Painted all the equipment.
Gave a light pin wash on the hull.











Since I was planning this one to be a pre-production tank, still testing weapons and turret. Not much dirt, just a primed turret with still some iron patches below the primer coat.

I'll leave it like that.

John looking pretty cool with that big gun Is it finished
This is some what like I am planing

Yes Sal !

Your dio is going to look great !

Thanks john and congrats on your speed built 1st 1 finished
I have made some progress, this is what the sections of the track look like in the box

But the hideous looking sided of the gravel need to be removed so here is what it looks like now after the Saw came out

yes it is over 19 inches long
Like I said it will be my biggest diorama to date
I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and they got their kits that they need to join us here

Thanks Sal, that Italeri's kit had a very simple build and it turned out nice.

I'm guessing your next plan is to build a German Railroad station...

Hey Sal,
Following your lead I'm going to jump in with this

Straight or mostly straight from the box.
Charlie

Cool looking kit there Charlie Welcome to the campaign looking forward to seeing it come together

Not a German Railroad station but a reloading area this is what I have in mind

It's looking great so far Sal !!!

I'm guessing they won't be reloading a Neubaufahrzeug !!

I like to join the campaign with a braille armoured train. A russian one, will be finished in winter pattern.

Welcome to the tracks BUruk,, that looks like a really cool kit I wish someone would make that in 1/35 scale

Hi everybody,

Planning a small German Railroad drama. Heavy bomb smashed the gondola off track.
I want to enter this campaign with this.



I'm cleaning my shelfs and this showed up. Already did some scratchwork on the bottomplate and never got back to building again.
Hope this ok with you Sal. If so I will enlist right away.

Regards,

Robert Jan

Some nice looking work.

I'll probably jump in later in the year. I'm not sure what I will do. I'm still uncertain if it'll be a rail vehicle, a steel wheeled tank, or a combo of both. I'm thinking about a derailed flatbed with a steel wheeled tank thrown off. I'm not sure about cutting up a new flat car kit. Can I use an old partially built Dragon flatcar if I use a no-work done kit as the tank? If not, no problem. I've got time to come up with something.

Hi Alex cool idea Would love to see that built here as long as one of the kits is not more than 25% built and no worries about the time you got just about the rest of the year

And a welcome to Robert that kit is good to go
Nice to see some action on this tread

OK. Here we go.

Thanks Sal. Whatever I go with I'll clear it with you first.

Hi.
For some inspiration on Steel Wheels.
Great historical site for WOII railroad diorama.
http://www.eisenbahnstiftung.de/bildergalerie/Reichsbahn%20im%20Krieg
I picked up some very interesting pictures for my smaal diorama.

Regards,

Robert Jan

Hi. I made start on my Gondola from Trumpeter.
The whole wagon was stripped down and sort of rebuild.
Both sides got extensions. framework under the wagon has some extra details and I changed buffering dics. Brake system will be Kunze - Knorr. A neat set is on it's way from LZ, for further details.
The diorama will show a crashed railcar, with goods and FLAK on it. Railtruck with crane arrived to pull the railcar back on track.

Adjustments made on the railcar.

Scratchwork with 2mm. thread, parts from balpoints and wire and tube.
Next time I show some more from the framework.

Regards,

Robert Jan

What a great Friday this was. Just 24 hours after my request & pre-order at LZ in Chech, my A.M.resin and etchparts for the gondola is ready to ship as from Saturday. Railtruck conversion kit from PlusModel will be here in 2 weeks. Zvesda L4500A, Crane for Famo and other bits & pieces next week on my doorstep.
Crane will be installed on the railtruck. I need to fix some conversion by scratching I think, butt we'll see.
Working on the gondola today, I fixed the ammo bunker at the backside of the wagon. I gave this part, made of wood, a quick wash.
Rest of this weekend will be dedicated to the underside of the wagon. when my kit from LZ comes in, I can finish it.

Some pictures...

Frame works for the ammo bunker. Flak comes on top.
Wood is so much fun. It gives that extra texture.



With some bolts and nuts from resin I added some detail.



I gave the wood after a little sanding a wash with German grey( very thin) After that I sprayed some primer and rubbed, sanded, rubbed again with some other colours.



That's all for now, hope you enjoyed.

Regards,

Robert Jan

Sal,
I came across an old railroad kit. It's Dragon's old Schwerer Panzerspahwagen...the one with the MG turret. It's been stashed in a plastic bag for the past few years and I'm sure it's missing soem parts. I was thinking of maybe trying to coem up with something with it. Maybe some sort of observation car...or a mount for a flak gun at a railyard. Reasonable what-Ifs are okay right?

The kit's rail bed is gone but I do have a section assembled for a flatbed car that I might borrow. It's assembled, has a primer coat, and I cut it down...but it still needs painting. Is that okay or is it too far along?

I'll get it out and see what is there and what I might be able make out of it.

Robert some real nice looking work there with the wood makes it look so much more natural

Alex Steel Wheels if it's got them you can use it

Thanks.
Great to some railroad modeling again. This scale is fine to work with. Next update coming soon.
Nice weekend everybody.

Okay Sal. I was going to wait a bit, but I may try to start on it today or tomorrow. I really need to see what I have and get some assembly done to see just where I can go with it.

Some progress on the undercarriage. Going all the way now before the kit from LZ arrives. Still have to mount 4 pcs of profile on both sides of the wheels. With scriber and sandingpaper I gave the styrene sheet some texture and did a paint and weathering job.
The brakesystem might need some extra detail later. I don't know yet what the kit from LZ needs to assembly, so this is finished for now.
Tonight I'll give the wooden deck some paint, add hinges and start with the build of the Flak deck.

Base colour for the wood and wheels.





Depending on the setting of the diorama, it might be a hot summer in the Ukraine, I'll decide on camo and other colours.

Regards,

Robert Jan

Starter pictures. I forgot about the turret being mostly assembled. I included two shots of the parts menagerie. The turret is mostly done as well. I may, or may not, use the turret. If there's an issue with too much work already being done, let me know.



I need to get some assembly done to this one so I can figure out just what I am going to do with it. So I got to cutting. The kit has been put away since the 90s, much of which it's been stored in a sealable plastic bag. The plastic is very brittle and has turned a darker gray.

Exhaust and some sort of hitch mount thing.


Another shot of the exhaust and that center hitch mount thing. There are also some blurry shots of the bump stops and coupling hooks. The picture looked better on the camera when I took it. I left the small delicate handle items from the front and rear grills for now.


Wheel assembly. This one went together better than I expected. I figured I'd need an extra hand or two. An added help was the placement grooves on the car. They acted as a jig to keep the assembly together and square until the cement had completely set.


A shame there's no interior. I haven't been able to find any plans either.


Now the hull. You have to open some holes and windows, each side being different. As mentioned, the plastic has turned hard and a bit brittle so I had to be careful.


This part can be tricky. I focused on attaching an end and side piece to the top. Once that set a bit, I finished it off. Tape held the pieces until they set.


And assembled, at least enough to get a shape to work with. Now I can get to idea mashing to see what this thing is going to be doing.


I posed a crane boom from an old Italeri M32, that I'll never build. Call it a track repair vehicle. Armored against partisans. You have to ask what they are doing using a US crane boom, but waste not, want not.


The next one is a mock up of a spotlight. You could also use it as a stand-in for a Wurzburg Radar array. I could see either used as part of the air defenses of a railyard.


I had gone ahead and tried posing a couple of flack guns. None of them did anything for me. Now I just have to figure out what I want to do with this thing.