Luft46's Blog

Just got this from Book Depository – much cheaper than local $85 vs $125 and packed well.

That the price includes postage is great.

On the right is the KV2 Munition schlepper with some of the storage bay for the rocket fins started on the front right.

On the left is the Stug KV2 version.

Both kits are in the process of having the tracks added. This is by far the hardest part of the kit to make it look half decent. I now do this on the bottom but there is lots of stretching and tweaking to get it right. I do not like one piece rubber band tracks.

This one is now finished. The turret is a resin conversion for a Panther tank from a time before the Dragon kit. The turret hole only needed a little widening to make it fit. The turret was done a year ago for a Panther kit which had 2 resin Flak turrets so it was good to give this one a permanent home. Weathering is many layers with various paints and pigments.

Honestly this was a bit dissapointing. My last visit 2 years ago wasn’t much better. The move to a larger venue has made it seem small and the number of entries and vendors seemed less also.

Below are a few photos as I dawdled and was still only an hour.

Last weekend went up to Newcastle. Frontline are scaling down their Newcastle store due to the new tram lines construction and have opened a large new store in Broadmeadow. You know its big when they have a customer toilet. Inevitably a few moved kits had breakages.

This was finished about 2 weeks ago. This is the old Extratech kit now being done by Brengun. Its a nice kit but the trailer was surplus.

This is my second kit for 2018 with the 3rd due very soon.

Just a quick update

The first 3 shots are of the KV2 with Wurzberg radar. Despite some difficulties with my airbrush and compressor I am happy with how this going.

The fourth shot is my KV2 which will have a Panther AA turret on it. I used some camo putty and on the second attempt it turned out quite well. I did have to do some touchups with a paintbrush but this turned out fine. The yellow is late war Dunkelgelb as per MIG Ammo. It’s lighter and more creamy than I was expecting but a dark wash should tone it down so it doesn’t contrast too much with the turret.

I found the Ammo paints sprayed quite well with a little thinner straight from the bottle. I will buy more of these in the future although I believe the AK range is similar.

Incidentally a big stir of the contents is helpful, that metallic ball is more ornamental than useful.

The fifth photo is of a recent order from the UK.

The last photo is the start of my diorama which followed some ideas in that AK book I got last year on dioramas. I still need to add the grass for the front section in. The dio will have the 3 storey turret KV2 on it.

I have finished the first KV2 with just a simple conversion with a Panther turret. No major changes apart from using four steel pins cut from guitar strings to help give the tracks some sag. This idea was from a friend and the strings courtesy of my wife. The sag is not perfect but it certainly helps. I am now doing the same on the rest of the damned rubber band tracks. Did a bit of weathering too , mostly 1.35 techniques on a more subdued scale.

Next up is the Panther AA flak gun turret left over from another project. But that still needs paint and tow ropes.

So here is the main part. I have been doing just some basic weathering, putting a few scratch marks in as well as standard things like a dark green wash on the body etc, mostly techniques from 1.35 modelling but writ much much smaller and less is definitely more. A lot will not show in the photos but in real life are there.