Dragon Pzkpfw I Ausf. A Modified Version w/Interior (2007)

[Bill Plunk]

Build Log for Dragon kit# 6356 done OOB.

[Bill Plunk]

Construction begins where it usually does, with the road wheels and suspension. Step 1 calls for each of the 8 road wheels to receive their PE brass hub inserts in order to convert them from recessed rims to flush rims with the rubber tires. Inserts are provided for both the inner and outer sides. The inserts tend to be slightly concave instead of perfectly flat, so I glued them in place using liquid glue and a pair of locking tweezers to get them to sit flat all the way around. It's a slow process since there are 16 of them to deal with, but worth it. The slight mold seams present on the rubber tires was sanded down with a sanding twig, just taking a couple of minutes for each one.

I also constructed the idler wheels and the instructions contain an error here. Parts A1 are called out to be painted Flat Black as if they were the rubber rims when in fact they are the hubs themselves. In a reversal of previous practices, the idler part A5 has the inner spokes molded with the rubber rim already there and the parts A1 are inserts that make up the rim itself, not the tire. This is a pretty innovative approach IMHO in that it allows for the slot detail around the spoke feet where they contact the rim to be accurately rendered, something that wouldn't have been possible with a single molding.



Step 2 deals with the suspension assemblies. In order to allow for easier painting of the road wheels later on, I didn't build these but did remove all the parts from the sprues and cleaned them up. The detail is well represented for the leaf springs with only very fine mold seams needing attention on the parts.




I also built up the suspension arms for the first road wheels. The kit includes new arms on sprue L that are different from the original arms provide on sprue B in that the spring housing has 2 bolts on the underside instead of just 1 and the molding detail is slightly crisper as well. The first wheels received their hub caps and all of the return rollers were cleaned up and their seams sanded down as well.




Step 3 calls for the suspension to be installed but I skipped that part, only installing the spring arm housings and the hull extension plates B20 and B21. These plates are a little tricky to install since there's not much surface area for them to attach to and small notches are in the hull to help align them properly.




Step 4 calls for the installation of the front and rear hull plates. I installed the rear hull plate first. The hull has a tendency to bow in very slightly but once the plate is in place, this disappears. I used some liquid glue and gentle finger pressure to install it and close up any small gaps where it met with the hull sides.




The same process was done with the front hull plate while also using part C1, the glacis, to insure it was lined up properly and square.




Next up will be the interior on the fighting compartment.

[Bill Plunk]

Lots of progress and, as promised, most of it deals with the interior.

The instructions are a little vague as to where Steps 4, 5, 6 end and begin, so since they're all on the same page, I'll do my best to differentiate but it's not perfect. All of them deal with the interior anyway, so it's forgivable.

I started with the transmission and brake housings. This assembly consists of 14 different pieces and produces a very detailed assembly in the process. The design of the different parts is aimed at concealing most of the join seam lines and the fit of the parts was very good. Some care has to be taken when attaching the final drive housings, G11 and G12, to make sure they line up properly. I test fit this into the hull before the glue had set and made some minor adjustments as a result, but nothing too fancy.



Next up came the driver's area floor plate and the installation of the battery boxes. The vehicle battery box can have the lid displayed open or closed with some nice detail for the batteries, but I closed mine up. The trickiest part of this area are the two boxes that represent the radio batteries. The instruction drawings show these as having straps and small brackets, but they are actually molded without them. One box sits flush on the floor, the other is raised...and Dragon chose to accomplish this via two small PE feet that glue to the bottom and for which two small square locating marks are provided. What makes it tricky is that there's no guide on the actual boxes themselves for where the feet should attach, so getting them even on both sides took some back and forth.



The foot rest and pedals for the driver came next, these are tiny but have some very nice detail provided.



The foot rest was installed along with the steering levers and the driver's seat. The name of the game in this step is test-fit, test-fit, test-fit! The tolerances for everything to fit together in the compartment is very tight, and I had to move the driver's seat over some from where I thought it should go after checking the fit of the plate into the hull tub.



To get all of the interior into place, I glued the driver's floor plate in position first, then positioned the transmission and brake assembly to it. Test fits before gluing revealed that I'd put too large of a gap between the radio battery boxes, so one had to be repositioned back about 1mm to get the necessary clearance. I used a pair of locking tweezers and liquid glue to get the housings secured to the hull side, doing one side at a time until the glue had set.



