For the liquid glue, it serves as its own solvent. I have a dedicated brush that I use for nothing but glue application. The brush will air-dry and the glue is so thin, it doesn't clump on the brush. The brush will be a bit stiff once dry but after it's dipped into the bottle, it becomes flexible again. I don't use the brush for the normal glue, just will use the tip to apply glue and then either my finger tip or a tooth pick to remove any excess before joining.

James,

You're right about the PE, lots of little pieces to go missing, especially the bolt heads. No real margin for error either as I don't think there are any spares on the frets!

If we do lose any one option is to shave the ones off the plastic skirts.

Step 9 deals with all the interior details on the turret and focuses primarily on details from the turret ring and below. There aren't any details or add-ons to the interior of the upper turret areas with the exception of the exhaust fan installed in Step 8.

The first details added were the turret traverse mechanisms and while the instructions tell you to assemble the mechanism from its 7 parts first and then install it to the turret base, I did it in the opposite order. Part B8 has two pins that locate to the turret base and getting this secured and solid made it much easier to assemble all of the other parts. The auxiliary traverse on the loaders side was also installed along with two storage boxes next to the commander's chair. The auxiliary traverse and one of the storage boxes had a sink mark that would require putty to fill and correct if showing the interior. There are also numerous large ejector marks, some partially raised, others sunk, that would need to be dealt with as well.



I skipped around within this step a bit, instead of building the gunner and loader's seats and installing the floor plate mounts, I assembled the floor plate details first. These are pretty straightforward items, not a whole lot of detail to them and they all, for once, fit well into their designed tabs. Regular glue was needed for these though as the tread plate pattern doesn't provide a lot of surface area for just liquid glue to create a bond.



The commander's chair, a two piece assembly, was constructed and installed and the floor plate mounts put into place and aligned with the floor plate. The plate mates up with the arms using some slender pins, so I left it on a level surface to set up for a while to insure everything was solid. Then the gunner and loader seats were installed. These have tabs that fit into notches on the support arms and the fit wasn't all that great on the gunner's seat. Combined with the fact that it's bulky and front-heavy, it was necessary to hold it in place for a few minutes until the glue had set up enough for it to stand on its own. It also has a very large, one of the largest in the kit in fact, ejector mark dead center on the seat. In the first photo, one of the front support arms had lifted up slightly, I corrected that after taking this shot with a bit of liquid glue and and some finger pressure.

It's worth noting at this point that virtually every piece of the interior had some flash, even if minor, that needed to be removed with a knife blade. Since they all share the same sprue, it's possible that it was just a bad run, but it's something I had to be constantly on the watch for as it would show up in different places on the parts and test-fitting everything was essential.





Moving on to Step 10, I constructed the base of the cupola with all of the armored glass vision blocks. There are five and each one has a perfectly centered ejector mark on the surface viewable from the interior, so if you decide to have the hatch open, these will either need to be dealt with or you'll have to stuff a figure in there to keep them from view. These assemble easily enough, with a small tab holding them in place and fit flush against the interior of the cupola.



Assembling the cupola itself consists of matching up the bottom half with the top. The bottom has a pentagonal shape that needs to match up exactly with the top, so be careful when doing this to have the right alignment. Even so, the fit is very tight, essentially a snap fit, and required some pressure to get it sit down correctly with just a little liquid glue run around the edge to make sure it doesn't come apart later on. The top of the cupola is also a separate piece and again a tight fit. The underside on mine had ejector marks that had created little dimples on the outer edge, so these needed to be filled with putty so they didn't show around the base once the cupola was installed.



Then it was time to take the big plunge with the remainder of the step and install first the gun and mantlet into the turret face. Due to the spent shell basket, it's necessary to do this first before fitting the turret base, so I only glued the top in flush with the turret to allow some flexibility fitting the base. The base was then installed, carefully going around the perimeter with liquid glue and finger pressure to get a good join. The fit here was very good with just a slight overhang at the cheek plates on both sides that needed to be sanded down. The cupola was also installed, this has a notched tab that aligns it properly to the front and is also a tight snap fit over the molded in mount points on the turret roof. Last but not least, the Rommelkiste was assembled out of its two parts and then mounted to the back of the turret.



