I will attempt to take everyone through my build of the above kit. The link to a in-box review is located in the reviews section. https://armorama.kitmaker.net/review/3794
In preperation for this build I did several things. The most important was to resize all my pictures to 800 x 600 before up loading to photobucket.
Resizing the pictures allowed me greater flexability in uploading timewise.
The resized pictures will allow those who do not have high speed internet service to see them faster.
The first three pictures are of the basic first steps in the process.

The first steps were to cut the parts and join as shown. Use caution removing part C 51, due to it's delicate moulding. The parts A 2 & A 1 must be joined as square as possible.

After joining parts A 21 to A 7.

After the assembly of the above parts I primed the aluminum barrel and the copper recuperator tube for the next part of the build.

Greetings from down under I have this one in the stash i will be following this one with great interest

Mike, this seems like a very good kit, although it's early in the build. The parts all seem to be designed go together well. Their are a lot of parts with multiple attachment points to sprues. You definately have to keep your bull in the china shop attitude in check.
Joe

Hi Joe, I too have this one stashed and have wanted to build it. i'll be watching along also!
Build on!!!!

In this second instalment we will finish up step 1 and most of step 2. Most of the assembly revolves around the breech, barrel and recoil slide.

Instructions step 2

Assembly of breach around the barrel and slide rail construction

Two views of the assembled parts.


At this time you should try and slip on the recruperator tube to see if it fits correctly. Waiting any longer will could cause problems at a later point. We will pick up again in a few days.

I hear you on that one The Bull has rampaged through the china shop on a few of my early builds haha. Built looks great so far by the way

That build is coming along nicely Joe i too will be watching this one with great interest

As I go along I am beginning to like this kit more & more. I have not completed a build since 1994 or 1995. I will complete this kit even with the fragile parts. I plan on painting everything Polly Scale Zink Cromate Primer, then overcoat with Polly Scale Panzer Dark Yellow. I will let some of the zink primer show through in places. I won't weather this gun till I have a vehicle built to pull it. I have 3 kits lined up that could tow the gun. I hope to get another update Jan 27th or 28th.
Joe

I found a nice picture of one of these howitzers in another site. Seventh picture down
http://www.network54.com/Forum/47207/thread/1232966569/Some+Bundesarchive+photos
Joe

Making good progress Joe and good to see you back at the workbench after a long hiatus.

One small suggestion in regards to your intentions for painting, the Germans didn't use zinc chromate as a primer, they used red oxide as the standard primer color.

Bill, great info but a bit late. I guess my Germans used Zink Cromate primer, even if they didn't have any. It won't matter much because just a hint will show through (I hope). The barrel and recuperator tube have the correct primer. Anyway it's to late to stop now!
I never thought about the primer type.
Bill I appreciate your help, keep an eye on me, it's been awhile since I completed any building projects.
Joe

Hi Joe

I just brought this kit myself on Monday, it was on offer at the LHS so I snapped it up.

I did read Terry's review of the kit last week and he points out some sink marks in the spaces between the wheel spokes, which on close examination mine has. Not sure how to tackle these yet as sanding down any filling will be tricky. Is yours the same ?

Mine came without the figure but I'm not fussed, got plenty of those.

Not sure when I get round to building mine. Your confession about not finishing a kit since the nineties made me feel a whole lot better. I returned to modelling in late 2007 and I've not managed to get anything completed either.

Be watching on this one to see how it turns out.

Good luck, all the best.

Alan

Alan, mine has sink marks in the same place. I don't consider them to be to bad. When I googled the gun I got some information that the wheels were bigger and some that they were smaller. I don't know exactly which is correct. I wanted to work on the kit today but our winter ice storm had the power off all day. If we have power tomorrow I'll try and get some more done. We got 2 inches of sleet on the ground now and it's still comming down. Just love walking on 2 inches of marbles. I'll get some more done when I can
Joe

Hi

I've not heard anything about a size issue with the wheels, although I think from what I've read they did have more than one carriage configuration, this being the "lighter" cut down version I believe.

I did do a quick comparison with a 7.5 Pak 40 kit I have of Dragons as I know they had more than one set of wheels in the kit, thinking I could swop them to get round the filling in of the sink holes but the Pak 40's are smaller than these if that means anything.

I'm not to bothered, as you say they are slight and pretty tucked away. If you do a diorama setting they could easily end up covered in mud and not even see the work put in to fill them

You mentioned having several vehicles in mind to tow this. One wouldn't be our mutual favourite the little Steyr RSO/01 would it ? That's another of my started but not completed kits. Having said that it's really down to funds and availability. I wanted the Royal Model detail set but it's unavailable, even the Eduard set is, although a couple have come up on ebay recently for more than I think it's worth paying in my opinion. Tracks I'm undecided upon, probably MK.

Would the RSO be man enough for the job anyway? along with crew and ammo it might not be up to it.

Hope the power comes back on and you get some modelling time in. Makes our UK weather a bit tame, but that won't stop us moaning about it.

