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Forums - Modelling / Smallscale |
The construction forum is for the discussion of small scale AFV modelling. Usually this refers to 1-76th and 1-72nd scale AFVs. |
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| Subject: | Panzer 1 - First off the production line |  |
| Date: | Jun 9, 2007 |
| From: | Bruce Probst | |
Well, it took a bit longer than I expected (it's been nearly two months) but I finally completed my first plastic model kit as an adult. Yes, I've (re)discovered another time-consuming and expensive hobby from my youth!
I'm not proclaiming this to be some great masterpiece, indeed there's a whole bunch of stuff I'd do over given the chance, but the whole point of building *this* kit was as practice: getting my feet wet and re-awakening skills I haven't touched in over 20 years (as well as trying to develop some new skills that I never had at all).
Various factoids to note:
The kit is a Fujimi Pz.IB, ex-Nitto molds, 1/76 scale. The molds date from the early-to-mid-70's, I guess; the outline matches scale drawings provided in Schiffer books that date from that time. Unfortunately those drawings were quite wrong in several areas, particularly in the rear upper deck (all that lumpy stuff on the back that you can see in photo 2 should not be there). The other Fujimi Pz.IB kit (which is next off the treadmill; I've started already) is much more accurate in this respect. The kit went together reasonably well, some bad gaps in the upper and lower hull that had to be filled, but nothing
very difficult there. Of mild interest is the fact that the kit includes a detailed (although not very accurate) interior (that didn't go together particularly well, either). However, after building and painting it I discovered that the interior was in fact quite invisible, even with all the hatches open. So, a lot of effort for no gain, then. I was going to build this with the hatches open but I couldn't get them to sit right and eventually I decided the heck with it and closed them. (Some of the trauma of this is still visible unfortunately, but hey, it's for practice, right?) And despite the obvious desire to go the extra mile in providing an interior, Nitto then completely cheated and didn't fill in the huge gaps beneath the fenders just above the running gear. If you pick the model up and look at it from an angle below the tracks you'll see two huge holes on either side. And no, they don't give you a good view of the interior so they didn't do it for that reason; I think they were just lazy. (The other Fujimi kit doesn't have this problem; the hull is correctly sealed.)
I added the rear-torsion bar (see photo 3) from stretched sprue; the kit included nothing. At first I thought this was a glaring error but on further reading I discovered that some vehicles actually didn't have it, and adding the bar was a post-build modification. From an engineering viewpoint I'm astounded; the rear idlers have virtually no support! They must have been falling off all the time.
The vehicle was brush-painted all German dunkelgrau, using Humbrol and Tamiya acrylics. I tried some black ink wash and some highlighting but I must have been too subtle; it's only visible if you look very hard. I then applied the basic kit decals (just the balkankreuz; the divisional insignia provided with the kit were hopeless) and dirtied it up with some pastels. I think that worked out pretty well, actually. Shame that it wasn't until *after* I had got this far that I found out that no German tank in 1939 was actually solid dunkelgrau; another myth shattered.
The kit also includes a BMW sidecar and a kubelwagen. The BMW you can see in the photos; it's nothing special but was harmless enough to build. I have no idea if it's accurate because I have zero references on WW2-era BMW motorcycles. I painted it panzer grey (which is what the instructions said, once I nutted out the Japanese paint references) but I suspect it should probably have been field grey in reality. Why can't you see the kubelwagen? Because it was a heap of junk that didn't go together well at all and I eventually decided that I just didn't care enough. It now lives in my spare parts container.
The kit also included figures but I can't be stuffed painting 1/76th scale infantry. I'm still not even sure whether I'll bother with 1/35th scale figures; we'll see.
The base is a plain MDF drink coaster, about $0.65 from Bunnings and given a few coats of paint. No, I can't be stuffed building dioramas either. The label was printed on card from my printer and didn't survive the gluing process terribly well; in future I'll have to coat them before I glue them, or something. Another lesson learned.
Any way ... here it is: #1 in a series of who knows how many. Now all I have to do is figure out where I'm going to store it now that it's built. |
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 | Panzer 1 - First off the production line [IMG] - Bruce Probst - Jun 9, 2007 |
| . . . Re: First off the production line [IMG] - Bruce Probst - Jun 9, 2007 |
| . . . Re: First off the production line [IMG] - Bruce Probst - Jun 9, 2007 |
| . . . Re: First off the production line [IMG] - Bruce Probst - Jun 9, 2007 |
| . . . Re: First off the production line [IMG] - Bruce Probst - Jun 9, 2007 |
| . . . Re: First off the production line [IMG] - Bruce Probst - Jun 9, 2007 |
| . . . Re: First off the production line - Saul Garcia - Jun 9, 2007 |
| . . . . . . Re: First off the production line - Bruce Probst - Jun 9, 2007 |
| . . . . . . . . . Good Job! - Michael Wawrow - Jun 9, 2007 |
| . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Good Job! - Ken (Cpl) Overby - Jun 9, 2007 |
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Good Job! - John Yarosh - Jun 9, 2007 |
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Good Job! - Bruce Probst - Jun 9, 2007 |
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Good Job! - Bruce Probst - Jun 9, 2007 |
| . . . . . . . . . Later, you won't be a beginner... - Saul Garcia - Jun 9, 2007 |
| . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Later, you won't be a beginner... - Bruce Probst - Jun 9, 2007 |
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