Hi All,

Thanks for the comments Dan! Quick update on my progress today.



I have finished the left fender in its entirety.



This photo is a test fit of both fenders and the rear engine armour.

Thanks All,

Steven

HI Steven

once again steven fantastic job on the photoetch! this inspires me to try useing more PE in my builds instead of going the easy plastic way out most of the time. is there a certain type of flux you use when soldering? i have really thin gauge rosin core high grade solder but no flux. anyway, thanks for sharing your build with us. looking forward to see more.

Gary

Hi Gary

Thanks for the comments, before this project I stayed away from solder I could not get it to work, I was using lead free solder which is in my opinion is unsuitable for moddling.

The flux I use is Zinc Chloride and Rosin based, and it makes the difference between making a mess and getting the job done.

I found a very helpful guide to soldering here http://panzerfaust.ca/ArmourWorkshop/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=103 on Armour Workshop although I am sure there are guides here too.

Thanks

Steven

Hi Steven,

Thanks for the info man! i will give soldering another go on next project. Happy modeling!


Gary

Wonderful work, great photos and explanations and really good tips on PE and solder... I think I may need to man up and reaquaint myself with my soldering iron!

Keep going!

Can I have the leftovers?

Hi All,

Thanks for all the comments




I was actually considering building a Dragon/Tristar hybrd from the left over parts, unfortunately that is no longer an option as I made substantial modifications to the tristar hull before deciding to use the dragon hull. Oh well.

Apart from the wheels, suspension and a few other bits this I will be using Aber parts, including the turret.

Infact the only part of the tristar kit I will be using will be the engine and i suspect I will be modifying that too.

I am planning to do a comparative build of the three turrets though, so some of the kits will be built.

Thanks

Steven

Hi All,

I have been quite busy since the last post.

I have finished installing the access panels in the lower hull. As you can see from my previous posts the dragon kit is devoid of any internal details and this included the access hatches.

Well I cut them out carefully and created frames out of brass sheet. I added the bolt detail first in plastic but changed them for small metal bolts, which were too small so I changed them for larger metal bolts. Not really that interesting.

You can also see the transmission mounts glued inplace on the hull.



I then added the hatches themselves, I managed to get some spare metal bolt heads from the spares box and soldered them to a brass plate which I then glued to the hull.

The transmission access plate was more difficult to replicate, it is not flat but has a shallow ridge in it. I managed to pull it off by heating a piece of brass plate with my Gas soldering iron which makes the metal much softer to work with for a short period of time. I then managed to create the ridge with carefully applied pressure a metal file. Again I soldered on the bolt head detail.



The following pics show a test fit of the transmission and the front suspension arm, no problems so far.





AS you may have noticed I primed the hatches ready for painting using Tamyia Surface Primer.

Thanks

Steven

Hi all,

Quick update tonight,

I have installed the 2 hard points on the front of the tank, the bolt heads were soldered on and then the section was glued onto the hull.

As you can see I have also been working on the tank's suspension arms. The front arm has been modified as I wanted to connect it to the front wheel. This involved carefully drilling through the ABER parts (described above) and creating a collar out of brass tubing.

The second suspension arm was alot more straight forward, I simply replaced the resin part with brass rod.

The rear suspension arm was harder to construct. Getting the currect amount of bend in the arm was harder than it looked. The arm is made out of two pieces of rod which I have soldered to a brass reinforcing connector which will give the assembly the necessary strength.



Thanks for looking

Steven

Hi All,

Lots of progress since last post.

As you can see I have attached the rear bulkhead to the back of the tank. This was done simply enough but I did have to add some milliput to fill in gaps between the hull and the bulkhead. Othe than that, no real problems.





Next I added the drive shaft. I had to make some minor modifications to this part in order for it to accept the brass tubing making up th second suspension arm. Additionally, the brass mount where the part connects to the transmission was too long necessitating some minor trimming. As you can see I also added a few minor parts connecting the suspension arms to the hull.

However, I have come across my first problem with this kit. This problem concerns the transmission and its place in the hull currently it does not fit correctly

First I had to alter the transmission mounts at the front of the tank. The brass rod I used was about half a millimetre too long so I had to take them apart and add thinner rod.

Secondly I had to alter the position of the break fan several times as it would not allow a dry fit of the top of the hull. I have taken it off for now as I realise that final positioning would be impossible without the transmission mounted in place.