Alan

Alan, I have a picture of a RSO pulling the 10.5 18m, so I figure it could pull the 10.5 18/40 without a problem. I didn't get anything done today. Power was on most of the day but phones were dead all day till just a few minutes ago. I got 1 1/2 in of ice covered by 3 in of snow. I tried to dig out the car today but wore out in 30 minutes. I'll give another go tomorrow. Hope to get back to building tomorrow sometime.
I hope to do a SWS, or one of two Sdkfz 11 for a puller for the gun. I got to get some tracks for the SWS if I use it, I do not like the tracks that come with the kit. We'll see what happens tomorrow
Joe

Last night I was able to assemble the shield. I was able to do the gun sight earlier today.

The back of the shield.

I will have a few more pictures later today if possible. Their were no problems in assembling the shield the gun sight required it to be compacted a bit.
Joe

While the gun and shield were curing I decided to assemble the carrage. The handles on the carrage trails mounted in some indentations. I drilled the handle indentations a bit deeper to add strength to the bond area.


I assembled the muzzle break on the painted barrel

More soon
Joe

Moving right along, Joe, it's great to see you building! The kit looks very well detailed and engineered. Looking forward to more

James, this is a nice kit. I had never done a AFV kit before and their workmanship is very good. Alot of the parts are small and fragile and their are alot of attachment points to the sprues. I have broken two parts so far, but they glued back together ok. The kit reminds me of a Tamiya kit. The instructions are pretty good, I missed one spot where a part was to be attached, I mistook one spot for another. I put one part on backwards and did not notice it till the next day. I was able to get it lose and into the correct location without to big a mess. It is nice to get back to building, I missed it for a long time, but did not have time for it until last year. I hope to wind this build up in a week or so.
Joe

The gun was painted along with the shield. I did not paint the attachment points on the gun or shield. After both primer and panzer dark yellow were applied the gun shield was glued into place. Here are some pictures of the gun and shield.


I also painted the gun carriage, painting a little at a time.

Below is the gun with the sight ready to be installed.

We will get back to this tomorrow
Joe

The build was going well until I tried to cut the part that attaches the recruperator tube above the gun. The first cut I made broke the part. Their are like 7 connecting legs to the sprue. The broken part was glued back on after removing the part from the sprue. I was able to put the part in the right place and let it sit overnight to harden up. I continued to paint, covering spots I had missed before. The next day disaster struck when I dropped the gun unit. After hitting the desk, chair, waist can and then the floor, two parts broke off. Both shield braces broke off and one dissapeared completely, and only a part of the other could be found.

The above photo shows the only part that could be found. After a futile search I decided to make my own shield braces. I was able to find some sprue of almost the correct diameter.
I was able to cut four pieces to fit the length needed and glued them into place. The gun sight also broke off during the ordeal. I was unable to find part of the eye piece, so i put a piece of streched sprue in it's place. The gun sight was put into place after I took the pictures below.



We will do some more on this project tomorrow or later.
Joe

Hey Joe ! I was waiting to see your build log on the LeFH18/40 in AA/ Artillery/AT-section, but now I find it here. I'm glad you started !

This is a great topic, you made a lot of progress already. The kit is just fantastic, fine and sharp detail, accurate, AFV Club makes beautiful artillery kits.

I started this kit too, about three weeks ago.

You know I have built the AFV's LeFH 18M (preshaded at this moment), but it was so much fun that I continued building ! And it's almost finished.

I'll start my thread of this kit in AA/Artillery/AT-section.

You have also decided to paint it yellow, me too, good choice because the detail will stand out after weathering. I gave it a three tone camo but removed it later.

I'm hooked up to see this one finished, you're doing a great job.
Btw. the red paint on the metal barrel, is it a primer ?

Cheers Guy.

Guy, it is a good kit. I would like to do the 18m sometime and another 18/40 in firing position. The primer is regular auto primer on the metal parts. I should have used it on the rest but I used zink cromate. I was watching your build and was going to wait till you finished. You got delayed for paint so I went ahead and started.
The polly s panzer dark yellow is what I used on the gun. It took a couple of coats to cover the primer. I left just a bit here and there to show through. I got to go back and look it over and see what needs to be painted again.
I really like AFV's guns, I dislike the fragile parts but you just have to take a bit more care cutting them free.
I am not going to put any camo on it till I have a vehicle to pull it. I haven't built in several years so this is a return to the hobby so to speak.
Joe

Holy...a return in the hobby ??? Well congrats then !

Car primer ? Nice, the reddish color looks good under the yellow of the gun, just like the real thing.

The fine parts of AFV, I know, somethimes it's a little tricky to cut them free...

I'll make my own thread today, it's fun to interact about the same project !
We'll spread up, to make more damage among the armored vehicles here on the forum, so I'll get mine into position in AA/Artillery/AT section !

I stay tuned on this one !

Cheers, Guy.