Hi All,
After a set of particularly difficult builds, I've decided to take it easy on the next one. I've chosen the Tamiya Marder III for the next one and you can come along for the ride. But, I just can't leave it alone, so I'm adding some stuff. Here's what should be going into the build:



One of the big weaknesses of the model is the lack of an interior. To rectify this, I picked up the Brach Models interior and detail set. It looks really nice. The parts are squash-molded with REALLY thin carrier around them. Overall, I'm impressed. We'll see how it goes together. The only part I'm sort of "up in the air" over is the Jordi Rubio barrel. Looking at the kit barrel and what has to be removed and transplanted, I'm not sure if it's worth the work. Now, on with the build!

Here's the first day of construction:



I needed to fill the numerous knock-out marks on the inside of the hull sides. This isn't a particularly big deal, just some MR. Surfacer and some sanding. The weird thing is one panel has recessed marks and the other is raised. Why, I have no idea. I needed to remove a rib across the bottom of the hull so, the crew compartment floor could fit. I removed this with my microchisel and super-glued it in place. The firewall was also trimmed and mounted. The knock-out marks are gone and here's what the finished lower hull shell looks like:



That's it for now, more tomorrow!
Regards,
Georg

Georg,
I was just looking through my small stash and thinking maybe I will start this kit next as well. I don't use aftermarket parts and build straight OOB. But I will be following your built and maybe I will learn some tips from you and Inprove my skills.

Hi All,
The Marder madness is beginning to slide into gear. Today, I was able to get some work done on the crew compartment. I used more of the Brach Models set and it went together pretty well. All of the parts were pretty well cast. I do have a couple of air bubbles to work with, but nothing a little putty couldn't cure. Here's what the hull looks like right now:





I thought the PE pedals were a nice touch. I decided to get the instrument cluster together on the underside of the glacis:



Overall, things are going smoothly. I decided to dryfit the glacis, front plate and the CMD upper hull part to see how it would look:





If I have some more time this evening, I'll get a coat of primer on the fighting compartment and drill a hole in the engine compartment floor for the bolt for the base. All for now.
Regards,
Georg

Just finished this kit a few days ago. It rocks

Hi All,
I was able to get some primer on the interior last night. I use plain old automotive red-brown in the spray can for this. Here are the pics:



Here you can see the nut for anchoring the model to the base:







Either tonight or tomorrow evening I want to get the interior painted with some ivory colored paint. The exact shade won't be too critical, as most of the interior won't be visible once everything is done and it will be so dirty, you won't be able to tell!
Regards,
Georg

Hi All,
Sorry for the delay, but I've been really busy other stuff over the past week or so. Needless to say, I've been neglectful of the blog. So, here are some of what I've been up to:
I was able to get some paint onto the lower hull. I use craft paint (because it's cheap) and I used a light ivory thinned with windex for the lower hull tub.



Here's the glacis and front plate given the same treatment:



While the lower hull was drying, I got to assembling the gun. I used the Jordi Rubio barrel and it all went together with minimal fuss.



I had originally planned to use the kit muzzle break, but it just didn't look right, so I ended up using the Jordi item.



From the gun, I moved onto more of the interior. Here are the crew seats. I managed to lose one of the seat cushions, so I had to make a new one using a block of resin from a stowage set.



In addition to the seats, I got the drivetrain together. Here is the driveshaft, transmission and final drives. The kit would have you use brass wire, but I didn't have any, so I substituted some steel wire. Also, I replaced the resin handgrips on the transmission with ones made from styrene strip and rod.



That's all for the update. More in the next post for tonight's progress!
Regards,
Georg

Hi All,
I'm back! Here's tonight's progress:
Unlike the resin parts which are kinda fiddly, the Tamiya parts are up to the usual standard of the usual "shake 'n' bake" we're used to. Here's the suspension all together. It took about 5 minutes to get everything cut sanded and glued together!



As you can see, I was able to get some paint on the driver's side pad. Again, I use my favorite craft paint.



I put together the resin ammo bins. I primed them with automotive primer from the can for the German red-brown. I'll paint them with German gray tomorrow.



In addition to ammo bins, I'm also doing the detail painting for the interior parts. Here's the seats and transmission assembly with the block painting done. I still have to paint the frames and some details on the seats. The transmission will get a couple of gray and brown washes to simulate dirt and grease.



Well, that's all for now. With luck things should be quiet tomorrow and I'll get some more done!
Regards,
Georg

Hey Georg
Your progress is going smooth it is really shaping up to be
a wonderful build log.
Your scratch work is very good!!!
I know it is early but have you decided on a unit/setting yet.
As always your work is Magnificent.
Regards
Horst

Horst,
Thanks for the kind words. By the time you see it at the NJHMA next week, it should be ready for paint! I haven't worked out which unit it will belong to, but I'm leaning toward one of the infantry divisions that got them, circa summer 1943.

Regards,
Georg

Hi All,
Due to my wife's screaming migraine, this evening's original plans got scrubbed. So what do I do? Get to the workbench and get the Marder further along. Here are some of tonight's progress pictures:

I got the interior parts painted completely. Here's the whole thing together. That was one cramped fighting compartment!



In addition, I was able to get decals onto the instrument panel. I used Decalcomaniacs! decals for the dial faces.



I was also able to get some primer on the underside of the CMD upper hull.



That's basicly it for tonight. I should have some more "in progress" shots over the course of the weekend. Enjoy!
Regards,
Georg

Something has survived... more to come.
Regards,
Georg

I have the same kit in stash, will add a metal gun barrel too, but the rest will be OOB.
Will follow this build for sure.
You did a great job on the interior, I relly like the texture on the seats but aren't they a bit too thick ?

