The small parts!

The trouble, or maybe the advantage, depending on how you look at it, is that with a kit where the main bulk of whatever is being constructed is in two parts, just putting these together can give the impression of a speedy build and nearly complete build. That is what it has felt like with this Trumpeter kit of the L/15 Mörser "Bär". However, as I have learnt today, there are a  great deal of small parts still to be fitted which will take some time to complete. Probably half that time is being spent looking for these small parts as they make a break away from the workbench and onto the floor! The various lifting hooks that are located around the upper panels of the tank are a case in point. Luckily there were a few spare ones on the sprues as I guess The guys at Trumpeter realised modellers were going to need extras! Therefore, even after several hours of Man Cave bliss, there is not a great deal of difference to see!

Still many small parts to fit including the hatches and cupulas on top of the mortar compartment and the bow gun in that hole at the front. Then I will need to deal with my arch nemesis - etched brass parts for the grills above the engine. Hopefully they should be relatively easy to fit with no bending required. You can hardly see those lifting hooks but there are thirteen that I remember and several of which had to be located on the floor before fitting!

One part that will be sealed from view once the hull lower and upper parts are permanently joined is the mount for the mortar. Some fairly hefty plastic here with the mortar mount pivoted between two mounts that are glued to the chassis. With some carful fettling, the mortar mount can elevate but is tight enough to ensure that the barrel of the mortar will stay in the chosen elevation for display. 

A few more hours should see the rest of the small parts fitted and my crawling on the floor looking for them ended!

Repetative wheels - how many parts?

Twenty four wheels in total! That is how many I had to make for the Trumpeter Grille30 30.5cm L/15 Mörser kit. Each of the running wheels and the drive wheels are two separate kit parts whilst the rear idler wheels are four parts a piece making a total of 56 parts if my math's is correct - it usually is unless I am informing Mrs. Woody as to how much I spent on a model!

I have left the wheels loose on their axles at the moment so that I can easily paint them when the time comes so there are another 22 hub parts to also add to the wheel list which to my reckoning makes a total of 78 wheel parts! I have to admit though that there was minimal cleaning up of the various parts to do and they went together like a dream so I cannot complain!

Of course, in my usual impatient way I had to try fitting the upper hull to the lower - just to get a feel of how big this thing is!

Yes! It is big and comparing it again to the recently built Kangaroo APC you can see just how big in comparison and the Kangaroo only has 16 wheels!

Checking the facts!

I thought that it was a bit of an odd gun to use as an anti-tank gun but that is what I read somewhere on the internet when I first bought the kit. Having got into the build yesterday I was left wondering what on earth the hydraulic plate under the hull was all about so I went Googling! I found what appears to be a much more realistic explanation of the vehicle on the Tank Encyclopedia website which you can see by clicking here . Basically the gun is a mortar that was to be used to destroy heavily fortified emplacements or buildings. The reason for the plate in the bottom of the hull was that with the mortar at its highest protectory it would hit the floor of the hull. Therefore to give it clearance as well as allowing for its one meter recoil the plate lowered the floor and acted as a stabiliser/recoil absorber. That all makes sense now and well worth checking the facts!

I have linked into on of the drawings on that site which shows the internal details much better than I can describe them!

Anyway, back to the kit build! Today was focused on the rear panel to the hull and the photo below shows what appears to be limited progress but there are 26 parts in that small area with many being small and easily lost onto the floor where searching for them takes a long time! Guess how I know! The jack itself is made of 10 parts and the supplied plans are not the clearest on the placement of parts so trial fitting without glue at first is the order of the day. I also managed to fit the four suspension springs that you can see on the right of the hull. Whilst the rest of the wheels were subject to torsion spring suspension that required a rod to go through the hull, where the hydraulic plate was there could be no rods going through it so conventional springs were used. I can begin to understand why this thing never progressed from the drawing board with all these complexities.

Next stage is the torsion suspension and axles followed by the wheels. I have a feeling there are about 30 wheels to make which will be a bit of a repetitive task, repetitive task, repetitive task!

The big build starts!

As I eluded to yesterday this is a big kit for a 1/35th scale military vehicle and one which I have started. It is the, to give it the full title from the Trumpeter kit box, a Grille30 30.5cm(Grw) L/15 Mörser "Bär", Basically a prototype that never went into production of an anti- tank gun firing a 30.5cm shell or a one foot diameter shell for those like me who are old school! Basically a shell of that size hitting a tank even without exploding is going to do some serious damage. 

Anyway the finished model won't be firing any shells but is never the less an interesting build even at these early stages. I have started with the lower hull, as per the instructions, and constructed what I presume is some sort of stabilising/recoil absorbing  device that was fitted to the hull.

It will be interesting to see how this develops. Only 300 plus parts to build of which I have so far done 27 so a fair way to go yet!

I am still working away on finishing weathering the Italeri Kangaroo APC and the three figures. I did find two rifles on the sprue from which the figures came so two of the figures will gain these and look as though their postures are a little more meaningful. Their uniforms have certainly toned down with a couple of washes of dilute black paint and with the helments now attached to their heads they do look a bit less SiFi Horror. My figure painting skills are such that these are models best looked at from a distance but I am pleased with how they are coming out.

 

Now that is big!

Withe the Italeri Kangaroo APC nearly finished my mind has turned to building this kit that I got at the Newark Train and Toy Fair. You can see from the box art with the figures that this was a monster of a vehicle.

Out of interest I got the upper and lower hull parts out of the box to compare with the Kangaroo.

It is almost double the length - now that is big! Certainly will take a lot of paint to get this sprayed up!

