Luft46's Blog

When you arrive at the point where your AMS to add 12 rungs leads you into the 4th cycle of sanding and you are thoroughly sick of sanding and the diorama base also still needs work. SIGH !!!!

TRIGGER WARNING !

And a bad print from the 70’s that we had and I saw yet again in an antiques shop recently. I thought all of these would have been burnt by the end of the 80’s at least.

Yes another one is done. That’s six for the year now. The only one left is the 3 storey job.

The toon one was relatively simple and I did end up weathering it a bit. Decals were ok but the matt varnish (Lucky) I used tended to chip and peel when I was doing the weathering causing a lot of fiddling to get it right.

I think it would be better on aircraft where the varnish is the absolute last stage rather than on armour.

I always feel the urge to do a little weathering over the last coat of varnish just to make it more grimy and realistic, something I don’t usually bother with for aircraft.

Ok they could’ve been better, I might reshoot with more light later.

Just a few progress shots on the 3 story. I have now got all the steps (12) on, its not perfect but it will probably have to do. I’ll clean it all up , do some primer and work out which if any I redo.

The tow rope is now also done so the only other thing to do is get a new grass mat that has longer grass. I’ll probably add some Russian brown dirt to it to get a better look.

See the pictures below.

I ran into issues with varnishing the Meng Toon version and that is why things have dragged.

Its nearly done, just needs another small round of weathering.

I’ve got one side of the rungs on the 3 storey turret in but as this is the beauty side i have one that i am tempted to redo. Painting and weathering should be easy I hope. On the diorama side of that i wasn’t ultimately happy with the mat i used so it got ripped out and I will need to buy a new one soon.

I

finished this on the weekend and am mostly happy with it. The IR sights are from a ModelCollect kit and I copied the support slab from the Modelcollect kit onto some thin sheet. I debated whether to add the black wires but in this scale they would be fiddly so I left them off.

The whitewash is my first attempt at this. I used AK washable white over a matt varnish. When I initially tested this I did it on a old Airfix He 177 kit over a gloss varnish. This would have been a better idea for the final effort as the matt varnish caused the paint to stick better and so scrubbing off with a paint brush was more difficult. I got caught up with using a matt varnish to seal the decals in and forgot about the effect of using the wrong sort of varnish.

This is much easier than the hairspray method that is featured in the AFV magazines

The last few photos are one of specimens in the Melbourne Museum followed by some serious storage drawer porn.

Not buying anything yet ad everything has a 4 figure price tag but its fun looking!

ok below are some pics from the finished munition schlepper KV2 and whatever else. The mud I used turned out well but a bit gloss so a little matt varnish was dabbed on in parts.

Firstly I will do a Melbourne show update but it may be a while.

I’m making progress on my three remaining KV2s but none are finished. AMS has set in on the 3 storey one so more details are being added slowly.

The Munitionschlepper is progressing slowly with most work being done on the diorama part. The mud has dried well with the little twigs in it but I had to work out a rough position for yhe model. Some mud has been added to the tank but more weathering will be done once it is all together.

Next up is the Stug. The body is sprayed in green but still needs the whitewash. The turret is unpainted as it is the test bed for adding the metal rungs. I now have a metal bending template and this produces accurate rungs. Incidentally bending in the 5mm place produces a 5.5mm gap between the ends. This is because of the rounded corners produced. The rungs produced are reasonably consistent in size at least.

The templates have seperate strips that can be broken off to use for marking out the holes to be drilled. The Milliput is for an earlier attempt at 5.00 mm wide not the required 5.50 mm

Next up is the 3 storey one. The photos show the holes to drill for pistol ports being 3 per side. Also seen here is the open front viewing port. The door plate and opening hinges are also done and awaiting fixing at the end.

The thinned empty light fitting has also been done but not added.

I need to added the pistol port plugs, inset steps and rungs.

Lastly is a shot of the workbench which is a bit crowded with kits, old DVD’S and other junk from a recent cleanup upstairs.

And a few other bits

I currently have 3 KV2s in various stages of completion along with the Meng toy version yet to be started.

Munition schlepper

This is almost there except for weathering. The rocket is yet to be painted due to the recent cold wet weather. Ive added the cross braces.

This tank will go on a small plinth with some AK Mud for the base. This is out in the lounge to get it dry

Next up is the Stug which is mostly waiting for the steps to be created using a tool coming from Japan. It needs a little sanding on the turret and will get a whitewash scheme.

Last up is the 3 storey turret which also needs steps but is coming together slowly. The base is slowly getting there also.

Off to Melbourne this weekend for the national show. Im aiming to fit in 2 games of AFL and 1 of VFL also. Hopefully I will arrive back inspired and ready to finish a few things.

I was not happy with the rungs on the Stug and potentially the 3 storey turret KV2 so I have ordered a wire bending jig from HLJ which will hopefully give me even looking rungs.

I’ll be doing some last pieces of bracing and weathering on the weapons carrier KV2 as a priority when i get home. I also have some tow ropes to complete so that will occupy next weekend complete with blue air based on previous occasions. Last on this update is my new jacket bought in rural Victoria last summer. I found it hot then unsurprisingly but its still quite warm in my unlined garage on a cold Sydney winter day!

Just some photos.

Firstly the rocket carrier. The first rail for a rocket is now on along with the boxes for the fins. In hindsight I could have fitted another rail but there would not be anywhere to put the fins anyway. The fins will be done on a light green with the main body in Dark Green 82.

Have added a turret fron the dpares box and eventually will add a night sight. I now have turret steps in wire added to replace the solid plastic steps of

the kit which were awful.

Below are some photos for the rail construction on the rocket carrier.