And just to be sure that the turret basket and interior fit well, I test fit the turret on the rail car base.



All that's left now are the schurzen!

Excellent stuff Bill,

A really informative build log (as always). Great to see the work progressing (can't wait to get my hands on mine now!)

I see Trumpeter leave the most difficult step to last, good luck with all those tiny PE parts, i'd make a deal with the carpet monster so that you don't lose any!

Keep up the great work,

James

Despite the accuracyproblems on the turret, this looks like a "must have" - I might consider buying the Dragon F2 and use the hull for a bergepanzer IV and the turret for the panzerjagerwagen.

It will be interesting to see, how much the schurtzen will hide the errors on the turret ...

Nice BLOG - keep it comming. Have you given any thoughts to color and crew ?

Cheers

James,

The final steps are the choice between the PE and the styrene schurzen. I'll be sure to give my carpet a good vaccuum treatment before starting work on these, probably on the weekend when I've got plenty of time to work on them and not feel rushed.

Jan,

I'm going to use the provided color guide for the paint scheme, so three-tone camo in a wavy-swirly pattern. No crew or figures since it's all buttoned-up and going to be a stand-alone display on its base vs. in a railyard or train dio setting. I think the schurzen are going to help mask some of the height issues, at least from the sides, but not sure just yet. Your idea about using all the parts of the DML F2 is probably the most economical way to go about it.

Its looking very good so far Bill, cant wait to see some paint on it.

Using the DML F2 is probably the best option, unless you want to build more than one Panzerjagerwagen.....

Thanks mark, considering the MSRP of the Trumpeter kit and the DML F2, it could get expensive in a hurry! The paint and finish will take longer than normal, I have several work-related interruptions in the next few weeks that will put me on the road. That's the main reason I've been trying to get this one built as quickly as I have.

Pleasure Bill, I know what you mean, I'd be looking at approx £100 if I bought all four kits at retail price, fortunately I'd probably be able to do it for about £75, still it aint a cheap prospect.
Best of luck your work stuff doesnt delay you too much.

wbill76

I have enjoyed reading your post hope to see more when you get back from the road! Great job!

AlexanderK

For the liquid glue, it serves as its own solvent. I have a dedicated brush that I use for nothing but glue application. The brush will air-dry and the glue is so thin, it doesn't clump on the brush. The brush will be a bit stiff once dry but after it's dipped into the bottle, it becomes flexible again. I don't use the brush for the normal glue, just will use the tip to apply glue and then either my finger tip or a tooth pick to remove any excess before joining.

What's the best kind of brush to use for applying the cement? Refering to natural or synthetic bristled type brushes?

Juggler

Alexander,

I have to spend 4 days in Orlando next week and 6 days in Cancun two weeks after, so I'll try not to think too much about my workbench in the process. Appreciate the comments and glad you've enjoyed the build this far.

Juggler,

The one I use is a synthetic not for any particular reason other than it's what I had on hand and it got pressed into service. I imagine it's more tolerant of the glue vs. a natural sable but couldn't say for sure one way or the other.

Orlando and Cancun? oh the hardship......

It only gets worse from there...in Oct. I have to spend 3 days in Montego Bay, Jamaica.

Don't even try to pretend that you will be doing any work whilst you're there Bill ....

Another ambitious project you've got there Bill. I think I will have to watch this one with a lot of itnerest. Good luck. I will check back by Monday. I will try to read the whole thread then. I just sort of skimmed it this time.

I'll be working in the sense that I will be with customers all day every day (it's our yearly Client Symposium), but will do my best not to let it get me down.

Thanks Jim, you sneaked this one in while I was responding to Henk. It's pretty much done, just needs the schurzen and the rail-bed, then the paint and finish. I'll probably get the schurzen done this Sat hopefully.

Bill,

Won't you be waiting for the rest to complete BP-42? I would think that this is a Panzerjagerwagen which Trumpeter 'teased' during Nuremberg Toyfair 2007.

Atelier Infinite has also release some other sections for the BP-42 after the armored loco which was released earlier. Looks like some serious shelf space is required.

I wish I had the shelf space to be able to do a whole train arrangement, but sadly I don't. I was able to put in just enough shelf space for the BR52 and 2 rail car combo I did some months back but short of adding on another room to my house, the single car for now is all I plan to do. Of course, who knows how many additional pieces (or when) Trumpeter will come out with, only time can tell.