Then the mid plate behind the driver, part G1, was glued into place making sure the transmission housings lined up. The step plate, G30, has only a vague position mark provided for its location, so test fits with the firewall were necessary to get it in the right position. Then the firewall was installed to complete the step.



There are two curious omissions on the interior, one more so than the other, that I didn't realize until completing this step and looking at the Panzer Tracts drawings. The first is, for unfathomable reasons, the total absence of a driver's instrument panel. There just isn't one provided. The second is the two gas mask containers that should be present above the first aid kit on the firewall. I've no idea why these were left out while other details were included, but I'm sure an enterprising AM company will fill the gap in the near future.

Step 6 deals with the fenders. It's worth noting that you should not install part J12 to G14 until the fenders are in place. The instructions aren't clear on the order for this step and J12 overhangs the fenders slightly. First up are opening up all the necessary locating holes for the various items. Follow the diagrams carefully as there are holes provided that should not be opened depending on the left or right side fender.



Both fenders were then installed using liquid glue to get get a solid join. The fenders will want to droop slightly due to the narrow contact surfaces and the liquid glue and some finger pressure will prevent that. Part J12, along with the MG13 magazine holder, were then installed and aligned.



Step 7 deals with the track installation and was skipped as a result. Step 8 addresses the rear hull with the installation of the rear mud guards, the towing pintle, convoy light, and jack block holder. The option is provided to install a Notek rear light or a standard brake light and the Panzer Tracts book has a photo of a modified Pz I A with this, but given the markings options and time frames for the available vehicles, I went with the Notek light. The jack block itself has been left off for detail painting later.



Step 9 returns to the interior as well as dealing with various other fender and hull details and is a very busy step. The right side magazine racks were installed using the drilled out holes in the fenders and a couple of the molded on bolt heads need to be removed to allow them to sit properly, something the instructions don't call out. The spare MG13 barrel holder and signal flag tubes are also installed on the lower hull side. No locater marks are provided to get them oriented, so watch the instruction placement carefully as it can be a little misleading.



The left side details take the form of a storage box and a small holder for spare armored glass inserts. The instruction diagram here doesn't help much as it shows the box from behind and no placement indicators are provided. The placement of this box has to be exact to avoid interference with the superstructure, so I removed it from the sprues and used it to determine the correct placement.



Next came the installation of the hull glacis plate. The kit includes two plates with two different size access panels and the correct one for a Series 2-3 Pz I-A is called for as part C1 for the plate and B44 for the panel. The other parts, F7 and F9, are marked as not for use so be sure not to confuse them on the sprues, these parts are for a Pz I A Series 4 or Pz I Ausf B. The join between the front plate and the glacis required only some liquid glue and careful sanding to get it seamless, you can see below how much of the transmission housing is visible through the hatch and the empty bolt holes represented when the hatch isn't in place.



To wrap up the day's activities, the access hatch was installed along with the main center headlight and the two auxiliary lights. The auxiliary lights are solid styrene while the main center light is hollowed out and has a clear lens provided, a disappointment considering it will create a disparity between the lights. The muffler exhausts were also assembled and installed with the provided PE heat shields annealed and curved to shape using the handle of large paint brush. The rest of the step deals with installing the pioneer tools which will come later after painting.



Next up will be the superstructure and its interior details.

[Bill Plunk]

A lot of progress today which also means a lot of pics. Picking up where I left off last time, I decided that the mix of solid and clear headlights just wasn't going to work. Drawing from several reference photos, I used a circle template and scratched some black-out covers for all three lights out of sheet styrene. These were made of cloth in reality and had slits cut into them, so I did my best to try to replicate this. Ironically enough, the larger light gave me the most trouble and while its slit is on the larger side, it was the best attempt after 3 tries and deemed good enough for what I wanted to accomplish.



Moving on to Step 10, I assembled the siren out of its three parts. The base mount, part F4, has two pins one of which, the one nearest the hull, needs to be removed to allow the siren to mount properly. I also had to open up the hole in F16 with a knife point for it to fit. Same thing with the two small mount holes in the fender. I decided to leave the front fenders off, a common practice in the field, but installed the locking clamps, B22, as photos show these still in place even when the fenders aren't. These were a pain to get installed as there's very very little contact surface for them to glue to. Nice detail, but had to be very careful with their installation not to lose one in the process to the carpet monster. I also installed the Notek light for the front but did that after this photo was taken.