Thirdly there is a problem with the angle of the transmission (I would post pictures but photobucket is currently down but I will add them later!!!) Frankly I don't know if this is how it is supposed to look. Basically the front of the transmission is about three or four millimetres higher than I expected it to be. I don't recall this problem in my previous tank. I have fitted all component parts exactly as they are supposed to be so I naively assume that it is in the right place and in all honesty when the component parts are fitted around it you can't really tell there is a problem.

On the plus side, I have managed to fix the error with the length of the steering connector arms so at least that's done.

Thanks for looking,

Steven

Some more pics:

Photobucket back up and working !!









I was worried that the internal components would not fit into the hull correctly, after all they were designed for a tristar kit, but apart from the transmission problem they actually fit really well.

Thanks

Steven

This is really fantastic work. Very inspirational. Nice when things fit...unfortunately, I wouldn't know what that's like. Looking forward to seeing this little guy evolve.

Thanks for the comments Panzerdoc.

Quick update tonight,

I have glued both fenders to the hull, and started to add the internal bolt detail.



I decided to do this by drilling holes in the hull, inserting brass wire into the hole and then cutting it with wire cutters. It actually looks quite good.

I have also been working on the transmission problem and have sanded down the front of the hull by about 1mm, it helps but does not get rid of the problem. I guess that I will have to live with it.



Thanks for looking

Steven

i am green with envy. amazing job i cant wait to see the finished product.

I'm fascinated and amazed by the work you are doing here. Subscribed!

Hi Steven,

Im loving this build man! you make it look effortless. very impressive. keep it coming!

Cheers
Gary

The same here, this is outstanding work ! Will this one be painted ?

Hi All,

Thank you for the all the kind comments,

Progress has been a little slow this week due to work related activities although I will pick this up again and post an update on Saturday.

The model will be painted and I have been priming metal parts as I go.

I realised that I have made one error. I glued the fenders to the hull without soldering on all the tool clamp attachment points. I guess they will have to be glued on.

Many Thanks

Steven

Hi All,

Lots of activity since the last post. As you can see from the following pictures, I have added most of the required detail to the hull sides. This mainly consisited of gluing on a couple of dozen bolts which of course have to be lined up properly.

I have also added various tool attachment points and brackets to the hull sides.

Next I primed parts in preparation to painting, although I am still unsure of the colours I'll be using.

I have also dry fitted all the parts into the Dragon hull for the first time and I am pleased to say that there were no fit problems.











Thanks for looking,

Steven

I would have gone bonkers by now! Patients is hard for me, and you need it for this level of detail. Cant wait to see it all finished. I wish I had the talent!

Hi All,

Been a little time since the last update I have been steadly continuing to work on the Panzer 1 but the build has been going slower because I have been playing Gran Trusimo 5

I began by priming the model with Tamyia surface primer which showed up lots of problem areas with the surface of the model. As you know superglue becomes transparent when it dries so rivets which looked acceptable when unpainted look a mess when you add a layer of primer.

I removed the offending rivets and replaced them and re-primed the model



Next I started thinking about the colour that I am going to paint the tank. There are so many different interpretations on the internet about interior colour so I decided to follow broadly the paint scheme posted by James Tainton in the post referenced on the front page of the blog.

So I started by priming the vehicle with Tamyia Hull red which I found a little dark. So I began mixing combinations Vallejo hull red and white and spraying them onto the model and the results are ok.

I have added some MIG Abt015 shadow brown to add a little wear to the interior but I decided long ago that this vehicle would be a pre-war tank around 1938 so wear and tear would be minimised.



Once again thanks for looking.

Steven

HI Steven,

your Pz.1 is coming along nicely. thanks for checking out my ferdinand. it took me forever to figure out how to post pics. now if i can get the soldering mastered like you maybe i can tackle some of the big boy projects. it looks so tuff but i bet it is very rewarding. i look forward to your post every day. i love that little Pz. of yours.

Gary

Thanks Gary

I have have completed more painting today,





As stated previously I am depicting the vehicle as nearly new so there will not be much sign of wear.

Thanks

Steven

Hi All,

Brief update;

I have been progressing steadily as you can see. I have added the rear floor sections to the model. I sprayed them with Tamiya XF-76 Grey/Green IJN and then gave them a wash with MIG brown wash. I have also added some relatively light weathering to the model. While I'm still planning to make this model fairly clean, it would not look entirely realistic if I did not add some wear to the model.





I have painted and slightly weathered the transmission as well as the hatch plates, however they are not pictured as I did not have enough time for this update. I will post further pictures tomorrow night.

Thanks for looking,

Steven

Great progress Steven!