Anyway back to finishing the Kngaroo. Although most of the weathering is done there are still areas which require a little more attention including the running gear. I have used a dilute wash of Vallejo Earth Brown paint, just literally brushed on and left to the effects of gravity. The pigment of the paint tends to accumulate in the recesses and gives a great impression of how dust and mud would accumulate on a real vehicle. Still some more areas to do but getting there!

Meanwhile, the three figures included in the 'figures not included' kit have received further attention from the paint brush. To tone down the clothing I have used a dry brushing of white paint, It may sound strange to say that the white paint tones the colours down but it certainly provided highlights to the creases of the clothes as in real life.You can see the difference it makes in the picture below.

I have also painted the eyes and lips in. The eyes are a dab of white paint with the eyeball dabbed in with some black paint on the point of a cocktail stick. I have also applied a wash of Vallejo black paint to further tone down the uniform colours as well as providing some shadows to the depths of the creases. 

The two crates are destined to go somewhere on the Kangaroo as well as some other items that came with the kit. I will have to see if the snow holds off long enough to allow me to get to the Man Cave and finish these off! Snow? Now that will get Mrs. Woody's attention - she only likes it if she is inside in the warm!

Weathered!

Well, according to Mrs. Woody, I am well weathered. I just think I had a hard paper round as a kid! Anyway whether I am weathered or not, the Italeri Kangaroo APC is now looking decidedly as though it too had a hard paper round and has been subjected to a dose of weathering using a variety of weathering powders similar to those I used on the interior. 

With both tracks now on, the fire extinguishers in place and the two machine guns mounted the Kangaroo is now complete construction wise. The weathering is just about done but just needs a bit of additional work to finish it off completely but overall I am pleased how this has all come together. The pictures perhaps show this better than I can describe!

  

All tooled up!

At one time the phrase 'All tooled up' was one that you would hear in a 1970s TV crime show when the villains would check and confirm that they had all they required to carry out the planned crime. Those were simple days - much like me! These days however things have got a bit more complex, there even appears to be a DIY tool shop called All Tooled Up as well as various other retailers using variations of the words. 

Getting back to the point about all tooled up in my World (at the moment anyway) and it refers to the Italeri Kangaroo APC which has now had its compliment of tools stowed on the hull. Shovel, pick axe, sledge hammer and various other pieces of kit that would no doubt be useful to the crew.

They all need to be weathered down a bit but that will happen when I do the rest of the vehicle. In the meantime I am getting very close to the point of finishing this kit. Finishing??? Most unusual for me! I must have been tooled up to get this far!

Helmets on!

Not much time to do anything too creative in the Man Cave today but I have done some more painting on the 3 figures from the 'figures not included' Italeri Kangaroo APC kit! As they are 'not included' there are no instructions for them and having searched on line I cannot trace which kit these figures were officially included in so that I could perhaps find an instruction sheet. There are a number of things such as rifles and back packs also included which I think are part of the overall figures. I will just have to make it up as I go along! However, in the meantime some more painting and the temporary placement of their helmets on their heads make them look a little less ScFi horror!

I also had a few moments to temporarily fit one of the tracks onto the Kangaroo which I thought was going to be a battle but it actually went on fairly easily - nice!

I am hoping for a bit more time tomorrow unless Mrs. Woody and her chore list have other ideas for my time!  

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil!

I had to look twice at the WMD HQ fish tank last night. Never seen the three fish lined up like this just resting on the gravel on the bottom of the tank being still and looking just like a fish based illustration of the three monkeys, see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil! They were probably just observing the World outside of their watery home just to make sure that there are no cats about and perhaps reminding me that the tank glass needs cleaning just like Mrs. Woody does! Made me smile anyway - the fish not Mrs. W! Maybe I shouldn't have written that bit as Mrs. W does indeed make me smile!

Talking of the bottom of the tank, my attention turned to the bottom of the Italeri Kangaroo APC and specifically the tracks. These are the rubber type that require gluing together and stretching across the wheels to fit. Never my favorite but they will have to do. Firstly I had to glue the ends together and Italeri recommended using superglue and just as I do with Mrs. Woody's recommendations I followed it to the letter! With the tracks glued and dry I then undercoated them with some Vallejo grey paint.

Once dry a coat of Vallejo Rust paint was lightly airbrushed over the grey. It makes a great base for further weathering.

Talking of, See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil, the three, not included in box, kit figures had some further flesh tone airbrushed on and a first coat of karki paint which looks glossy as it is still wet in the picture. It probably would be evn wetter if they were in the fish tank. However, why upset the fish with these somewhat creepy looking characters. I am looking forward to being able to put their helmets on and get away from the ScFi Horror looking flat heads!

With things waiting to dry I think I will go and see if dinner is ready with my best See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil look!

Wheel painting.

Not much time to disappear into the Man Cave today but just enough to get some wheel painting done on the Italeri Kangaroo. Specifically the rubber tyres on the running wheels and the top rollers were painted with a grey paint. I avoid black as any rubber that has been exposed to the elements will oxidise and turn to a dark grey unless you apply tyre black - not something a tank crew would so in the heat of battle! I used the airbrush ready version of Vallejo's grey paint which for small areas such as these wheels was ideal.

I just had time to experiment a little by airbrushing a flesh tone onto the faces and hands of the three figures included in the kit (despite the box saying 'figures not included'). It needs a some further airbrushing and possibly the paint needs to be less thinned but the thinness of the paint applied by airbrush over paint brush means the detail, especially on the faces, is maintained. Looks like this experiment may be a success! 

They really do need their helmets put on to get rid of the flat head but that will have to wait until the painting is complete!