"It's not a toy! It's a model." Yeah, right.

I recently built Atlantis Models' repop of Aurora's 1/48th scale 8 inch howitzer. I thought it would be a walk down memory lane, as I thought I remembered that about 50 years ago I built Aurora's Long Tom, which is the same kit except for the gun tube. Now I think the kit I built back then was probably Hasegawa's 1/72 Long Tom. Either kit is very play-worthy and fun for kids (and for modelers who can still remember being kids). One of these toys - I mean models (wink!) - can be just the thing to get the modeling mojo going again!

The instructions tell you how to assemble the kit in travel mode, but let you know when not to use cement so the play features all work. The upper carriage elevates and traverses, the gun tube recoils, the breech opens (though it doesn't represent the breech block at all accurately). The lower carriage has separate chock plates and trail plates which can be stowed for travel or mounted for firing (more on this below, since there are problems, mainly with the clarity of the instructions). The split trails swing and can be joined to the limber plate and mounted on the limber, and the lower carriage can be dropped out of the tandem wheel assembly that supports it in travel mode (more on this below, as well). And of course, the wheels all turn.

The kit originally came out in 1958, and although it purported to be a WWII howitzer, it's got features that were only seen later. Notably, the tires have gnarly off-road tread, and I think the mount on the limber where the trails are attached is a later version as well. So I decided that my howitzer lives in 1958. I painted the figures so their uniforms are Olive Green, not Olive Drab – mostly. Old stocks of Olive Drab were used up after the war, and from what I've read may still have been in use in 1958. Boots were now polished black, and enlisted rank insignia were no longer buff over blue. They look like olive green over blue, but I don't know if Olive Green was the specified color. President Truman had integrated the armed forces a decade before, so I painted the soldier holding the wrench to be a black man. I chose to paint his uniform Olive Drab, to represent the old stock being used up, though it's hard to see the difference.

The kit has some assembly problems, and I'll refer to the parts by name since that's how they're listed in the instructions. In Step 25, the springs are cemented to the forward and rear tandem axles, but the mating surfaces are shaped differently: flat on the springs but round on the axles. This means there is very little contact area. This problem is exacerbated in Step 36, when the ends of the cross beam axle are to be snapped into the holes in the springs on the tandem wheel assembly. The snap fit requires a fairly tight tolerance for the distance between the springs – too far apart, and the carriage just falls out; too close together and it pries the springs apart, breaking them off the axles. If I build another, I'll be sure to engineer the spring/tandem axle assembly at the outset to get the springs firmly attached with the correct spacing. The four small airbrake diaphragms (Steps 26 and 29) are also easily knocked off when attaching the cross beam axle, and I'm not sure if there is any way they can go on straight and not get in the way of the cross beam axle.

Minor assembly problems occur with the trail ground support plates and chock plates. The instructions don't give very clear indications on where the former go when stowed (Step 40), and the inset photo of the completed models shows them glued to the underside of the trails. Correctly assembled, they slide into the trail plate hangers on the inside faces of the trails. Care must be taken to attach the trail plate hangers properly in Step 33 so the support plates will slide in and out. The notches in the lower gun carriage and bottom plate to allow for the deployed chock plates need filing out, as you'll find out when test fitting them. The instructions don't tell how to attach these or the trail support plates when deployed for firing mode, but you can see the notches on the underside of the carriage and the ends of the trails. Both types of plates form a right angle with welded gussets on the inside of the angle, and are deployed with the gussets facing forward so the recoil doesn't pry the welds apart.

The sector gear (Step 9) is supposed to hold the upper carriage at various angles of elevation, snapping over the stepped shaft (Step 13) as the elevation angle is adjusted. This movement is very sensitive to any alignment error in Step 9, so I found I had to file the sector gear teeth until it went between minimum and maximum elevation with a light click. Step 42 is also a little confusing if you trust the photo in the instructions. The hitch lock should be oriented as shown in the diagram.

Some filler is needed for the inevitable ejector pin marks and to eliminate the seam in the assembled gun tube. Yes, kits of this vintage lack slide molded barrels! Back in the good old days before slide molding, instead of wailing and gnashing our teeth, we'd roll up our sleeves and we'd putty, sand, and primer the gun tube for as many go-arounds as it took to get a smooth barrel with a precisely centered round bore. So that's what I did, and frankly it wasn't that much trouble. The vinyl tires were the worst molded parts. All the way around the tire was a weird hump across the tread, affecting some tires more than others. It took a lot of sanding until none of the ten tires looked noticeably like factory rejects.

