Latest finished project.

Please comment.

Thank you for looking.

Outstanding!
Regards,
Villiers

Trifon;

NICE! The brummie is one of my long-time favs and I have this kit hanging around - when I looked into the box and saw all that great and finely-cut zimm... I started scheming. But have not yet actually made the leap to cut and glue

Your outcome looks very much like I expect to see these. And that zimm looks like it comes out quite real - looking!

I do have one comment and suggestion: The gun is set into a large hemispherical ("ball") mount - I think that the entire of that curved mount should be just the base-coat - and not camo'd. So far as I know, that was a pretty well- (and closely) fitted set-up. I THINK that if it were painted, it would rapidly become all scratched up right away with any gun movement?

PS: The Dragon box art on all their brummie kits seems to show these mounts in a base-coat mode... I scanned thru a bunch of wartime pics of these brummies - most appear to have had a mon-color mount (but the barrel often camo'd). Many actually had a canvas "bra" around the mount. I did see a couple pics which suggested the ball was also painted with some cam, so...

MAYBE there's an interesting "happy alternative" here! IF it was indeed camo'd this happened whenever the crew did their camo-painting party... and if the spray guy did that gun, it was done in some position "of the moment", and not likely moved around to "complete" the camo pattern! IF the gun were then later moved (likely!), what would be revealed would be the sharp cut-off edge in that camo pattern! That would be a cool display mode, I think I am now scheming on that...

NICE Brummie, Pard!

Bob

Very nice! That's actually the paint scheme the FA Museum's Brummbar just came out of the paint shop with.

Very nice... I really like the painting on this one. Very well done.

Very nice! I really like the beat up side skirts, very effective weathering.

Cheers,
Rick

It looks great.

Bob wouldn't the ball mount have been oiled or greased? Massive dust/muck magnet if I'm correct.

Chris;

Good question!

At one time, I was pretty sure that the ball-mount was just a big version of the well-machined thing seen on panzer hulls for the MG. From this, I would have said "yes, it would have been greased and it needed to be kept clean". I was, at one time, planning on finishing it accordingly on a Brummie build...

Now that I've become all growed-up and old and wiser (OK, I'm a dreamer and full of BS), I've become convinced that this was probably more like a cast-iron (cast steel) thing which was not polished nor even necessarily smooth - the pics seem to show it typically painted and matching pretty closely whatever color the vehicle was (hence my assertion about it being painted the base dunkelgelb). I no longer think that it would have been greased - something which would only be done if it were actually smooth and had a bearing surface...

But I would actually like to be wrong in this! I think it would look cool to have the ball be "naked metal" - mostly a steel color with some greasing on a build!

On the side - I think this same discussion would go around with that Sturmtiger... that, too, has a big ball-mount and maybe it, too, could have been a naked-metal w/ grease type of fitting.

In any case, this thing would indeed be a dust and muck trap! Which explains why many Brummie pics show a fabric cover in place. And a similar case pertains for the StuG... that mount was open to the weather, and often had a canvas cover behind the armor mantle.

Bob

Thanks for all the comments, everybody!

Bob, I spent some time thinking about the ball mount painting and basically went with your "happy alternative"..er... alternative.

I always tell myself: "If you were the 19year old crewman told by your TC to grab the spray gun and spray squigles all over your vehicle, what would you do? Get the gunner to get on the gun and move it to all sides so you can get a nice artistic finish all over? Hell no! He'd probably kick my butt, or just plain shoot me. Then, how 'bout expertly skirting round the ball mount and just do the barrel and the supporting ring etc? You nuts right? No amount of OCD excuses would keep said TC from choking you for wasting precious time being all artistic and stuff".

So, I am quite sure I'd just spray the part of the ball showing and when the gun moved, there would indeed be a sharp end to the camo and some wear to the underlying base coat from above mentioned grit, dust etc. probably down to the primer or even down to bare metal...

I fact, if you notice the bottom of the ball mount, that's RO primer showing through - honest to God German red oxide automotive primer

I'll shoot another pic with the gun positioned differently so you can see the effect we both mentioned above.

Plus - of course - I found some pictures that IMHO show the ball mount camo'ed. Example below:

I'm with you, Pard!

Yeah, that pic does suggest the camo scenario... It's one of the ones I've seen which do indeed suggest some got the stripy treatment (that 19-year old chap w/ the spraygun and the maybe less-than-patient TC)!

Do consider though that if said ball was painted in the base color - that would be the factory or depot paint crew, and it more likely would have been done complete no primer showing - whereas the camo was the crew's job in the field. As this brummie is from mid-war, we cannot invoke the hasty slop and poor paint jobs maybe seen later on. But what you are doing sounds good and I look forward to seeing the pics!

Bob