8.8cm PAK-43 Waffenträger Self Propelled Gun

[Guest]

With the 25lbr joining the German sIG33 for painting, I wanted to get another underway then prime and paint as a batch. I am also looking at getting a Trumpeter Soviet B4 Model 1931 203mm Howitzer. Not having much experience of Trumpeter models apart from a 1:700 ship, I decided to bring this very nice looking kit to the top of the pile. It comes with loads of brass including a spaced double skin brass gun shield or the plastic one if you don't feel up to brass bending, loads of ammunition and a metal barrel. Based on an extended Czech 38(D) chassis the PAK-43 was one of the later war pieces that came too late to make it's mark. The design also smatters of desperation. No room for the crew to travel on the vehicle, they would have followed on in a half track or truck. Only the driver has a seat and the body is basically a flat back for the gun mount and the original drivers position. There is detail for the cockpit and a bit of the interior detail as well as ammunition stowage. Once in action, the gun crew look very exposed, especially from the sides by the look of the box art. I may use the AK Interactive "1945 Late German Colours" on this one as there is a very attractive scheme in the accompanying AK Interactive Late German Colours Book in the 'Paper Panzers' section.

All in all, an interesting looking project in the making

[Guest]

Graham, you got too much time on your hands lol

looking forward to a double masterpiece now.

Andy

[Guest]

You coming back full speed Graham ,glad you're back at it !

[aaron]

I think this will look fantastic done in a late war colours,

I was just checking out the AK-554 late war set over at the scalemodel store. Awesome.

edit...Oh its the same link

[Guest]

Two on the go then eh ??

Looking forward to seeing this come together, not familiar with this vehicle at all .... keep the piccies coming

[Guest]

Busy busy busy, like your choice of subject Graham, looking forward to following the build.

Tom

[Guest]

Cheers guys, this looks like a game of two halves. I was surprised at how few the parts were but then, it has a lot of brass options, more of which to come. I said in the opening post that this had no crew compartment other than the divers position. Well, it appears that the driver had an open cab! This thing is really stripped back. However, that does mean that the drivers position is on show and must be dealt with. One great thing is the simple suspension so no mind boggling bits that end up covered in mud. Just two spring units that will mount two wheels each per side with a single guide roller above each of the springs.

First step up is to do the suspension, drivers position and the inner walls to section off the non visible interior and the two huge ammunition bins at the back.

Just a couple of pictures to give you tonights small progress.



None of the interior parts are glued in. There are two sections, the cockpit and the engine parts, well big fans anyway. The rear inner walls are glued up.

Now a view of how that will eventually look, obviously nothing glued up.



This also gives an idea of the brass challenges to come. First of all, no major brass has to be used, plastic parts are available in the box.

As you can just see, there is a lot of chequered plate detail. Initially, the side fenders including the mudguards over the drive and idler wheels are very nicely moulded and detailed thin plastic. However, if you feel brave, these get cut off full length of each side and replaced with beautifully etched chequered plate brass as is a few other sections including the back 'step' you can see on the box art. I don't feel brave but this just has to be done, it would be rude not to.

So, I have only just started to glue it together but next job is to start cutting it up!!!!

[Guest]

Looking forward to seeing you tackle that brass job Graham. Thats an intresting driver layout ,nice that you'll be able to see all the details once done.

[Guest]

Time to tackle some brass!!!!

Before I cut off the perfectly detailed and moulded fenders and mudguards to be replaced with brass ones, I decided to make up the brass parts first. That way, if anything went pear shaped, I would be able to bin the brass and pretend I had not bothered with it......... as if I would :lol:

First up, I realised that the only way I could do this with any form of strength would be to solder. I could not see how this can be done using superglue, it just would not have the desired strength. That decided, let's get on with it.

First up, the very nice PE that comes with this kit.



As you can see, plenty of bits. The ones I will be using for the fenders are nicely etched with a chequered none slip pattern.

First up is the long inner sections of the centre part. These have a 90º bend on a narrow section which is how it will be attached to the main hull so this part is simple if you have a decent bending tool. I use the superb 'Hold & Fold 5 speed'. I got the 5" one as I do mainly armour and needed the length. So, a quick bend and they are done.



Next up is a bit more complicated as we have to construct the front mudguards. First of all, the mudguard is bent with a narrow strip which will be on the outer edge. The shaped flat part has to be fastened to this to form the inner side where it attaches to the hull. After bending the shape of the mudguard to the shape of the flat plate, we have this.



As the flat plate is a simple butt joint under and along the inner edge of the mudguard, there is little support and I doubt superglue would be appropriate for this so a small amount of solder paste is applied to the edge with Blue Tac holding it all together, a touch with the soldering torch flame and job done. Here you can see the solder paste.



I didn't take a picture straight after soldering but it virtually disappears leaving a clean joint, the lumpiness is simply the raw paste. Here are the two mudguards next to the plastic originals.



Next up is the rear section including the rear mudguards. These have a bend along both edges, one to attach to hull and the other on the outside. oddly the centre section does not have this outer bend as can be seen in the box art. Here you can see it being bent along the long edges, the marks for where it will be bent to 'curve' over the idler wheel can be seen also.



And here, after all the bending.



The bent ends to form the 'curve' would not be very resilient though, they would easily bend up if caught so a small bit of solder paste in each joint where the narrow bent edges butt up to each other creates a rigid joint.



Here we have all the components and the next problem. As you can see, the centre section is in two pieces, not sure why they did this as it creates an issue as to joining them. Such a long butt joint would never hold with superglue and even solder would struggle.



Even though the joint is covered by four hinge pieces in brass, I did not think that this would be strong enough so I cheated and put three thin pieces of brass cut from the photo etch fret underneath to support the joint. These were soldered on as were the brass hinge plates on the top.



And there we have it, the three sections for each side. Good and strong, these will be joined with solder and then epoxy resin will be used to attach them to the hull after the plastic ones have been removed and the hull top has been glued to the hull bottom.



And the final picture showing them against the plastic parts they will replace.



There is nothing complicated abut doing something like this, you just need to take your time, work out the correct order of doing things and relax. Having said that, I can breath again now it has worked......

[Centurion3RTR]

Impressive work on the photo etch Graham, going to watch this one come alive.

Have fun, John

[Guest]

Graham nicely tackled ,really neat and tidy job! I like the added support on the long joint that was a good call,probably saved yourself some aggravation later in the build. Eagerly awaiting the next update!

[geegad]

somw nice work there buddy nice hold and folding buddy

[Ian M]

Going well Graham. Some very tidy folding there.

Ian M

[Guest]

Very neat and tidy job Graham.

Andy

[Guest]

Thanks guys.

Spent the late afternoon and all evening apparently getting nowhere. I did say I was surprised how few parts there were to this kit. Well, I didn't take into account the mighty 88 which is coming together, barrel only wedged in. It has been a right slog to get it to this stage though. Still, I suppose it is a little progress.