Very nice so far. I'm curious about the DToys set -- does it completely redo the rear stowage racks or are they still out of scale? They are very out of scale on the K9 kit, and are pretty much my only complaint about the kit to this point.
By the way, that unknown device on top of the gun is called a Geschwindigkeitsmesser. It measures the velocity of the projectile as it leaves the gun.

Hello Robert,

sorry for my late reply, this week was very busy. As far as I can say the new resin stowage racks are pretty in scale when I compare them to the pictures of my booklet. I remember I had to close some holes in the rear of the turret for the original (much to thick) racks. I can only say I´m satisfied with them.

By the way; I´ve seen two new sets for this gun; one from MK1 (with nice etched baskets) and an accessoir set from Wind Mark Models. Both were available at www.hobbyeasy.com.

Thanks for your information about the Geschwindigkeitsmesser; I have to admit I was at the Artillery branch during my Army time as a conscript but I was sitting in the regimental office and had to write letters for the lieutenant-colonel to everywhere, thats why I have no idea about these things :-)

Today I finally wanted to start painting. I first wanted to clean again my airbrush just to break the thread of the small nozzle :-( now I have to buy a new one and I tried it with my second one (Rich AB 200). The green and the brown colors are from LIFECOLOR´s NATO / M.E.R.D.C Set. I had difficulties with the brown one but I don´t know if its about the color or my airbrush gun.
I´m not sure if I should leave it this way. If you look at the pictures of the real one they are looking very hard edged-camouflage although they are airbrushed. I tried to spray the edges as smooth as possible but I´m not 100% satisfied. I will continue with spraying the black and buff stripes, after this you should all tell me what you think about to leave it like this or redo everything with maskol.

Have a look:







P.S.: The black and buff stripes on the barrel was a test for me which colors I could use. Black is Tamiya and the buff is "bonewhite" from Vallejo. Both worked superb as usually.

Hallo Thomas!
I guess I'll have to get the DToys set when I find it. Until then the build is pretty much on hold as I've assembled everything except the hatch handles.
The cammo is going on nicely. About the brown, I prefer Model Master Field Drab for the MERDC brown, but it's all Geschmacksache, right? I think the softness of the edges will even out a bit once you start weathering.
Now I need another one of these so i can start a K10!

MfG
Rob

Hey Robert, I´m glad when I finished this little monster I don´t think about scratching a K-10 although I have to admit it would look interessant to see them both together during an ammo reload.

Yesterday I finished the first steps of painting with the missing black and buff camouflage with my Ersatz-Airbrush. It turned out ok for me and I think I will keep it this way even if colors go into each other very soft. Like Robert say it will be getting more better during filtering and washing (I hope). Have a look for yourself:









What do you think about it now?

Det sieht jar nicht schlecht aus.
The only thing stopping the K10 at this point would be the lack of roof photos, but I have emailed Samsung Techwin to see if they'll help. I wouldn't mind seeing you put the two of them together.
MfG
Rob

Looks great! I have not been able to update the thread for my Turkish T-155 conversion lately, but I am about to start painting as well. The kit is really great, and I think I will build another one as a straight K-9 sometime later.

Hello all, sorry for my long absence but I had a lot of work in my business and I waited for some colours I would need for the weathering and painting the crew. Now I got what I need and everything will continue:

@Robert: Thanks for your opinion. At the moment I don´t feel any desire for scratchbuilding a K10; I wil be glad when I finished this one :-)

@Kursad: Also many thanks for your good words. I´m looking forward who will be the first one who is rolling out on the shelve; your Firtina or my K-9 :-)

