Hey guys,

Not really a ton of progress today. I upgraded my computer of about 7 years age. It was a gaming pc back then and held out until now. Needless to say I was surprised at the technology leaps from back then.

Of course I had to build a new one:




Oh yea, before I begin, Bob really seemed to take a liking to sdkfz 10/4's with a spent casing basket. Well here are 2 more (For Bob's eyes only ):





Ok so, I decided to rebuild the range and acoustic holder. Don't ask why. The old one was a little broken and I had trouble working it, so I decided to scratch a new one. Here is the main support arm:



You may ask how I achieved this? Today's post is about working with styrene where one would otherwise use copper / brass. Sometimes I like using styrene over brass for a few reasons:

1) Styrene weighs less
2) Styrene can have multiple glue joints near one another. With soldering, it may be difficult to solder one section without disrupting another.

For these reasons, I decided to scratch the support arm out of plastic. I started it in copper, but I had trouble focusing soldering only one section without disrupting the other (some joints were only a few mm away from one another).

So here is how I achieved that in styrene:



I preload the part and place it over a soldering iron. Depending on how sharp I want the bend to be, I can control how long of a section I heat up. The preload helps be to know when the plastic is soft:



Once the bend starts, pull away and hold to shape.



And the same picture again with all of the bends in play. If you did this out of copper, you would find this part far easier. However, I will show you later the benefit to this method.



Here is the straight section of the post and its collar.



I had to bore the collar out to slip over the long shaft shown above. It is better to drill a little from one side and then finish from the back. This helps to ensure a concentric circle from start to finish as opposed to powering through one side only. If your bit is off center towards the end, it will find the hole you previously drilled and help keep it centered.



Anyways, I glued the shaft onto the collar. I also drilled a hole thingy to help hold the curved piece from before.





Kind of stupid looking?



Ah, but look at what a nice, affirmative glue joint it will make:



And glued.





Now the master melt class extreme. I originally had these parts in brass. However, these were a pain to solder to the main support as we will see. I'll show you how I built the following:



Don't worry it isn't that hard.



Same thing, pre-stress the part.



After heat application and cooling.



Now grab the part with tweezers and place over the iron:





The part will start to soften:



While it is still soft, turn it upside down and let the weight of the legs sag.





Re-straighten after bending to get even looking parts:





And trim:



The part I made for the picture is a little weird. I tried to show "in-action" shots, which isn't conducive to even parts. Anyways, I made some away from the camera and here is how they turned out:



Now I connected the holders to the main base with some styrene stock in between.





As you could imagine, that part would be hard to assemble if it was made out of metal. You would have to sacrifice and superglue joints because the soldering of certain joints would affect others. That is what I found.

Now I am fitting the part up to the base.







The above assembly is a little messy. I will clean this up tomorrow when the glue is fully done drying. Below are shots with the range finder support fit in (I have a nice interference fit of the copper part and the gun base, so I don't think I will need glue upon final assembly).























I love how the range finder looks on the 5cm Flak. It almost looks like a super beefy sight. Even though it swings out, I like how it looks in-line with the barrel. Very weird looking with those rings too (I don't know if these are acoustic or mini radar rings).

Hope you liked today's installment. Again, I am trying to show a lot of techniques that I use. They may be silly, but I utilize them all of the time. Each update, I usually have a new technique I will demo, so don't worry about repeating on later updates. If I bend plastic rod with a soldering iron, I will simply note I did. Today was just an good day to show the method.

I'll get there. I have to add the seats and front shields and I am done with the 5cm flak. I will burn through most of the DML sdkfz 7/1. I think Private Pile from Full Metal Jacket could navigate an obstacle course faster than I can model. Oh well, hope you enjoy and thanks for all of the kind comments.

Mark out.

Amazing scratchbuilding. I just want to sell off my kits and smash up everything I've built I'm so envious of your skills, Mate.

Thanks for the kind words Bill. We'll see how it turns out. There is still time for me to ruin the whole thing like my last build log

Today will be a short update. I will post again later tonight or tomorrow. By that time the Flak 41 will be finished. The past few weeks at work have not been very good; it's amazing how much modelling can take your mind away from things. Its like going to the theaters alone during a weekday when nobody is at the theater. Sometimes its nice to escape.

