Sd.Kfz. 7 half-track, post-war

[JR]

Is this mad enough yet, JR? :smiling3:

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I added more detail to the engine, such as missing linkages you can see fairly well when it’s in place, plus spark plug cables (thin stretched sprue) while on the radiator grill, I added bolt heads and the hooks that the upper engine covers attach to to keep them closed.

By now I think I’m done adding and improving details on this model now, so here’s some pictures of everything I have at the moment, assembled without glue like last time:

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Yes that will do nicely . :smiling3:

[Mini Me]

........as long as it's painted 4BO!! :tongue-out3: :tongue-out2::tongue-out2::tongue-out::thumb2::thumb2::thumb2:

[Guest]

Thanks, everyone I’m pretty happy with the way it’s come out so far. Now I’m going to have to try and not ruin it with paint …

[Graeme C.]

That's looking very good indeed Jakko.:thumb2:

[scottie3158]

I wasn’t joking — I don’t think the hubs have been built all that well because a lot of the bits are crooked or a little misaligned. The same goes for things like the rocker arms and even the back plate of the cab. This is because of a lack of skill on my part, in things like actually drilling holes straight rather than at a slight angle, for example.

But it doesn’t actually bother me that someone else could have done it better — as long as I’m not dissatisfied with what I’ve made, it’s all good. (If I am, I pull it off the model and try again, like with the cab.)

Jakko,
That is what it's all about, the only person you have to please is yourself. But I think you are being unfair on yourself the detail you have added given the size is superb.

[Tim Marlow]

Fabulous work Jakko. Up there with your best I’d say, and far beyond my best. Fabulous :thumb2: :thumb2:

[minitnkr]

Excellent detailed representation. A faded/oxidized finish will top it off nicely.

[Guest]

Thanks again, all

That is what it's all about, the only person you have to please is yourself.

That has long been my philosophy in life, not just in modelling Always measuring yourself by the standards of other people is the road to unhappiness, if you ask me.

But I think you are being unfair on yourself the detail you have added given the size is superb.

Oh, I agree it’s well-detailed. I just don’t think it’s as good as it could have been

far beyond my best.

I remember some photos you posted of aeroplanes you built, and mine come nowhere close

A faded/oxidized finish will top it off nicely.

It will probably not be faded much or at all. This vehicle can’t have been very old as, off the top of my head, this late version only started being produced in mid-1944, and this photo probably isn’t later than the spring of ’45. If you look at the real-world photos, the vehicle has paint that covered pretty well and doesn’t look faded or worn at all.

Will you add the tipped ammo locker?

No, the idea is to build it in the state it’s in in the first and second photos, so I’ll add that twisted wire and whatever else I can make out in the load bed, but nothing more. Well, maybe a figure, for size, but I haven’t found one yet that is easily converted to what I have in mind.

[Guest]

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All the main parts are now painted, with Mr. Hobby H403 Dark Yellow (aqueous, not lacquer ) into which I mixed a little Tamiya XF-55 Deck Tan to flatten the colour slightly, as I think it’s a little saturated straight from the bottle. The tracks were given a semi-random mixture of Tamiya XF-52 Dark Earth and XF-1 Flat Black (more of the former than the latter) and when I still had plenty of that left in my airbrush when they were done, I threw in some XF-69 NATO Black to make a dark grey colour that I sprayed the engine with, too. All of this thinned with isopropanol, again more or less randomly until it sprayed well If I had to guess, I’d say somewhere between 2:1 and 1:1 paint:alcohol.

Those tracks were fun (not) to paint, by the way. I first laid them on one side on my spray booth’s turntable so I could spray them inside and out, then turned them over and repeated from the other side. That done, I hung a track over my left index finger (wearing a rubber glove to spray the joint between the two links there, pushed the track on by one link and repeated until the whole thing was done. Checking them now, I see I still missed bits despite that … oh, well, that’ll disappear with more painting and washes and things.

[Graeme C.]

Looking good with paint Jakko, like you say, the vehicle wasn't very old, be interesting to see how you do distress & weather it.

[Guest]

Yes … I’m wondering about that myself, to be honest. First will be red-brown and green camouflage, though, trying to replicate what is visible in the real photos and improvising the rest in a similar style. Probably tomorrow

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
Nice to see this at the paint stage. Tracks are awkward to paint. There always seem to be missed bits.
Looking at the very first photo and given the time of year I'd say weathering would probably be limited to rain streaked dirt. Being newish and not under strong sun faded paint would be minimal even if late in the war the Germans were using poor paint. Any damage has been covered by the build itself.
Jim

[Mark1]

Your doing a grand job there jakko.

[Guest]

Looking at the very first photo and given the time of year I'd say weathering would probably be limited to rain streaked dirt. Being newish and not under strong sun faded paint would be minimal even if late in the war the Germans were using poor paint.

I was thinking along those same lines, yes. The paint seems to be in good order in the photos of the real one, even the camouflage covers well so has been applied better than on many vehicles. Sun-bleaching would be minimal, I think. The autumn of 1944 was dark, wet and stormy, and the winter of 1944–45 saw a period of heavy storms, frost and much snow (I just looked it up ) so not much opportunity for paint to fade either.

[adt70hk]

Jakko

Yet again, some amazing work. Very well done.

Andrew