Hello armor modelers,

as you may or may not guess I'm going to start building my first AFV kit and I was wondering what is the general build order you guys usually follow. Of course the kit instructions provide the baseline but do you have any tips when it comes to priming and preparing to paint the whole thing? The kit in question this time is the Tamiya Möbelwagen but I'm interested in tanks and other AFVs from all (well most) nations in the future. A Bradley, Merkava or Leopard might well be a future project. At this time I'm especially concerned with the tracks, roadwheels and that whole area.

I know this has been asked before but I just couldn't find the previous threads. I used the search facility and even browsed 50 pages into the past but couldn't find anything. Any building and painting tips would be appreciated. Remember, you may have a tank convert in your hands.

I usualy build the hull first, then the turret, in this case the flak gun. painting as i go, i save the tracks and wheels untill the end so i can weather behind and weather the tracks

If you build a vehicle with an open interior with lots of detail (like the mobelwagen) you're best bet is to build the interior bit, paint and weather, build the Flak 4, paint and weather and then add the Flak 4. That way you will have more room to paint. The wheels go on last as SgtDinkyduck said, to be able to paint and weather the hull and suspension behind them.

Cheers
Henk

right now what I am doing is a dragon's KIng Tiger with porsche turret so here are the stepsof how I built it.

1)clean up lower hull, add suspension arms and roadwheels. assembly of the sprocket and idler, without gluing them to the hull(not until the tracks are ready)

2)clean up of tracks, usually a whole day. After that I put them together making sure that sprocket, idler adn roadwheels are not out of line. I paint the tank with the tracks on, so I live these on.

3)After that I have check in the instructions if there are any interior parts that have to be put together before the upper hull is glued. I then glue the lower hull, ignoring anything else, I leave that for later.

4)I glue most of the basic parts of the body of the AFV, like hatches, the engine deck, or any other bigger part that has to be added to the hull.

5)zimmerit is next, use preferred technique.

6)Texturing, I use testors liquid glue, and a cheap testors paintbrush.

What you are left with is the basic shape of the AFV, now you just have to add details to it. this is sometimes the step that takes the longest

7. tools

8. little details like handles and hooks, and other smaller parts.

9. Photoetch grills, if available.

10. paint, but that's a looonnnnggg set of steps....

by the way, i dont know if you know this but you pronounce the ö as ur. so if you go to say somthing in person it would be pronounced murblelwagon.

SgtDinkyduck, Henk, DRAGONSLAIN: thanks for the build tips. I would have probably "underdone" the detail in the turret and possibly missed the weathering for the suspension etc.




I use ö and ä in my native Finnish, I've been trying to think how to explain those sounds to an English speaking person. Your "murbel" is a pretty good approximation for the Ö (drop the silent r too), probably the best I've seen so far. I've also studied some German and Swedish which add ü and å in the equation, respectively.

Lots of valuable tips in your post DRAGONSLAIN. Could you further explain what you mean by texturing? Is it like adding a bit of uneven spots to give the body more character? Sounds very interesting.

Yes, that's what I usually do. The surface of most models is really smooth, too smooth for an AFV, the surface is more suited to a car.

So what I do is to brush on testors liquid glue over the surface (any other liquid cement can work) and with a useless brush hit it against the surface, kind of in a chopping motion.

Be carefull not to over do it, except on cast iron, like the transmition cover of a sherman or the turrets of soviet armor, thats where extra applications of glue will help.

Check out this link here

I kind of get the same texturing effect with my wash. I use enamels let dry for 2 - 3 days and then use a mineral spirits / paint thinner base wash. It has a tendency tosoften the original paint up a bit and you must really pay attention as you do it, but it can and will rough up the paint a bit. Oh I assemble the entre tank first, paint it, paint the tracks and assemble those onto model (generally use the individual links) then weather entire completed model then go back and dry brush to highlight edges and track links

Druid

Hope you're enjoying your first AFV, always been my favorites though I try (emphasize try) to do a little of everything. Second choice probaly figures. Anyway, you got some outstanding advice and approach techniques from DRAGONSLAIN (thanks from me also). The only thing I'd add is between Steps #3 & #4(before adding parts to hull and adding zimmerit anyway), is where I do the work to the upper and lower hull adding bent fenders,etc. Good luck and anxious to see your work,

Blade48mrd

I must say I'm starting to see why people like AFVs so much. It may be because this is technically the best kit I've had so far (only my 3rd kit after a Revell MiG-21 and an old Tamiya 88mm gun) but there's something else to it as well; I've really enjoyed the build so far.

