell me where stuff went and finally just gave up due to fatigue. I imagine it's a nice kit. I loved the magic tracks. As to the kits I've finished.
1) Tamiya M3A1 Scout Car. I've posted some photos of this in constructive feedback before. I haven't done anything to it since then, but I did photograph it in my new light booth with a black background and these photos are much more like what it looks like in real life.
This is the first 1/35 kit I did. It was a good choice for a first kit as I absolutely loved it. I really want to do it again! I've painted a lot of wargaming figures in 28mm (roughly 1/56) and wanted to know whether I could do the larger figures. I used a lot of the same techniques and they are too contrasty for 1/35 (they photograph better than they look in the flesh) so I'd like to do them again. But the kit is just a dream. It probably took me about 10 hours to build on a weekend. Just getting it out to rephotograph makes me want to start on another one.
2) Das Werk Panther A Early.
Second kit I started and just finished it this afternoon. It came out alright, but I'm convinced I can do a lot better. I was experimenting on a lot of things as I went (zimmerit, stenciled marking, various weathering things. I made some choices along the way that I'd do differently.
I'm not sure I would do this kit again. There's a lot to like about it, but I had some difficulty with it. Putting the hull together was really quite a pain. It didn't all fit well in back so there was a lot of sanding, tugging, pressing together while glue dried. In the end I only ended up with one visible gap and it's hidden by the side skirts. I may have put the front mud flaps on wrong as they rub against the tracks. It looked right when I glued it and I still think it looks right from the side but I can't figure out why they rub against the tracks (making the tracks hard to install later). The tracks on the kit ... I tried, but gave up. They have a clever way to put them together but they were so fragile that I was repairing close to 50% of the links. After about half way through what I needed to finish one run, I just through up my hands. I replaced them with RyeField Model tracks which were better but still pretty fragile and hard to use. I go back and forth about whether I could do better with this kit and should give it another try.
I added my own zimmerit with wood putty which was straightforward. I tried about 3 different ways to get turret markings. I ended up making a stencil with my wife's scan and cut. The result isn't great either, but I think stenciling is the way to go on top of zimmerit.
I still have to add the tow cables and I think I'll put some grime on the upper hull to bring out the zimmerit a little better in places.
4) Bronco KV-85. I did this for the Bronco campaign. I loved this kit. Fit is great, workable tracks is great, fun from beginning to end. I don't think I'd do it again just because there was so few KV-85s in service, but I'm looking at an SU-152 from them hoping it would be about as much fun.
I used Tamiya NATO green on it, which is, I think, a little too green in this scale although it works fine in smaller scales.
5) Dragon Stug III
I did this for the tank destroyers campaign. I have mixed feelings about this kit. If I didn't have a really good reference, I'm not sure how this would have come out, but I have Zimmerman and Mueller. I looked up just about everything on the vehicle and pulled the right parts from the kit for it. So, on the plus side, there are parts in there to build a couple of different kinds of vehicle. Also, I'm pretty sure that if I'd followed the build order in the instructions I could not have completed it. Fortunately I read ahead and was test-fitting stuff that looked a little fishy. So, end the end, it was a lot of work, something of a chore really, but I'm very pleased with how it came out.
The first pic is my inspiration pic and the second is my finished model.
The kit is Dragon 6581 and was perfect for modeling my inspiration pic because it doesn't come with zimmerit (unusual for that period). I took extensive notes so if someone else is building that kit, I'd be happy to share.
