Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Jobs in progress...

The refurbishing of just a portion some of the multitudinous inventory of recently acquired stuff is proving a challenging task: quite a lot to do, and then find accommodations for them.  Here's a few...

This particular Tiger has proved a beggar to fix: as fast as I glue bits back on, other bits fall off. Unfortunately its track broke as well.  It has come this close to being 'laid up in ordinary' for its parts.  I had to drill a hole through the centre of the sprocket and the axle point in the hull, and trim down a toothpick, shove it through and glue into place.  I just could not by any other means get the thing to stay on.  The front three road wheels are equally problematic.   



In the end I've had to glue them all into one 'unit' and then try and secure them into place.  The broken track will then have to be dealt with.  The plan is to stretch the whole over the sprocket and road wheels sufficient to bring the ends to touching - or as close to it as may be.

It is not helped by my noticing the buckled turret roof I had not previously observed.  Might not be so easy to mask that! 
The Tiger below has been a trifle better behaved.  The tracks tend to wibble all over the place and I might be forced to glue them to the road wheels to get them to look right.  Eventually I'll get hold of some turret bins and exhaust covers for these machines.





Below are the 3 ROCO Tigers receiving the first (rough) coat of 'factory yellow'.

Below is the StuG being reincarnated as a StuH 105.  Some filling work will be needed around the muzzle brake.  The paint work looks rough as guts, I accept, but I reckon the thing is too delicate to chance stripping.  Once painted, weathered and inked I'm hoping it will pass muster.  It is likely this chappy will be fitted with side schuertzen as well.   

 My new Panther company - or probably reinforcements to existing companies, building them up to 4 AFVs apiece.  I think I have 17 Panthers now - a full-sized 1944 company in 1:1 terms; a strong battalion in Command Decision terms.  These will need glacis plate MGs refitted, but these are otherwise in pretty good nick.

 A welcome addition to my British Army transport: a Bedford prime mover for the 5.5-inch medium artillery. Note: it has since been pointed out this is in fact a Matador, an AEC manufacture.  Nothing to do with Bedford.  My mistake: I knew - or ought to have known - better.
The flat bed, tilt and cab were glued back on - which proved less simple a matter than it sounds, actually. There's still something skew-whiff about the thing, but nothing too serious. 

  Lacking the rear axle assembly - which would have been pretty delicate anyhow, I simply glued on a block of balsa, and then bored a hole through it for my toothpick axle.   It's no work of art, but it will do methinks. A liberal coating of PVA and a black wash or paint will disguise it sufficiently, I reckon.  The underside of trucks is not something we want to inspect too closely too often anyhow.  We aren't interested in their gender, are we...?
 Below: two 8.8 cm FlaK.  The near one I have had for some years, the farther is one of them there recent arrivals.  The near one has been missing one of its folding legs since I acquired it, back when Methuselah was a lad running bare-arsed around the hills of Mesopotamia or wherever.  The new guy seemed also to be missing a leg, but it transpired it was there, and the turntable assembly was wanting a small broken off piece to hold it in place.  In the end I simply glued the floppy leg in the 'down' position.  The old 88 will get a wooden leg... There is also the temptation to remove the gun shields and call them Russian 85mm AA guns. I could use a couple of those...
Although these little guns are supposed to be PaK38 50mm Anti-tank guns, they really are far too small for this.  Some research seems to indicate they could be 42mm PaK41 tapered bore weapons.  Most of the images I've found don't look too much like these, but there are one or two I've seen that do resemble this model.  Not many were ever issued (fewer than 400), and they seem originally to have been designed for the Parachute troops.   So that is what they will be defined as.   
 As I have some of the old Airfix sPzB41 28mm Anti-tank gun/rifles, they will be roused out, given some wheels and pressed into service as well.

Finally, a PzIV addition to my 2nd Panzer Battalion.  This is a PzIVF2 by the look.  I've had to replace the odd road wheel (e.g. the green one), and one of the return rollers is missing.  That has been replaced by a piece of tubing that, with some filling and judicial application of paint, weathering and ink, will be sufficiently disguised.  I hope. This fellow comes across in the photo as a hardened veteran of many battles...
It has all been pretty rough and ready, but gradually we are progressing...

