Trumpeter Geschutzwagen IVb Sdkfz 165/1 (2008)

[Bill Plunk]

Build log for Trumpeter's 1/35 kit # 0374 Geschutzwagen IVb fur 10.5cm leFH 18/1 (sf) Sdkfz 165/1 as an OOB project.

[Bill Plunk]

Work started with this kit where it normally does, with Step 1, however this kit's Step 1 doesn't start with the usual road wheels, sprockets, idlers, etc. but rather jumps right in on the lower hull. There are several sub-assembly steps that need to be done as part of this step. The bump stops need to be constructed from 2 separate parts as one sub-assembly and the front tow pintles are a 3 part sub-assembly as well.



The suspension elements come next and are 5 part assemblies for each one. The instructions spread this over both Steps 1 and 2, with Step 1 dealing with the left side and Step 2 with the right side. I went ahead and built the assemblies for both sides at the same time. I didn't realize until after I'd built all 6 though that I'd made a big error.



The error was caused by the instructions. The parts call-out for the base of each suspension element that attaches to the hull in the pictures is the "standard" square type for the Pz IV but the parts number is for B17, which is the semi-circular type that's right for the Geschutzwagen IVb. I trusted the picture over the parts number and dutifully assembled everything with the standard square part...not realizing that in the same step diagram that shows them attaching to the hull, that the right semi-circular parts are shown there.



This meant tearing apart the previous assembly in a careful way as the circular end caps were still needed. This required some careful use of liquid glue and tweezers to deconstruct them and reassemble them with the correct semi-circular backings. As a side note, the "standard" assembly would've allowed the suspension to articulate but the semi-circular design is rigid with no movement. Too bad as the articulation was a neat feature that should have been carried over but wasn't.



Step 1 and 2 also install the four walls and flooring for the fighting compartment. I installed all of these parts together at the same time to get everything lined up properly and insure a square fit. The wood lattice piece for the front of the compartment fits into two grooves molded into the hull tub for a nice tight fit, a nice touch to keep everything aligned IMHO.





To round out Step 2, I installed all the suspension elements to both sides and assembled and installed the idler mounts as well. The final drive housings and sprocket mount arms were also installed with each final drive getting its 5 added bolts as individual parts. These come molded on a bar, B18, and I used a strip of blue painters tape and a #11 blade to carefully remove each bolt head which was then glued in place with a touch of liquid glue.



While only 2 steps completed today, they still covered a lot of ground.

[Bill Plunk]

Work continued on today with Step 3 which deals with the road wheels, sprockets, idlers, and return rollers. The sprockets and idlers went together without any major issues but not so with the road wheels. The issue I encountered had to do with the holes for the mount arms. In varying degrees, the holes were not centered in the hubs, the worst example is what you see below. Not all were this bad but most of them were slightly off center. Fortunately there's a couple of extras since the full road wheel set isn't used and the worst two I set off to the side, like the one below, for use on the spare wheels that mount to the rear of the hull since the problem won't matter there.



I made the corrections as best I could using a circular needle file to get the holes as centered as possible, enlarging them a bit in the process. This produces some "play" when they were test-fit on the suspension arms so I will have to be very careful when it comes time to install them that they all sit level. The hub caps were installed as well to round out the step.



Step 4 calls for the construction and installation of the ammo racks and charge boxes. These go together smoothly but the installation of the racks is a bit vague. There are locater holes provided for the charge boxes and judging from later installation diagrams and the pic on the side of the box top, the ammo racks need to sit flush up against the hull sides, so they were installed accordingly. This step also calls for the installation of the running gear but I left that off for now, only installing the return roller hubs.



Steps 5 and 6 deal with the track construction and installation, that will come later so these were skipped for now. Step 7 adds the brake hatches and the transmission access panel as well as the front Notek light to the glacis. The slot for the post and base of the Notek light is too small and as I was test fitting it using a pair of tweezers, I suffered a freakish accident where the post had just enough tension on it that it catapulted into oblivion. I heard it land somewhere on my paint and tool shelf but 30 minutes of fruitless searching turned up nothing, so I instead went to the spares bin and scrounged a PE base and a post from an old Pz I build and pressed them into service. The glacis was then installed to the front of the hull where the fit was quite good, only a little finger pressure needed at the front to get a solid join all around.



Next up is the upper hull assembly and installation, based on what I've seen so far I think I may go ahead and install that before painting the interior since everything will remain fairly accessible and I can get a solid join on all mating surfaces before painting.