Step 11 deals with the superstructure assembly. I used some sheet styrene to blank off the interior opening since this vehicle doesn't have the right rear vision port. I used liquid glue to secure a styrene rectangle and then sanded it down to where it was almost transparent and seamless with the kit part around it. All of the inner gaskets for the vision ports were also installed. Even though I'm going to close up all of the hatches, I wanted to see how the interior assembled in order to see if there were any issues. The gaskets need to sit perfectly flush inside and out, so be careful when installing them that they don't stick out slightly as they tend to want to do that.



I attached all the hull plates and they fit well together, just requiring some liquid glue and finger pressure to get the seams to merge together. All of the view port covers were installed and I left off the armored glass blocks, parts W4, since I want the slits to show empty when painting and didn't one to mask off those tiny tiny parts to keep a "glass" look that wouldn't be visible anyhow without an internal light source. The mount frames and support arms are a very tricky installation since all the parts are clear and it's hard to tell just how they all line up. Trying to detail paint these would also present a challenge since they glue to other clear parts, something to keep in mind for those wanting to show off the interior.







Step 13 addresses the interior elements for the right side of the driver's area. One of the items that the kit includes is a PE radio mount frame that, on the fret, looks great. For some strange reason, Dragon chose to reinforce the angle frames to double thickness compared to the rest of the part and this makes bending it to shape extremely difficult. The tolerances for the thicker parts in terms of surface area for using pliers or a bending tool are very small. I tried to bend mine using a FenderBender miniature metal brake and just couldn't get it to work. Since it has to bend up into a rectangle, some of the bends need to be done with pliers and the weaker thinner parts wanted to bend instead of the bend lines on the thicker parts as it should have. I've used quite a bit of PE on different projects, but this one defeated me.



I ended up installing the radio and other pieces sans frame. The details include the bin for the driver's headphones, the radio aerial raise/lower lever, and some sort of housing. All that and no driver's instrument panel, which still remains a curious omission given the rest of the details that are included.



I rounded out the step by securing the top plate in place. This required just a bit of coaxing with finger pressure and careful liquid glue application but everything comes together ok. Just a little bit of sanding around the edged to smooth everything out and it was good to go.



Step 14 deals with the rear engine deck. The engine access hatches were installed along with the fuel filler caps. 4 are provided on the sprues but only two are used. This, along with the presence of the larger access hatch for the front hull and plate, leads me to believe that DML will likely release a Series 4 vehicle since all the parts are there except for the necessary engine deck.



Step 15 begins with the turret. The commander's hatch has nice detail on both sides with 3 small parts added to the interior for the latch handles and other small parts. I had to check the reference photos on just what angle they should have for an open hatch (even though I'm closing it up) as the instruction diagram is a little vague as to how they should go.



All of the view ports for the turret were installed without any major issues. Unlike the hull ports, the turret ports have their armored glass integrated into the mount swing arms. As a result, I didn't install the arms to preserve the clear vision slot so can't comment on their fit or operation. Unlike the hull ports, the turret port gaskets sit proud on the inner surface and I found it easier to install the ports on the exterior first and then install the gaskets to insure proper alignment all around. The commander's hatch was secured in place as the final element. There's a curious part of this step dealing with part J7. The instructions call for it to be attached to the base of the turret but there's no indicator marks for it and where the instructions point for it to be installed would interfere with the turret base installation. In reality this part is a head pad that should be installed directly above the mount for the commander's seat and centered between the two rear turret vision ports. You would never know that however from the way the diagram is laid out.



Step 16 deals with the main armament of twin MG13s and their assembly consists of each gun paired up with a spent shell case and a loaded magazine. These need to be assembled with precision to clear the other elements in the turret, particularly the trigger mechanism and turret traverse wheels which are installed in Step 17. The eyepiece on the gun sight is molded solid, I started to drill it out with a pin vise and stopped when I realized that it would be better to show it in its "native" state since I'm not showing the interior anyway. The sight includes the "bar" sight for when the front flaps of the mantlet are open allowing for direct sighting, a nice touch in the detail department but very tricky to install since the contact area for it is extremely tiny.