I'm doing just an OOB build now though I may add zimmerit (the area here isn't too big) and weld seams if applicable (there are already some seams molded in the parts). Bent fenders etc. are the only things I know I'll be doing. I still have to do some research on the texturing. There's cast iron detail in some of the parts and I don't know how rough the surface was in reality.

On the topic of OOB, what is the limit in competitions and shows? If you add a single weld seam is it not considered OOB anymore?

Yes you have to plan any battle damage before you start to build, just to know when do you have to do it. This just happened to me right now, I damaged the zimmerit on my tiger when I noticed the track cable was atached to that exact place, so I had to do some mayor surgery....

Speaking of zimmerit, do you just leave a gap for the tools that are attached to the hull? I have some shovels and wrenches that are supposed to go on the sides of the "furniture van" and I'm unsure whether to apply the zimm to those spots.

sorry to be a noob, but with does "AFV" mean?

AFV stands, as far as i know for Armored Fighting Vehicle.

Druid,

the zimmerit set I have for my Jagdpanther has two options... one indeed only leaving room for the hull fittings (clamps and racks), or actually leaving the whole area covered by the rack and tools free of zimmerit.

I hope this helps a bit.

I don't think the Mobelwagons got a coat of zimmerit, but I could be wrong. They only made 250 of them and they all got sent to Northwest Europe where AT teams using magnetic mines weren't considered a danger.

with painting, I usually build the basic structure of the vehicle and most detailed parts. If you're using PE, you should prime it first. Make sure you're only building upparts that will be hull color. I usually dont put on stuff like fire extinguishers or something until later. For a russian tank it'd be hull, grabhandles, and hull details. If you have any parts that over hang bring them with you when you paint but don't blue them on. I've ruined one model's paint job because I airbrushed it with overhanging parts. this blocks the paint off of the place covered by the part (think of it as a negative shadow) after this, paint whatever needs to be painted by hand and put it onto the hull. Then add washes, drybrushes, etc... Include/exclude parts at your discretion. thats how I do it.

For me, each model represents a different order of build and paint. For me, it is almost absurd how many times I go back and forth. When I choose to paint decides on multiple factors including: interior detail, access (if I can't get to the area needed to be painted), color arrangment (dark first, light last), using a particular color on as many pieces in one sitting, etc. I also tend to build my models in modules. I'll paint and somewhat detail each leaving the edges that I'll glue bare. I'll then glue them together, sanding it (the reason for not painting to the edges) and finish the painting and detailing. As metioned, for AFVs I'll leave off the suspension about half the time until the end, and always the tracks until the very end. Thats not to say I'm not constantly dryfitting them though!

It varies and you kind of have to make it up as you go.

Some build the whole model before even opening up a can of paint (I'm still figuring out how they can do it). You really can only figure out what works best for you through experimentation and experience.

Jeff

I would add a couple of other suggestions.
First, before you do anything, review the instructions.
I use yellow and orange highlighters to mark parts that will need special painting, or that I might want to remove and replace with etched or resin aftermarket parts.
Take special note of the small parts that have to be painted a different color from the body of the model, like lens covers, gun parts, tools, etc.
Some of these small parts can be added at the end of the build, so you can leave them on the sprue until the basic model has been assembled and painted, and then assemble, paint and attach them.
Others, because of their location, have to be attached during the main build, and then carefully painted by hand after the body of the model has been painted.
In that case, you may want use a liquid making agent to protect the part while you paint the body of the model. You then peel off the mask, and hand paint the small part.
When building tanks, I never attach the wheels or the tracks until after the body of the tank has been painted.
I paint the wheels and tracks separately, and then put them on and weather the entire tank as a single entity.
Finally, small parts like ammo crates, backpacks, hand tools, etc. are weathered separately, and each one should look different. No two water cans or backpacks ever look the same.