Really cool work, accurate and clean! This model is available in my favourite shop, so I might just buy it someday!
Keep up the good work! This is perfect!
Alex!
http://alexbenvenuti.blogspot.fr/

Gary and AlexBen;

Thanks for the comments and encouragement!

I hope to get some more photos up soon. The holiday slowed me down a bit.

Good progress Mike. The interior doesn´t have to be too perfect, as the view is limited after its closed up. What you´ve done so far looks very good. Great reference images you found ... have this kit myself, and find these threads very helpful. Keep plugging away!

Thank you Frank!
I'm glad it doesn't have to be perfect. That would just be way too much pressure for me! *grin* With all this new stuff I'm trying, I'll be glad if it just turns out "okay".

Well, after a little time-off on the model for the holiday and chopping wood for winter, I'm back at it.

For a change of pace I started working on other parts of the interior. The side wall section for the fuel tank sits up too high and has a gap at the front.

The height of the gap matches the height of this lip on the floor piece I've been working on.

I'm glad I checked this now instead of later when more little delicate parts will have been added. You can see the lip on the right-side and back of the floor piece. Looks like I need to remove this lip if the wall pieces are going to sit at the right height and positions.

Without the lip beneath them, the side-wall and rear-wall parts sit where they look like they're supposed to. Their positions like this appear to match the interior photos I have collected for the PzII-F.

And still all these parts aren't glued down yet! But they are fitting into position quite nicely so far. The front tip of the fuel tank section still sticks up a bit high, but this is due to a slight warp in the floor piece. If I push down on the floor, that goes away, so when it's glued down it should be okay. I figure the warp is probably my fault from all the work and re-work I've done to the floor piece.


The air filter, which is sitting on the floor in the middle for now, has had the holes drilled in it like in the real tank. I still have some touch-up work to do on it yet.

To the left of the air filter, on the fuel tank wall, is a raised line with molded brackets. This is a conduit through which the throttle cable runs. It's very well done, thank you Dragon, but I've decided I'm going to try removing it. I'll replace it with a small diameter metal tube since I want to bend and extend it over to the center-line of the transmission, per the reference photos. I've read several times here in the forums where folks use foil for thin holding brackets like this. I've never done that before, but I'm gonna give it a try...
:p

Putting in some more details. There's this little pull ring that goes back into the engine compartment. Is it a choke? A fire suppressor pull ring? I don't know... but here it is.



I'm again really impressed with the detail level Dragon/CyberHobby has reproduced. Dimples in the plastic for the holes are accurately represented along with the screw heads along this part of the interior. I guess it all comes down to what reference material one can get ahold of.

That the hole/dimple was already there made it easy to get this little wire piece to stay in place.

I thought I'd give a try at adding some hex nuts to the interior.



These little hex nuts from the photo-etch sheet I got last year turned out to be easier to work with than I worried they'd be. It doesn't take more than a needle-tip spot of CA glue for them to stick. It took me a few to get the hang of it, but it's working out pretty good now. Oh, and it turns out they ~do~ have a top and a bottom to them (oops).

I used a pair of tweezers to find the position. I placed one arm on the outside with the tip touching the plastic molded bolt. This showed me, by the tip of the other arm on the inside, where to put the PE hex nut.

Foot pedal retaining brackets, more hex nuts, putty work to fix the front wall.



The reference photos show these brackets that keep the foot pedals from coming out too far. The kit doesn't have these, so I made them.

I'm getting in some good practice with the file smoothing off brass edges, that's for sure. The inset reference photo is actually a better photo than I was looking at at first. Turns out I got it wrong; The bolt through the connecting rod sticks out to catch the bracket. The earlier photo I was using I thought the bracket went over the peddle arm. *sigh* I had the better photo the whole time! I guess I just let myself get too fixed on one photo.
:( Lesson learned.

The pedal positions, as molded, turned out to be a little too far to the right. I had to sand the left edge of the wall piece enough to slide over to the (more) correct pedal position. Now I have this big gap on the right I'm filling in with putty. I'm also working the putty trying to make it look like the front plate is welded along the edge.