Step 17 deals with the turret base details including the commander's chair and mount. This is also a tricky installation since the tubular frame is divided up between three parts, the base J9, the seat J8, and the seat back J10. I literally built it from the bottom up, gluing J8 to J9 and then J10 to J9 to get it all lined up properly. It's tricky because the only contact points are the tube ends of the support frame, so things are "in the air" until mated up with their next part. You almost need three hands to get it all together smoothly. The trigger mechanism, which includes two PE parts, installs to the right side and the turret traverse wheel installs to the left. Both have indicator marks to help insure they are positioned in the right spot. The seat was secured in place as well and set off to the side to dry up.



Once ready, the MGs and mantles were secured to the turret bottom. While the instructions indicate that it's possible to keep the guns so they can elevate/depress, this doesn't prove to be very practical with all of the interior pieces, so mine was fixed in place. The turret bottom was glued to the top with liquid glue and everything was set except for the gun barrels which will be installed after the hull is painted.



Step 18 deals with the installation of the superstructure and rear engine deck. I installed the superstructure first, using rubber bands and liquid glue to get everything in place and lined up with the glacis. Throughout this entire build I'd dry-fit the superstructure with the interior to make sure everything lined up but I never thought to include the engine deck as well...and as a result, I ended up with about a 0.5mm offset between the superstructure and the engine deck. I believe the culprit to be part J12 installed way back in Step 9 since when I look inside the superstructure, I can see that it meets up flush on the right side but has, you guessed it, about a 0.5mm gap on the left side.



At this point it would require ripping out the superstructure, including its join with the glacis and fenders, along with several pieces on the interior to correct J12's alignment, so I decided to live with it, but point it out for those who come behind. This one is due to my error most likely rather than a kit engineering flaw...something that could've been avoided if I had test fit the engine deck too when I installed J12. DML could've helped with some indicator marks or locater pins for this part but since they didn't, I was off by 0.5mm and it shows in the end. I used some putty to fill in the gaps on the left and right sides so it doesn't look too bad, but I know it's there.



The right side also got the antenna mount and tray installed along with the brake vent cooling pipe. Somehow or other I neglected to open up the locater holes for the pipe, so I snipped off the pins and glued it in place without the need for the holes anyhow.



Last but not least, the special armored vent cover for the rear deck was assembled and installed. This is a complex assembly for the cover and the smoke candle rack as an integrated unit. I installed the base and cover first directly to the engine deck to have a solid platform to work from and then added the angle braces, F2 and F3 to it first. Then the base of the rack, F8 was installed into the braces with the candles and hood coming last.



All of the pre-paint construction is now done, so tomorrow ought to see some time with the AB.

[Bill Plunk]

Today's efforts were geared toward getting the paint finish on. All of the road wheels, return rollers, and suspension elements that had mount holes were positioned on toothpicks via small balls of Bluetack poster putty. These are then stuck into a handy old styrofoam worm box that I keep around for this purpose. I use an ordinary circle template with the appropriate diameter circles masked off for the wheel hubs as my preferred method of painting road wheels, so this was prepped as well.



Everything was then given a primer/pre-shade coat of Flat Black. I use an Aztek A470 and applied this coat with the yellow-tip, a wide bore nozzle perfect for laying down even broad coats.



I switched out nozzles to the gray-tip and applied the Panzerschwarzgrau in multiple light coats until I had it built up to the way I wanted it but still preserving some of the effects of the Flat Black underneath.



Next I applied some random spots of the Pzgrau lightened 10% with Light Gray to provide some color variation as a foundation for additional weathering later on.



Then everything was hauled back inside and the suspension constructed and installed. Some very careful adjustments back and forth between the two sides were necessary before gluing to insure they both sat level and all the wheels, including the idler, made contact. Once everything was level, I glued the suspension elements to the hull with the exception of the sprockets which are dry-fit until the tracks are installed.



Next up will be pre-weathering the hull undersides and track installation followed by all the missing gear on the fenders.

