BP Models

Out of the Box build using Italeri kit #6442. 1/35 scale AB41 Autoblinda Italian Armored Car.

On a whim today I decided to do a straight no frills true "out of the box" build of the AB41 Autoblinda by Italeri. While it's reputation is a poor one, I decided to give it a go before diving into my next big project.

Step 1 is fairly simple and consists of two sections. The first section is fairly straightforward and deals with the construction of the chassis frame. It's a 5 part affair with a "pan", 2 sides, and a front and rear cap. The tolerances on these are fairly small in terms of join contact surface so a little care is needed to get it all to sit square. To help with this two "roll bar" like parts are included to stabilize the front and rear.



2nd half o the step begins the construction of the suspension and steering mechanisms. Parts 8b and 9b have a very tight fit so be careful when dryfitting not to snap them off in the holes. Some of the pre-drilled holes are a little small and need to be opened up a bit but nothing major. None of the suspension is meant to be working but if creative enough it could probablly be managed. Not something I'm going to attempt though as I have no need for it.



Step 2 continues the efforts with the suspension on the right side and again be careful with the dryfit on parts 13b and 14b. While the instructions call for parts 15a and 16a to be glued to 13b and 14b, I didn't do this, only glued them into the hull with their locator pin. This was a good thing as I later discovered when fitting parts 11b and 12b as gaps were just a little too wide on a couple of the wheels. Parts 17a and 19a are the drive shafts to the wheels and the instructions aren't too clear on this but you need to first run them inside the hull then fit them inside the loops on 11b and 12b and then glue...the first time I glued first and then discovered that I couldn't get it to match up properly to the wheel hub!



Step 3 repeates Step 2 but on the left side. Once that was completed I checked all four wheel hubs to make sure they were sitting square and made a couple of minor adjustments to insure this was the case and set it aside to dry.



Step 4 begins where many have reported problems with this kit in terms of the upper hull construction. The hull body is constructed from a series of panels for the different surfaces and as such there are a lot of joins that need to line up perfectly to prevent issues. To help with this, Step 4 calls for the mating up of the two body sides with 4 roller pins to provide some lateral stability while the rest of the hull is constructed. Test fits showed the pins on the rollers were slightly too long and needed sanding to get them to sit flush. If this isn't taken care of, it produces an extra 1mm or so width on the hull and that's more than enough with this design to cause major problems. I dryfit the pins but didn't glue them and held off attaching the rear plate 26c until I had the rest of the plates cleaned up and ready to attach at the same time in Step 5.



You'll notice that the hull isn't sitting square top or bottom on the pins. This is actually a good thing since the instructions have left the bottom open, providing some flex to work with in Step 5.

This step calls for the installation of all the upper rear and top deck pieces together. While it seems simple enough, this is probably the trickiest part of the entire build. no less than 5 different pieces need to fit together in sequence as well as match up with the hull sides to provide the right fit. I immediately encountered problems with the engine screen, Part 30c, as it had been over molded with a considerable extra lip all around the upper surfaces. I'm not sure if the original designe meant for this to be a join/glue surface but it was way too thick to allow the engine deck 31c to fit against it properly, so a lot of sanding and test fitting on this part was necessary. Then it was a matter of working from the bottom forward, slowly adjusting and checking fit, and the open bottom of the hull made it possible to strategically place some liquid glue on the seams with a brush without endangering the bolt detail on the top. Lots of finger pressure and patience and it all came together.

I also drilled out the barrel on the Breda MG with a pin vise to add a little detail to the solid molded muzzle while I was at it. The MG is in a ball mount that is fully workable once installed, just be careful with the glue on the securing ears that it doesn't get on the ball itself or it will become "fixed" whether you want it to or not.



It's not 100% perfect but it's very close. Only a small amount of putty will be required on the one side and some careful application with a toothpick and some very careful sanding will take care of that easily.



Step 6 is the installation of the front hull plates, again very straightforward using the same methods as on the rear to insure a good join on all points. Only real problem area is where the front glacis meets the fenders, there's a small gap there on both sides that again a little bit of putty will correct with no trouble. The step also calls for installation of the rear intake screens and both of these, 39c and 40c, required some trimming on the inside to get them to sit properly due to poor molding but the exterior detail was in good shape. Also need to carefully bend/glue the hinge points down as they are molded out at 90 degrees and don't actually touch anything without attention.

This step aso calls for the installation of the right side armored cab doors and these have some nice inner and outer detail but therer's zero interior detail to be seen if left open. I closed these up and they fit perfectly. Last but not least, I cleaned up the 6th wheel hub and secured it with some poster tac for now to keep it in place.