And I though building a smart kit OOB was a relaxing build! Should look good with all that PE though.

Which campaign will you be doing? I am assuming these were used primarly in Russia?

John,
Yes, they most certainly are and you can hardly see them when the hull is closed up. I'm not going to worry about them.

Mark,
This is going to be a spring/summer 1943 vehicle in the northern part of Army Group Center. I plan on doing a battered field-applied coat of dark yellow over dark gray. I've wanted to try chipping, so this should be cool. I know there were a bunch that survived up there and I'll see which which units had them left in mid-1943.

Regards,
Georg

Georg, they looked good, I always try to look at the texture since there's always a wide range of materials for the interior, tissue, different metals, wiring etc.. but they looked a bit too thick. But I understand you perfectly, since these interiors are always too covered ( I wonder how the crews would work...)
What type of finishing are you planning ? Eastern front / winter & muddy ?

Hi All,
Things have been a little busy on my end, but I have made more progress on the Marder!
First up, the gun. Here's the gun completely built and in its primer coat:



Here's the shield, both front and back:





Here are some of the OVM Parts, assembled, but left off until they are painted completely:



I'm going to be using the Friuli 38(t), track, but this has led to a problem: they are WAY too wide for the sprockets and idler! I widened the idler with some styrene sheet punched out and glued between the parts. I ditched the kit sprockets completely for the Friuli parts. They are a little different, but not uncommon for 38(t)-based vehicles.







The kit only give you about 6 shell cases for the ammo racks. No self-respecting panzerjager commander who wanted to live through that day would carry that few rounds. So, I broke out the punch set again and punched out some new shell bases to fill most of the bins. Incidentally, I used garage sale signs for the for the styrene sheet for the shell bases.



I considered painting the bottom 4 bases steel to mix in with the brass rounds, but was unsure if the Russians used steel cases. Also, I wasn't sure if the guns had been rebored to take Pak 40 rounds (I know the Germans eventually went to steel cases, but wasn't sure when this occurred).



Well, that's a pretty big update. More to come, so watch this space!
Regards,
Georg

Hi All,
Yesterday, showed some of the detail shots of the stuff for the model. Here are the overall pics.
The fenders or completely on and most of the OVM is in place. The travel lock on the glacis isn't finished, but that will wait until the gun is installed.



In this head-on shot, you can see the hull mg installed. This is the LionRoar ZB-35. It's really nice with a resin body and turned brass barrel. It also has a TINY front sight. That will be added LAST!



Here's the other side.



Here's the rear. I used some putty "gloop" from the bottom of my glue bottle to fill the knock-out marks on the backs of the crew seats. The muffler was also textured this way.



Currently, the model is in the spray booth drying from it's primer coat of red-brown primer. Tomorrow, I hope to get the first German gray coats on everything. My desire is to do a summer 1943 vehicle from Army Group Center away from Kursk. It'll have a scruffy-looking coat of Dark Yellow over the gray on all external surfaces, but still have gray running gear and fighting compartment. Not, to mention wear marks around hatches, the gun travel lock, etc. All for now!
Regards,
Georg

Hey Georg she is really comming along great.
I do have to say that i like the larger picture format better
than these smaller ones. My eyes are not what they use to be.
Looking foward to your next post
Regards
Horst

Horst,
Thanks for the heads up. I'll get them resized sometime today. With luck there will be another update today.
Regards,
Georg

Georg,

Nice build so far. Lots of great PE added to this one. Looking forward to seeing more of your work.

Hi All,
Yesterday, I was able to get paint onto the Marder. I used Tamiya paints with their new lacquer thinner and they airbrushed beautifully. I used panzer gray and a couple of other grays for the base colors. I then masked with tape and painted the upper hull and parts of the gun dark yellow.





I plan on leaving the inside of the shield and the rearward part of the gun in gray to show a "quick and dirty" repaint of the vehicle.



I did the detail painting on some of the smaller pieces, including the hatches, roadwheels, seats, sprockets, etc.







Here, you can see the hull with the masks removed for the markings. It shows off the stark contrast between the gray and the yellow.









If I get a chance this evening, I'm going to try to get decals on the thing. I am also going to try to paint some of the smaller OVM, too.
Regards,
Georg

Hi All,
I was able to get more of the OVM painted today along with getting the decals sealed with clear gloss. I used the Tamiya clear in the can and just sprayed in on. The decals were some I printed up and the cartoon on the front plate came from one of the old Tamiya German sets. I'll have more pics tomorrow.
Regards,
Georg

Hi All,
I was able to get the decals on (as I stated in my last post). Here's how the Marder looks right now. The gun and roadwheels are dry-fitted right now just to see how it looks. I decided to do one hull hatch folded and one completely open. I think the masked areas with the markings look good.





Here you can see the fully unfolded hatch cover. I had toyed with the idea of leaving these dark gray, but did not like how the looked. They got a dark yellow overspray.



Here you can see the painted gunsight. Also, I've added the shell "cases" to the ammo bins and also the MP-40 with its mount.



Here are the gas mask cases and the periscopes with their base coats. They'll get cut off the sprue, touched up and then added inside the gunshield.



Well, that just about wraps up today's update. I'm going to try to get the parts from the above photo mounted on the gunshield, work on the other track and some other OVM. More tomorrow!
Regards,
Georg

Hi All,
The tracks go a basecoat and the model got a an overall flatcoat. More pics later today! Off to work I go!
Regards,
Georg

Hi,

Great Progress so far, but what made you chose the internal colour scheme, of hull red primer and gray?

Thanks

S