[Bill Plunk]

Work started off by addressing the area of the weld seams for the upper hull. Trumpeter, for some reason, elected to mold these as recessed weld lines when in fact they should be flush or slightly proud. To correct this, I used several lengths of 0.6mm diameter styrene rod and liquid glue to fill in the recessed trenches. The rod was carefully shaved down and then the weld pattern added by first applying some liquid glue to soften it and the scoring it with the tip of a round needle file.





With that taken care of, I moved on to Step 9 which adds the left and right fenders. Before committing to glue, I dry-fit the fenders along with the upper hull to make sure everything lined up correctly. I recommend actually gluing the upper hull in place first and then adding the fenders after to avoid drooping. The contact surface isn't that large with the lower hull and being "trapped" with the upper hull will make it easier to avoid this. I installed everything per the instructions order though just to see how it would work out.



The upper hull was quickly added in Step 10 along with the fender braces provided as PE items. The kit contains an error here in that the braces provided don't match the correct layout direction for both sides. The kit does have the braces staggered correctly as on the actual vehicle but the left side bracket tabs should all face forward while the right side brackets should all face rearward. Due to the way that Trumpeter created the PE pieces, this isn't possible. I achieved the next best thing by mixing and matching between the two different sides. The biggest area of concern are the middle brackets as their placement is crucial to avoid problems with the circular bulge in the upper hull for the turret ring. Since the rearmost brackets needed to attach to the hull, I left them off until the air vents were added in Step 11. The PE brackets are also just a touch too short vs. the molded in styrene mount points, resulting in a 1 mm gap when they are butted up against the hull as they should be.





This step also adds the front headlights and siren as well as the rear reflectors for the mud flaps. The square tabs on the front half of the head lights needed to be sanded down to match up with the backs as did the square tabs that insert into the fenders. Ditto for the reflectors, this is something that as I progressed through the build I noticed happening with consistency, the locator pins/tabs often aren't a good match for their corresponding installation points and require sanding or trimming to fit depending. The rear of the headlights and siren also had very prominent sink marks that needed to be puttied and sanded.



Moving on to Step 11 (which strangely isn't marked as a Step on the instructions but is there between Step 10 and 12), this focused on the rear hull details. The two vents were added along with their PE screens. The fit of the vents to the rear hull is good at the top but there's a slight gap that results on the inner sides that required some putty work to fill. The rear Notek light is also added here but judging by the reference photos, the kit designed mount point is wrong. It has the light mounting behind the angle fender bracket when in fact it should be integrated into it. No doubt this is a result of the choice to have PE bracket supports but it's another added inaccuracy on the detail level to this kit.

The step also adds the smoke grenade box and armored cover. The armored cover is provided as a PE piece with no option for styrene parts and it's a complicated endeavor to get it mounted. The piece is provided as a straight piece of brass with no bend lines etched into it yet it requires several 90 degree bends to form it into the proper shape. I eventually got it formed into the required shape but it took a lot of work to accomplish it.

Another element added in this step is the jack for the right side fender. The parts called out for in the instruction sheet are confusing as they all carry an N sprue designation but the numbers don't match to the parts on the N sprue. To add to the confusion, a complete alternate set of parts is provided on the M sprue to build another style of jack. Going by the reference photos, the M sprue parts are the correct type of jack to install so I ran with it instead of the confusing N sprue. The "foot" of the jack that faces to the rear had a horrible sink mark in it that almost went completely through the part. Some very careful putty work and sanding was needed to fix this and make it presentable.



Step 12 adds quite a bit of gear to the fenders but I left that off for now. The step also adds the two-part muffler and curved support brace/armored covering for the exhaust pipe. The two part muffler results in a prominent seam that I sanded down once the glue had set and the hollow exhaust point had to be carefully sanded/trimmed as it had some prominent flash to deal with. Mounting the muffler to the hull is a tricky step as it attaches only at one end via the curved support, part E47. E47 in turn attaches directly to the hull but its square mount tab was too big for the hole provided, requiring sanding to get it to fit properly. Once E47 had set, then the muffler was glued directly to it.

It's also worth noting at this point that the kit also leaves off the actual towing pintle for the lower hull, the L-shaped pin is not provided for in any shape or form. The rear mud flaps also have square-shaped indentations that I presume are meant to take parts to represent the hinges for the flaps but no parts are provided in the kit to accomplish this.



