Captain Blood's Western Desert: P.125 - SdKfz10 half-track with 2cm Flak 30

[Silent Invader]

Great project Richard that I'm following closely. 

A question on those barrels. How robust are they? The resin looks thin enough to snap if poorly handled.

[Captain Blood]

Yes, easily snappable I think Steve. The machine-gun even more so than the cannon - it's approx. 0.8mm.
Again, you might have thought cast metal for these fine / tiny components would have been better, but I guess they're resin all the way to keep everything in house.

[carlos marighela]

Yes, easily snappable I think Steve. The machine-gun even more so than the cannon - it's approx. 0.8mm.
Again, you might have thought cast metal for these fine / tiny components would have been better, but I guess they're resin all the way to keep everything in house.

Even that doesn't make much sense. Casting metal parts could hardly cost them much and they have a sort of partnership with the Perry Twins anyway. If you aren't going to cast things like gun barrels in white metal, then the fucking least you can do is resin cast with a brass rod insert to reduce breakage. Lots of people do this.

Nice work on thhe Tiger Richard, a bit over chipped for my tastes (those Tunisian Tigers were as ant few weeks old when they wer engaged) but overall really lovely work.

[Svennn]

Trains are definitely blaggghhhh for me too but I would take planes over tanks any day. That said I do have a soft spot for Tigers and yours is superb.

[Silent Invader]

Yes, easily snappable I think Steve. The machine-gun even more so than the cannon - it's approx. 0.8mm.
Again, you might have thought cast metal for these fine / tiny components would have been better, but I guess they're resin all the way to keep everything in house.

Blimey that is thin. Maybe TAG have some in their 'armoury' that you could use to modify?

[Keith]

I'm sure you can polish these up nicely Richard. The MkII looks particularly good.

Just a quick thing, but the hatches on the Vickers should be sitting horizontally not vertically. The tank commander can rest his arms in them when they are down. You might have reference that matches what you've done here but it's not typical and makes placing figures in there a bit of a bugger :-).

[Captain Blood]

Thanks Keith. Many of the pics seemed to show them upright like this, but there was clearly some variation. Maybe it depended on how stiff the hinges were! 
Having gone to a deal of trouble to get the bloody things to stick, I think I might just have to live with it now... 

[Keith]

Yes, probably best to leave well alone then! I imagine it's a good idea to raise a hatch to provide a little cover against small arms fire anyway.

[von Lucky]

Nice polishing nonetheless.

I think 3D renders to sell a miniature is like the line drawings of days of yore (better than nothing, but a photo of an inked version of the model you're going to get is the best way of providing some honesty).

[Queeg]

.....

The bottom half, alas - in particular the area involving the mould line around the tracks / wheels and lower part of the hull, front and back - is a freaking disaster. All manner of resin accretions and mucky lumps of efflorescence that require determined carving away with a scalpel to reshape down to the correct profile, as best one can. Not a job for the inexperienced or or faint-hearted.

I guess they'd say that because these are designed for robust handling on the wargames table, rather than pinpoint accurate scale models, it's more important that they look the business from above, rather than worrying about a bit of miscasting and resin clag around the lower portions of the vehicle (which can be covered up with mud, etc). I can see this point of view, but it's a little bit disappointing .....

Welcome to the world of 28mm resins. Working on stuff with issues like this is par for the course and not just a Blitzkrieg issue. Some manufacturers are better, and within ranges quality can go from great spiralling down to far far worse than this. It's why I openly favour plastics where something is available in both. It's also why I spend so long on my builds and can't churn them out in 2 hours like some can, without a Dremel and Bench Grinder working with any quantity of resins becomes problematic.

As for using wargaming robustness as an excuse for poor attention to detail and dodgy moulding I don't buy it and never have. It's just an excuse to be trotted out time and time again akin to "the dog ate my homework" oldie but goodie. On kits as big as 1/56 (and a lot of 28mm figure scale/size creep is because the sculptor needs a bigger canvas to work on) we should be seeing far better than has been the norm up to recently. If you want to see how one piece stuff can be cast with as much detail as you could ever want have a shifty at some Milicast or Cromwell stuff, what they can do with a 20mm one piece hull is phenomenal, no 3D lines on any of those either.

ps gun barrels, small arms and some details should be white metal no question, even a brass rod insert doesn't save all gun barrels. On way too many kits the thin, fragile and warped guns and mgs have had to be ditched creating additional cost, time and frustration.....

Apart from my extremist views above (had Mexican for lunch and I'm still obviously overheated) very much looking fwd to seeing these guys getting the "Capt" treatment ....

 

[ARKOUDAKI]

Richard, you need to stop mucking about with these 1/56 AFVs, as they are too small for the figs (well, perhaps aside from the Perry's WW2 range which is on the small size in comparison to other manufgs) and go with some proper 1/48 kits. Rubicon is starting to get better in 1/56 but Warlord and Blitzkrieg's kits are not good, and more expensive then buying the Tamiya kits (hit places like Tokyo Hobby, Lucky Models, Hobbylink Japan, etc for best prices). Then your wonderful paint jobs will really shine and you won't be so put off by all the work you do on some of these other kits.

[Remgain]

Richard,

wonderful model! 
Are the scratches painted in a lighter camouflage colour and then "filled" in gray/black?

Thank you,
Marco

PS... ehm, I think the front spare track was assembled upside down...
In this way it slips to the ground.

[Captain Blood]

Marco. I agree with you. It looks the wrong way up, but the retaining bar lines up with the stanchions on either side, so it has to go that way up. And that's what the instructions seem to show... http://forum.rubiconmodels.com/index.php?topic=53.0

The scratching is done using AK effects 'chipping solution' - basically you paint the liquid onto the acrylic paint and just scratch away at the bits you want to appear worn. The solution softens and removes the acrylic, leaving the darker enamel basecoat to show through the scratched paintwork. Actually, in some cases, on the Tiger, the solution lifted the enamel off as well, so I had to retouch those in with a bit of 'grime' pigment. You have to use the chipping fluid very carefully! 

[NurgleHH]

Gefreiter Richard, ein wunderbares Modell von Deutschlands Stolz, dem Tiger-Panzer.   
Wonderful Richard, your vehicles are brilliant. The Tiger looks very realistic. Will a board follow in the next month???

[Captain Blood]

Viel dank, mein herr.
 
A board will follow in the next six months...