Continuously brilliant John, it’s looking fantastic. It’s a shame you’re only appearing in the Large-scale category – I understand why of course, maybe I’m one of the relatively few that doesn’t discriminate and interested in all sub-categories of the AFV forum including this one. At some point you ought to put this up for a Photo Feature so everyone else can see it.

Will look forward to the YouTube vid (I don’t do BaseFook), particularly interested in the paint & weathering phases. Understand re RC, the other bleedin’ obvious question is whether a couple of scale guys are going to be loitering around?

Anyway I remain in jaw-dropped mode, you’re in a league of your own. Cheers, Tim

Thanks, even though the post is listed in the "large scale" section it still emerges on the forum, the section are just used as filters

The odyssey now has the end in sight, the model is currently 95% complete!



Like I wrote last the last part to fabricate was the turret's grenade grills. These I set aside to when the rest of the tin work (fenders storage box) Were done and out of the way. For the grills I again went with all metal construction.







Also like with the rest of the tinwork the guards are all solder construction and no glues were utilized, The frames were made out of my usual galvanized sheet steel,







however the mesh is fabricated out of aluminum. Aluminum doesn't solder, so I had to sandwich the aluminum mesh between the frame and small metal strips that are solder able. The strips solder to the frame, and the mesh is held in between.





While doing some research on the vehicle it looks as if there were two patterns of grenade grills, The first was an earlier pattern and was taller than the second pattern. With the higher profile the grills had a different symmetrical shape to them, when the lower profile guards were developed the design was altered to make clearance for the flak gun chain mount.



For my model I went with the lower profile unit, and the clearance cuts were built in. On the left hand guard there is a large square cut out for the chain mount. This cut out also effect the shape of the stop rail, and the internal support reinforcement strip. On the right hand side guard there is a square frame that emerges from the top corner that overlaps and fills in the left from the other side.







On the front portion of the right hand guard corner there is a cut out for the AA scope. This cutout has a reinforcement strip which is fabricated out of round bar... this is also a feature of the later low profile guards.



The grills are hinged, and are functional. for the hinges I went with the set of resin hinges from panzerwerk. They were bolted to the grills and the turret.





The grills have a stop / locking system. The lock is a mount which is bolted to the turret's interior. This mount has a spring loaded knob that when pulled releases a lug the locks into a corresponding hole on a bulk head on the grill. There would be three positions. Closed semi open and fully open. On the model the parts were all fabricated but are for detail only and are non functional





When the grills open all the way to prevent them fro over stretching / causing damage to the grill there are two folding supports on the grill tops. These were both fabricated for the model and are full function.









After the grills were out of the way I added the last bits of details that I left out in the last update, namely the rear fender foot rest, and rear fender box latch. These were added and are mirror images on both sides



With the last bits added, the model was then ready to go into paint! First the turret and portions of the upper body were primed















After the primer, the base was promptly added. It was also very nice to see the model in one solid color especially for the first time!









After the paint was done, Markings were applied. Like with all my builds I made my own stencils and the markings were painted on. all the smaller markings were hand applied via a brush.







After the markings were applied the model went into it's weathering, then the wheels were installed





















Once the weathering was wrapped I then turned my attention to the smaller fittings. This would include the head / tail lights, reflector, shovel











I also turned my attention to the radio. For the radio I used the Panzerwerk resin radio set. The set was painted. I modded the radio by adding the prong detailing to the large plug insert, and by adding clear plastic lenses for the gauges.







The radio was then installed on the turret's radio rack. A leather strap was also added, as is found on the real vehicle





The radio was wired to an antenna base which was also added.





The gun was remounted to the turret. On the gun I also added the powder fouling on the muzzle break.



Currently I'm working on the remainder of the final small details and the model should be completed tomorrow!

I was also able to get the last post's video up on youtube, and will have the other vids up by early next week.

part 1:
https://youtu.be/c_FuQxU9TwQ

Part 2:
https://youtu.be/jayHsVh7mQQ

More pics were also thrown up on the ECA facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/EastCoastArmory

More to come!

OMG... this is totally insane build...
Freaking awesome John... cannot find the right words ...
Speechless. My brain suddenly numb..

