1/56 DAK Luftwaffe Sdkfz 7

 

 Another paint, this time a Luftwaffe Sdkfz 7 serving with the Africa Korps. Unusually this wasn't built by me, so its just the paint.

I rarely take on pre-built as I cant always guarantee the quality of the build. In this case, the modeller is a known quantity so was happy to oblige.

This is the Warlord offering, a quite old resin sculpt now, but still standing up well against the opposition and I've done a few of these now.

In the wings, I have one I'm up-detailing along with its Flak 88, buts its "parked" for now.

1/56 Elefant

As a change from some build work, I will post a series of recent paints. First up is one of my favorite vehicles, the Elefant. 

 

Don't get many chances to paint these as, along with larger cats, there isn't the call for them on the table top.

 

This is Warlords/ Bolt Action offering and is "vanilla" as it comes, absolutely no mods from me. 

 

As there isn't much need for a build log on this, i'll just let pictures do the talking, as always the full portfolio is up on flickr.

 

 

 

This is Warlords display piece, so you may see it in their cabinets at shows, much better in the "flesh".

As an aside I have a side project in the wings for two years time, which involves quite a few of these in 20mm...........

Tinkering with... Rubicon and Warlord's T34's

 

 

 

 

Above, a tinkered and fettled Warlord T34/85, combined with a Rubicon T34/76 below......

 

First the Rubicon, by far the superior kit, but sadly lacking in the track detail department.

 

The hull below has been weighted and assembled. Some extensive modifications, including:

 

a) drilled out and filled the drivers hatch ( green material)

b) replaced all rails with brass rod

c) added spare fuel canister attachments and removed the smoke canister attachments to reflect research for this variant.

d) scratched some tow cables

 

 

Nice view of the rear hull, to show the fabricated fuel canister attachments and tow cable.

Below, yes it looks a mess! The white is from the polyfilla added for weight. The front hull has been carved out to receive a driver figure. I think he maybe from the warlord KV, either way he's not detailed enough to be on external show, but will work fine for inside. You can see the poor track rendition. I'm not worried about the hacked out drivers compartment as its not on show when the top is glued on.

Here's the hull with its turret, late version with "mickey mouse hatches", figures will feature later.

same hull but with alternative turret. Rubicon don't give you enough bits for multiple turrets but I had a spare turret base from their SU122 kit ( go figure!).

Now the Warlord T34/85. Kit is ok, not as good as the Rubicon T34/85 ( will come up later), nice tracks though. Not much spare on the sprues, so added a road wheel from the Rubicon spare set, it is marginally larger than its fellows, but I think it'll settle in fine.

As you can see, I have added mud mixture, both between the wheels and under the track guards, small details that all add up.

You can just make out the fuel and smoke canister straps refashioned from metal tubes, and the associated brass attachment points.

Replacing handles isn't for the faint hearted, there are between nine and eleven handles to do on each vehicle, that's removal, filling, sanding, drilling and bending!

For the handles, I made a jig to make uniform 0.5mm brass handles, a long old job!

also I removed the two cable wires, this is cast on detail with the Warlord hull, and is fine for one vehicle but a bit samey for several, another painful process of removal, but worth it in the end.

 

Some track guards removed to show off Warlords redeeming feature, the tracks! I think he will be fine!

Crew will be the subject of another post. The only real place for 1/56 Soviet tankers is Warlord, unfortunately their current offering is quite poor (out the packet), some ridiculous poses with cartoon features and outsized hands. Two poses are usable a chap just leaning forward ( above loader)  and a chap with a map ( used elsewhere). The commander pose is ok but I have binned all his supplied right arm options and am in the process of reconstituting one that looks reasonable at least!

Tinkering with... Warlords SU76

 

Back to resin this time. The kit is fine, but I felt just needed some additional touches. Picture above is it just about ready for priming without crew, and below with crew!.

 

You can see the reconstituted rear compartment wall, brass tarpaulin supports and tie downs, added periscopes and green stuff stowage.

View of the side showing the tarpaulin tie downs. These are a bit oversized, but I think will paint up fine, and again there's loads of them!

More detailing on show, you can see the resin tarpaulin supports have been removed and the side walls thinned down. These are understandably thick for the resin casting process but spoil the overall effect. Green stuff tarp added along the track guard.

Detail from the front, this time I left the tow cables, else I could go on forever!

Rear compartment with new pasticard rear wall, notice the resin sides at full thickness prior to thinning out.

Have tried a slightly different approach with the crew. Normally most crew are painted separately, but due to the squeeze in the back and the almost total enclosure I thought I'd try in situ.
Warlord supply two white metal crew with the kit, which are fine.

I decided to add the third crew man from a plastic infantry sprue. Some minor tweaking and cutting and the addition of a tanker head and he fits in just fine.




And finally...

Below is the Warlord GAZ AA, not much I can do with this one, resin full cab really restricts going to town on it.

 

Loaded up the bed with tarps and equipment, so will be fine in the end!

Tinkering with... Warlords KV1/KV2

 

 

I have a few concurrent Soviet commissions on the go at the moment, so will post up as they develop.

 

First up is the Warlord KV1 /KV2 ensemble, great thing with this kit is that you get both turrets and a set of plastic tanks riders (save them for another post)

 

 

No extensive detailing for these, its not needed. Decided to do some "opened up" versions later, so for now its just one hull and two turrets. Mods have included:

 

a) "polyfilla" weight added, to give the vehicle some heft on the table, works well.

b) damaged and distressed track guards, taking advantage of the detailing on the plastic track sections

c) Brass hand/grab rails added

d) Early style tow cables added, using some turned wire from an old pair of earphones.

 

 

 

KV 2 turret on the same hull, 2 for 1 !

 

Keep watching, Soviet stuff rolling through....