Howdy,

Well, I've gone and done it. After an all too long absence, the urge won. I've been modelling vicariously for the past 7+ years and decided to get back in the game. This is going to be a slow build due to several constraining factors, but hopefully, an enjoyable one for you folks as well as myself.

The goodies:
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To say I went slightly nuts is an understatement. A kind soul decided to part ways with the Italeri kit and some extras for a very very reasonable sum, thank you. I picked up a bunch of aftermarket stuff and of course some books. Not pictured are the Tamiya Gepard and Heller 1A2 which I got for the turret (cheaply to boot I might add) for future projects.

The Italeri A4 is going to be a Finnish what if and haven't decided what the A5 will eventually be. I started with the Tamiya kit. Not the greatest, but certainly not the worst kit out there either. For an old kit, it holds up well. Little to no flash, fit so far is generally good (particularly the barrel), detail is not bad considering it's vintage. A quick comparison to my refs and the Italeri kit shows that it is reasonably accurate. The road wheels are a bit wide compared to Italeri. Not a big deal because this is a test bed of sorts so I'm not going to worry about every little detail being spot on, plus they will be partially hidden by the side skirts any way.

Build pics in the next post

Cheers

Good Luck ! And have fun and please keep us posted. It's fun going old school every once in a while.

I'd bin the Heller kit, use the Tamiya kit for the what-if, and save your aftermarket for the better Italeri and Revell kits.

Jim

On to the build pics. As mentioned, this is a getting back into the swing of things build, and a good time to practice a few things.

The Tamiya kit is pretty good out of the box, but a few improvements can be made with minimal fuss or investment. The Eduard etch set goes a long way. This is how far I've gotten in 3-4 days of building.
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I noticed the rear hull was missing some detail so I added it from plastic strip. " BORDER="0">

The NBC filter cover and fenders needed some work too. I hollowed out the inside a bit and cut the openings in, then backed with milliput. Still needs some work.

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The non-slip surfaces on the fenders needed to be replaced. I experimented with wet and dry sandpaper. I used super glue, and thick liquid cement (Revell). The liquid cement worked best, it allowed me to push the paper into the plastic a little to blend in better. I also tried coffee grounds. Too rough for this, but I did discover an excellent way to create asphalt! On the right you can see the partial blocking in of the sponsons. They may or may not be seen from the rear. The front won't. Or shouldn't.
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And lastly, I picked up some Voyager etch weld seams to test out. They look ok. Not super realistic, but I think they look at least as good as some molded weld seams on kits. A coat of paint will tell us some more. The thinner ones fit beautifully into the grooves on the kit and the ones I added with a scriber.
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That's it for now. Next time I'll show how the Elite tracks look.

If you're new to modeling, or need to shake of some rust, or just want a fun quick build. I can't recommend Tamiya's Leopard enough. It can be had for less than 20 euros/bucks/pounds and is readily available (on the internet at least).

Cheers

The Heller lower half is going to be used for the Gepard, along with the resin road wheels, and the turret kept for an early A1/2 project. I was going to use the Tamiya for my what if, but realized I need some practice first. Especially considering I don't have an airbrush at the moment, so painting skills need a lot of refreshing.

With the Italeri available again soon as a re-pop, I don't need to worry about screwing up as much when I get around to it

Hi Kimmo;
Looks very Good Im Glad that you mentioned the Sponsons, thats one Point were i hate Tamiya. They never fill in there sponsons Every kit that i build i make sure that there filled. Keep it going, caint wait to see more.

HAPPY NEW YEAR; MIKE.

I'm so old school this is contemporary for me. The younger modelers are missing out on the fun of putty and cussing.

As promised, some pics of the Elite tracks. Sorry for the poor quality, until I get a better camera, this is the best I can do for close ups.

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As you can see (hopefully) the fit is excellent around the sprocket. The same goes for the Italeri. I was a little worried how well they would go together, but in the end, it wasn't nearly as painful as I had thought. I found it easier to assemble without tweezers, I couldn't seem to get a good enough grip on the parts. Just trim the sprue attachment points off, very very carefully. If you get it right, you won't have to do any sanding or filing.

These links are currently not glued. The fit is really quite amazing. I would suggest assembling a complete run first, drape them on, then add a tiny drop of glue to the end connectors on the outside and let it set in place. I suspect if you painted the pins for the end connectors before assembly, that might also be enough to hold them in place.

Until next time, Happy New Year

Oh, and almost forgot. I ordered some grousers from Mouse House (my attempt at molding and casting the ones in the Italeri kit was less than stellar). They were kind enough to sell them separately for a very reasonable price and shipped the next day. I'll post pics of them when they arrive.

