Well the nightshift continues and so does the building... the painting has to wait a bit.
I bought this kit originally for an online contest. Had everything in house on time (ref book, tracks) except for the PE set which came one month later and therefor I missed the contest
So now I decided to pick it up and built it. First thing I decided to take up was the engine bay... with the engine and all the other stuff inside. Bronco had simplified it to the point it looked like it was designed by a monkey with lego. I did some detaillig on the engine which isn't correct but I did not have enough pictures of it to rebuilt it so I spiced it up a bit. The rest of the engine bay was detailed according to the pictures of the walkaround in the Focus book on the vehicle. This included making the engine hatch the right thickness. This is the result of 9 hours straight building.








Everything in the engine bay is still loose. This is done for the ease of painting. There is some work needed still though mostly in cleaning up the sharp edges and such but he construction part of the engine bay is over. On to the rest of the vehicle.

As usual very curious to you feedback

With friendly greetz

Robert Blokker

Very Nice Robert. I cant wait to see the Faustiaans interior in this hotchkiss.

Best Regards Manuelke

Ola Manuel

Thanks for the kind words mate. Really appreciated.. Did some more work on the interior last night during the nightshift. Pics of that will follow this afternoon when I have woken up.

2 nightshifts further and I managed to do something more to this vehicle. This time the crew compartiment and the turret have been done. Together with the Eduard PE set and a good dose of scratch I detailed this vehicle according to the excellent walkaround in the Minitracks book about the H39

I did this work to the interior because I'm planning to have all the hatches being open and you actually see quite a lot in this little vehicle
Ok the pics:







The Eduad set actually has some really nice additions to the kit like the toothed ring on the inside of the turretring... a detail that is very well visible with the fronthatches open.



I did some scratchbuidlign to the vision ports in the turret as well... It might not be the most brilliant scratchbuilding but for the looks from the back hatch in the turret it does it's work in my opinion





And to end this post a few pics of views through the hatches to show what is visible in the interior of this small vehicle.



I'm very curious to your feedback

With friendly greetz

Robert Blokker

Ola people

Last friday I found a little bit of sparetime and decided to pick up the old airbrush again to see if I still knew how to handle it. Decided to spray the engine bay of this little vehicle first since I still had to add some stuff to the crew compartiment. Also started on a bit of global weathering. More as a test for myself since a lot of it won't be visible anymore when the whole engine will be fitted.
Here are the pics.






Still some detail painting needs to be done to the engine, the cooling thing and the inside of the engine hatch. But then it is pretty much finished. Then the adding of the extra stuff in the crewcompartiment and then I can paint that as well and I can focus on the exterior.

Looking forward to your feedback

Another installment in this monologue

Did find some time to add some small things to the interior and did some painting to it as well.






Looking forward to any feedback

Nice work! I always had a thing for the Hotchkiss. It's nice to see one given this kind of treatment. Please keep us updated.

@ Justen
Thanks a lot for your reply. It is really appreciated. And yeah the early war tanks do have some characteristic looks. For me this is a really fun project so far

Ola Robert!
Some brilliant scratchbuilding and detailing on the interior you have going on there! The amount of work you've put into it would be best appreciated if shown next to bare Bronco supplied interior

This interior set and the Minitracks book seem to be a must if one is going to build this little kit.

Are you going to do anything with the texture on the cast armour? That orange peel effect really cries out for a redo I know I'd do it if I was to build the Hotchkiss again.

Keep up the good work!
Greg

Ola Grzegorz

Thanks for the compliments. It was fun to do the detailing. And to really make something of the Bronco kit you really need the eduard Etch set .. It really adds to the kit. which certainly in the interior department lacks a lot, And for scratchbuilding the rest the book was certainly a big help since it holds a very extensive walkaround with all the hatches opened. So all the details are visible.
I'm planning to redo the texture on the side. Trying to make it look a bit more like casting texture. But not too heavy as comparing it to pictures of the original it wasn't that rough texture either. But I will find a way around it..

After weathering I'm going to close the tank up and then it is on to the exterior of the vehicle

Ola People

For the viewers who were so nice to take the time to reply... thanks for that your feedback and comments are appreciated.

Time for a little update. Did some weathering to the interior this evening. Washes, filters, chipping, pigments, oilstains everything passed the revue.






The interior is almost finished. Only need some thing to add for the hatches and when that is done I can button it up and start the work on the outside.

Looking forward to the feedback

With friendly greetz

Robert Blokker

Robert, that really has progressed nicely.

Ola Dave

Thanks a lot for your kind reply... Really appreciated.

Time for another little update. The work in the intrior is practically done. The bottom hatch of the drivers side is done... the top hatch still needs to be fixed. So I started on redoing the casting texture of the hull and turret. Bronco added a casting texture to their kit and even though it is nicely done... it is not much looking like the casting texture of the original vehicles. Unpainted it looks pretty neat... Only I know this for sure when I hit it with paint.
Here are the pictures












With friendly greetz

Robert Blokker

Some really cool stuff going on there Robert.

Thanks Pat
More to come and in the meanwhile I can also start pondering what figures will go with it.

A very small update that probably will not be online for too long as I pretty much reached the end of my bandwidth with Photobucket

Top drivers hatch is ready for primer. It weas some fiddling as the three springs are not exactly big.

Really nice work Robert! I'm following with interest as I have one of these in my stash as well.

Chers!
Stefan

Ola Stefan
The Bronco kit is a really nice vehicle and despite what several sources online tell you quite a good rendition of the original vehicle. Make sure you get the Eduard Etch set for it... That gives you a lot of the detail that the kit is lacking. With a bit of extra work this kit can be turned into a real beauty.

Hi Robert,

Wow.

How did you redo the cast steel effect? Thank you.

Ola Briann

Basically what I first did was damaging the surface with my motortool with a bit that looks a little like what the dentist is using when you have a hole in your tooth. I don't know the name for it... Basically I made all sorts of dents and channels in the plastic and roughing it up all with the same bit in my motortool.
Then I put some putty on a piece of aluminum and with a makeshift small spatula out of some leftover evergreen I added little amount of the stuff onto the hull and smearing it out hastily not regular and not trying to cover too much holes. Then eventually I smoothed everything down again with some fine grit sandingpaper. Put it in primer couple of days ago and I have to say I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Hope you can do something with the above information

Greetz Robert

I remember all the modelling time I had on the night shift. Looks great so far Robert. (I should pull out my old Heller kit, of the R-35 I started---- you guessed it---on the night shift! )

Ola Dave

Sadly the nightshifts are over. It was too good to be true really to get paid to do your hobby. Oh and walking around for 2 minutes every half an hour to an hour. Oh well.
Thanks for the compliments. I would love to see your efforts on the R35. I have seen the kit several times and I really think you can make something good out of it... Certainly with your skills.

Looks good, I have always considered doing one of these.

Ola Anthony

Well all I can say for this kit that so far it has been great fun to do. But I also found out that the Eduard set is a bit of a must have. Certainly when you are planning to built it with all the hatches open