16 comments:

  1. Great work in progress and a useful reminder of how to mend the broken.

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  2. Thanks, tradgardmastare -
    Thought it might be an interesting exercise to have a close look at the 'half-way' stage of thse refurbs. I wasn't really sure how I felt about them at this stage. The 'finished' articles will tell us something, I guess!

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  3. busy, good variety of stuff too

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    1. And more to come. I'm beginning to wonder if I haven't bitten off more than I can chew...

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  4. The 50mm PAKs were made by Edai- a Japanese manufacturer- in the mid 1970s. They came with a Krupp Protze truck and I think a Kubelwagen. All were supposed to be 00 but were a bit small and may have been based on Roco(?) models. Here is a link.

    http://henk.fox3000.com/arii.htm

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    1. I remember those kits. Thanks for the remainder! Actually the Krupp Trucks and Kubelwagens (or Schwimmwagens) seem to me the proper 1:76 scale. Having some Matchbox Krupp trucks and Airfix kubelwagens, I see they are of a size with the Eidai vehicles. As for the guns, I do believe that they were labelled as the PaK38 (50mm AT) - if they were identified at all.

      My researches tell me that the overall length of the model is about 2/3 to 3/4 what it should be, though the height is about right. That makes it pretty much underscale even for the 1:87 that ROCO uses.

      It so happens I have a couple of metal PaK38s in 1:76 scale, and the difference is so large that I can not in all conscience use them as PaK38s. However, as I have seen similar-looking images of the 42mm PaK41 tapered bore weapon, that is how I will use them. The extra kubelwagens recently acquired will provide suitable traction.
      Cheers,
      Ion

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  5. I checked out the 'Henk' link, and did it bring back memories! Those kits provided very useful panzerfaust and panzerschreck ATRL as well. I used to glue them onto the backs of the soldiers as if they were slung over the shoulder - especially the badly needed 'fausts'. Definitely wargamers' kits, these, rather than modellers'.

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  6. I really like that you have managed to encapsulate all of the most frequent trials of the refurber. 1) Bits fall off as fast as other bits are stuck back on. 2) Tracks get broken while you're fiddling. 3) Busted sprokets have to be pinned back on to withstand track tension. 4) The more you work on the model the more problems you notice that you didn't see at first. Great stuff !

    Cheers, Dave

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    1. We aim to entertain. I've just been building a Fujimi PzIIIN to go with the Tigers. What a carve-up that was!

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  7. cool stuff. although a lot of tedious work but I guess it is rewarding and it will deliver a lot of tanks for the battlefield for no cost

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    1. That is the big up-side, of course. I will have a lot of work to do to sort out my German army in particular, that has grown into quite a respectable size. In 'Command Decision' terms, it is the best part of a Panzer Division plus an Infantry Division (Type: 1944 model of the 352nd Division). This is not counting my Afrika Korps stuff... Nor does it take into account various attachments, such as the Tiger Company (4xTiger I and 1xPzIIIN, the latter being built to accompany the refurbished Tigers).

      Of course, these guys are also (in another incarnation) the army of Orotina. There seems to be no limit to El Presidente Adolfo Ximinez's appetite for acquiring military hardware.

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    2. and that man was on Oronegro's boarder, glad I wasn't in charge I would have done something stupid. then again knowing the leadership at the time (neutral but did many dodgy dealings including letting dangerous NAZI scientists stay in the country after the war) they probably would have been just another group trying to sell him weapons for the best price.

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  8. Excellent progress Ion! I think Dave has said it all!

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    1. Cheers, Paul. All this has been accompanied by a deal of bad language, but the upsides have been that I can get a lot done whilst the soccer, or the League, or the Rugby is on... And, as Gowan observes, I end up with a much augmented inventory of shiny stuff to play with.

      I'm kinda multi-tasking (which in my view is a flash expression for getting nothing actually finished), as this posting rather indicates. In addition I've begun and am close to completing the construction of a Fujimi PzIIIN (short barrel) to go with the Tigers. It's a nice model, but for several reasons, it's a bugg-- it is not easy to assemble...

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  9. In your blog you said you had a Bedford as a prime mover for your 5.5" medium artillery. Isn't the picture you show a Matador from the Airfix kit?

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    1. Correct: I misspoke. can't think why I made that mistake; I knew better. I'll put it down to absence of mind - a senior moment. I've made a sort of correction in the body of the posting.

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