Another small update from yesterdays work at the Moukari. Vallejo Pale Green 71095 is all over the upper hull now. Was easier to bring on than Russian Green. This colour looks pretty weird under my bench lamp ....


.... this is how the colour looks under sunny day light ....

.... and both Greens in comparison. As I don't have the original finnish colours I hope these come close to the real deal ....

.... and now on to some more masking fun ....

Thanks for stepping in!
Torsten

Oh, and if some of you would like to see my my latest Bf 109, you can scroll down here.

That is a fun kit. I built one mid-2018. I seriously considered doing it in Finnish colors, but I opted to stay with the South Korean colors. It is a big machine, a bit larger than the PZH2000. I look forward to seeing your finished build.

Thanks Bo!

I also noticed that the parts of this kit go well together so far. The most time comsuming part of the build will be the masking. Have got some photos of a walk around the Moukari from a fellow modeller which are very helpfull. But there will run a lot of water down the river until this build is fin(n)ished. I hope to have it done for the expo in Strasbourg/France in the end of June. And I have started another aircraft build for another Aeroscale Campaign. So again 2 kits on the bench ....

Happy modelling!
Torsten

Hi, enjoying your pics so far. I've done an OOB build of this kit and it's now waiting for a flat coat. Question is, would the Finnish army be sticking the .50 on top? I have nagging doubts.

Thanks Bryan! I'm glad you like what you see.

I'm not sure about the AA machine gun on the Moukari. The Finns still use their old russian heavy machine guns, cal. 12,7 mm on some tanks but also have the german made MG 3, cal. 7,62 mm, like on their Leopards. I will leave the machine gun aside because the K9 didn't had it attached, while driving though Helsinki in 2017.

So far no update. I have noticed I have to re do the Pale Green in some places as the primer ist still shining though ....

Torsten

A small update from me today. I have given the Pale Green on some parts of the hull another layer because a bit of the primer was still shining through and will start masking in the next days.
Have done some work on the turret as far as I can go for masking ....


.... some bits and pieces which will be painted seperatly and added later. And no, this build is not sponsored by the Royal Dutch Airline ....


Have a nice weekend!
Torsten

Looks like your making excellent progress!

Thanks for your encouraging words, Eric! Always appreciated! It's progress but it's a slow progress. I'll be away next week, so no progress at all. Plus I have another build on my bench, it was a nasty aircraft for tanks in WW 2, the Henschel Hs 129. But this build will continue and be fin(n)ished.

Torsten

I had to make a full stop to building models in the month of May because of family affairs and most recently for preparing the model show of my club, which took place last weekend in Mannheim. That always grabs a lot of time. So there was no progress for about 3 weeks ....

But now that our expo 2019 is history I'm back on the track(s) and have done a bit of work on my "Moukari" this week. I have glued the parts of the gun together (it consists of 6 parts) and carefully sanded it. I think I did quite well. After some white primer on Thursday, this morning I sprayed Pale Green Vallejo 71095 also on the turret ....


.... that's quite a gun. The total length of this part is 23 cm, which makes the real thing 8 meters long!


To get it done by the end of June for the expo in Strasbourg looks illusory now. I will also concentrate now more on the other build on my bench, the Henschel Hs 129 for the Eastern Front Campaign to get that one done for Strasbourg. My new goal for the K9 is now the 3. August, when I attend the show of my friends of the PMC Leipzig. In fact, that show takes place in the small town of Lützen near Leipzig. That's a very historical place for our friends from Sweden and also from Finland. Each year I go to see the memorial for King Gustav II. Adolph. The museum on site is very interesting.

Happy modelling!
Torsten

PS: What colour would be okay for the visible underside of the turret? I think of painting it black.

Sorry for the long delay of posting, guys, there was no work on the K9 lately. But finally I can show you at least some progress from this week in spite of the hot summer temperatures here in southern Germany.

First I masked the borders of Pale Green with +/- 1 mm wide stripes of Kip Tape. That took a lot of time, because I checked and re-checked the photos I have of the Moukari all the time. This comes close to the real thing I hope ....




.... afterwards I filled the spaces with wider stripes of Kip Tape ....


.... and finally today some more paint - Russian Green ....





.... you can still see some areas in Pale Green, that is where NATO Black will be on later. The canvas of the gun is already painted in Anthrazite because I needed that paint also for the tyres of my Henschel Hs 129, which is also not ready yet, but very close to the finish line.

So, now I need a cold good

Torsten

Great to see you still working on this Torsten! Them splinter camo jods are time consuming to mask but so worth the effort.

Very interesting build and subject. Big fan of the finnish army, and their mix of western and eastern kit. The camo pattern will give a unique look to your model. I’d like to know if these guns are well liked or not by finnish crews. I missed the beginning of your project but I’ll tag along from now on. Thanks for posting !

Eric, thanks for stepping in again! Masking is never my favourite work, because it's always so time consumpting and I probably always do more than what is needed. But in the end the work pays every time as can be seen on my current other project, the Henschel Hs 129, over at Aeroscale .....
Before (the underside is also completely masked) ....

.... and after demasking ....

I hope, masking the Russian Green parts on my K9 will become a bit easier.

