Tristar 1/35 scale Marder III Ausf H |
| By Mike Bishop |
| Started: | Jun 5, 2007 | | Updated: | Nov 12, 2007 |
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I must confess that I have not really been interested in this tank over the many years. My mind was set back in the 1970/80s with the memory of the old Italieri kit. I even went as far as to build an Ausf M from that kit as it was the one I really wanted. That all changed when the DML kit was released a few months back. The detail added was light years above the older Ausf H kit. Then Tristar announced the kit of the Ausf H which made one ponder....why. Thanks to the folks on this site and at PMMS, the reason why was soon answered. After reading the reviews of the DML kit and those of the Tristar kit I decided to sell the DML kit.
Enter Paul Owen. He asked on this site if anyone would like to build this kit for a blog to which I posted, along with ,that I wanted the chance. Paul decided to make the choice and it would be me. Thanks Paul. Anyway, I decided to get a few extra things for the kit because I'm never happy it seems if I don't update something...no matter how good the kit would be. This one is very good indeed. |
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| Finished | Nov 12, 2007 |
| The tracks have now been added. I added the chips with a small #0003 brush. This process take a long time. I work in one area at a time. I view each section as if what kind of damage can can happen to small places. I drive a forklift at work some days and that thing takes a beating. Running into... more |
| Wash me baby! | Nov 5, 2007 |
| Well with all the basic building and colors added, it was time for what I like to do best, weather the model. After the green was applied, the model was set aside to dry. While the model was drying, I painted the tracks Humbrol track color #173. After painting the tracks I lightly sanded the tops of... more |
| Green camouflage added | Oct 31, 2007 |
| After the the Tamiya yellow dried I painted the green color. I mixed up my own green color till I was satisfied with the shade. It's a mixture of dark green and primer green. The colors are from Testors enamels. I just shot a random pattern. I was going to spray a red brown too but changed... more |
| Final building and first paint layer | Oct 27, 2007 |
| Well with the hobby juices flowing again I was able to finish adding the details to the upper hull. You will notice those tiny tie down clips on the shields. They were really a royal pain to attach. They kept breaking off. The brass fret just gives you enough of the parts for the locations needed. I... more |
| Engine Deck and Small Details | Aug 20, 2007 |
| In this chapter I was finally able to get back to work on this project. I added the deck panels to the engine deck. Care must be taken when dealing with the grill. My kit had some flash that had to be removed and I was able to do this with my trusty knife. I then coated the whole affair with some... more |
| Main gun and FuG radio | Jul 22, 2007 |
| Tonight I will focus on two areas of the kit. The main gun and the kit radio. Both items are nice right out of the box. However one can always add cool stuff to make the model better. In this case I used the Aber 7.5cm gun to replace the kit version. I must confess that after using one of these... more |
| Brass Fenders | Jul 16, 2007 |
| Well after a forced break in building this model I'm pleased to say I'm back and ready to resume building again. This Chapter will deal with installing brass fenders by Voyager models. The fenders are nice and really don't need much work to get them ready. The first thing that needs... more |
| Time to Paint the Lower Hull | Jun 27, 2007 |
| In this chapter I will discuss the process I use to paint the hull interior. I tend to build as much as possible before I paint a base coat. The Base in this case was black. I use black for two reasons. The first is to cover everything with a single monotone color. I never want to see unpainted... more |
| Wheels and Tracks | Jun 22, 2007 |
In this chapter I decided to change the pace a bit by moving to a sub assembly.
While I like the kit tracks, a friend of mine in Summerville (hi Bill) was building his Panzer 38 (t) a while back and he showed me the working suspension of his tank. It was the Tristar 38(t) E. While I was impressed... more |
| The Lower Hull Interior | Jun 8, 2007 |
| Now that the transmission is done, I turned my attention to the lower hull. This follows the next step in the instructions. I filled the knock out pins first then covered them with primer. Both side walls were done this way. Once the primer was dry I added the detail to the side walls. |
| Transmission and Gearbox | Jun 5, 2007 |
| This build begins with the transmission and gear box. The transmission has a typo on the instructions that one needs to look for. H23 is labled twice for 2 different parts. H23 is the transmission and the smaller part h23 should really be H27. The gear box has an assembly sequence that should be... more |
