Tinkering with... Panzerfehlspanzer III

There's a theme emerging here, another Early War command panzer, this time using Army Group North's Panzer III E. 

This is very much a work in progress and is more of a story board for the turret work. The chassis and rear deck will need modifying too!

Two turrets for comparison. As you can see I've drilled and chiselled out the two side hatches on the future command panzer.( note the tack commanders (TC) hatch hinges which cause me thought later...)

I've added some rudimentary hatch hinge bars in prep for adding some crew and hatches.

The crew are heavily modified Perry miniatures. I wish I'd taken pictures as it was some work to get them to this stage! Legs and heads chopped to assume the correct positioning of the torsos in the hatches. 

Some blank hatches have been added to see how they fit. I wanted a relaxed look for the crew, difficult to achieve when modifying metal!

View from the other side.

The torsos were drilled and the heads were pinned and reattached, this permits positioning at the right angles to make the "scene" work. I will add green stuff mods later, around the necks, and the legs, and to modify the TC's jacket into a panzer wrap. ( At this stage I've just removed the pockets as it was originally a DAK field jacket depicted, not correct for France)

At this point I added the commanders hatches, as you can see the fit was wrong with the hatches not sitting parallel as in my references, I was sure there wasn't any hatch stops to achieve this angle, time to muse......

Decided to crack on with the detailing on the hatches. As I always point out, this is not heavy-weight scale modelling, just enough detail to get the aesthetic.

So......regards the TC hatches,  I went back to my references, lucky the TC hatch hinges on the model are proud on the turret ring  (see earlier picture! this is excellent for glue purchase for a secure fit, ok for normal,  but not here for me) so essentially the hatches hinged open too far. This was resolved with new hatch blanks being made (much better representative thickness anyways, internal hatch details will be added later) and fixed at the correct hinge point (which is inside the ring), hey presto the ensemble fits!

I drilled the hole for the Kurbelmast and added the extra turret roof fixtures (note Ive used a metal rod here for now, I will have a removable, brass extending tube affair by the time I've finished). 

I also decided to reposition the left crewman to take advantage of the new brass hatch handle, and with his arm to sit on the open, mast hatch cover.

I also added the hatch "stops" on the turret sides, I assume the forward hatch halfs lock into these? My only problem now is that this is one of three so some detailing will have to be duplicated! 

Still not sure what the raised dotted lines are depicting on the turret, not on my references, but i'm sure someone will come to the rescue, theres usually a devil in the details somewhere.....

The last shot shows it with the more developed Panzer 1 command, posted earlier, but now with a new TC figures, again from the Perry DAK TC set.

Remaining mods are:

a) dummy barrel and mg Mantlet

b) hull 2m antennaes, trays and visor repositioning

c) rear deck frame mast 

d) rear deck fittings, tow cables and probably a field mod stowage box.

This is quite a bit of work, and more than for a usual build but its for a "regular" , I'm sure it will be the "accent" piece on the table once finished, especially with 9 scale-metres of Kurbelmast! 

Coming up in the next week ...

- QRF Hips - Rotors or discs?

- 15mm Heer46

- 15mm "Allied" '46

Loads more on the cusp of finishing, now the weather is letting me back in the shed!

Tinkering with... Warlords Panzer II

Continuing on a theme, with another cold winter night prohibiting me using the airbrush in the shed I thought I'd finish off some Panzer II's I had started a while back. These are now from Warlord but the masters were previously BEF/Chieftain/ ex-Ian Crouch, to be fair I these are decent masters but not up to the current standard seen with Warlord, I was a bit non-plussed with them, hence their enforced deferment whilst I considered my options. The Panzer II is a fairly plane vehicle and generally not heavily stowed so I had my work cut out in order to make these bespoke.

Anyway List of Mods;

1) Standard clean, fill and sand
2) now standard thinning down of track guards
3) added representative Aerial points and aerials
4) small variety of stowage
5) Rear air identification flag from foil
6) Individual wire handles for the tool clamps
7) Engine plate handle
8) Opened up and added visors ( turret and hull)
9) New hatch made for commander version
10) Clamps for spare roadwheel
11) Front tow hooks added, glaring omission this one I'm afraid
12) addition of rear smoke dischargers ( sorry, couldn't find any chain fine enough for the caps)
13) added the holes on the exhaust muffler
14) Additional Spade
15) Addition of Jerry Cans and frame

 

I also added a Warlord Kubel (with the addition of Company B crew set and minor mods, note I've fabricated a separate windscreen with clear plastic insert for the glass) and two Black Tree Designs outriders, these have been pinned to "The Kings Armourer" cobble bases.

 

These are now in the priming and base coating process. Two fine coats of Halfords Plastic primer, not really needed for Warlord Resin, but essential for any of the American resins. If you use the grey version it gives you the advantage of being able to see any imperfections and chance to rectify.  This is then left for 24hrs in warm room ( i.e not my shed) to cure, then two fine coats of Halfords Matt Black and again 24 hrs to cure. As the last part in the process, I then touch up with Humbrol enamel Matt Black using a brush and yes another 24 hours..... Of course after the primer stage you could go straight in with one of the many coloured base coats now available.

 

[commission work]