Braille scale Schwimmwagen

Raiding other model kits for figures - and in this case, just an arm - I broke into Hasegawa's 1/72 Schwimmwagen/Kettenkrad set. I was cobbling together a pilot figure for Eduard's 1/72 MiG-15 bis (more about that in a future post). Anyhow, opening a kit to steal parts from it leaves you open to the impulse to just build the damn thing, especially if it's a quick easy build. Maybe you're different, but without impulsivity I don't think I'd ever build models. We'll see if I get the impulse to build the Kettenkrad, too.
Marking options include army, SS, and Luftwaffe, so I went with Luftwaffe, since it might come in handy in some future diorama. I left out the driver figure, since it's sort of a misshapen blob with an oversized head. As you can see, the decal on the driver's side of the tub just sort of disintegrated. To help cover up this defect, I abandoned the plan to leave the whole thing in solid Panzer Yellow (one of the Polly S paints I still have) and brushpainted some camo with Model Master enamels (Panzer Red-brown and Panzer Green). The canvas top started out Humbrol Deck Teak, but it seemed too close to Panzer Yellow, so I overpainted it with Humbrol Hemp. The top lacks a rear window, which would have been clear vinyl on the real thing, so I glued on a piece of envelope window with Micro Crystal Clear. It's like Elmer's only better, and I used it to glue on the license plates from the decal sheet. (Yes, that's what instructions tell you to do, too.) Tires are Vallejo German Grey lightened in areas with Medium Sea Grey - my go-to method of painting tires.

Quick work. So there you have it. Not the best Schwimmwagen model out there (why do the blackout covers on the headlights have their slits at odd angles? And the propeller and prop guard are molded as one piece that's merely a suggestion of what should be there). The whole thing is barely two inches long, but it looks enough like a Schwimmwagen that I'm happy with it.

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.