So I installed the rangefinder holder. I have put a pin through the joint to keep the rod from twisting from the off-center weight of the rangefinder.







The gun shields were a little warped and some were cracked when I was removing the casting boss. Scratching them would be pretty easy, so I decided to go ahead with it.





There are some fine details I will have to recreate.



Here is the shield open:



And here is it closed. I cannot fit the open shield on the sd kfz7/1 and have the mesh sides up, which I wanted.





I had some thin styrene sheets available:









More on the shields later. I finished installing the seats and foot rests.













It's getting there. Thanks again for following along and all your comments. It is encouraging. I don't know that I would have stuck with this project by myself. It's nice to be able to share these things with you.

Mark

Hey guys.

Tonight is the night of nights! Thanks for following along and all of your kind comments!

The shields were rebuilt with added detail.



I also rebuild the main support bar for the shields. The kit's had a big void and this part needed to be strong. Also, the connection point is small and I prefere a weldment over a small dab of epoxy if possible. So, the main support legs are in styrene and they will glue to this styrene bar.



In scale this would be a rather large bar. Methinks that Rhinemetal would have used a pipe here, so I drilled it out.



To fit on the halftrack, I am going to show the gun with the shields in transport mode. They will fold over the front of the main shield shown. To help attachment points, I put these pads on the resin base. I can then use regular styrene cement to affix them to the base.





And the first set of shields folded in.



The remaining shields stacked. I used some thinner pads in between each shield to add realistic spacing.



I inserted a very thin styrene strip to cover the light see through of the pads from the main base. When viewed with a light, one cannot see the pads. While this rod isn't exactly accurate, it is hard to view and makes the assembly of all the little shields strong.



With those pads installed, you can see the spacing that I am talking about. It really makes it look like a bunch of shields folded over one another.







Here is some work on the foot rests.



There are some pads (unknown function) near the foot rests. The kits were broken when I tried to remove the casting block. I added the texture myself. I guess one could use some brass sheet with an anti-skid pattern as well. I liked that I could use styrene cement over superglue.









I also pinned the shield support legs to help with the downward, shearing forces.



I installed the legs. I also added a little support to connect it to the foot rest support. While this isn't there on the real Flak 41, it will be hidden and really adds a lot of strength at the end of those long beams.



With the shields installed, the connecting brace isn't really visible, but again really added rigidity.



The top support rods to the shields installed.



A splinter shield for the 1 meter rangefinder operator.



~~~And now the gun is complete. Photobooth!~~~







































Well, that is a huge relief. Thanks for all of your kind comments and time. It really does help.

If you are feeling like...



Don't worry. I have built 2 Dragon Sd.Kfz. 7's. The halftrack should go quickly. I will have to spend some time making the gun fit the base and adding the firing support legs, but the halftrack will be mostly built at that time. I also won't be rebuilding much if anything of the kit. Most of the time spent here is rebuilding. Its not that I can build better than the resin masters, but the castings I received were pretty bad.

I owe someone on this forum some Kursk tiger pics, but I'll get to that later. Thanks again and have a good Sunday.

Markus out.

Amazing [auto-censored], man. %$&#ing Amazing.

Nice job like the way you solved all issue along the way.

Hey guys,

So I have attached some pics of my recent process. Relatively simple things (this DML kit is very well engineered and pretty much falls together). For the majority of the parts, I didn't do anything special aside from pin ejector mark cleanup, removing fill bosses, sanding seams, etc...

Here is the finished computer I was working on as well. I was hoping Diablo 3 would have been good, but it was kind of boring. Oh well, more time for modelling as that game has the potential to be a huge time sink.




Yes, I know I went with the cheesy lighting. What can I say, I am nerd.

I cleaned up my workplace after the flak gun was finished. Is it nice to have a clean place. Sometimes I get so messy I forget what it is like to have a clean work area. I also like when you discover tools you bought and threw in a pile, and then later discover.





~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BTW, I am not a NAZI supporter. I know I build only German WW2 stuff and have a SS poster at my work area. I really like WW2 propaganda posters and I actually have quite a few strung around my apartment from all countries. This one was really iconic and it was also my first. I didn't like staring at a white wall when I model.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ok so now the "I see nothzing, I know nothzing speech" is over, Parts 1 and 2 laid out.



And assembled.





Parts 3 and 4.







And assembled.



I won't be using any of the aftermarket parts on the engine. While the AM griffon set has air louvers on the side grills, the engine will still be rather dark. I'd rather spend my time elsewhere.

It is kind of a shame. The engine is rather nice, and the AM set would make it really shine. They even have the carburetor controls which would look really busy if the engine was shown in a dio.















I also didn't add the extra detail to the winch. I was feeling pretty lazy today.




I have a long weekend. It is very very nice to get a break from work for a little while. Have a good Memorial Day Weekend all!

Great work! I especially like your trick with the pliers to create the textured pedals, I may have to steal that one some time.

Dang, there's a level of detail you don't see everyday! Pretty amazing

Hello all!

Thanks for you comments. I finished the suspension today.

I was going to show a demo on hollowing out the tail pipe. You know me I really like working in styrene, so I chose to hollow it out over making a new pipe.



