Changing the Gepard's Spots COMPLETE 12-31-06

Modeling Subjects Armor
1

As some of you know, I’ve been planning an “insane” project for a while now and well, it’s time. In honor of Thanksgiving Day and the tradition of grand spreads, my next project actually partially begun earlier this week but officially kicked off today is building a Flakpanzer 38(t) “Gepard” using Alan’s 1/35 kit as a base and a variety of AM upgrades/replacements for different parts.

As I mentioned, I actually started work on the MK tracks earlier in the week as something to do while watching TV. I find this is the best way to assemble these just because it involves a lot of repetition and the TV provides a nice background/distraction. The MK instructions tell you to use 95-96 links but I’ve built the Alan Grille M and the count on that one was 90 links with slight sag, so since I want a little bit more sag for this one, I split the difference and built each track with 92 links. I can always add a couple more if needed.

First major phase in construction actually involved some destruction, controlled of course, in order to allow the Azimut resin hull to be fitted. Alan uses the “slab” method of hull construction as oppsed to a one piece tub, so this made the surgery easier in that respect. Azimut provides a template but it’s really not necessary as the removal is pretty straightforward in terms of what stays and what goes. I recently picked up a fine tooth hobby saw at Hobby Lobby that fits into a large hobby knife holder and this was perfect for the job.

You can see on the lower hull side a slightly dark brown smudge…I’ll give you three guesses as to what that is. Surgery can be hazardous and let’s just say I’ve really put a part of me into this build even at this early stage. [:)]

Next up in preparation of fitting the resin pieces, the hull tub was constructed and squared up. All the test fits of the resin pieces are good and I’ve left them dryfit (not pictured) on this frame to let it setup good and solid overnight before securing the add-ons in the morning.

2

Wow, wbill. How much money is invested in that little pile? I like the looks of those tracks. I’ll be checking inon this one.

-60

3

Only because you asked and forced me to add it all up… [:D]

Alan kit: $20

Tristar Kit: $18

Eduard PE: $15

Voyager PE: $15

Armorscale Barrel: $12

MK Tracks: $30

MK Sprocket/Idler Set: $14

Azimut Hull Update: $35

Total: ~$170 with some shipping thrown in since I ordered the stuff at various times. I bought the original Alan kit over a year ago and just slowly added the different bits. There actually won’t be a whole lot of the original kit actually used…mostly just the hull tub and some of the suspension parts and some of the misc. detail items. The kit already comes with quite a bit of extra parts since many of the sprues are common to the Grille M but aren’t used with this version. The hull is one of those and requires some large adjustments to get it accurate for the Gepard such as needing a rounded drivers compartment instead of square and removal of the “hooks” on the front of the drivetrain sprockets.

4

This buid will be awesome!!! I’ll folow closely as it is part of my stash [:)]

5

Talk about timing!

I started the exact same kit, last week on another forum. However, I’m not going anywhere NEAR as far as you’re going. Mine will only have the Blast Models (err; Brach Model) interior and upgrade set and some spare PE for the exterior components.

I’ll definitely be watching yours and seeing how the two builds compare side-by-side…so to speak.

6

GT, glad to hear I’m not the only one attracted to odd machines. [:D]

Robert,

What does the Blast Models set cover? Is it an interior for the driver/engine or for the fighting compartment?

Here’s the latest on this project.

Today’s efforts focused on completing the surgery started yesterday. The Azimut hull update set consists of a new bow plate, front hull plate with correct rounded driver’s superstructure, upper deck, and pedestal mount for the fighting compartment.

The resin is a light tan in actuality and has very nice rivet and hinge details. Only a couple of thin spots/bubbles on some of the larger pieces but none that created sink marks. Only piece that needed some extra work was the driver/upper hull plate, the rear edge was missing a semi-circular piece that I filled with some Aves Apoxysculpt. It was just my luck that the piece is where a hinge plate should go but I think that the Eduard set has a replacement I can use so not too worried about it. Some of the pieces had large pour blocks that I used the saw to remove, others were small enough to remove with normal sprue cutters. This is the first set from Azimut I’ve used and I’m happy with it especially since it has some nice “extras” thrown in like gas mask containers and MP40s for the fighting compartment.

The real challenge today was getting all of these to play nice with the surgically altered hull. Biggest challenge proved to be the pedestal mount. It’s a very large resin block with the detail on top but was just slightly too wide to sit properly inside the hull. Since it’s supposed to nest inside the rear compartment, the trick was getting it sanded down along with the sides just enough that it would fit but not produce a large gap in the process. The upper deck piece also had to fit right so that it could mate up with both the pedestal and the driver’s hull plate. This meant a lot of back and forth with sanding and dryfit but eventually it worked out.

Since the pedestal was such a large piece of resin, it needed a strong bond to keep it in place. To achieve this I rolled up a nice ball of Apoxysculpt and then using finger pressure pressed it into the sides of the plastic hull until it was paper thin. The beauty of this stuff is that it’s epoxy based but isn’t a glue, and has a fairly good worktime of about 1 hour, so I was able to fiddle with the pedestal to get a good fit and just shave off the excess Apoxy with a hobby knife. Once it sets, it’s rock hard. Great stuff, has a lot of uses and a little bit goes a very long way. [;)] You can see in this pic that the original plastic hull sides are “sandwiched” between the pedestal and the exterior upper hull resin pieces. Once the Apoxy has setup overnight, this will get some light sanding to smooth it out and make it all even.

The rest of the pieces were fitted with CA gel carefully since CA bonds very quickly with resin pieces so had to be sure everything was just so before getting it down in place. The toughest fit came with the bow plate as the pins for the MK replacement sprockets were in the way so a good bit of them had to be carved away. The pins are static posts and not meant to be rotatable, so it wasn’t too hard, just a small space to work in until enough was chipped away.

