Tuesday 16 November 2010

Dragon Sd.Kfz.7

Heavy Weather!













Hi Guys!

Please find posted some close-ups of the subject of an upcoming article I hope to have written in the New Year. This is Dragon's Sd.Kfz.7, Initial version with the dedicated Voyager Model PE upgrade, which includes a fantastic resin hood and some incredibly fiddly weapons clamps. The vehicle has the kit's Magic Tracks, which are actually quite impressive, but the front wheels are the ET Model upgrades, which are 'weighted'. I can't pretend to have enjoyed this build - every single moment at the bench was modelling purgatory, but I got there in the end. Some say it does you good to face a challenge - I'll leave that to the pundits to debate - from here on in it'll be Panzers all the way.

Thanks for looking!

Bill

Saturday 6 November 2010

Sturmgeschütz IV

The Man with the Golden (Assault) Gun!













This amalgamation of aftermarket goodies adorns Tamiya's little old StuG IV, built before I got my hands on the recently released Dragon Smart Kits. I had intended to paint it up soon after construction, but I didn't quite get around to it...until now. The Zimmerit is Eduard, as is most of the PE save the fenders, which are Voyager Model's generic Panzer IV fenders. The tracks are Friul, the gun is Eduard, the antenna is Aber and the chains are TMD. You can see there is a fair bit of kit-basing going on, as the running gear, which is mainly Tristar, but the idlers and sprockets are Dragon, is entirely donated as I felt the original Tamiya moulds were too poor to use. I hope you like it & look forward to painting it and letting you see the assault gun resplendant with a full set of skirts.
Thanks for looking!
Bill

Monday 1 November 2010

Panzer III Ausf N (late)

Dragon upgade!













This is the recently released Dragon 1/35 Panzer III Ausf N (late), kit number 6474 with Friul tracks, RB Models brass antenna, Voyager Model PE set (PE35337) and Voyager Model PE fenders for Panzer III Ausf L-N (PE35338). The fender set is a wee bit of a challenge, but once that is assembled the upgrading tools is relatively straight forward, but you need to be on your toes and make sure to utilise both the Dragon and Voyager Model instructions simultaneously. I decided to avoid PE Turm Schurzen on this build for speed, but to Dragon's credit I truly believe these are quite possibly their finest styrene turret skirts; the sheets being almost translucently thin. I look forward to painting this model and have built it as a review for publication, so watch out & you'll be able to READ ALL ABOUT IT! Thanks for looking.
Abyssinia!


Bill