Hello all, after completing an in-box review of Tamiya's reboxing of the Italeri Panzerwerfer 42 Auf Maultier here:
http://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/229204&page=1
I will now be posting a build blog of this kit.

Initially I was going to do this straight OOB, but as I get into it, I find more shortcomings and find myself doing a bit of scratch and using some bits and bobs from my spares box.

I started off with the engine, simple enough and goes together easily although there is a fair bit of flash and seams to clean up. I will probably leave as is and keep the engine hatches closed unless I can track down some good engine bay shots for additional detailing.

Next the chassis, again it fits together well but lots of mold seams to clean up.

I skipped over to the hull next. A lot of the details here are pretty soft. The rivets are so small as to be non-existent, and Tamiya provides 240 larger rivets of the link and length track sprues to replace the molded on rivets.

I decided to give it a go. It is a lot of work and I am losing a few, but progressing nicely. Not sure if it is an improvement over the molded on rivets as they seem a bit exaggerated now.

Well, I'm committed so I will finish off with these and perhaps sand them down a bit. I also scraped off the molded on hooks for the upper hatches and am making new ones out of brass wire. More to come!

The Nebelwerfer launcher is going to require soooooooo much work. Some company has an AM resin/PE replacement, but I can't remember who. As I remember, my Italeri boxing had the upper hull part slightly bulged where there is a locating hole/pin, just about where you have a little white putty touch-up, which was annoying because it overhung the lower hull at that point. I don't suppose either Italeri or Tamiya have corrected this.

Yes, I am not looking forward to the work required on the launcher itself. I found the resin replacement but I'm too cheap to get it . Oh well, it will be a good test of my scratchbuilding skills. Almost done the rivets!

Some progress, finished off the rivets, but I had to make a bunch of my own as there were not enough supplied with the kit. Also scraped off the hatch support hooks and added new ones made of brass wire.

Then it was back to the chassis and running gear. as I was putting on the running gear it became apparent that the forward pairs of road wheels would not be resting on the ground, but would be floating. Here you can see the gap between the axle and the mounting points.

This was solved by shimming the mounting points with strip styrene:

And its all good now:

Next I will see what I can do with the interior, I won't go crazy as you won't be able to see too much even with the hatches open.

Hi
Great workmanship. I have this one to build as a "project" although I wasn't going to go as far with the rivets, but seeing yours has got me thinking maybe I should.

I've got hold of a Dragon Maultier which I'm hoping I can cross kit with this to improve the running gear.

Speaking of which I'm curious why you shimmed the roadwheel assembly. Whilst it now sits on the ground level with the front wheel it doesn't allow for track thickness which will lift the front wheels off the ground when fitted would it not? Or am I missing something.

Alan

Good point! I totally missed that, I will have to slap the tracks on and check how it sits.

If you open the top hatches they let in a lot of light, so that when the rear hatches are also open you can see quite a lot. I believe rounds were stored vertically along both interior walls, retained by bottom supports and straps. The elevating, traverse, and firing mechanisms for the launcher were also visible, below the launcher, from the back doors. You could avoid some scratch detailing by closing the hatches, but me, being a maschochist, decided to open all hatches.

You may be right, more work than I anticipated. It does come with a basic interior with seats, a simple dash, elevating and traverse mechanisms, and rocket storage racks, we'll see how motivated I am when it comes to details such as radio, misc storage, rack clamps, etc. It is hard to find decent interior pics, most of the surviving examples are pretty stripped on the inside.

Quick update on the interior. Added some details using some bits from my spares box, and added clamps to rocket racks. I'm leaving one open as I am planning on having a crewmember in the upper hatch loading the launcher. Decent interior pics are rather sparse, so some conjecture is involved with the interior details.

Hi Colin, you're right that clear interior shots aren't that easy to find, but it's also the case that the interiors of these things was sparse. One thing that doesn't look great, IMHO, is the seats and their mounts. I think the boxes / blocks they sit on should be narrower than the seats not wider. Also the springs on the backs... well...

Not a bad source for understanding the interior is photos of the Verlinden interior detail set, and I think there's a couple others (Armory?). At least the photos are nice and clear. Also you can see the workings of the under side of the launcher, as that's part of the set.

The rest of your work looks great by the way. If you get seriously into scratching interior details, you could always go mad and convert it into the 8cm Vielfachwerfer... Would look dead impressive!!

Thanks Matthew. I have been laid out with the flu the last few days so haven't been able to update. I did check out the Verlinden interior set, plus the Voyager(I think)PE set, seems to be differences between the two, and I did notice some errors in mine that I have to correct. I don't think I will bother with the seat bases as that would require some major surgery (they are molded onto the lower hull) that I don't think I am ready for yet . I will check out Armory for reference as well.

Well, life got in the way of things for a while, but I have managed to get a bit done for a small update. First, the tracks. Tamiya has provided link and length tracks with this to replace Italeri's vinyl tracks. It is rather tedious work cutting them all off the sprue, and they are quite fragile with a number of them breaking during the process. At least they provide a fair number of extras, and they do look good when complete:

I also worked on the rear doors. the stock units have pretty soft detail and pronounced sink marks:

So I ginned up some new latching mechanisms out of some spare PE sprue, piano wire and styrene rod:

Next will be finishing off a few more internal detailed then painting the interior.

Nice work on the doors; make sure you fit them on the right way round, as the hinges are the same each way I think. I do recall a finished model of this being shown on here with the doors swapped over!

Started on fixing up the launcher. Here is what it looks like OOB:

Ignition wires aren't done well, lots of flash and ejector pin marks inside the tubes, just generally not well done. I started by sanding out the insides of the tubes, some putty work and then scraping off the wires and making new ones. Still have to add the pigtails when the rockets are in place.

Finally onto the interior painting, primed, basecoat of Elfenbein, then detail painting. Let it cure for a day then it will be on to weathering and I can close it up.

Completed weathering of the interior with some washes, pigments and chipping:



Closed up the hull, this is how it looks through the rear doors:

This is a interesting vehicle and your certainly doing a good job of putting it together.

I have long since given up purchasing Tamyia kits, especially when they are just rebadged or elderly kits,but this model has some promise as you have shown.

Thanks Steven. It certainly requires some work to bring it up to snuff. I am happy with how the interior turned out, hopefully I can keep it up for the rest of it!

Looking good, Colin!

Good stuff so far Colin. You going to bring it out to the meeting next Tuesday?

Gonna try, have missed the last two!

I missed last months too, but was there in dec, I think?

See you next week hopefully.

So she's ready for primer! Hull is just dry fit on chassis. replaced a few more bits and bobs on the outside with some spare parts and some Aber clamps. Just have to mask off the interior now.

Got some paint on, chassis basecoated black with brown oil wash and some dunkelgelb on the wheels. Needs some more washes, rust, pigments, tracks.

Primed and preshaded the hull, then dunkelgelb with some shading. Onto detail painting, decals, washes and dot filter.

Pretty much done, gloss, decals, gloss, flat, overall oil wash, pin wash, dot filter, chipping and pigments. Just some rockets and a figure to complete. Hope you like! First time doing a basic dunkelgelb vehicle, pretty happy with how it turned out, I was trying to avoid going overboard with the chipping.