[Bill Plunk]

Progress today centered around the details. I worked on all the pioneer tools for the fenders that had been left off previously. The most complex of these is the jack/wire-cutter combo since the clamps are integrated for both the jack and the cutters. Test fits with the fender revealed some interference with the brake vent hose, so I removed the locater pins from the middle and rear portions of the mount/clamps and glued it in place directly to the fender. The other tools went together without any major issues. I also detail painted the mufflers/exhaust, applying a base coat of Metalizer Gunmetal followed by a thin wash of Rust and a dry-brushing of Burnt Umber. The jack bloc was also added to the rear.







Next up were the tracks. Before assembly and installation, I weathered up the lower hull by first dry-brushing Steel and then following it up with dry-brushed Burnt Umber to prep it for the later weathering stages. Each track was constructed from the kit-recommended 87 links per side. The links, since they are Magic Tracks, required no additional clean-up except removal of some slight flash periodically on some links, and went together easily enough. They are tiny and somewhat fragile but the kit supplies plenty of links, I had 36 left over when both tracks were done. Each track was base coated in Metalizer Gunmetal, dry-brushed with Steel, then given a wash of Raw Umber before installation. The tracks show up shinier then they actually are since the weathering hasn't yet been done and toned them down for the camera's sake, the lighting and the camera really pick it up in its current state. The toughest part about the track installation came from the sprockets ironically enough. The teeth are fairly shallow and it's easy to have the links slip off or not seat all the way down with just the slightest shift in movement, so I had to constantly re-check them to make sure they laid flat when adjusting the sag and arrangement on the upper runs.

Last but not least, the twin MG13s were painted and installed as well.





Everything will sit overnight before a Future coat is laid down and the decals applied in the morning.

[Bill Plunk]

The decal/weathering stage is always one that tends to go slowly and this one is no exception. I laid down the first Future coat this morning and let it set up for about 2 hours and then applied the decals. I'd chosen the 6 Pz.Div 1939-1940 markings scheme, the kit supplied decals thankfully have the large "R 6" markings for the turret as separate decals, dramatically reducing the amount of clear carrier film to worry about. The markings sheet provides an extra "R" and "6" just in case you damage one in the process, something not often seen in kits. All of the markings were applied and given a does of Walther's Solvaset to get them to snuggle down, the turret numbers of course requiring multiple careful applications to get them to conform properly. The real challenge of course being to get the decals to conform both to the conical shape of the turret sides as well as the complex surfaces for the side view ports. For the left side balkenkreuze, I used the tip of a sharp #11 blade to gently cut the line for the hatch hinge after the decal had set to avoid tearing it in the process.









Everything's all set for the weathering process to begin, something I'll tackle next weekend in all likelihood.

[Bill Plunk]

Having received some feed-back from last week's progress, I checked my references and determined that I indeed had two errors that needed to be corrected. The first deals with the exhaust pipes, these do in fact have flexible rubber hoses that connect the mufflers to the engine and are not metal as I'd originally thought and finished them. I painted them with some enamel Gunmetal to simulate and correct. The second error had to do with the suspension girder, somehow or other I got them turned around and installed them in reverse, so these were popped off and switched around. The tell-tale sign is the little raised bit, it should go toward the idler wheel to restrain the suspension springs and I didn't pay enough attention on the original installation. All fixed now though.



Next up was the initial round of weathering. I used the "dot" method of applying small dots of enamel paint and then using a brush dampened with thinner to blend and draw down the dots together over the base paint. I used three different colors in the dots, applying them one at a time and blending together before adding the next, to determine just how much and where the colors needed to go. I used Raw Umber, Afrika Grunbraun, and a 70/30 mix of Panzergray/Light Gray in that order. Once that was taken care of, I applied a pin wash of Burnt Umber to all the raised detail and around the weld lines and hatches.



I'll let that set for the evening and come back tomorrow with a "fresh" set of eyes to see what adjustments, if any, need to be made before moving on to the next phase of weathering the undercarriage and tracks.

[Bill Plunk]

Applied some pigment weathering to the running gear and the superstructure. I mixed up some Gulf War Sand and Dry Mud MIG pigments and applied with water, let it dry, then worked it over with stiff bristled brushes as well as some larger sable brushes depending. Since this particular vehicle is marked for the France 1940 campaign, I was looking for a dusty early summer type of look to it as a compliment to the Panzer Gray finish. After watching the wild Monday-night football game tonight though, it was tough to do more than just take the one shot.

[Bill Plunk]

After a couple of quick touch-ups here and there while taking the photos, this one has reached the finish line.