~~~PHOTO MISSING~~~

However my plans were foiled by the carpet monster. I rebuilt one out of copper after giving up looking. I will show some better pics of the copper pipe later.

There is a chain that holds the towing pintle pin on (this is from the Griffon kit). I had to drill a hole in the DML part to accept the chain. Nothing fancy. You can do this yourself if you have a scrap chain (you don't have to have an AM kit). It really spices the back up, which is otherwise devoid of etch.





When cleaning off the casting boss on the drives, please use side cutters. If you try to use a file or knife, you can slip and cut off on of the roller supports; I've done it before. I keep a pair of side cutters that I don't use often so they stay really sharp.







I apologize for the blurry photo, but it doesn't look too bad. Its not worth trying to clean up the joint any further.



I found this while browsing the internet. While it talks about the Panther, it is still applicable:



This guy is right for the wrong reasons. The interleved suspension is a poor design because:

I HAVE TO CLEAN 41231564734 ROAD WHEELS EVERY TIME I BUILD A GERMAN AFV!!!!



For those that have built an early tiger, you know my woes. Also, do you see the black brush I have in the above photo. It is from a auto store. These are really nice to have as they don't scratch the surface but can remove really fine burrs.







That bolt pattern looks really nice and is not part of the stock DML kit.





I attached all of the road arms and wheels with testors cement (it is my main glue, but I also like that it has some drying time unlike Ambroid). I placed the model on a tile with some books for straightening and weights on top.





This to me is the best way to ensure a flat sitting model. It is the only time I will let the glue dry for a few hours or more.

Thanks for looking! Have a good week all.

Mark

Hello again!

I have finished the tracks and some other details. A lot of the photos came out blurry this time, dunno why. Apologies.









This radiator set looks really good.



However, it is not useful with the stock kit parts.





Griffon does have a nice resin drop in, though it is available as a standalone or part of their mega super royal pack. I do have one of the mega packs, and I may even have on e of the standalones, but I have plenty of Sd Kfz 7's, so I can't use them here. I was still thinking about using the radiator. The AM kit I have has the brass engine sides, so it would be a shame to have a tacky looking front grill.

So I decided to hollow out the kit part.



You don't want to go all of the way through because the plastic tends to melt and would be hard to correct.



I then ran a knife backwards up and down the louvers.







Then a final sanding.









It's not as nice as the resin part, but it is a lot better than the stock kit. Plus it is very easy to do, so if you have one of these in your stash, I would recommend spending the time to do this, it is well worth it!

I don't know how you would improve on the stock engine sides, I think brass is the only real option there. Oh well.

Thanks for looking and hope everybody is having a good start to their weekends.

Mark

amazing attention to detail and patience great work. i'm following this build and looking forward to seeing it finished.

Your work is awesome ! Nice Scratchbuilding ! I need MOAR

Great stuff, especially the radiator.

Thanks for the comments guys. It really does help.

Well... I feel a lot better. I work as an engineer under contract. I was really worried my contract was going to run out and not get renewed. I just got word from my work that the budget was approved. So that is a huge relief. I was thinking about moving and looking for a job, which I really don't like. I like working, but I don't like looking for work if you know what I mean.