Paint is mainly rattlecan Krylon camo olive with light weathering except where the rubber literally meets the road, or the lack of a road (and takes some with it). The decals are a new addition by Atlantis and appropriate for postwar howitzers, and though I doubt they represent any actual markings, pictures can be found of howitzers bearing stars, the words "U. S. ARMY," and nicknames, all of which are on the decal sheet. It wasn't easy to find room for them all, but I managed. They went down nicely over a coat of Future and coated with MicroSol. I had no trouble keeping them from silvering (some decals just seem to suck air in under them, so they'll silver no matter what you do). They are not the thinnest decals and glossy to boot, but brushing on some flat coat knocked down the gloss and all but completely hid the edge of the carrier film.

One particular mistake I made (and I always make mistakes!) was with the piston rods in the elevating cylinders. I painted them with Model Master Chrome Silver enamel and found they were a tight fit, so I added a drop of 3-in-1 oil to each so the elevation mechanism would work. As a result, the oil softened the paint so that it will probably never be completely dry, and I kept getting silver fingerprints on the howitzer during assembly. The piston rods don't look so great now, either.

I wanted to display the completed model on a simple diorama base to keep all the partsand figures together. I glued two seven by nine inch pieces of corrugated cardboard together with their corrugations at right angles to each other, clamped under the weight of a small anvil. The resulting base is very stiff. I applied MDF sawdust, brown spray paint, and Woodland Scenics foliage. To support the figures, I heated a straight pin and shoved it into one foot of each figure. After painting the figures, I cut the pins so only about 1/8" stuck out, then I stuck the figures to the diorama base like thumbtacks.

 

...and Braille Scale Kettenkrad

And here's the 1/72 Kettenkrad that comes with the Schwimmwagen in the Hasegawa kit (31113, originally MB-103). Not much to say about this, other than I'm still using up stocks of Polly Scale paints (Panzer Yellow and Grimy Black, to mention two). The seated figures that come with it are pretty awful, but there's a standing figure who might be usable. I won't embarrass Hasegawa by showing you what the figures look like. Instead, here's another of their early vehicle models, from 1973! Sure, it's simplified (the front wheel and fork are one piece, as are each of the two track and wheel assemblies), but actually it's quite a little gem, with nice detail and just a bit of seam lines and flash.



It was a really quick build, but at least I took the time to clean up these minor defects where visible. The instruments are painted black with these nifty Gundam markers I got on sale cheap at the Dragon USA online store, which seems not to have much inventory anymore, but that's another story.

Anyhow, I like these little multi-kits. They're like little dioramas in a box, or playsets if you like to move them around the workbench while making "vrrroom" noises.

RSO Part 4

Just a short update. I finished cleanup of the new vent holes to make them neatly geometrical, so they look like they were made by Germans (or Austrians, rather) and not cavemen. Then a shot of primer, and I added metal screen. The problem is that the cab is about a scale inch thick, but softskin vehicles like the RSO are made of sheet metal. The screen in the real thing is fastened over the opening from the inside and has no problem lying flat and nearly flush with the back of the cab. I couldn't come up with any better alternative than pressing the screen in from the inside, and the results aren't as good as I'd like. To really get the right look, one would need photoetched parts for the openings. Some plastic would have to be shaved off, the PE parts put in flush with the surrounding surface, then puttied smooth so it's impossible to tell where the PE starts. The screen would be attached to the PE from the inside, and would be nearly flush with the outside since the PE is so thin.

Although these screens don't satisfy me in this case, it was good experience and would look right for some applications. I'm leaving them be since there will be a canvas top, which will make them very hard to see. The duct inside the cab has several similar screens that will be more visible, so I will have to consider how to make those.

RSO Part 3

I noticed that while the vents on the rear of the model's cab are centered, the cooling air duct that fits in the cab is off-center. Aside from the fact the duct wouldn't line up with the vents, the vents are supposed to be off-center, as you can see in the picture. I forget where I found this picture, but apparently someone found this RSO cab somewhere in Poland.

In the next picture, you see the relocated openings superimposed over the old vents, which are just surface detail. The lower opening shouldn't be as tall as the upper, so I corrected that, too. I have since started puttying over the old vent detail and mesh will go in the openings to complete the vents.