Step 7 calls for the same treatment as Step 6 but on the left side. Again, no problems with the doors and very nice fit overall.



Last step for the day, Step 8 called for the hull body to be joined up to the chassis. This was very easy, the two have a nice friction fit and just a little bit of glue required to seal the deal and voila!



This took about 5 hours or so of build time, there are 13 total steps in the instructions so this one may get done pretty quick. My wife leaves for a seminar in Nebraska and won't be back until Sunday....so I'll just have to console myself with build time in her absence I think.

Since I'm home alone all the rest of this week, I've been getting in some decent bench time and making some steady progress.

Step 9 begins the work on the main gun armament with the assembly of the mantlet and main gun/coax MG combination. The mantlet, 61d, had a good bit of flash around the face edges and the curved hinge points that required some very careful trimming and sanding to deal with. The instructions tell you to install the gun mount, 63d, along with a retaining plate, 64c and then slide the gun, MG, and sighting scope into place. What it doesn't tell you is not to glue 63d if you want the assembly to remain movable for elevation purposes, but it's easy to figure that out with the dryfit first if you don't move too quickly through this process. The directions are vauge on how the eyepiece, 95b, is to be mounted and it took a little bit of headscratching before I figured it out. Once installed and test fit in the elevating mount, sadly the sighting tube 58c doesn't line up properly with the exterior opening but once installed in the turret you can't tell. It's an annoyance, but a minor one.

What was more annoying was the assembly of the muzzle cap on the gun barrel. This part is molded separately and is very small to begin with but the sprue design has 2 very large attachment points, making it very difficult to safely remove it. I ended up getting one point to come away cleanly but the 2nd point had a slightly thinner side wall and the tip was damaged in the process. I ended up having to carefully trim off part of the end and resand it, losing about 1mm in the process because of it. Sounds insignificant but shouldn't have been necessary if molded differently. This was slightly compounded by the fact that the end of the barrel to which it attaches also wasn't molded evenly, producing a slight lip on one half of the mating surface that has to be carefully trimmed to get a good fit. I used liquid glue and let it set up good and solid and then carefully went back and sanded it with a 600 grit sanding stick under the manifying lamp to get it all worked out.

The detail level on the breech of the 20mm cannon is basic without any real definition, just the installation of a set of grips and a head rest/eyepiece combo for the gunsight. The coax MG has some nice detail but the muzzle is solid, so some quick work with the pin vise fixed that. I'd decided long beforehand that all the hatches would be closed so I wasn't too concerned about things like mold seams, although if you do decide to show off the interior there are some prominent ones that will need some care.





The last photo shows that even with the care pre-installation on trimming and sanding the mantlet opening, I didn't quite get it 100% square. The elevating mount is installed correctly but the right side of the opening is still a bit thicker than the left, creating a slight angled/sloping effect that the camera picks up on. I'm going to think on how to deal with that or if I should just leave it be....will see how much it bothers me tomorrow.

Step 10 deals with the turret itself and is fairly simple. Installation of the periscope and headrest/eyepiece is called for on the interior turret roof and on the exterior, the top and rear hatches are installed along with the armored vent covers. These covers, 67b, are also attached with 2 very large sprue points and require some delicate handling to remove. I ended up removing a whole section of sprue and cutting them away with a knife instead of the usual sprue cutters. Both hatches have some very nicely molded interior detail but unfortunately this is marred by some very large sink marks that overlap that detail, at least on my parts.

I got so wrapped up in this process that I neglected to take a photo of this step...and moved right into Step 11.

This is a two part step, first part involves the installation of the seat and and back rest along with the traverse gear and wheel. The turret base has several large sink marks that I didn't bother with but again, if showing the hatches open, would've required attention.



2nd part calls for the mantlet to be installed along with the turret bottom. I elected to install the mantlet first and the fit was very good, only some slight adjustment and finger pressure required to get a good join. After I was satisfied with that, the turret bottom got a similar treatment and, while the fit isn't as solid, it still went in smoothly and so long as the turret isn't turned to reveal the underside, will not be seen. It could be addressed with putty but a test fit into the upper hull proves that it fits well and doesn't show, so I'm going to leave it alone.



I was surprised at just how full the turret is. If the hatches were left open, the turret is pretty full and would provide enough without adding a figure for a decent enough display I think.

I also took the opportunity to apply a little bit of putty in some very small gaps around the main gun housing and will do some light sanding on it as well as the join line for the top turret tomorrow. After that it's just a couple of steps before ready to begin painting.

After looking at the remaining steps, I made the determination that it was time to do the necessary putty work. Previously I made the comment along the lines of only "a little" putty work was necessary....and that's still true in one sense, but not in another. I'll clarify that in just a bit.