Hopefully anybody out there unemployed reading this can find something soon. The market is going to turn around, it may take a few more months / years, but we will get back to normal. It may not seem that way now, but we will look back on this time when it is past us.

That said, I did treat myself to some models on my wish list. I also need to start fulfilling my new duties as an editor for Armorama. Finally, I did have some time work on the half track.



I had to remove a lot of the detail that will get replaced by the brass:



These pieces were hard to solder, but that's not saying my skills can't get better:













Here's me dreaming:



I also spent quite a bit of time re-aligning the barrel. I was never quite happy. Below is a before and after.






To me this is the make or break in scale models. I'd rather have less detail and better alignment. Our eyes will easily detect when things aren't straight or in agreement with other parts.

This has been bugging me for a while, and I think I did an ok job here. I give myself some credit as this was a tougher resin kit (or at least tough for my skill).

Thanks for looking and I look forward to serving this community as one of your new editors.

Sincerely,

Mark

Really impressive detail, I really like this build log

S

Hey all,

It's been a while. I am still learning some things as a new Armorama Editor, hopefully I will get up to speed in the next few weeks. I look forward to getting to know you better and working with you on showing your work.

But now onto the SPW:



The Schatton Model kit comes with this nice resin drop in for the Trumpeter sd kfz 7. The quality of this cast is very nice compared to the rest of the other parts. I however plan on using the dragon kit's:



These are the supports for the DML bed. Make sure to fill and sand the ejector marks as they will be visible on all of their sd kfz 7 tractors:







Some test shots. Don't get too excited, I am not that close yet.







Adding the clearings for the support legs:





I also added some supports internally because of the weight of the resin kit. I also got a relatively cheap set of calipers. You know how it goes, the second you get a new tool, you "find" all new uses for it. I feel like I went from Bubba's garage to NASA scientist:





Recreating some support for the leg holsters:











I used a light coat of MR.SURFACER to check for any gaps, which were filled with superglue here:



One thing to note is I forgot a brass tire strip that wraps around the tire support. It is not part of the DML kit, but the GRIFFON set. While it looks nice, it is too late to install as I type. If you have the GRIFFON kit, don't forget this.





Ok so for the next set of photo's I will show a lot of photoetch. I like to work in batches as soldering is a little messy and I like to try to schedule it in segments, otherwise I would have to pull out the iron every other step. I do not show the "in-action" shots, I just focus on the before and after.

My soldering skills aren't the best. Some of the posters on this thread have amazing skills in this area. Please look at their blogs on how to do it right(Aka Steve D.'s sd kfz 222 build. BTW, while Steve D. may appear to be humble, his work is like looking at the freak'n sun; if you stare too long you will be blinded by the awesomeness.). I can do enough to be dangerous. Anyways, if you want, please let me know if you want some detailed photos on the soldering process, and I'll be glad to show some shots .

I really like how GRIFFON helps when they call out for a certain length rod. Their PE sheets have patterns that work really well.



All of the parts cut for the cab. I'll show what these are later.



And once I am done soldering, I drop everything in a jar of Windex to remove any leftover flux and grim. The parts then go through a wash of plain water to remove the Windex.

























Oops, I used a little too much solder. I spread it around as best I could so it won't show.



















Alright, you should start to see some more progress as the photo-etch for the next 3-4 steps are already finished. As always, thanks for watching. Your comments are helpful. I was a little frustrated with this build as the barrel was a little crooked until the last installment. It was really bugging me. Now that I have that fixed, I am pretty happy with this.

That said, I look at my stash of injection molded kits and I long for the day of an easier build.

Speaking of my stash, this is a one time, special viewing of my stash. There will be no other SNEAKY PEEKIES of my stash! .





If any of you try to rob me, be prepared. I have sharpened spoons.

Marcus Aurelius out!

Hey guys,

It has been a while and it will be a few days before I get another post in. Anyways, I rushed the shields when I first built them. I decided it would be best to scrap them and start fresh. I'll show some images of the original build.

Rushed hinges.



There were also some sink marks caused by the glue and thin sections.



Look on the top right for the sink marks.



I also rebuilt the texturing on the foot pedals. While it is a nice idea, further review of photos leads me to believe it should less like the original and more like the latter.