Step 13 deals with adding more on-board tools to the fenders so was skipped for the time being and I moved on to Step 14 which begins work on the turret. This step deals with the base of the turret and has 4 sub-assembly steps that need to be done first. One step constructs the gunner's chair out of 3 parts, 2 for the seat and a third that is the mount point to the turret ring. This part, C25, is shown incorrectly installed in the sub-assembly step as being parallel to the seat when in fact it should be perpendicular. If you install it parallel (which I did at first), when it comes time to mount it to the ring it's of course facing the wrong way.

The second sub-assembly is the radio, a two-part affair, and the square tab on the rear half is molded too deep to achieve a flush mating surface and needed to be sanded down. The third sub-assembly constructs the auxiliary turret rotating crank out of 3 parts, two halves and the crank wheel. The two halves need their seam sanded down and the wheel has to be carefully trimmed of its sprue attachment points to avoid damaging the circular portion. The fourth and final sub-assembly is the main turret rotating crank and consists of 8 parts.



The rest of the step deals with adding these sub-assemblies to the lower half of the turret. It also adds several additional parts and details, most of which required their mount tabs to be sanded, trimmed, or altered in some fashion to install properly. Two parts, C14 and D11, have large square tabs that match up to cut-outs in the lower hull but the cut-outs are much larger than the actual tabs, requiring putty to fill the rest of the space. Part E38, the base of the rear turret that the radio installs into, needed both of its square tabs heavily sanded to produce a good fit. As mentioned before, the fit of locating tabs is a constant issue to be dealt with and I often felt like Goldilocks when dealing with them....very rarely were they ever just right in terms of fit or alignment.



Next up will be the upper turret details and the main gun assembly.

[Bill Plunk]

I had the chance throughout the week to put in some work here and there and the next few steps were ideal for that as they had lots of little sub-assemblies to deal with.

Step 15 addresses the top half of the turret and two of the sub-assemblies deal with the periscope sights. One is the standard sight common to the StuG family and the other is the "rabbit ears" style. The StuG style was a four part assembly and I used a pin vise to drill out it's solid face as well as to deepen the eye holes. The "rabbit ears" scope was a 5 part assembly while it had the external lens faces molded vs. a solid face, I deepened these a bit with the pin vise as well.



One of the other sub-steps here involves adding the various gear to the turret sides, I only installed the various storage boxes and items that would be painted the same hull color, the rest of the gear such as the MP40 pouches, the gas masks, etc. will be painted and installed later. I did test fit some of the gear to make sure that the location marks provided by Trumpeter would actually work and, while snug, there's enough room for everything to go where it belongs.



Once the periscope sights had had a chance to set up good and solid so they could be handled without falling apart, I installed them into the upper turret as well. Their placement is a bit tricky since the turret slopes towards the rear and both need to be level, so some fine-tuning was necessary to get them just right.



Moving on to Step 16, this step consists of building up the breech which is three parts plus two for the block and another two that make up the recoil housing. The three-part approach requires some sanding to eliminate the inevitable seam to produce a single cast part but the fit between the parts is pretty good and using regular glue helps create a little seam that can then be sanded down easily. The breech block itself is rather plain...there's no detail on the face of the block and it's a tight fit into the breech with the cap, part C27, fitting flush. The fit of C27 to the cutout provided wasn't too exact, the cutout is a tad larger at the top than it should be.





Step 17 has 4 sub-assemblies to create parts that will be added to the breech in Step 18. There's a 2 part cylinder, a 2 part assembly for the left side recoil guard, a 5 part (including 2 PE) assembly for the recoil cylinder and a 2 part assembly for the left side mount and elevation gear. The fit on the left side recoil guard is critical, the end of the rail needs to be flush with the edge and the diagram isn't too clear on this and there's not much of a contact surface where it matches up with part C38, so it needed careful gluing and monitoring to make sure the rail didn't sag out of place.



Step 18 is a very busy step, first up is the addition of all the sub-assemblies done in Step 17. The two holes that are designed to take the recoil cylinder assembly and part C13 have a small rectangular obstruction on their inside, so it was necessary to trim down the mount pins for them to fit flush, another example of mount pins and holes not matching up in this kit. The guard rails were also installed and the whole assembly set off to the side to dry for a bit. You'll notice that the placement of the left side rail blocks the breech block from being able to function properly, this is how Trumpeter designed it all to go together, there's no other way to assemble it, and produces another accuracy issue to consider.



