Gezz Ron that looks like a monster your building! Interested to see what you do with it!

Joining in with this kit:

Looking to improve it best as I can along with these resin bits I purchased some time ago for a few bucks.

Aww SHOOT!
I placed these next few posts into the WRONG campaign!
It ended up in the Bundeswehr campaign. Sorry for that!
So I am copying these into the correct campaign thread.'

Tamiya's Kampfpanzer Leopard 1 is not a kit for the beginner!

First of all the fit it not good. There's a lot of filling and sanding to be done and that excludes the holes for motorized use! The barrel was oval shaped, when glued and the wheels have badly fitting poly-caps.





A neat feat; a real metal screen to be popped in from below, followed by the "engine", which shows through. Only problem is that it is not correct and quite visibly so. The screen should be flush with the top, not under it. It also is not fine enough and lacks all detail.





Sanding is a PITA, since the plastic is rather soft.



The turret underside has considerable gaps to fill.


Thinning down the turret basket sides. Here the plastic's annoying feature of fraying when sanded or scraped comes to life in full! It is very hard to get a smooth even finish, because after each pass over there's more to be removed, leaving behind fine curls or hairs of plastic.



Thinned down and bent the "rubber" mudguards too.


And then disaster struck!

I wanted to replace the original chevron trakcs with square padded ones and I was given a free set of Tamiya's Marder 1A2. These do fit and would look OK with snow on them. But they were bent and twisted. So I thought a warm bath would soften them and laying them on a flat surface when cooling would make them straight.

However I was not having a clear mind and used water that was far to warm.....



Does anyone have a spare set of either they'd be willing to part with?? AM tracks are up to 3x the price of this kit and I do not want to spend that on this one!

This build is completed! Well, apart from the future tarpaulin over the turret basket, that is. I was getting pretty fed up with this kit and I am afraid it might show a little here and there. I think it is a bad kit by today's standards; dimensions are way off, details are bad, horrible or non-existent and the fit in many places was not exactly precise either. The rear comes immediately to mind, as do the wheels and their cursed polycaps.

Many of the details had to be redone, cobbled together from existing parts or made from scratch. The new tracks I got, coming from a Tamiya 1A4 were too long and the kit's dimensions explain why. The stowage in the baskets are not accurate, but these only serve to give the upcoming tarp its lumps and bumps.

Detaisl I made from scratch were the canvas cover at the base of the gun, the muzzlecover, the2 lifting eyes on the front, the entire basket bottom and the pole arrangement on the left side. The rest, the colours will show that, was made by mixing and matching parts or parts of the parts to get something that looked reasonable instead of horrendous.

Now it is time to get this thing painted.

Hello,

@yeahwiggie, I admire your perseverance with the Tamiya leopard. Looks like you’ve made it more than respectable.

@ezra, I am amazed at the speed you knocked out the Scimitar. Lightning speed!

Here are the start up pics of my Dragon panzer iv G Kharkov. I have some AM goodies to add: Friul winterketten and a nice turned barrel from RB model.









I hope to get this started this week, and hopefully finished by the deadline!

Cheers

Matthew

This is the tank I plan to model.





It looks as though the crew have removed the headlights… Must remember that.

What colour do you think the 401 is? My money is on red.

Cheers

Matthew

I've started on the Mini-art SU85. I'll try to get some pics up in the next couple of days. So far, it's a nice kit, I think I'll be doing an interior kit from mini-art of this or the T-34 soon, so I've been experimenting with stuff and making lots of notes. Comparing the instructions for the T-34 interior kit that they just released, that cleans up some of the bits I found a bit tricky in this kit.

@ Matthew; thanks. I will not admit defeat so easily!

However, this build keeps frustrating me.

First choice I had to make was whether I would go for plain dark oliv, like the old German ones or if I would go for the Norwegian 4-tone splinter camo. Of course I went for the latter. Why keep it simple, when you can complicate things??

That meant a whole lot of taping and masking during the process. And wouldn't you know it. I ran out of tape almost right at the beginning. I did happen to find another roll, but that was not as wide. So more pieces were needed.

As a basis I chose the same colour I had mixed for the 1A4.... but forgot that it looks like it does, because of washes and such. For the black I chose NATO black, the brown is flat earth and the second green is flar green. All Tamiya. Spray and mask. Spray and mask. Repeat..







And then the moment of truth. Always exciting to remove the tape... But then...



The colours are all wrong, except for the black. The olive green is not dark enough, the earth too pale and the green too dark. So I was left with the choice of stripping the paint never done that), just repeat the entire painting and masking cycle or just go with it and add the wintercamouflage. I went for the last option. Just want to get this build over with...