Aside from this, I've been puttying and sanding ad infinitum, primering, and opening the vent holes in the front of the cab. I found out those two rectangular covers with rounded corners that you see in the top picture are dampers for vents. Expecting the RSO to have headlights other than just the Notek blackout light, I had thought they were headlight covers. I even found a wartime photo of an RSO with what appeared to be light shining out one of those openings, but vents they are, and for a good reason. It could get hot in the cab sitting next to the air-cooled V8 engine. Wartime photos often show just one of the vents open, usually the driver's vent.

RSO Part 2

Friul should consider branching out. Check out the what a fine bracelet these RSO tracks make, modeled here by my lovely wife Ilene.






Closer inspection reveals why some of the pins broke after I assembled the first run of track. The nub you see in the photo at right is enough to wedge the adjoining link causing it to pull on the pin, shearing it off. Before assembling the second run I filed any nubs off.


The shapes stamped into the back of the cab should also show on the inside, as in this close up from a walkaround at the Military Models website in New Zealand. I edited the picture to indicate the stamped shapes. This particular walkaround is great because the vehicle is painted white and partially disassembled, making details more visible.

I made the matching raised areas in the back of the cab by fitting sheet styrene into the depressions. First I taped a piece of strip styrene into the depression running around the lower part. I bent the strip to get it to go around the corners.

Once I had the styrene shape formed, I simply peeled off the tape and the styrene with it.







Next I put it into the cab and cemented it in place, carefully peeling off the tape.








The rectangular depressions on either side of the rear window have sheet styrene cut to fit...

...which is then transferred to the inside to form the raised areas, then cemented in place.






I found in period pictures and modern day walkarounds that the main bolt holding each roadwheel on is often secured with a strap held on by two opposing lug nuts. The RSO probably came from the factory this way. I decided my RSO should have this feature.

I wanted to simply put a strip of brass with two holes over the lug nuts, but this wasn't practical. My only other choice was to remove two lug nuts, superglue a strip of brass on, and reattach the lug nuts with superglue. To this end I sliced two lug nuts off each roadwheel with a fresh #11 blade (with tape over the nuts to keep them away from the carpet monster).

Then I pulled off the tape taking the two nuts with it. I shaved off the remaining plastic left behind so the brass strip would be tight against the wheel. Not shown is how I cut a strip of brass, pressed it over the hub of the wheel, and cut it to length. Some of the wheels got scored in the process, so a bit of putty was required to cover up the damage.

And here are all eight roadwheels modified with the brass strip and the lug nuts reattached. Comparing my work to photos of the RSO, I made the strips a little too wide, but I'm just glad the carpet monster didn't get any of the lug nuts. They are practically microscopic!

RSO, Part 1

Oh, by the way, Merry Christmas! It's a long time since I posted, having gotten derailed from modeling this summer and making very little progress on aztec decals for Starcraft's 1:1400 scale Saber-class starship. Meanwhile, I've started on an armor (well, softskin) project that should get me back on track (no pun intended) but not take terribly long to complete.

I recently got the Chinese version of Italeri's 1/35 RSO. It includes a sheet of photoetched details by Voyager and decals by Cartograph, neither of which I would expect to find in the Italian boxing. Sorry about the glare, but you know what the model looks like. The cat's name is Rory (as in Mr. Amy Pond). This kit was very inexpensive, Lucky Model's deal of the month or whatnot. A little history of this kit: Italeri (then Italaerei) bought the molds for this kit from Peerless/Max when they went out of business in the 1970s. Peerless Max is probably best known for their kits of various U.S. Army subjects in the range between the Jeep and the deuce-and-a-half (Italaerei bought a bunch of these molds, too). I never knew about their RSO since I don't remember seeing Peerless/Max kits at the 5 and dime where I bought models back then. But the Peerless/Max kits, while primitive by today's standards, are still pretty impressively detailed and engineered kits, and AFAIK pretty accurate.

A major reason I bought this kit was that I already had the Fruil tracks for it. Someone had tossed them into the table of parts for the Iron Modeler competition at Wonderfest. The stuff was free to all takers once the competition was concluded. Since I build armor also, I snatched these up.