The other main sub-assembly deals with the main gun barrel, muzzle brake, and mantlet. Each of these are constructed from two halves, so seams are an issue. The muzzle brake halves are molded with 2 locator pins that are supposed to aid in alignment but actually produces the opposite and it was necessary to remove the pins and glue the halves together and align them manually. Even with that adjustment a small amount of putty was needed on the top join and very careful sanding required to eliminate the inevitable seam. The detail on the muzzle brake is not high to begin with, the locking nut on the top is essentially just a molded on dot and the collar itself is only faintly molded and the resulting sanding didn't help much to keep that intact. Flash was present inside the baffles and had to be carefully removed, once the two halves were joined I also used a round needle file to remove the flash on the circular opening so as to preserve its shape.

The mantlet also fit generally well together, only needing a small spot of putty where the sprue attachment points had been but it's seam was a little harder to deal with due to the complex curves it has. The barrel halves went together without any issue, the only bright spot of the three, and just required some light sanding to remove its seam.



The next item was to join the gun elements together with the mantlet and install it into the turret. The "D" shaped location post on the gun barrel didn't line up properly with the corresponding hole on the muzzle brake, so I removed the post entirely and sanded it down and glued the brake directly to it. This required some very careful adjusting to get it positioned correctly and centered.

I installed the barrel to the mantlet and the base of the barrel is supposed to fit flush into the mantlet sleeve. The actual fit wasn't quite there, so some additional putty work was necessary to fill the small gaps.

The "cheeks" on the mantlet are supposed to be integrated in with the bolt strips that Trumpeter molded into the turret directly. Once the mantlet and gun are installed, there are gaps that require putty and very careful sanding to correct to avoid destroying the bolt detail in that area.



The final element of this step is the integration of the breech in with the turret. The end of the breech has a circular element that mates up with the gun and figuring out just the right alignment takes a bit of effort and multiple dry-fits before committing to glue. Some back and forth and strategic sanding was necessary to get the fit right and insure the breech lined up with the gun itself, but eventually I got there.



The test fit with the lower turret half shows that everything is an extremely tight fit. The gunner's chair rests right up against the recoil guard for example and the space tolerances for all the various gear and instruments is tight. As a result, I'm going to paint the turret top and bottoms separate so I'll have room to work with the remaining gear after the initial painting is done.

[Bill Plunk]

Taking full advantage of the 4th of July holiday, I actually spent most of the day outside of the house, but managed to get some build time in this evening. Not a whole lot is left at this point before paint, just the exterior turret fittings as called for in Step 19.

One of these is the spare track run holder, the spare tracks themselves, and the gun cleaning rods. The rack is a single PE piece that needs to be bent and attached to the turret sides. I ran into a problem though in that the bends have to be done very precise in order for it to fit and the bends are delicate at the ends, and in trying to correct my first bend that was a tad too short, both ends came loose. I don't blame the kit for this, but it's a word of caution for others to treat this part very very carefully.

I had decided that I would go ahead and replace the kit-supplied tracks with Model Kasten links since I have an extra set on hand and I just don't like the look of the links provided. The spare track run piece, Part C1, is a single piece representing 10 links and, in my case, was damaged on the sprue. it was almost split in two and had quite a bit of flash in the guide horns so it won't be used and a run of the MKs will replace it. This meant that the squarish locating hull in the turret rear needed to be puttied and sanded.



I also installed the two hooks, one for either side, that will hold the tow cables. The recessed weld seam on the turret side also received some putty attention, taking care to preserve the fine detail on the turret front plate sides in the process as well as the mount points for the tow cable retaining chains. I'm going to add the chains later when I install the tow cables, so they were left off for now.



The cut-outs for the tow cable hooks goes all the way through the turret, so the inside of the turret needed some putty work as well to fill in the gaps. I also filled in the gap for the square mount for the spare track holder and sanded it down even though it's largely hidden by the radio when matched up with the turret lower half, it bugged me that it was there.



With that taken care of, I added the broken off ends of the spare track holder to both sides. Once the spare track run is in place, the cross bar and cleaning rods will be installed and it will look like it all belongs, at least that's the theory.