So more tape, then hairspray and then Tamiya flat white. But not after I had done the markings, which was a chapter on its own. I'll get back to that later.

While doing the hairspray technique I noticed that the water used started turning a slight green??? At first I thought the brush was not clean, but it kept doing that. I g´have no explanation for it, but the white now has a very faint green hue. Makes it look not fresh, used, exposed.



The decals..... As always I use a gloss clear coat underneath them, usually Vallejo's. This time I took Tamiya's Clear coat. Out of habbit I thinned it down with a drop of water.... and it turned milky on the model! When used pure it desolved the NATO black at places... What the....??

The decals themselves took ages to loosen from the carrier paper and silvered, despite gloss, Micro sol and Micro Set. The covering coat of clear matt tones it down. I made the number plates out of strip styrene, painted a mustard yellow and applying numbers on them. The Cavalry marking on the glacis is painted in place and decal numbers were added.



The fight continues!!

I like your chipping, Ron. Even with the problems you had it still looks really good.

If it were easy, what fun would that be?!

Hey Ron. What are the tubular things mounted on the Leopards barrel called? Ive seen them on other vehicles but never knew what they were.

@ Richard; sometimes fun is relative...
@ Ezra; It is a Hoffman device. It simulates the firing of the main gun.

The end of this build is drawing near. And none too soon!

Since this is a build with focus on whites I am looking to get a varied look within the whites. The worn camouflage paint was one and now I have added winter camouflage netting as a second. The third will be the snow itself. For netting I used bandaging that had expired, but was unused. However I felt that it just looked like that, when I had draped it over the tank; bandaging. So I looked at my references and saw that the netting actually was like the 3-tone netting, but white. How to make that? Normally I would go for bandage + herbs, but I know that spraying that white would get the herbs to leak their colour into the paint. In 3-tone not an issue, in white a major issue. And then I had the luminous idea of doing it with paper! With wet paper to be precise. Soaking that in water will make it fall apart and the fibers can be used to make the netting's cover. Time to try something completely new! Never seen anyone do it before...

With tissue it was a no go. I had used that to make a cover for the turret basket. With kitchen paper a similar result. That is made to hold even when wet. Hmm... printing paper? Works, sort of, but is way to bright due to the added whiteners. It glowed blue compared to the bandage. And I ended up with toilet paper in the right shade. I added small pieces to a mix of white glue & water and started the tedious job of picking apart the soaked paper and adding one piece/blob at a time. The result however is none too bad, I think.

I tied the netting to the sidebars of the turret. Because I applied the same glue/water mix to it, it would retain its shape, so that later on I could add straps that would hold it all in place.









As can be seen in the photos I also added cables to search light and Hoffman device and added the red tape that is used in exercises to distinguish between teams. I used the thinnest plastic card, but it still is too thick. Decals would be optimal here. I painted the tarp on the back in Vallejo's German field grey. It looks a lot darker in the photos. I added a coat of satin varnish to make it look like a artificial fiber tarp. The last details to be added will be the antennae with pennants, but I will add those last.

Looking great Ron!

Turned out great, Ron! The chipping looks good to me!

Well, for all the frustration, it turned out really well.

You have done a great job on the Leo Ron, and chipping looks spot on.

I have changed direction from a Landrover, as I was a bit over committed with campaigns and needing to buy kits so have opted for one from the small stash I have..



Will be going for this old boy from tamiya. I know it has a few issues but it's on hand and shouldn't take long. Will also add some of the tamiya German seated soldiers plus the driver. I may get a little 3.7cm AT gun to add to it if I can find one. Other than that it will be OOB and fairly quickly done.

You did a great job on her Ron. It may not be your most favoured of builds, and a lot of guys would have bailed out early, but you have turned it out as one to be proud of.

An oldie John. I built this for the recent Shep Paine build and scratch built a lot to fix issues as you intimate the kit has -took 4 times longer to do that than do the basic build....

Just a heads up, it may not be the easy build you are expecting. The fit on this is no way near Tamiya usual quality. Knock out marks are plentiful and obvious. Also, the walls have the back rests moulded integrally, but there are no rear parts to fill the hole behind the backrest. That hole will be seen very easily.

You may find you need to glue the doors in place in the side panels first and allow them to set firm before attaching the sides to the floor pan/fenders - my side panels were twisted and also flexed to a curve shape when viewed from the side which caused them to be out of shape without the doors holding the panels to a more correct shape - there were still gaps in the door to panel fit - and they still needed a lot of coaxing into position with the doors in place.

