BP Models

Decided to have a little fun with the engine compartment and experiment a bit with weathering it up. I stippled some enamel Steel, Gunmetal, and Burnt Umber to varying degrees then added a light overall wash of Leather. After the wash had dried, I added some Mig Europe Dust pigment since it is a DAK vehicle and the compartment is open at the bottom...a sure way for dust/dirt to find its way in and mix with any grease/oil/fuel stains/spills, etc. to my way of thinking.



Quick check with the engine has everything still looking like it all belongs together in the same space. I used a q-tip and thinner to clean up some of the previous red oxide over-spray on the interior and it left a kind of white residue...must've been something on the q-tip. No big deal as it will get over painted, I just didn't want to have any weird red shading peaking through in the process.



Of course once the upper hull is on, 95% of it just becomes background even with creative viewing/angles...I suppose a dentist mirror might show up a little more if you were so inclined!



Now I can turn my attention to the interior bits beyond the engine compartment divider.

One of the challenges of doing this build is deciding when and where to paint and install things, so the latest effort focused on the hull interior to get it ready to take the various details that populate the area forward of the engine compartment. First I masked off the floor and airbrushed Panzer Gray and let that sit for a day before masking it off and then airbrushing some MM enamel Panzer Interior Buff. The side hull doors were painted separately and are dry-fit only at this point since they will be posed open later on. I also painted the side hull braces and small storage boxes that sit next to the rear floor hump and then installed them after all the painting was done. It's important to make sure that the angled braces line up properly with the top part of the hull as there's a bit of play in their placement, so I made small adjustments on either side where needed with a test fit to take care of that little detail.



That will get a chance to cure up as well before I start in on weathering the interior prior to adding in all the various detail bits that populate the hull sides and other areas. Quite a bit is visible through the turret ring and of course the mesh deck that will get added later as well.



One step forward at a time!

Not a huge update but after about 4 hours with the Optivisor, I've got most of the interior components detailed and ready for installation around the interior. The kit provides a decal for the dashboard but it's all one piece and I'm leaning more towards just carefully cutting out the dial faces and only using those, have to see how adventurous I feel in that department. There are also other stencil-type decals for many of the interior gear locations, so I may end up treating the interior like a kit-within-a-kit in terms of adding details, sealing, weathering, decals, etc.



I didn't get to the driver's seat and various levers, pedals, and steering wheel and column or the viewports, so there's still a good bit of detail on the interior yet to come!

Got some time today so did some weathering on the hull interior. No way that factory-fresh finish from the previous step would last long in the Libyan desert...so I set to work voiding the warranty!

I didn't take in progress photos but will describe the steps employed. First, I used a 18/0 Script brush and Burnt Umber enamels to create some chipping and scratching in various areas. Then I applied an overall enamel Raw Umber wash. After that dried, I used a 00 sable brush and dry-brushed some of the enamel Interior Buff to blend it together and tone down some areas. Since desert dust is notorious for getting everywhere and the engine draws its air through the fighting compartment, there's an open top, plus the grill in the top deck, etc. it stands to reason that there would be dust everywhere in the interior. So to that end, I used some dry Mig Gulf War sand pigments to add a dusty effect to the floor and hull sides. The hull topside areas got the same weathering treatment but weren't really worth taking a shot of just yet.







I figure it's much easier to do the weathering at this point before installing any of the details as they are going to rapidly crowd those interior spaces. I'll weather and blend them together as needed as they get installed, so that's where the next focus will be.

Over the past few days I've been working on the interior details and getting them ready for installation around the hull. In addition to the previous work, I added the details and gauge faces to the instrument panel and picked out the little knobs and lights using a toothpick and various colors where needed. The interior fire extinguisher got its Tetra decal and after checking reference photos, scrounged some canteens and gas mask containers from the spares bin to occupy appropriate spaces around the interior for the crew. The obligatory giant penny was included as well to get an idea of the scale of the different details in question. For the instrument panel, I used small drops of Future to create the impression of glass bezels and all of the other components got a shot of Testors Lusterless Flat dullcoat in the rattle can to seal them up and match them to the flat finish of the interior.



I also used the kit-supplied PE MG34 ammo can brackets and assembled them, painted and weathered them to match the interior, and installed them around the compartment where called for. There are 11 needed and 12 on the fret, so an extra is left over by design. Small amounts of CA gel gave me enough work time to get them properly positioned especially since the rows of 3 are a tight fit with each other and have no margin for error on their placement. I have a suspicion that the HB brackets are a little undersized...when I did a test fit with a Tamiya MG34 ammo can, the brackets were a couple mm shorter than the cans, so I may not be able to populate them after all, have to wait and see if the resin ones I ordered are smaller and able to fit or not.



The actual installation of all the interior details is spread out over Steps 4, 5, and 7 in the instructions in terms of the upper and lower hull halves. Since everything in both areas has to line up properly with each other, I did things in a somewhat linear fashion with both halves vs. doing it in separate stages. I started at the hull front and installed all the driver's station elements in the lower hull first including the steering column and wheel. Space gets very tight in this space so careful selection of what to install when is needed here. Once the glue had grabbed in the lower hull, I added the dashboard, first aid kit, and fire extinguisher to the upper hull and did a test fit to ensure the steering column lined up properly with the cutout in the dash. Only some minor adjustments were needed and then I left the upper hull resting on the lower and allowed it to set up overnight to ensure everything would stay put in later handling.



After more checking with the references, I scrounged some more items that the kit left out in the form of a bread bag, flare pistol and holster, and flares box for the right side of the compartment. Also added the two mess tins and MP40 to complete that side.