Very impressive! Nice build!

Kind regards
Steven

Well, Everyone I'm happy to say that the model is officially...
---FINISHED---













since the last post The last of the tools were added. This would include the Ax, clipper, Jack, jack block, and tow cable







For the Ax I used a small German ax from Sixth scale Icons, the parts needed no mods outside paint / weathering. For the Clipper I used a white metal casting from Armorpax. The clipper's molded in handles were removed and wood handles were added in their place. The molded in end knobs were recycled and were painted to represent the Bakelite material that the knobs were made of on the real unit







Once weathering was done they were mounted to the interior mounts that I fabricated back when I was building the interior details.











For the cable I fabricated a tow cable out of flexible framing cable, after it was painted/ weathered it was spooled in the cable mounts on the rear fender.







After the cable I mounted another Tetra fire extinguisher. Like the first one used on the model's interior this unit was also from armorpax.







For the Jack I casted my own light german AFV jack, The Jack block was fabricated out of real wood, both were weathered and mounted to the jack blocks on the other rear fender.











The last interior detail that was needed to be added were two german gas mask cans... I acquired these from Monkey depot and were from Dragon. They were simply added to the canister mounts that were built into the interior















On the Model's wheels I added the center hub protector plates. These plates were designed to protect the center hub from shrapnel which could damage the unit and knock out / disable the car.







It was a good concept, however having seen many wartime pics of these pieces off I would think that they were tossed by the crews as they made getting to the lug nuts and changing a wheel more difficult and time consuming.







The ones on the model were supplied with the panzerwerk wheels and were added with no mods needed. They simply mounted over the wheel lug nuts











To finish off the turret, the antenna rod was mounted along with the radio head set and throat mic.











The headgear was Dragon and mounted directly to the Panzerwerk radio with no mods required... they just plugged in!







On the rear portion of the turret's top corner there were strips of rubber that were used as headrests. On the model these were fabricated out of styrene strips with fastener detailing added.











The last fitting to be added to the turret and probably the most notable was the Coax MG34. For the base gun I used a wrecked Dragon prebuilt MG34. This one was one of the AA versions which would have originally had the spider sight and Bipod. These parts were missing from the gun and the model had some other superficial damage.



The superficial damage was repaired, the gun muzzle was drilled out, the molded in bipod mount was deleted, and the over scaled spider mount tube was deleted for a more to scale spider mount peg. The most important mod that needed to have been made was to the Buttstock

















Like with all German AFV the Buttstock was removed off the MG34 (or MG34T) when placed on a vehicle mount, this was done to save space in the vehicle. The MG34 has a unique feature of a quick detach buttstock. with the push of a tab the stock rotates and is removed. When removed the buffer tube is exposed.















The buffer tube detail was fabricated and will be added to the ECA catalog shortly











The gun was repainted and weathered,



















The original buttstock will be positioned on the interior of the model, The buttstock was reworked in having it's internal tube added, and the tube's mounting slot screw detailing added. The stocks are painted to represent red Bakelite which like above was used frequently on weapon grips during this period.











The gun was added to the mount on the turret completing the turret's interior detailing!















With last bits added the model was complete, felt strange when the last part was added as I've been working on this build for such a long period of time :S



















A youtube video update was made going over in more detail on what was done to the model,



Part 1:

https://youtu.be/ercqeOhiVtc



Part 2:

https://youtu.be/_zR8p-BdqoQ



Also more pics were posted on the ECA facebook page,

https://www.facebook.com/EastCoastArmory/



With the model now done, Next nice day I get I can take the model outdoors for some nice outdoor dio shots, then she will be put in a display case, give the shop a real good long overdue cleaning, then off to other builds! More to come!

Congratulations John,

It’s a complete masterpiece now. Although....I’m willing – actually hoping – to be proved wrong but I’m not sure about the license plate numbering, it looks very hand-painted and uneven. On the assumption the real thing was done with a stencil I’d expect the result to look more precise – just flicking through photo sources like the old Panzer Colors series I can’t see any examples that look so rough, they’re all very sharp & neat.

Looking forward to the outdoor shots. Cheers, Tim

Very impressive. Amazing the amount of detail. Great job!