That concluded all the major assembly work for now, so I returned to the hull front and discovered there's a nice molded in hole on the front left side that nothing installs into...I thought it might be there to help locate the wiring conduit for the fender lights but it's too far back and there isn't a matching hole on the other side, so I filled and sanded it down. I added the missing wiring on both sides using 0.022" solder cut to size and glued in place with liquid glue. The liquid glue softens the plastic just enough and careful pressure with a toothpick gets a good bond between them and has the added bonus of drying fairly quickly as well.



Tomorrow I'll start the paint work on the different assemblies weather permitting.

[Bill Plunk]

In order to prep for painting, I followed my usual routine of mounting all the road wheels, sprockets, idlers, and return rollers on toothpicks with small globs of blue tack poster putty to hold them in place. I masked off the appropriate diameter circles in my trusty circle template as well. The lower hull also had all of its mount points for the suspension masked off with blue tack to make it easier to install things later on and the turret was broken down into the upper and lower halves as well.





I took in progress photos while I was doing the actual paintwork but they came out poorly, probably because I was rushing in and out due to the 96+ degree heat and didn't take the time to check them properly before heading out for the next step. I primed everything with a coat of Italian Dark Brown and then applied a base coat of Panzer Gray followed up by additional applications of 2 lightened shades of Panzer Gray for variation. I'm disappointed that the photos didn't come out, but you'll be able to see the shades in some of the follow-on photos.

With the main paintwork done, I turned back to the interior of the lower hull. The wooden lattice was painted with my own special mix of wood color and then treated with alternating artist pastel doses of Black and Burnt Umber to get their look where I wanted it. You'll notice in the photo below that there are squarish looking stamp marks in the wood...I missed these when I installed them otherwise they would've been cleaned up. The tread plate area was first dry-brushed with Steel, then given a wash of Burnt Umber, and dry-brushed with lightened Panzer Gray to round out its look. It's worth noting at this point that the Trumpeter interior only provides for 36 rounds of ammunition where Spielberger says it should have 60...so I think Trumpeter skimped on this area for some reason.



Next up was the lower half of the turret. It received a Burnt Umber wash as well followed by dry-brushed lightened Panzer Gray to give it some depth and highlights. The radio had its details added and the MP40, gas mask, and gun elevation and turret traverse wheels were also further detailed.



I had a terrible time trying to get a decent shot of the added crew gear on the inside, but all of the mess kits, canteens, and gas masks were also painted and added at this point giving the turret a fully-loaded look. Everything fit well on the interior and, curiously, one of the canteens is really well detailed, C12, vs. the other two, P3. I tried to place this one in the most noticeable position to take advantage. Trumpeter went through the trouble of molding an additional canteen on this sprue, why they stopped at just one is unclear. I also detailed the gun breech with Steel for the block and detailed the breech block handle with metalizer Gunmetal dry-brushed with Steel. The whole breech area was given the same Burnt Umber wash and dry-brushed lightened Panzer Gray treatment as the lower half. For just a little variety, I hand painted the "rabbit ears" scope in Panzer Gray to produce some shade difference and also painted the rubber eye pieces on both sights with Aircraft Interior Black.



With all the interior bits in place, I joined the upper and lower halves of the turret together. The fit was generally good but on the left side the join between the top and bottom requires some putty work to produce the required seamless area.



Next up came a return to Steps 10-13 and the installation of the various fender tools and gear. All of the different tools were removed from their sprues and some had extremely thick points on delicate parts such as the clamp handles that required very careful removal. I cut them free from the sprues first leaving plenty of attachment point in place and then trimmed it down using sprue cutters and a #11 blade, sanding as well where needed. The wire cutters and track tensioning wrench are supposed to have mount pins according the instructions and holes are provided for them in the fenders but the actual items don't have the pins molded. I also encountered a small issue with the axe in that the jack is mounted just a tad too far forward so I had to remove its pins and install directly to the fender. Otherwise everything went into place exactly as it should have. The two-piece jack block was also assembled and installed as were the spare wheels for the rear deck.





The rear hull received some attention as well. The muffler was base coated with MM Non-Buffing Metalizer Gunmetal and then given 2 successive light washes of Rust to produce its look. The metalizer has very fine metallic particles and these react perfectly with the wash to produce a rusty but not heavily corroded finish. The brake light and reflectors were painted with Tamiya Acrylic Clear Red and the Notek light with Clear Green for their lenses.



Last thing for the day was to install the road wheels and return rollers on either side. Getting the suspension to sit level was a challenge due to the off-center holes I'd mentioned back at the beginning in Step 3. To address this, I clipped off the ends of the suspension posts to varying lengths as needed wheel by wheel and glued them directly to the base of the posts since this is where they are designed to contact.



