Just For Fun - An Iraqi BMP

Here, then, for your viewing pleasure, is a Lindberg BMP, one of those really old kits that you probably remember from back in the day. I got it on eBay, and build it in a few hours (there are something like 50 parts in total).

I'll slap on the wheels and tracks tonight (the roadwheels are drying now).

T-55 Painted

Next we have the Iraqi T-55, completed, except for the tracks and roadwheels, which I almost always build last.

I don't have good pics of each step, but I textured the smooth-looking turret by stippling while glue onto the surface with a stiff brush, and then I shot the first coat, Russian Dark Green. When that was dry, I shot a base of my own mix of Tamiya and Gunze paints, approximating a dark tan. The final layer is a contrast coat of the same mix, with some white added.

Iraqi T-55

This is the Trumpeter Chinese Type 59 kit, repackaged by Hobby Craft. I was waiting for my Jordi Rubio barrel to come in from Lucky Model. To review, the fule panniers are from Tamiya's T-62A kit (the originals from Trumpeter were too small, and had a strange texture to them).

I reworked the kit's gun mantlet by adding a few layers of thin tissue, secured and stiffened with white glue. I had to drill out the middle of the mantlet, as the barrel is sized for the slightly larger Tamiya part. The PE locking ring around the base of the barrel is from On The Mark's excellent T-55 PE set.

Next came the external fuel lines, made from #26 lead wire.

This was the last item I added before painting. Next post will show the paint and weathering.

FOUND

Here's a dio in progress. I don't build a lot of dioramas, or at least I don't finish a lot of them. But this one's coming along nicely.

The idea is this: Two US paratroopers have stumbled upon (found) a freshly abandoned German Panzer IV in the rubble of a bombed-out building. Location would obviously be somewhere in Western Europe, probably Belguim.

The Panzer IV is a kitbash that I built about a year ago, consisting of Tamiya and Academy parts (mostly Tamiya). I used an Aber barrel, Lion Roar turret skirts, Cavalier Zimmerit, a Panzer Workshop interior, parts of a Tiger Models Designs backdate set, Friulmodel tracks and Archer turret numbers. PE tool clamps, etc came from Eduard, Lion Roar and Aber.

The building is "East Prussion City Building" from Mini Art. I don't recommend Mini Art's building kits because of the way they're designed. They're basically in two halves that you have to join together, leaving the worst seam I've ever seen, right down the middle of every edge. Terrible. This building, has more after-market filler and putty than Pamela Anderson.

The cobblestone street section underneath all that rubble came from Kancali, as did the rubble molds I used to make some of the debris. Also in the mix is some home-made debris.

The US troops haven't been difinitively added yet. They're in the last two pics, but only for my reference, for now.

Finally, the Long-Awaited T-62

Here's my Russian T-62, circa 1970, for the Cold War group build. Will be able to write more on it later. But for right now, suffice to say that there are a few touch-ups to be made, but for the most part it's done.

I know they're not the best pics, sorry for that. I'll try to take better ones once I get all my little corrections and final touches done (hopefully this weekend).

Sd.Kfz. 7 10 September, 2008

I started this build yesterday, not counting the many times I took the sprues out and looked them over, read and re-read the instructions, etc. These are things I’ve been doing ever since I committed to building this kit for the Service & Supply GB.

Anyway, I got through most of the assembly yesterday, and then sprayed my undercoat late last night, and went to bed.

This morning when I got up, I didn’t feel like going to work, so I didn’t. Instead, I stayed home and finished this kit. I started at about 8:30am, and not counting bathroom breaks and meals (McDonalds is across the street, while waiting for paint to dry), I worked straight through to about 11pm, and then I did my clean-up, and right now as I write this it’s closing in on midnight.

This is one of my favorite armor builds, so far. I just like the way it turned out. I was inspired by Bodge’s Sd.Kfz. 7 that he posted recently, and I used his technique for the seats (although they didn’t turn out as nice as his, I’d say they turned out pretty well for the first attempt).

I used Tamiya’s tried & true Sd.Kfz. 7, 8-ton Semi-Track, kit #35148. The kit falls together very nicely, especially after fighting that Alan ZiS-5. There is a little flash, but it scrapes away easily. I used no filler of any kind, although some of that is because I use a thick CA which tends to fill small seams and gaps. Point is, I didn’t see any filler-worthy gaps, or any other significant fit problems.

