Hi Steven,

the Pz.'s looking great you definatly captured the battle hardened look of a veteren Tank. nice work man! keep the updates coming.

Gary

Thanks Gary, I was going for the distressed look

On with the update, I have painted and glued on the upper hull, the colour scheme is the standard Ivory and black windows, apologies I really should have taken a picture.

To make up for that I have plenty of images now, These show the tank with the lower hull almost complete, I have sealed all the holes in the fenders and started work on the turret, mainly by sealing all the millions of holes in it. Seriously the thing is like a teabag.





I will be leaving the drivers hatch open as this is really the best way of showing off the interior

Below are some images of the tank without the turret. Those 20mm magazines really do look great, this tank is really jam packed with ammo, unlike my Panzer 1a which had none !





The last image for now shows how the tank is at the present moment, I have added some of the tools, tool clasps and wiring for the lights.

I want to get this completed before Christmas as I am planning the mother and father of all build logs, if you are following Gary's great Stug 3 build you will already know, for others I will keep you guessing.

Oh one tip the Dragon tool clasps are awful to build they are made of really thin brass and are quite difficult to use. If you have a little extra money purchase the Aber stand alone clasps they will save you hours of stress and shouting at your model

Thanks for looking

Steven

Looking really good Steven. I agree with you about the driver's hatch being the best way to show off the interior. I'm in anguish as to how to make my Pz.IV's interior visible. At around $70 in am parts, I certainly don't want to button it up.

Thanks ! You could always leave the top of the upper hull unglued I did that with my Panzer 1, it would have been impossible here sadly.

Ok I will give you one clue to the super hyper mega build planned after my Panzer 2:



PS - The Aber set is in the post !

PSS I have been very good this year

Hi Steven

Pz.II is comeing along nicely. ARRRGGG! those dragon clasps! i will have to admit ive had tears in my eyes while working on dragon clasps. i see santas come early to the Davies household. and hes brought you a third kitty.... for references? man that is gona be a sweet build log!

Gary

Yep Gary,

There are now three KingTigers in the house (well four if you count the 1/35th Dragon lurking around somewhere)

The one on the far left was a real pain to paint, kept on trying to run away. He did not like installation of the 88mm gun either

Hey Steven,

Installation of the 88mm couldnt have been very pleasent for you either! man i had a good laugh when i read that. thanks!


Gary

YES! THIS IS EXCITING!

Hi all,

I have been working on the Panzer 2 and I am pleased to say that the lower hull is almost 100% completed. I have assembled the wheels and return rollers but have not attached them to the tank. I have added the appropriate levels of wear to the rubber and will add them after the tank is painted.

All the tools and tool clasps have been added and I have added the antenna and its guard to the fender. It was a real pain adding the shovel above the axe, I had to fabricate the same spacers as I used on the Panzer 1 because Dragon did not include them. I made the wood block and added strips of brass.

The main progress has been around the turret, the 20mm gun and its optical site have been assembled along with the MG34 machine gun. The 20mm gun barrel has been replaced with an Griffon Model aftermarket part (LB35019) and it is first rate. Unfortunately I have had to use a K38 rather than a K30 barrel, I could not source a K30.

The MG34 is from ABER (35L-70) and it is fantastic. Two come in the pack and I have another for my next 1/35 project.

The PE that you can see on the gun is from Griffon model and it will accept a 20mm magazine, which I will install after painting.

I have installled the commanders seat, at the moment it is stock, I have a few alterations to make, wires etc to add.

The Brass box near the commanders chair is for his head phones, it is not included in the dragon kit so I scratch built it out of brass.







Thanks for looking

Steven

Wow!! That's looking really good! One thing I never figured out is why, 9 times out of 10, the instructions have you assemble the suspension first. It is so much easier to wait till the end of the build to install them, already painted. As for xmas, I think I'm getting a smartphone in lue of cash.

Hi Steven,

Looking good man! nice touch on the wood block and the brass headset box. whats the difference between the K30 & K38? i had orderd a K38 barrel from griffon for my Pz.II build and i couldnt use it. cant really remember why. i used the kit barrel instead. what paint scheme you thinking? Thx for sharing your builds with us.

Gary

Hi Gary, Matt and thanks for the comments !

Oh and happy christmas eve !