Now all that remains is to construct the MK tracks I'll be replacing the kit-supplied items and construct and install the tow cables for the turret and it will be on to the weathering stage.

[Bill Plunk]

Over the course of the last week I spent time working on the MK replacement tracks. I'd been conflicted about using the kit-supplied items but when I put them side-by-side, the MKs won out. The Trumpeter links aren't handed and don't have the same level of detail to the track faces or the side cleats and the clean-up effort was going to be roughly the same since there was flash present in the guide-horns and on the links in many cases.



So, the construction of the MKs proceeded over the course of several days. The MK set includes a jig for holding the links and the pins and guide horns are equipped with their own handles for easy installation. The pin handles twist off once the glue is dried and the guide-horn handles were clipped off with sprue cutters.



The Trumpeter instructions call for 88 links per side but this is an incorrect number. The Trumpeter links are the same size as the MKs but the MKs, since they are workable, do have a bit of "stretch" to them, but even with that aside the Trumpeter count is off. I ended up needing 83 links on the right side and 82 on the left plus another 10 for the spare run on the rear of the turret. Since the idler isn't movable, the amount of track sag isn't as flexible as it could be but by adjusting the link count I achieved what I wanted more or less once test-fitted. The clearance with the fenders is close but there's enough room, so long as the sprocket wasn't mounted, to feed the tracks through and then fit around the rollers.





The track runs were then base coated with Flat Black via airbrush then over coated with Non-buffing Metalizer Gunmetal. Once that had dried, the runs were dry brushed with Steel followed by dry brushed Burnt Umber. In the past I've used a wash of Burnt Umber but found that it makes the MK track pins weak and prone to breakage so I tried something different this time around. The result is pretty close to what a wash would've achieved and will serve as a good foundation for later weathering. Both tracks were installed and glued in place on the road wheels and return rollers to keep the desired sag.

I also installed the tow cable to the side of the turret along with the retaining chains on either side. The Trumpeter instructions incorrectly tell you to cut the braided copper wire into a 110mm length and if you do this the wire will be too short. The 110mm length is how long it needs to be once it's glued into the cable ends, so I ended up with only 1 tow cable of the right length instead of 2. This actually worked out ok since the hooks on the sides of the turret aren't long enough to take 2 cables anyway, so only 1 was painted up and installed.



To round out the final construction details, I installed the spare track run and holder to the rear of the turret. My idea to salvage the rack worked out perfectly with the cross bar glued directly to the spare links. The gun cleaning rods were painted and installed as well and while I still think the gun sponge is undersized, it looks like it's the dimensions it has to be to fit in the space provided. I actually flipped it around from how the Trumpeter instructions show it being installed, they have the spong end facing the other way but that actually creates a gap between the spare track cross bar that reference photos show wasn't there, so an quick flip around and all squared away.



Next up will be the simple markings and then on to the weathering!

[Bill Plunk]

After much careful thought, I decided not to apply any decals to the vehicle but went ahead and applied a Future coat to seal in the base coat as a precursor to weathering. Since I use enamels, this is an essential step even without any decals being applied to protect the base coat from the weathering process. The Future was allowed to dry for several hours while my wife and I went to go see The Dark Knight.

The weathering began by applying a dot filter of primary colors consisting of Sea Blue, Yellow, Red, and White.



The dots are then blended together using a thinner-dampened brush to the point where they are virtually removed, leaving behind an altered base coat in the process. I worked slowly, section by section, and completed about half last night and the rest this morning. I also went along while working the same sections and applied a Burnt Umber pin wash to accentuate the detail and further provide depth. The lightened Panzer Gray mix from the previous painting process was lightly dry brushed over the raised detail. The whole vehicle then received a coat of Testor's Lusterless flat in the spray can.



Next came the weathering on the suspension, I tried something a little different this time around from my usual methods. Instead of applying the pigments wet, I applied them dry and used a stiff bristled brush to work them into the various areas. It's certainly a faster result but I think I'll go back to the wet method for future use.



To finish up, I dry brushed some original Panzer Gray on some of the areas of the turret and hull that I felt needed a little more blending and then it was off to the photo booth for the finished pics.

[Bill Plunk]

This build is also featured in the upcoming October 2008 issue of Scale Military Modeler International magazine from SAM Publications.