I originally wanted to use this kit for my (eventually) upcoming Flak-36 dio, but I decided to do something else with my Flak gun. So this frees the halftrack up for a stand-alone build. This decision came right about the time when the Service & Supply GB came into existence, so the connection was all but automatic.

First pic is of the box art, just for your reference:

Next, it’s step 1, assembly of the exhaust line & muffler, drive sprockets and leaf springs onto the chassis:

Next is step 2, assembly of the drive train and fuel cells:

Assembly went almost exactly by the step-by-step instructions, except that I saved the roadwheel assembly for last, after the rest of the vehicle was painted. This allowed me to skip steps 6 (roadwheels) and 12 (tracks), until later.

Next is the addition of the front suspension (wheels, steering linkage, etc – step 7):

In step 8, I assembled the cab, without the steering wheel:

And in step 9, I assembled the hood-and-grill assembly, and then inserted the cab onto the body of the vehicle.

This establishes the three main subassemblies: chassis, hood, and body. And the next step adds the seats, bulkheads, cargo racks and windshield:

She’s now ready for paint.

I also postponed step 13, which is the assembly of the major subassemblies. I left the three subassemblies (chassis, body, and hood) separate for initial painting. I primed all three with an undercoat of Vallejo Model-Air #71042 Camouflage Black Brown. I used a heavy round brush to paint the frame, the suspension parts (leaf springs attached to the frame), and other undercarriage parts that may show, using Gunze Sangyo Aqueous Hobby Color #H343 Soot. I don’t know why they called the color soot, but it works nicely for metal industrial applications, where heavy steel parts would have been painted black.

NOTE: Some of the pics in this section didn’t show up well, and are therefore omitted. Also, I didn’t take pics of everything.

But here’s a shot of the three subassemblies, waiting for paint. I added the idlers to the chassis, to keep the back end from resting directly on the table. Also, here you can see the additional tarps made from distressed paper:

My primary color is Model Master Acryl #4796, Panzer Dunkelgelb 1943. I wanted to let some of the dark brown undercoat show through, so I went easy on the application of paint through the airbrush around some of the more heavily-worn edges. As I’m modeling a vehicle that would have been manufactured after the color change in 1943, I didn’t see any need for an “original” coat of dark gray. The camouflage green spots are Tamiya XF-65 Field Grey, which I use for most of my panzer green applications.



I did find a use for Tamiya’s XF-24 Dark Grey, though: I figured I’d give the vehicle a panzer gray top. Of course, the top is neatly folded, so I wrapped some distressed paper around the kit part to present a more realistically folded top. I think I learned this many years ago, from a Shep Paine book. But I ended up covering up most of that anyway, with other tarps and stuff. The tarp hanging from the cargo rack in the rear is another piece of distressed paper, painted with Tamiya XF-13 J.A. Green.

It was at this point that I began stuffing the vehicle with what I thought was cool-looking cargo and stuff from my spares box. Some of it was already painted, some not. Most of it (which would be covered by a tarp or something anyway) got a quick coat of Tamiya Dark Grey.

You might also notice that somewhere in this process I decided to repaint the camouflage pattern on the hood. I think the first attempt was just too big.




Weathering was done primarily with a series of successively darker washes, mainly acrylics and water. I also made liberal use of MIG filters. The tires are painted in Gunze Sangyo Aqueous Hobby Color #H77 Tire Black.

So add a good dusting using real dust, apply a graphite pencil to the heavy-wear areas where troops would be climbing and loading stuff, and rust up your tracks using Rustall, and you’re set. License plate numbers are waterslide decals from the kit, while the tactical mark for an armored supply company came from Archer Fine Transfers, set #AR35046W, German Tactical Symbols (1943-1945) (in white).

After looking at the pics, I can see a definite need for further weathering on the stowage, and maybe a little detail work in some places. I might still get a PE set and add a few small things here and there. Also, I intend to replace the kit-supplied one-piece tracks.

For reference, several times during this build I thumbed through the following book, which has actually been a godsend every time I’ve built a German halftrack in the last few years: Concord Publications’ Amror At War Series #7054, German Halftracks of World War Two, by Frank V DeSisto. ISBN 962-361-091-2.