Since my last update I tried the MIG filters but I have to admit I didn´t saw a difference when it was dry (I did two times the filter). After this I painted all the roadwheels; I was glad here because my wife helped me with the paintwork there. Who can say he have a wife helping him modelling ;-) . Then I made two washes with oil and MIG thinner for washes. This one was pretty good and the antislip surface came out quite good:

http://i445.photobucket.com/albums/qq173/Taikyoku_2008/Korean%20Hammer%20K9/Bild051.jpg

http://i445.photobucket.com/albums/qq173/Taikyoku_2008/Korean%20Hammer%20K9/Bild052.jpg

http://i445.photobucket.com/albums/qq173/Taikyoku_2008/Korean%20Hammer%20K9/Bild046.jpg

Now I´m sitting and think about how I will make the suspension and underside of the hull dirty in an appropriate way. I tried to dillute some pigments and sprinkle them with an (not in duty anymore) toothbrush on the underside to look how the effect will come out. I think I will try it over a first thin layer of sprayed buff color. What do you think?

http://i445.photobucket.com/albums/qq173/Taikyoku_2008/Korean%20Hammer%20K9/Bild054.jpg

http://i445.photobucket.com/albums/qq173/Taikyoku_2008/Korean%20Hammer%20K9/Bild-1.jpg

Then I work parallel on the crew figures. I decided to leave the loaders hatch closed and keep the loader figure for my K1A1 MBT crew. Here, with the artillery vehicle shown on move, I think the driver and the commander looking out of their hatches will be enough. This is my very first approach painting faces and whole figures with acrylics but I´m very satisfied because painting figures was, until now, always my weak spot. After finishing the faces successfully I start with the woodland camo uniforms with the khaki colour. The green, brown and finally black colors will follow now:

http://i445.photobucket.com/albums/qq173/Taikyoku_2008/Korean%20Hammer%20K9/Bild047.jpg

for the headphones I have the wonderful Royal models etched ones here but I wait for them and the cables until I´m completely finished with the two men.

After one whole afternoon painting woodland pattern under magnifying lenses I really dreamed last night about camouflage :-). But the results are in my eyes, for my personal mnd ost scary discipline figure painting and with the first time in acryl, quite satisfying until now.



BUT NOW I NEED YOUR SUPPORT PLEASE: I don´t have much pictures of ROK tankers where I can see the details of name tags on the breast, rank and unit insignias and collar patch. In the internet I was also not very successful and in Youtube I also didn´t found some close views. Anybody out there who can help me with more close view pictures or informations about insignias of the ROK Army, especially tankers? Any help is welcome!

What a beast!

Congratulations!

Maybe I am wrong, but the barrel seems a little bent for me...

Best regards,

Adam

(starting the Pzh 2000 in a week)

Thomas, great work! Your figures are fantastic!

HI Thomas!

Welcome back!
And congrats on your progress. It looks very nice.

Btw, you painted the figures just like Koreans
Great job!

As for the name tag, a personal name is written in black on the olive green tag
for Army. Marine is somwwhat different (yellow on red maybe).

The rank insignia is quite simple.

one bar ( - ) for private
two bars (=) for private first class
three bars (- on =) for corporal
four bars (= on =) for sergeant

You may find more in Wiki. Usually, these rank insignias are in black
on the olive green tag, just the same with the name tag.

About the unit insignia, it is attached on the left or right upper arms,
division, platoon etc.. (I am not so sure.)

If you surf to the following site...

http://www.mmzone.co.kr/new_forum/topic_view.php?f_dbname=f_fig&forum_title=&no=63865&keyword=&where=&mode=&start_page=270

you may find the present korean army uniform at second from the left.
(first: ACU, 3rd and 4th: Korean new uniforms. one of them will be fielded soon)

In the below you may see more korean field artillery units
http://ask.nate.com/knote/view.html?num=470413

Two more. These could be what you hope for:

http://kr.blog.yahoo.com/pershing11111/archive/2009/06/12?m=lc

http://bemil.chosun.com/bemil_search.html?sTarget=community&colTarget=bbs&bbsSearchType=02&searchTerm=k-9&x=0&y=0

I am sorry for that, all the sites are written in Korean.
I expect the photo would just fine for your needs.

I hope this helps.

