Luft46's Blog

Ok its all done bar the final assembly for the small and fiddly bits. As I know this will probably end up in a diorama I am reluctant to do the final bits and then have to do some manoeuvring to get it on the board so it’s back in the box time. Now for a quick desk clean and maybe all the part done kits from last year.

Final assembly tomorrow.

Sprayed this yesterday with Tamiya primer, the foam I used stuck to the sides so not happy with that. I did some quick paint chipping which worked but I overdid it so will back paint in acrylic. Lots of painting left to get the right weathered appearance.

Two weeks ago I placed an order with Jan of Hauler / Brengun and my small parcel arrived yesterday. So below are some quick photos.

From the top is the Zeppelin Rammer – this comes as 2 kits that are quite small, plastic is more limited run style and will need a little cleanup. The wings are a butt join and there are some minimal cockpit details which is all you will need, maybe a seat belt if you are keen. A small fret of etched brass gives you a gun sight, wingtip landing skids and control surface actuators. The canopy is reasonable with a small sheet of decals including the usual non offensive split Hakenkreuz ( swastikas)

Next up is the 1/144 Okha, man this is tiny. This is very nicely moulded with the 3 rocket exhausts moulded with the body and done well. A little dark wash will help a lot here. The kit is the body, 2 wings, tailplane and 2 rudders. Along with this you get 2 tiny vacform canopies , nice if you screw up the first attempt. The etched brass sheet has 20 micro parts which are sure to provoke a few swear words when putting them on. Lastly is a decal sheet with 4 decals being 2 with flowers and I10 and two with flowers and I18.

And the instruction sheet and canopies.

Last up  is the three etched brass sets. From left to right this is the 1/35 shopping cart ( trolley) for the Messy divorce dio – maybe next year, the 6 piece mobile barriers which I may use to renovate my Munchen 48 diorama and two sets of skis in 1/72 which I will use in my Aerosan diorama if I get to it. First I need to build a few Aerosans.

And lastly a fond farewell from my messy modelling area.

The year can be quickly summarised in the following photos, the first two being the completed Reference Material and Putty Hog dioramas followed by the partly done Helldiver and of course the 3 primered kits being the Bv P202, the Hanomag and the E-10. None of these primered kits look like making it over the line for being finished this year. Last up is the Extratech Aerosan and this is a faint possibility for finishing

. Having said all that I have had fun mostly modelling this year, not a lot finished but that happens some years .

Just a short note. After a bit of a break I have done some more work on the Extratech kit. This has consisted of putting those strengthening bars ..8 on the reinforcing mounts and painting some parts. I have in some cases followed the ET advice and in others the Vision 1.35 kit. I did not think copper was a suitable colour for the radiator grille of the engine though matt olive  Xtracrylics Olivgrun for the cushions is not unreasonable.
Radiator grille  , citadel boltgun metal, black and adeptus battle gray ina custom mix, followed by a black wash.
Propeller blades and engine in the above with a little black, the blades are metal unlike the NKL’s.
Interior – Humbrol acrylic wood.
Ski bottoms – darker version of wood
The engine also got a black wash.
I have also applied some white glue to some etched parts to make their cross section circular.

This is a quick comparison between the Extratech and Ace kits. As such the min differences between the GAZ -98 and 98K are in the engine area. The larger engine of the earlier version needed a larger support structure at the rear. The later verion is more open. with no upward sweep but with a strengthening metal rectangle at the rear bottom section. Where the kits differ in terms of detail I have highlighted below.

Machingun support ring – the Ace support ring is thicker and not 2D but the Extratech kit will be able to be fixed with white glue to make it round in cross section. The four attachment points on the ET kit are in brass and more realistic than the thicker prts of the Ace kit.
Seats – here Ace wins with both top and bottom cushions. ET only supply the bottom and will need some Milliput for the back.
Skis – a bit of  both here – the ET kit has much thinner scale realistic skis but is let down by not having the two strehgtheing ridges on the triangular reinforing mount, a little sprue is needed here.
Other parts – such as the support springs, machine gun etc are cruder in moulding and the ET kit has some extra details in etched brass as you ould expect. Both kits will benefit from Little Lenses or similar fo the main light.
Neither kit supplies decals but markings were rrely used on these craft.
Unsurprisingly the ET is the betterof the two but a little ork should make the Ace kit presentble and it is the only version in 1/72 of the 98K.

Below is the cleaned up parts for the ET kit from today. Not seen in this photo is the green putty from Citadel added to the main body due to a slight sawing accident. On the top right is the rather large pile of leftover resin. Below this is the 3 saws I used in this process. The largest is used on bigger cuts such as the main body and engine. The middle one is used on most of the rest of the work and the smalleest was used on fine articles like the springs that are prone to breaking. It is actually an etched steel saw.

This is the RF-8 aerosan, being the driver and machine gunner version with a partly cowled engine. There is another similar version with a more boxlike engine mount. I got this kit recently from a friend who orders way more models than I do. It came in a box of 8 kits and 3 lots of accessories but more on that later. The Ace kit along with a MicroMir Sprengboot came from a Russian website that includes boxtops in a flat form to save on postage. NKR models used to do the same so this doesn’t worry me. The reason for its sudden elevation up the list is that the plastic bag it came in has broken and the smallest sprue of one part was already adrift in the box. Rather than lose anything it will be started now, or maybe tomorrow as dinner beckons.

Over the past few months I have commenced three kits which have reached the stage of needing primer and have then stalled. These are the E-10 tank, the BV P202 and of course the Hanomag. Tonight i will unleash primer on them. In the case of the 202 and the Hanomag there has also been a little masking required. Mostly this has been toilet paper but also a little Tamiya tape for the 202 cockpit.

I have also dug out some Aerosan kits from a few manufacturers. Two are from Extratech and two from Ace in the Ukraine. The former are resin and brass joys and well the latter are Ace kits in all their limited run glory. Because the engine is the same in both Aerosans they have been able to use two sprues twice, a la Hasegawa but not at the same  level of quality.
As both companies do a Gaz 98 with the difference mainly in the engine area it will be interesting to compare them.
Below is my reference material.

The Tankograd book is the only one on the market AFAIK. It is quite comprehensive with lots of photos including some diorama ideas.
Below is the Extratech kit of a GAZ 98.

More later!

No other hassles apart from two cycles of PSR and this is now ready for primer. As it stands I now have three kits primer ready so it is just a matter of waiting for the right humidity conditions. In the meantime I will be doing some work on the small parts. This includes a MG42 in brass in 3 pieces from Eduard and a night vision set stolen from a Pegasus Hobbies E25 kit.