A minor update of sorts. Haven't had a chance for any real building work so I've been using the downtime for other aspects. I picked up some liquid latex and Vallejo Still Water to cast some extra periscopes. The latex is more than sufficient for this task and the Vallejo stuff is interesting. I tried a batch with some water based paint to see how it tints. As you can see, I added way too much. I was hoping to get a slight tint. I'm using the paint that came in one of those cheap "Artist Sets" that you see in book stores and department stores.



The clear liquid is easy to work with, it does, however, shrink noticeably when applied to the molds and doesn't seem to leave any layer boundaries. It doesn't dry rock hard but hard enough for this purpose. There's a batch of clears drying in the tin lid. I'll get some pics of that when I get a coat of tint and paint on them.

Getting back into building, I noticed my eyesight is nowhere near what it used to be, so I got me one of these too. They go for about 20-30 Euros on ebay. This was new and sealed and on testing, seems to be just what the eye doctor ordered. It fits over my regular glasses and time will tell if it would be wiser to use with or without the glasses on.



I was hoping to have a pic of the grousers I ordered from Mouse House, but that will have to wait until next time.

Kimmo

Had some time to put together the rest of the tracks. Fiddly work, but should look impressive when they are painted. A major improvement over the kit tracks and the Italeri ones. If you're doing a Leo with the skirts, then 50 links will be enough. In the pic below, I've got 51. The Elite tracks come with 171 links per set, so if you have 2 sets, you can get 3 tanks done with skirts and still have plenty left over for spares and the inevitable carpet monster offerings or ones that break.





As I mentioned earlier, these go together without glue. I did have a few end connectors come loose when moving the assembled tracks about, so take care. Probably a good idea to build over a box to keep losses to a minimum. If you're not entirely ham fisted, you should be able to get these together without tweezers. In fact, I found it almost impossible to put together using tweezers. There really isn't much to grab onto. If the tweezers had some sort of rubber or latex coating on them, that might help. Something to test with the next batch.

Remove the parts carefully from the sprues and clean up the attachment points. A chisel blade works best for the cutting and removing stubs from the smaller parts, a quick swipe with a regular #11 blae will take care of the track pad seams and stubs. I didn't do any other clean up, we'll see how it looks when painted (there are minor mold lines present). I found it took about 12 minutes to do a run of 9, which is what you get on one sprue. I also found it easier to assemble with the track pads facing out in one hand, and the track guide facing down whilst pinched in between thumb and forefinger. One word of caution: do not force the parts! The guides will snap into place with gentle pressure, and the end connectors will slide onto the pins very easily.

That's it for today

Excellent start, Kimmo.

The tracks look really great, think you had a lot of patience when you put it together ;-)

Cheers
Walter

Thanks for the comment. A little patience does help. You get in a groove and all of a sudden a half hour has gone by. Strange that

A minor update: filling, sanding and some painting, got the hull closed up. Got me a whole mess of Vallejos and I have to say I'm impressed with them so far. The primers are a little thin, but settle down nicely. No smell, brush on beautifully, clean up easily. Got some varnishes and washes etc coming in too. You can see some of my testing on the upper hull below.







As you can see, I removed the driver's periscope guards and blocked off the holes, I'm casting some copies of the roof periscopes in Still Water with a touch of green. Looks promising. And when I say a touch, I do mean a touch. The tip of a toothpick dipped in green twice to a mix of less than a teaspoon of acrylic. Nice tint. You can also see the Italeri A4 in the background on the last pic. Started some initial work on that for my Finnish Leo.

I also finally got the grousers from Mouse House. Had an issue with the first batch sent, and they sent replacements without a fuss. That's the way to do it! Thanks again JM.



A thin wafer of resin needs to be cleaned off, and voila, ready to be glued onto the hull.

That's it for now.

Wow, ok very nice, keep us posted! Have fun! Ruby

It's been a while, here's the latest progress:







As you can see, I had a wee booboo with the rear deck screen. I should be able to plop it back into place, knock on wood. In the beginning I had decided this was going to be a semi-serious build, but have since reconsidered to doing this as a test bed only for techniques and getting the kinks out with my skills. So no after market tracks and the etch will be kept to a minimum, just enough for me to get a feel for working with pe again. I'll end up using the kit tracks or ones from an Italeri kit.

Hopefully this will be at the painting stage shortly so I can learn the wonderful world of Vallejo and various pigments and weathering techniques which will be put to good use on a parallel build with an Italeri A4 which is progressing nicely, watch for a new thread soon.


Kimmo