Left side received its details as well. Getting all 6 of the stick grenades in place and lined up properly was a little bit of an exercise due to how tightly they fit together but it worked out eventually.



Last but not least, I added the driver's seat. As you can see, it's best to add this after all the stuff is on the side walls as it complicates the space available to place anything on either side due to its angled back and placement in general.



While it is possible to add the armored visors to the driver's area in the upper hull and leave them workable, it's very tricky to pull off (and not pointed out in the instructions) especially with the large main visor. I decided to position them all closed and installed them after painting and weathering the gray styrene to simulate 90mm armored glass blocks present in the holders. The other gear was installed as well after carefully checking the placement to ensure it wouldn't cause fit problems with the lower hull.





Quick checks with the upper hull after everything was installed showed it is all playing nice and will be nicely visible if the turret and gun mount are not in place. Ultimately I will be posing both side doors open to also allow more detail to be seen but that's still a ways off.





I'm deliberately holding off joining the upper and lower hulls together with the chassis until I can be sure that the gun mount and turret will install without any clearance issues especially since I've added some gear in different spots. It shouldn't cause any problems but if they do, it will be much easier to solve if the hulls are still separate vs. permanently joined together. Next up will be working on the 2cm gun mount, a virtual kit in itself!

One of the great side benefits of digging around in the spares bin for parts for the interior on the 222 was that I came across a figure set sprue that I put away some time ago and then promptly forgot about. The sprue is marked as 6063 which is Dragon's 1/35 Deutsche Afrika Korps 4-figure set and the Sdkfz 222 had a crew of 3, so I figured why not?

I've also been battling a severe cold the last few days which put a damper on things but working on figures is a relatively low-stress endeavor. This particular set is decently molded with some mold seams to clean up but nothing too strenuous. Fit part is pretty good as well with only some minor adjustments needed here or there, only one needed putty assist on the torso-to-legs join. The figures are designed to show a group or crew of men taking a break for water or a meal, so it fits well with a small scene for the 222 where I have the hatches open and showing off the detail I've put in, a win-win!

Here's the gang of three making up the 222's crew. Sitting guy will get a jerry can as a seat and a water bottle in his raised hand with the cup in his other hand (also courtesy of the spares bin!). Standing guy will get a pair of binoculars in his open hand and will be positioned as if he's talking to drinking guy since his head is turned at that angle. Slightly bending guy will be posed as if he's checking out something in the engine compartment to complete the group's intended activity.

The only modifications I made were to hollow out standing guy's sleeves and open up his 2nd hand that was molded solid to give him a more natural look. I also swapped out the pith helmet from sitting guy to bending guy as it just seemed more natural to have him and standing guy with the same head-gear...plus bending guy is out in the sun working while the others are just slacking off. The assumption here of course is that bending guy is the driver and the other two are the turret crew.



A simple piece of 6x6 craft wood from Hobby Lobby will serve as the base and the layout will look something like this when the time comes. Of course the turret and gun are still come and there will be some hatches open, but you get the general idea.

Started in on the figure painting. I used MM enamel Armor Sand applied by airbrush for the uniform areas and hand painted Testors enamel Light Tan for the exposed flesh areas. I also started painting the faces. Small mount holes were drilled out with a pin vise and toothpicks and blue tack used to create a means of handling the figures during this process. Of course this also makes my workbench look like a cross between Game of Thrones and the Walking Dead!

More progress on the figures. Today's focus was mostly on footwear and socks as well as getting Sitting Guy's cardigan blocked in and ready for more attention. I also picked out some of the uniform details on Standing Guy and Bending Guy.



The heads and head gear also got some attention. Both of the soft field caps are going to get goggles for the turret guys (Standing and Sitting), and will add those after the heads and hats are secured to the bodies. Heads received their hair detail and eyebrows to match (can't have anyone thinking the DAK guys were artificially coloring now can we!). The heads are, in order, for Bending Guy, Sitting Guy, Standing Guy, and their gaze/view is done accordingly for what they will be doing once placed and fully assembled. Dragon did a nice job molding different facial structures and expressions for these guys I think, something that's not immediately apparent until after you get paint on them and work with the details a bit.



More to come of course, but they are at the point where they will get sealed up with some Future to protect the work thus far before moving on to the next steps with the uniform elements.

More progress on the Three Guys to report today. I was going to fit a pair of desert goggles to both of the guys wearing the field caps but one of the goggles was damaged as I was drilling out the lenses...so only one pair ended up getting used. I used some scrap PE to create the goggles elastic band and fitted it after annealing the strap and gluing it in place with some CA. Tamiya Clear Red for the lenses was used as after checking several references, this seemed to be a common option for DAK goggles. I'm assuming it helped with the sun glare in addition to cutting down on the dust. Either way, it adds a nice little bit of contrast I think.



The Three Guys got some more of their uniform details picked out and I also resolved the heads-on-spikes situation by permanently joining them to the torsos and fitting the headgear where appropriate. Sitting Guy also got his arm permanently attached and blended in with the rest of his torso and cardigan.



More to come!

I've been playing around with some of the layout possibilities on the base and decided to go ahead and take advantage of the lizard that Dragon provided in the DAK figure set. So that necessitated a little search for native lizards to the Libyan desert...and I found this cute little guy.



So I did my best to replicate him with the styrene lizard.



I also found some nice rock chips/flakes in my backyard that came off our rock wall that will help add some variety to the groundwork scenery. Not sure yet if I'll use all three of them or even use them in the current placement...but they can be integrated into the ground when the time comes vs. just being placed on top as they look now.