After checking several of the great reference photos on the Beute Panzer Italian Technics in German Service for AB41s in German markings (my intention), I came to understand why so many complain about the fit/design of the rivetted panels on the hull and turret. Italeri molded them as if they butt up against each other, but the reference photos clearly show that instead the plates overlap each other, meaning that the mating surfaces of the plates are internal and the exterior surfaces should be smooth where they meet. This presents a wider challenge for 2 reasons. The first being that Italeri molded the rivet detail literally right on the edge of the panels in question, leaving very little margin to work with. The second is that the rivets themselves are staggered on the different plates in their alignment, so the working area for sanding and puttying is very tight.

As a result, I spent several hours yesterday evening carefully applying the Squadron white putty in the necessary areas with several pointed wooden toothpicks, then sanded it down using some adapted sanding tools. Normally I will use "sanding twigs" made by cutting 3 mm wide strips off of beauty-shop double sided/double grit finger nail boards but even these were too wide for this kind of work. I took one of the strips and used the sprue cutters to cut it at about a 60 degree angle to give me a pointed tip and small working area to be able to fit between the rivets. I also employed a "sandy pick" that is nothing more than a wooden toothpick covered in a strip of hobby sanding film (glued on using CA gel) to also get into tight/compound areas. These work great but can be cramp-inducing if used for too long.



After careful examination and comparison to the photos, it became obvious that virtually ever panel join was going to need some attention. So after working on it and rechecking numerous times, sometimes having to go back and add a little bit more putty, and a final check under the magnifying lamp, the correction was done.









I also saved the worst place for last. The underside of the rear hull had been the victim of all my upper hull adjustments to achieve a good fit there. I think many see this gap/fit problem get translated to the upper hull if the instructions in Step 4 are followed to the letter instead of waiting to make sure 26c meets with 30c instead of making it meet at the rear first and then installing 30c and the rest of the hull as indicated. A lot of putty and sanding is requird to fill this area but being on the underside isn't all that visible and as such I was willing to let it be the "sacrificial lamb" vs. the upper hull. Since I put my finished models in a multi-level clear display case, it will be more visible to some degree than normal, so it too will receive the necessary attention and not be left as is.




Now with that squared away, on to Step 12! This step deals with some odds/ends details in the form of the antenna arm, width indicators, tow hooks, etc. It also calls for the installation of the left side wheels/tires and indicates that the wheel hub cap, 78a, is needed to secure the wheel. Test fit reveals this isn't necessary per se, so I glued the cap to the hub but didn't glue the hubs to the drums, only dryfit for now to allow for easier painting. One of the other items called for are the double "bicycle horn" arrangement on the right side. Both of the horns, 73b, are molded with a large attachment point to the sprue right on the bell flare and one of these had come of the sprue on its own and was damaged. A quick check of the references showed that the German use vehicles mostly had this removed and replaced with the usual siren in that position, so I left off the horns and instead mounted part 86c there instead of on the rear hull as called for in Step 14.



The antenna arm is only dryfit for now with some blue tac to keep it in place. I left it removable as a way to aid with applying the camo scheme when it comes time to paint and also thinned down the V-shaped holder as it was molded about 2x the thickness it needed to be IMHO judging by the photos at any rate.

Step 13 is a repetition of Step 12 for the right side with the addition of the insallation of the rear driver viewport (I chose to install it closed since the front is open), and the muffler/exhaust. The muffler/exhaust is a two part affair and had some minor flash to be removed and of course the glue seam once dried to produce the desired one-piece. Upside to this is the exhaust is open instead of closed, so no drilling out required. This step also calls for the installation of the various pioneer tools that I will do after painting and provides the alternative of installing 2 jerry cans and racks to the right front hull. I didn't see this feature on any of the reference photo vehicles (doesn't mean it wasn't used, just not in those photo sets) and this combined with the fact that the cans have molded on bracekts, I I left them off.




Step 14 is the final step! This calls for the installation of two large headlamps on the rear hull deck on the provided support rests but again in checking the reference photos, didn't see a single case where these were installed. Adding to this is the fact that one of the "glass" lens parts, 88b, had a sinkhole/depression square in the middle of it and I opted to leave them off. Since I'd already shifted the siren, 86c, to the front, I needed to sand off the molded attachment point for it, easily done. Last but not least, the tow hook and rear brake light went in and voila! Construction is complete save for the installation of the tools and the vinyl tires.



After checking that last photo, I think the rear light brackets are too thick and will shave/sand them down to something that's a little more reasonable before painting. You can also see some of the putty work done on the underside as mentioned earlier, that's been sanded down as well and is good to go.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous today, perfect airbrush weather with the garage door open, nice breeze, sun, etc. My biggest challenge at this point was deciding on what scheme to go with. The schemes on the included kit color/finishing guide looked interesting but what really caught my eye was this scheme over on the Beute Panzer website.