Tom, great to have you here in my thread. I also have great respect for the Finnish Army, especially what they have achieved during WW2. I have been to Finland a few times already and visited some of their fanstastic military museums, like the Tank Museum in Parola and the Air Force Museum in Tikkakoski. In September I'll be there again. Though Finland is no official NATO member, they often take part in NATO manoeuvres. What made me smile recently was a report of the "Siil 2018" NATO exercises in Estonia last summer, where finnish and german engineers have built together a bridge over a river and I thought "like in the old days" ....
If you like the equipment of the Finnish Army you might also like my Ilmavoimat SAAB J-35 Draken, which I have built a few years ago. I have also a MiG 21 bis from Eduard in my stash, which is on the production plan for later this year and it will of course also get finnish colours ....

In fact, the original DK-223 is still alive today and can been seen in the Air Force Musueum Tikkakoski. Oh, and if you have missed the first part of my Moukari build, then just read through page 1.

Happy modelling!
Torsten

Just a small update today. I have masked the borders of Russian Green and will mask that areas completly in the next days. It was not as time consumpting as the other masking before ....





I have finished my other build today, so I hope to have more time on my hands now for the K9. Stay tuned for the next update ....

Torsten

If anyone is interested in my Hs 129 build have a look here if you like. The finished model is at the bottom of the page.

Another small update. Both Greens are now covered which means, that all uncovered parts will become NATO Black, probably on Thursday. I can't remember using so much masking tape on any other model I have built before. I call this job "Masking the Moukari" and I hope I have not forgotten something. But masking Russian Green was a lot easier than masking Pale Green ....






Next update hopefully follows soon, so stay tuned!

Torsten

Fresh from the paint shop today comes my K9, painted in NATO Black (Revell Aqua No. 6) ....






.... I hope I have not forgotten anything to mask .... and will give the parts now 1-2 days to dry thoroughly. At the weekend I will let you guys know how successfull my masking and painting was ....

Until then have a nice time!
Torsten

It's demasking time!

First I want to show you this after 2 hours (!) work ....

This morning I took some photos of the Moukari and although there are some paint corrections to do, I'm really happy how my painting came out ....
With red arrows are marked 2 masking mistakes, which I will leave this way because I believe I would make them worse if I try to correct this. With yellow arrows is the overspray marked. Some I don't need to care about because they will be hidden by other parts later but others need some correction. Especially annoying is the overspray on the backside of the turret. Here I didn't work carefull enough ....






And of course I couldn't resist to try this .... What a monster!

Next step now will be painting wheels and tracks. So I hope I can give you another update soon. If you like to give me a feedback, I would love to hear it.

Happy modelling!
Torsten

Hello, Torsten!!!

VERY, VERY NICE!!! Thank you for building something "different" and for your excellent comparison photos of the different paint colors! ALL, is much appreciated!!!

Dennis, thanks for your comment! I'm happy to hear that you like the result of my efforts. I just come back from the paint bench, have airbrushed the tracks. Outside some kind of Steel and on the inside I have used Aluminium colour. Though I have added some black paint to Steel I cannot see much difference in the 2 tones ....

Now comes some diligent piece of work -> painting the rubbers by hand, 182 per track ....

Have fun!
Torsten

Nice job on the camo ! Your needed corrections seems to be minor; fortunately your pattern is very geometrical so it’ll be easy for you. Good luck with the tracks I’m painting the rubbers on mine the same way too; monk’s work !

Thanks Tom! I have done most of the corrections already, some with airbrush and some with brush. Right now I'm working on the rubbers of the wheels, painting them by hand. Goes quick and easy. With 30°C inside the paints dries within a minute. Like for the rubbers of the tracks I use here Anthrazite No. 9 from Revell Aqua. Hope I can show some progress on the weekend.

Have fun!
Torsten

I made some significant progress this week and I notice that this build goes with small steps to the fin(n)ish line.

wheels, wheels, wheels ....

.... more wheels ....

.... and everything in its place. There are small poly caps between the wheel halves so the wheels hold well to the body. No need for glue and the wheels can be taken away again if necessary ....


.... I had Olivier's hint in mind with 1 track link too long and did some test fitting first of course. But I think the tracks are not too long. They look okay for me. I have used cyanoacrylate on both ends of the track and pressed them together with clamps for a few minutes. The joint is now between the idler wheel and the mud fender. I have to do some touch ups here but it looks wilder here on the photo than in real. Macro always kills ....


.... this are the paints I have used for the tracks. As I mentioned before, I don't see much difference between Steel 91 and Aluminium 99, though I have added some drops of black paint to Steel ....

.... yesterday I did some work on the turret ....


.... and I couldn't resist again. What a beautiful monster!

.... fresh from the paint bench this moring come some bits and pieces painted with Russian Green, waiting to be attached to the build ....

.... but first of all I must now paint another 182 rubbers of the other track before I can carry on with the hull.

Have all a nice Sunday!
Torsten

Camo looks great

Nice camo. For the tracks I suggest you secure the junction with a staple. It is easy to hide under the mud flap and gives more strength to the bondage.

Olivier

Thanks Paul! Glad you like it. I'm also really happy how the camo came out finally after all these weeks and weeks of masking.

Thanks also to you Olivier! Still have to do some touch ups so I'll see what I can do with the joint. In the meantime I came a bit further with the build and have attached the other track which went on pretty easy. The joint here is also between the idler wheel and the mud fender and that looks a lot better than my first attempt. So I guess the right side will become the "chocolade side". I also attached the gun bracket (right word?)in the down position, the head lights and some other small parts. But there's still a lot to do. I'll be away for the weekend, so no update photos before next Monday.

Have fun!
Torsten