Today's efforts, focusing on the schurzen, meant going slow and being very, very patient. I decided to build up the PE version of the schurzen to see how it would compare to the styrene parts. The PE provided is "handed" with one sheet designated for the Left side and the other for the Right, so it's very important not to get these mixed up. I started on the Left side first and set the other PE fret out of the way to avoid any confusion.

Steps 12 and 13 deal with the PE option and the first things to do are to construct the mount arms for the front plate and the curved rear plate. The parts for these come with etched bend lines and grooves to take the different angle braces depending on the parts in question, which is a nice touch and makes the assembly job much easier. I used the styrene kit parts as a guide for the bend angles, testing them against the turret to insure they had the right fit, and assembled the arms for the front plate first. As you can see below, the styrene parts are substantially thicker vs. the PE parts and it's also worth noting that the tabs don't fit all that well either if you decide to go that route.



Next step, using my trusty Extra Hands and Radio Shack special 20 watt soldering iron,



I soldered the support arms in place, using just a spot of CA gel and an alligator clip to tack it in place to make the job easier. Considering the challenge of fitting these to the turret, I opted for the durability and strength of solder on all the support arms.




The back curved piece was next, the straight plate was annealed using my kitchen stove gas burner and the styrene piece as a former to get the curve needed and it's bracket was also soldered in place.




The middle piece, the hinge doors for the turret hatches, is a tricky assembly. The two plates butt together and have a straight piece that overlaps them both and getting this together and keeping it that way proved a challenge. I used some CA gel to get them to stay together temporarily and, with the Extra Hands, was able to get it all soldered together eventually. The little hinge plates were then attached and the bolt heads put on the front plate. These parts are tiny and no extras are provided (although there are lots of bolt heads on the frets, they are of two different sizes), so great care was needed. I used a toothpick moistened with spit (yes it's true!) to pick them up and place them instead of tweezers. The hatch plate was then glued carefully to the rear curved plate using the little hinge overlaps, I had to use CA gel here because there just isn't enough contact surface for soldering to keep it together (although that didn't stop me from trying for a while!).




The next challenge came in the form of getting the curved sections Left and Right together and joined up properly at the rear of the turret. On the styrene option, they have a tab join design to aid with this but no such option is possible with the PE. There should be an overlap plate here to help with this but the PE frets do not include it. Fortunately there's quite a bit of brass on the frets that are the right width, so I selected a strip and removed it with side cutters, then trimmed it fit the height and soldered it in place.




The hinge plate was then constructed on the right side and attached same as the left, and all the Schurzen are done. I ran out of time, so wasn't able to mount them, but test fits show a good fit and alignment so far. The open slots on the turret will have to be dealt with first though before they can be mounted and secured. I deliberately left the front plates free from the rest due to the fact that they have a sharp angled join to the hinge plates and trying to gauge that by eyeball proved too risky, so I'll wait until they are on the turret proper before completing their join.

Bill,
Looks great. I always look forward to your build logs. I am curious about your camera set-up, you have such incredible clear, and easy-to-see, photos which make your work something special. Do you have any special gear or tricks that you might impart to the rest of us? If this has already been covered (I would be surprised if it has not) could you direct me to where I might find your techniques?

Thanks,
Rick Cooper

Thanks for the comments Rick, there is a thread with some info on my setup (not a thread I started) with some more details here: https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/96589&page=1 This is the setup I use for photos, I combine this with a Canon Rebel XT and use either the standard lens or a macro lens depending on what I'm trying to shoot. Not pictured in the photo but since added was a black sheet of posterboard to prevent some ambient light from coming in from the turtle tank next door. I shoot the photos in Manual mode at very high resolution, 3600x2500 or so, as RAW files and edit them as TIFFs before taking them down to JPG files for viewing on the web.

Nice work on the skirts Bill, I've been considering soldering mine when I build this one.

Mark,

Soldering is the better way to go given the tension involved in getting everything all together and mounted on the turret. Takes more time and patience, but worth it IMHO. They could still be assembled with CA, but would be much more fragile. The more I looked at the styrene option, the less appealing it was due to the over-scale thickness on the styrene arms and other missing details.