Sidewall braces, throttle cable tube, and otherwise things coming together.



The sidewall braces are in, and I think I've done about all the hex nuts I'm going to do. The tube for the throttle cable is finally bent just right without crimping. Right now it's just laying there. It may be a little overscale, but I haven't yet found a smaller tube anywhere.

Bending the tube without crimping it was a challenge. I finally managed it by cutting a two inch piece of braided speaker wire and thinning it out until it would just slide (squish actually) into the tube. That gave it enough support inside that it wouldn't crimp. Afterward I pulled the speaker wire out.

I think next I'll have to primer what I've got so far. I can see I'll need to paint some things I won't be able to reach later on. After that are the linkages to do and then the items that mount on the wall along the driver's side of the vehicle.

love the way this is coming - the interior bolt heads add just a little more interest (how much of them will really be seen tho?)

Thanks Robert!

I'm hoping they'll all be seen. *grin* I was looking ahead in the instructions and I tried to eyeball it so I only placed bolt heads that looked like they'll be visible. I might have mis-guessed on some of them, but I figure I can add more or remove some if needed.

Spare wheel, filling holes, and some primer.



Well gee, I kind of took more time off modelling than I thought I would. Life stuff sort of got busy and I just lost the drive, and modelling just doesn't go well for me if I'm not into it at the time. But now I'm gettin' excited about it again and starting back in on it.

I felt like working on the upper hull a bit. The spare wheel is really well done, but molded-on clamps have just always bugged me. I shaved them off the spare wheel and used some spare brass to re-make the clamps.

I also started filling in holes that won't be used. Since I plan to use the PE tool clamps, there's a lot of holes to fill!

Sung to the tune of "Beggers Can't Be Choosers"...

Now I just have to learn how to use my "new" airbrush so I can put down some primer.
:)

Filling holes.

There are a lot of injection marks (or mold marks or whatever they are) on the underside of the upper hull. I like the fact that they are all recessed (Thank you Dragon!). It makes them easy to fill in. I use Tamiya white putty for the bulk fill, sand, and then Mr.Surfacer for a leveling fill, followed by more sanding.

Conduits for the external lights.

After a little pin-vise drill work and some wire bending, here are the conduits for the external light fixtures.

Love all the detail work your putting into this one! I have it in the stash and was considering building it as a cut-away...so your work has definitely helped provide additional reference and inspiration for when the time comes.

Pz. is comin along real nice T.Mike! Great upgrades. You never used and AB before? If not make sure to practice on something first....trust me! Keep it comin Man.

Gary

Exceptionally fine work there. Love all the little details you're adding.

That 150 Badger ought to do you quite nicely. It's not top of the line, but still will work well. Be extra careful if you set it up with a fine needle and tip. The mediums are no problem, but the points on the fines are delicate and will bend very easily.

Thanks, Bill. I'm glad to hear it! It gives me more inspiration too.

Gary and Bob; I have an old Tamiya Panzer IV and a submarine model I'll be using for practice. That poor panzer has had just about every paint experiment done to it I've ever tried. But this is the first time for an airbrush. We'll see how this goes!

Electrical wires, instrument panel, and wiring harness.

I don't have many photos showing much of the wiring, so a lot of this is guesswork. I'm using strands of brass wire stripped from old speaker wire to create some of the wiring on the inner hull.

The front of the instrument panel has some great, fine detail. Fittings are aluminum foil cut into strips, then snipped to length after they're glued down. I put a PE bolt head on either side. The foil is from vitamin bottle tops.

The back of the instrument panel was blank however. I cut disks from spare sprue to make the "body" of the instruments mounted in the panel. The ends of the middle wires will be bent and trimmed to connect to the instruments and panel. I've read in a couple other build logs where folks squash copper wire to give it a flat look. It works pretty well and I used it for the retaining rings around the base of the instruments.