At right you see the assembly fixture, followed by a picture in which I demonstrate how to use the fixture. These tracks are not what I expected: there is no wire to form track pins. Instead, the track pins are cast as part of each link. The part of each link that is like a hinge barrel is open so it can trap the pin in the next link. You place the assembly on the fixture and press the open barrel shut (here I'm doing it with a jeweler's screwdriver), and you get workable track.

Here's one run of track test fitted on the tractor. They look pretty good here, but I had to cut out a couple links in which the pins broke, probably because I closed the links together with too much force. PMMS has a review of Fruil's track set for the RSO, but it's for a new version, which confusingly has the same number of ATL-29. The differences are that the new links are more accurate, that they have wire for link pins and bolt head parts to make right- and left-hand tracks, and that sprockets are included. The new set apparently takes 69 links per run. I don't have the Panzer Tracts for the RSO, so I don't know how many links it should take. I looked at the best photo I could find of a real RSO and tried to count the number of links, and it seemed to be 72. The run I assembled took 67 links.

Since there are two versions of Fruil's track set ATL-29, you may get the old set when you think you're ordering the new set. However, I'm pretty happy with the old set. They are a bit wider to fit the wider kit sprockets, but the difference in width is kind of hard to see. Once I got the hang of assembling them, it was a breeze. True, the bolt heads on the link pins aren't there, but to my eye these are too large on the new track set. All in all, I don't see a lot of reason to prefer the new set over the old.

Track assembly fixture

OK, here's the track assembly fixture. It's just a piece of scrapwood with popsicle sticks glued to it. It might be better to show it in action, but here's how it works. The space between the popsicle sticks is wide enough for the guide horns on 1/35 PzKfw III/IV track links. You cut two strips of tape (I used blue painters' tape) and lay them sticky side up on top of the popsicle sticks, fastened with thumb tacks at the ends. Then you put the track links in one at a time with the guide horns between the popsicle sticks. The tape holds them all together on the inner face. Now you can wrap the length of track around the wheels of your AFV and apply liquid cement.

DML 1/35 Sturmgeschütz III F/8

These are some shots of my recently completed DML 1:35 Sturmgeschütz III F/8. I hadn't done an armor kit since 2006, and did it to participate in a group build called The Sturmgeschütz Brigade Build on Armorama.  This is the Imperial Series kit, not the later Smart Kit, and has been sitting in my stash since the mid '90s. The Imperial Series were originally Gunze kits, I am informed. Never had a Gunze kit, so I can't confirm that. It's a better quality kit than 1970s Tamiya armor, but not up to today's standards. It does have individual link tracks, as opposed to those vinyl "rubber bands" or the intermediate option, which I really hate, "link-and-length." It also has some really nicely detailed parts (the roadwheels are especially fine), but there's a downside, too. Fortunately, most of the downside is easy to fix or hard to see.

The intake covers are molded solid. They couldn't take in much air that way! These were easy to replace with parts I made from scratch. Newer kits include photoetch replacements for these. The trailing arms for the roadwheels are molded onto the lower hull in a funky way: they extend under the hull. Solution: don't let anyone look underneath!

This was also my first use of the hairspray technique. (Short description: over the base coat, apply hairspray, which is water-soluble. When it's dry, paint over that with acrylic. Let this dry--not too long--then wet it and rub off loose paint.) It's a pretty handy way to show chipped paint, but it's easy to overdo it. It's also an easy way to knock off delicate parts! The whitewash is applied even to the rubber parts--I figure no crew cared to mask off the tires--but as rubber doesn't hold paint well, most of it has come off, except for the spare roadwheels on the back of the engine deck..

The individual link tracks were kind of a pain. I did the right-side run by hand, and it only took 91 links as opposed to the 93 of the real thing. It seemed track assembly would go easier with a mechanical aid, so I built a fixture and assembled the left-hand run on it. It only took 90 links, and sags even more. Why? Damfino!

The whitewash is Pollyscale flat white, applied both with brush and airbrush, and generally rubbed off with a toothbrush. In photographs, one often sees Winterketten (the extra-wide tracks) are often supplemented with some regular links. On my model, one of the winterketten links on each track has been modified to be a regular track link, as has the length of extra track mounted on the rear. I thought this would serve to explain the tracks. The painting of the tracks is pretty simple: I spray painted them Krylon camo brown, then misted with Krylon red primer. The tracks on the suspension then got drybrushed with acrylic gunmetal and washed with cheapo craft-store acrylic brown to muddy them up.