The main difference between the 20mm Flak 30 and Flak 38 barrels is the flash supressor, I have provided two pics to illustrate:

A Flak 30



A Flak 38



Unfortunately I will have to live with a Flak 30 gun with a Flak 38 barrel

S

Hi Steven the panzer II looks fantastic. Great job again on the interior. Agree about those Aber mg barrels ... top notch!!

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the comments Frank, I am currently waiting for Santa to being me my model tanks for Christmas but until he arrives I thought that I would provide a quick update.

I have been working on the turret interior, particularly on the commanders communication gear. The first picture is of the tank with turret, the front armour has not been added:



The next images show the communication gear:



and my tank, not quite completed !



Thanks for looking

Steven

Oh Gary, I have a special winter camo scheme planned !

amazing detail Steven

Thanks Tojo72

Happy Christmas everyone. I have been banned from the kitchen while the wife cooks dinner and the inlaws have not arrived yet so I have a little free time so I decided to hijack my own Panzer 2 build log for a few shots of my new 16th King Tiger. I will do a more detailed comparison with the Tamyia KT in a new thread in the next few days.



Ah all the detail

This version of the tank comes complete with both "Porsche" and Henschel Turrets





I will be using the Henschel turret





The upper hull





and lower hull











Thanks for looking

S

Hi Steven,

Wow! that is SWEET!!! Making my mouth water.

Merry Christmas to you and your family!

Gary

Hey Steven,

Happy new year man!!!

Gary

Hi Everyone,

Happy New Year Gary,I have been away for a little while building a T-62 but have decided to finish off my Panzer 2 before completing the Russian tank.

All of the components, save the wheels have been added to the Panzer 2 and the tank is now ready for turret painting and then final assembly. I can then paint the tank and finalise the build.



This is the inside of the turret, I have had to add alot of milliput to cover the ejector pin marks and the gaps beetween the vision ports and the turret.



The next picture is of the almost completed tank, I have to add the front armour but can only do that after turret is completed.



I have added the T shape towing hook attachments to the front of the tank as they are completely missing in the Dragon model along with the attachments for the metal towing cable.

Thanks for looking

S

Hi Steven,

i realy admire your clean precise builds. the barrels are very nice too. what T-62 kit are you building? great to see you back at it man.

by the way, ive started a staghound mk1 on constuctive feedback if you wanted to drop in and take a look.

Gary

Thank the modelling Gods!!
Too many distractions Steven ... I sensed something like this when I saw the King Tigers, but instead its modern Russian. I´ll miss your early war German posts!! This fix may keep me going for a while.

Hi Frank, Gary

Thank you once again for the kind comments, I am building a Trumpter 1962 Model T-62 out of the box although I have made some kit upgrades along the way. I will post a few pics in the next update.

Its funny I started the model before my Panzer 1a as a filler while I waited for the aftermarket kits to arrive from Historex. Little did I know then that Historex are super efficient and delivered the parts in a few days. The T-62 lay 1/3 completed in my display case until talk of a new Trumpy T-64 renewed my interest in Russian armour and I decided to make it my Christmas Annual Leave project. Tragically I am back at work now !

The Panzer 2 suffered a little set back last night, some thing happend in the primer layer on the interior of the turret and the Ivory paint looked shocking once applied. I have to take it back to plastic and start again. Very annoying.

The Plan for the King Tiger build log is to start off the comparison by looking and comparing key components like upper hull, turret, wheels etc and conduct a build log on a seperate thread. I meant to get this done when I was on Holiday but time got away from me.

Thanks

S

Hi Everyone,

The Panzer 2 build is drawing to an end. The turret is completed and painted and about to be glued together. The colour is the standard early Ivory and black with lots of weathering to reflect a hard time in Russia







I also mentioned that I was working on a T-62



Two formidable machines !



Thanks for looking

S

Hi Steven,

OH MAN!!! That T-62 is sweet! ive got the trumpeter T-62/72 Mod. and looking at yours makes me want to pull the trigger and build mine. everything looks great man!

Gary

Great work steve. I've been following this for a while now, love the work your doing on this kit. It's a shame to close it all up with all that great detail in there. Thats some very clean etch work too. The T62 looks awesome too!

One word on the king tiger, good luck and perpare for a lot of corrective work and god help you if you want it to be accurate!

Matt