The caption says these are AB41s of a recce unit entrained and on the way to Serbia/Croatia in 1944. Judging by the tone contrasts on the first two vehicles, I'm guessing this is a three-tone scheme but with the Dunkelgelb present only as thin stripes. It also shows the variation possible from one vehicle to the next even within the same unit and I took the first one as my main example although my intent was not to exactly replicate it.

First up was a primer coat of MM enamel Italian Dark Brown. I chose this instead of my usual Flat Black approach due mainly to the three-tone scheme and the tan color of the Italeri plastic. That and the fact that my approach for the entire scheme was going to be a little unorthodox anyhow and any "pre-shading" effect of applying Flat Black would be lost in the process.



Now here's where the process becomes unorthodox, at least for me. Ordinarily I would apply the Dunkelgelb at this point and then proceed with the other two camo colors to create the desired pattern. But since the Dunkelgelb forms the stripes, I'm going to apply it last. First color is what I call "Tarp Green" for no other reason than I originally mixed it up to paint a tarp with and that's the label that's stuck on the top of the mixing bottle. It's 50-50 Russian Armor Green and Panzer Schwarzgrau and provides a nice dark green IMHO for camo patterns. It was applied in a blotchy arrangement on purpose, not so much to create a pattern against the Dark Brown but instead to provide a foundation for the overall pattern and provide coverage over the vehicle as the secondary "disruptive" element.



While the instructions will tell you to apply the Italian Dark Brown in stripes for some of the indicated schemes, it's too much to the chocolate end of the spectrum for my taste so for the German Red-brown I mixed up some Leather and Military Brown to the desired shade and sprayed that over all the exposed Dark Brown surfaces, cleaning up some of the Dark Green edges and finetuning the base pattern in the process.



Now came the tough part, creating the Dunkelgelb stripe patterns in such a way as to integrate the other 2 colors as an overall pattern. I'm not sure what to call it, my original impression was of reflected light through tree branches but it also resembles a giraffe like pattern. You decide on the name I guess! Either way, some careful close in work with the AB nozzle practically touching the surface at times was needed but after about 1 hour or so and cramped up hands and neck, the pattern was on.





Thank goodness for the gorgeous weather and no interruptions as this took the full day and I'm pleased with the results. It will be allowed to cure up over the week and I'll check it for possible touchup spots before moving on to the decals and weathering.

Not a whole lot of pics today because the progress was in the detail and touch-up departments for the most part. After letting the original camo sit up for the week, I went back with the AB and touched up several areas and redefined the pattern just a little better. I also added the two shovels and the pickax, painted the width indicator balls red according to the instructions (most reference photos that show them in place it's clear they are not white, which makes sense for a recce vehicle), and painted up the muffler with a coat of Gunmetal Metalizer followed with a wash of Rust. The wheels were also installed, I coated the rims with a thin layer of Testor's Windowmaker Glue to help hold them in place with the vinyl tires and then glued the hubs, positioning the molded in tire text at various rotations just to add a little variety.



The weight of the tires adds a good bit to the overall weight of the model, I'd gotten used to it being fairly light and the addition of the 6 vinyl tires really made a difference. I had to be more careful with handling it as a result, bad habits die hard! I applied the first coat of Future for the decals with the AB, let it dry for about an hour or so and then put down the kit supplied decals for what it claims is the Aufkl. Abt. 236, 162nd (Turkische) Infantry Division, Italy 1944. No idea if that's accurate or not, but they fit with the reference photos and the scheme I'd chosen, so on they went. A little bit of Solvaset to make sure they snugged down tight and it's going to now sit overnight before starting the weathering tomorrow.

Finished up the weathering today in the form of 2 washes. First was a pin wash of Burnt Umber applied around all the raised detail. Second was a general wash of Gunmetal to darken the overall finish and tie it all together. Once that was dried and too my liking, I gave the tools a little bit of attention with some lightly rubbed artist pastels on the tool handles and then sprayed some Testors rattlecan Dullcoat in preparation for the final steps.



Once all that had dried, I lightly drybrushed some Dunkelgelb on the rivets and in a few places where the washes had darkened the finish just a little too much. Next up I applied MiG European Dust wet around the wheels and tires, fenders, and lower hull areas to produce some light dust weathering.



Once that dried, I scrubbed it with several different stiff bristled brushes and voila!



I'll do just a little bit of touchup work here and there tomorrow but for all intents and purposes, this one's done, just a matter of taking the final set of photos when I have the time.