The front engine cowling side panels and the passenger area sides also needed a lot of trimming or filling to avoid chasms between parts if you don't. Build the cowling section with the front grill panel glued to the bonnet then add the side panels to the front grill section and bonnet to make sure that this engine cover assembly is all lined up correctly. Then when set test fit to the chassis/fenders but with the passenger compartment side wall assemblies just held in place. This will help you get the right sit for the cowling on the curve of the fenders and to ensure the cowling assembly meets with the body side panels correctly - there are no locations pins or anything for either sections and it would be easy to glue this engine cowling assembly in the wrong position without testing fit with the whole front to rear panel as well. Fitting the cowling first also means you can line up the passenger side panels correctly to the cowling, as there is nothing else to line up the front of the passenger side panel with to get the right placement over the fender.

It is a kit that calls for something to be fitted on the rear towing hook. I am currently building the AFV Club 60cm Searchlight to add as towed equipment the back of mine - making a kfz 83 Leichter Scheinwerferkraftwagen II combo. I picked the AFV club kit up for AUD $5 second hand. The itty bitty parts on humungous sprue attachments on the AFV Club kit is a nightmare story of its own...

Thanks for the heads-up Peter, I have managed to get a fair bit done and luckily for me the panels are all ok on mine.



Have got the chassis complete and the body sections done. Have just test fitted them in the above pic.

There are an insane amount of sink marks all over which I'm not going to get overly worried about with filling. I will try and hide as many as poss with cargo or a few figures.

Making some headway on the mini-art SU-85. I am fascinated by the build on here from a couple of years ago with a full interior. I thought I might do that, or that it would be largely the same for the new T-34/85, so I've been taking it slow and making notes about how to go about it painting it. So the inside has some paint to help me see how to do it.





I like this kit a lot. It's a bit delicate. Um, maybe a better word would be precise. You build up the exterior by glueing many plates together and there is not much extra plastic at the joints. I got the sides on to the bottom and the front and back lower plates and I think (hope) they are in the right positions. I'm a little afraid to glue the front plate on. There have been some gaps that closed up as I put the pieces together, glued and clamped, which have been a relief. I guess it's one of those kits that at the end when all the pieces come together they are just perfect?

Here's a gap between the internal pillar and the side wall. I almost glued it then realized that might prevent the front going on if I did that wrong so held off. This, of course, will be invisible when I close it up, but thinking about doing the interior kit.



The brown on the back side walls and the floor was my attempt at a primer color. Turns out it's a perfect match for the leather seat color I painted (different brands and names of paints). I think I might use dark grey for the floor if I do the interior. I think there are some uncertainties about that.

It's a neat kit. I had read that mini-art used a soft plastic and couldn't figure out what that meant. Now I think I know. It is a little bit softer than I am used to, but I like working with it. Have to cut the sprue a little farther from the part, but then cleaning up the nubs is a real breeze.

Looking good! I've been redoing the rear bustle rack, on the Scimitar. I hope to have a update soon!

A liitle

What do you use for white camo when all the sheets and pillowcases have been used?

Nice work so far everyone I'm still stuck thinking what kit I would build for the build. I have a Tamiya M4A3(105) and a Miniart T-70M that I'm considering. I can't seem to find photos that show the Tamiya's M4A3(105) with the whitewash though. I really want to understand if the whitewash it had went around the US Star Decal as an outline.

T70!!
There's enough Shermans to go around as it is!

Just a quick progress update. Have assembled the Horch and primed that ready for a base of Pzr Grey. Will be doing 4 figures, but those are not in my comfort zone at all, they never look good sadly.
Am waiting for the 3.7cm AT gun to arrive and that will then get done, primed, painted and then will do the winter white wash over both at the same time.



It is a very old kit now, and yes, there are a few gaps here and there which I could of filled but they will be hidden with stowage and weathering.

The sidedish in the form of the M151A2 is done, so time to get back to one of the main courses!

It is time for snow..... Looking at pictures I tried to figure out where snow would accumulate logically and started applying the mix of water and sodium carbonate. I learned there apparently are several sorts, because I used 2 different sorts on 2 different projects and with different results!

This mix was with a powderlike, very finely ground kind. Maybe that's the difference? One of the main advantages of working with sodium bicarbonate is that you can always adjust it, just by making it wet again. Main disadvantage is that it crumbles and comes off, when touched or lifted.

So I decided to do an experiment; create a mixture of white glue and water, thin enough to use in an airbrush and spray the whole, so that the sodium gets fixed in place. I had tried applying said mix with a brush, but the sodium came off, right away. The spraying leaves a hard surface, so the model can be handled.

Another project done! It was a beast of a kit, but I think I achieved some nice variations is the whites.