Cheers!
Seung-il

Thanks a lot for your good words mates, I really appreciate it. For the barrel: yes it was bended a little bit but it´s already corrected now.

@ Seung-il : I want especially thank you very much for your huge help! The links are really a big help in finding the details I looking for. Its always good to have an korean spectator when you build a korean tank *smile*

There are some of the tankers and field artillery soldiers which have a lighter green patch over their usual shoulder patch. Some are plain green and some have something on it. Do you have any idea what these are purposed for?

Thanks again for everyone. It´s fun to continue this blog here

HI Thomas,

You're always welcome.

I think that the light-green patch without anything indicates that he is a sqaud leader, whereas a olive-green patch with a metalic object tells that he or she is an officer. I may check this.

If you google with "K-9 자주포" for images, you'll have interesting pictures

I look forward to seeing your progress!

Cheers
Seung-il

The Koreans do a lot of things very much like their US counterparts, and the green shoulder tabs do indeed indicate a squad leader, like on this guy:

http://www.defencetalk.com/pictures/showphoto.php/photo/12290 " TARGET="_blank"> http://www.defencetalk.com/pictures/showphoto.php/photo/12290

Note also his shoulder patch displaying the cannon, which is very similar to many US artillery unit patches.

Very very impressive to say the least

Very nice build, Thomas.

The woodland camouflage is extremely realistic. Fantastic job!

Looking forward to see more

So you want to see more? Finally I finished my tank crew this afternoon. My eyes need rest now but I´m a little bit proud of what I achived for painting figures with acrylics for the first time. Have a look:

The commander




the driver:




Now lets proceed with the vehicle itself

Impressive camo painting my friend !

Hi Thomas,

It is realy a nice painting skill.

Cheers,
Seung-il

And......

Hi Robert

The photos in the link are great.

Yes, it is true that Korean-army systems are very similar to those of US army
as you expect, since the Korean army started his history with big supports from US.

In the past, our army depends much on the US force, and the situation have been changed slowly into more independt systems and operations by the Korean army, but there is a long way to go.

It was good to hear from you.

Cheers,

great great great !!!!

Pierric

Thats a brilliant build! the camo is great, anf the figures fantastic! well done!

Thanks again for all your positive replies and help, this is really a lot of fun for me to blog here.

After some time of break here we are again and I did quite some work on the kit: I made the filters, washings and drybrushings with MIG buff oil (very good). After this I painted all the stuff packet in the turret basket and around and the flags. For the flags I choosed colours I saw on real films on youtube and pictures; though the meaning is unknown to me until now. The crew was fixed and I painted the vinyltracks. Those vinyl tracks are not nice to paint as the colour says goodbye again during drybrushing... I just airbrushed a very subtle buff on the hull underside as I want to show a vehicle during a roadmarch which should not (yet) be too dirty. Look for yourself:







Now I had to return to my old problem; the track fit. It is not too good:



I tried to glue it with an appropriate glue and fix them as I like


Now it looks like this


Now there is not too much left to do: just to fix some broken parts, antennas and the travel lock. To be continued...

Well here we are coming to an end today. I fixed the unnatural looking track bending around the drive sprocket, give the undercarriage a very subtle spray of buff (the vehicle shouldn´t be to dirty because it is represented during a roadmarch), gluing some broken parts (the antennas I glued for several times...) and supplement some small blobs of color and... VOILA! Here we proudly present our final pictures of

R.O.K. Self propelled howitzer K9, CALFEX 2010 exercises, present time, near Paju, South-Korea.

Enjoy





























The kit, although with some weaknesses (the handles are really on the thick side and yes I like single link plastic tracks more than vinyl) was a joy to build and was easygoing. I would like to say thank you very much to all the people who helped me to get the kit and the additional sets from Korea, the spectators with all their encouraging words and useful hints. It was my first blog but surely not my last one. There is still lurking that attractive K1A1 tank from the stash at me all the times now

It came out great. I just ordered the Neo Model detail set to go with my K9. We'll see how it comes out.