I won't narrate too much on the rebuilding:







Ignore the glue marks, these were cleaned up later.



These hinges are "pseudo hinges" from my free stock and spare box. So this isn't the correct way to do hinges, but they will look close enough. I need to order one of those ABER hinge sets. It would have made this a lot easier than using "L" shaped pieces.





I attached the hinges, and I didn't use the standoffs, which WERE noticeable on the original build. I did some careful gluing and I made sure to be quick to get the freshest, best possible bond since my attachment areas were smaller without the "helper pads".

The original system, which while strong was too visible.



And now without.







My LHS had some cool things on my last visit. One being that new Trumpeter Sd Kfz 8 with 8.8 flak. The other being these marble squares. While this seams pretty lame and easy to make yourself, they are awesome. I like having nice cutting and assembly surfaces that are flat and true. It is nice to have multiple assemblies going all at once and this helps to move them around if they have their own platform.

Also, we don't have to look at the ugly wood platform I have been taking most of my pictures on lately:








Anyways, I know I haven't done much and this must seem like the slowest build log. I am trying to be careful and I am not easy on myself if I know I slacked in an area. Don't worry, I'll spend some quality time this weekend on the model. I had a Slayer concert a few weeks ago and I have another metal show coming next week, so I am going to dedicate this weekend to modelling.

That said, I would like to start having a random, historical photo at the end of each post. I will post which book they came from in my collection, or where I found it online for those interested. Think of it like the toy in a Cracker Jack Box.

Today's post is on the FLAK version of the sd.kfz 138. It comes from Trojca's FLAK AT WAR.



Thanks for looking and have a good end of the work week all!

Hi Mark. Awesome build. A testiment to your skills more than the kit!!

Awesome thread!

I was going to order another resin conversion from Schatton but somehow you made me change my mind...

Cheers,


Christophe

Hey Chris, this unfortunately wasn't my intention of this thread. I thought I saw somewhere that SchattonM. was using some weird resin for a while. These kits originally came in a beige resin, which appeared to be higher quality. Maybe the molds were newer back then too. I can grab some pictures of another 5cm flak kit from Schatton and post them.

Anyways, while this kit has been a bit of a bugger I have 3 things to say:

1) This is the ONLY 5cm flak 41 on the market. Period. It happens to be one of my more favorite Flak guns. As this build goes on though, I think this is changing I am grateful that I can at least model it without having to scratch the whole thing.

2) I am responsible for some of the rebuilding you see happening. The kit did come with all of the parts, but for some areas, I chose to rebuild because of warped or airbubbled sections that were hard to repair.

3) SchattonM. has some very nice barrels. The provided 5cm barrel is very nice.

When all is said and done, I am ready to go back to plastic kits. I did get a very nice Brache Model Renalt R35 with pak 4.7cm and this does look nice. So I know this is one of the tougher resin kits. From what I can tell there are different qualities in resin kits and the rarer subjects tend to have higher costs.

Hey all,

So I guess Summer is over! That's ok, the Fall is nice too. Hopefully you all are weathering this change well.

So I have been "Slows McGee" lately. Oh well. Here is what I have accomplished:

Ignore the bent radiator supports. I had to bend them to get the radiator positioned well. It won't be visible when the hood is installed. Also ignore any inerrant glue marks inside the engine compartment, as these will also not be seen.























And for your picture, I thought this would be fitting for Bronco's upcoming release. It is from Trojca's Panzerjäger Volume 1. I couldn't decide on a single photo, as one is a good reference, and the other is a little more visually appealing; so I went with both.

As always, thanks for looking!

Mark, you are making an amazing job, and a funny posts, did the new pc take time from your modelling time, mine does? but back to the modelling part, looks very nice, terrific work,

Hey again,

I don't have as many in progress shots. I am trying to work along with this kit and I wanted to give myself a break. Aside from that, I have been following the directions without too many deviations. I placed the gun on for some sample shots only.

Thanks for looking. I hope you all enjoy!



























This is from "Panzer Divisions in Russia" from the Concord Series. I am really excited for Trumpeter's vanilla sd.kfz 8.

You deserve a feature on Armorama or a magazine article, because this is mind blowing. I mean if this doesn't get a feature on here then there's no hope for anyone

-Conor