Here’s the patient out of the OR and into the recovry room:

While this was also going on, I built up the MK sprockets and idlers. The great thing about this set is it contains sufficient parts to build up 2 complete sets, one early or one late, so it’s actually good for 2 builds depending. I’m using the late pattern on this one so the early set will go into the spares bin for future use.

I’m glad I got this set as the included parts in the kit are a mix-match of early and late. The kit provides both early and late sprockets but only early idlers. That and the detail on the MKs is superior and, of course, they fit like a glove to the MK tracks. [;)]

7

The odder the better!!! That why I’m crazy about german stuff like that! Awesome work so far, not easy to fit everything together with all the AM. You’re a heck of a man doing a heck of a fine job!

8

First, my bad…I have so many AM parts, I forgot what I had for this kit…it’s the Brach Model set, not Blast. It includes a new upper hull including hatches and viewports, the drivers compartment including tranmission linkages, a new idler wheel, a couple minor exterior parts, a new gun barrel, and a couple gun details.

9

Look’s like this will be another great build Bill,I’ll be watching with interest.

10

Congrats Bill, I think this is one to watch. To hell with expense, this is an interesting vehicle which deserves this much attention, horray, all hail this little chief, its going to be another gem.

Terry.

11

Cool deal. I am happy if I have $40 total to buy a kit with! LOL. I don’t have a stash. But I buy when I can and when there is a HobLob coupon! I’ll be watching for more pics, Bill.

60

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Robert,

Good deal! The driver compartment sounds like a neat addition, look forward to seeing that.

Comet,

It’s slower going than normal…I have no less than 6 different instruction sheets scattered over the workbench right now (3 for the Eduard set, 1 for the Alan, 1 for the Azimut, and 1 for the Tristar) and getting ready to add another 2 to the mix with the Voyager set. New meaning to the term paper pushing I guess. [:D]

Terry,

Thanks for the encouragement, I’m having a lot of fun with it, lots of hacking and fiddling but so far so good. [;)]

60,

Hobby Lobby coupons are great, especially the Internet ones. They keep those things rotating pretty regularly between the Single Item 40% type and the specialty for model kits pop up frequently. Too bad I acquired all the kits that my local HL carries a while back but I will still use them for things like brushes from time to time (sounds crazy I know but they carry some fabulous artist brush sets that are worth it.)

13

Hey that’s true about the brushes. They have some good ones. I just wonder when you’re finished if you’ll look at the left over parts and realize you still have the original kit there, completed. And a completed model!! [(-D]

Looks like a fun project. Enjoy!

60

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Almost…about 80% of the kit will be unused in the end from the looks of it so far. I’m basically caniballizing the original kit for the lower hull, superstructure, and suspension. [(-D]

After all the efforts yesterday with the big surgery, I discovered that the Squadron white putty just wasn’t up to the challenge on the gap on the upper hull. As it dried, some of the pieces contracted and fell through into the interior creating some neat sub-gaps of their own in the process. I was afraid this might happen since the gap was between two resin pieces and the putty didn’t adhere too well under pressure or stress. So the backup plan went into motion in the form of some 0.5mm styrene rod and Testor’s liquid cement.

The styrene is extremely flexible and with the added liquid glue and a blunted toothpick, it can be shaped/molded pretty effectively to fit into the space and fill the gap. I gave it 2 or 3 treatments in different spots until it was nice and gooey and filled properly, then let it set for a couple of hours. Once it had dried out and returned to a solid state, some very careful sanding with the tip of a needle file followed by light passes with a 600 grit sanding twig and I was back in business.

With that out of the way, I decided to work on the fighting compartment lower interior areas beginning with the floor. The Eduard set includes a nice PE insert that solved 2 problems but created 1 in the process. What it solved was the dilemma of the join area between the original hull and the resin pieces and how to fill the back area where the resin had a gap with the rear compartment plate. What it created, because it was designed for the original Alan pedestal, was how to deal with the ammo holders around the base with the resin design vs. the Alan kit part.

The solution to this was pretty simple in the end. To get the plate fitted, I had to use the Dremel and grind down the front where it met up with the engine firewall and also a couple of the points where it contacted the base of the pedestal. Once that was solved, I had the problem of no ammo holder trays on the resin pedestal on the sides where they should be and not at the corners as the Alan part had it. (Going off the archived AFV interiors site, it looks as though Alan copied a protoype design with fixed sidewalls instead of the actual production layout that had fold down superstructure plates). I didn’t have a lot of options since Eduard didn’t have any parts for this area, so I decided to build up one set of the twin ammo boxes using the kit parts but cut down the bottom so it would fit the new pedestal correctly. This required surgically removing them from the Alan part, cutting/sanding them down to size, and then double checking their fit and clearance with both the 20mm mounting plate and the side ammo box holders on the right hull side.

Before that could happen of course the brackets in question had to be built and the ammo boxes test fitted with the Tristar parts to make sure everything worked out ok. Eduard provides some very nice straightforward open box frames meant for the Alan parts but I elected to use the Tristar ammo boxes instead as their detail was much better than either the Alan or the Azimut resin parts although they are dimensionally smaller than the others for some reason. Not sure whose error it is in the end. For the left side, I decided to fit only the brackets and no ammo boxes due to clearance issues with the mount plate as well as the tight fit for the radio and the other ammo racks on that side.

In the course of all this activity I managed to give my right thumb the same treatment that happened to the left earlier and decided enough was enough…while out at dinner with my lovely wife, we stopped at Office Depot where I picked up these little beauties. [;)]

Last task for the day involved assembling the lower radio and ammo racks from the Eduard set. I had the frame all beautifully done up…dropped it, and in the process of looking for it, managed to roll over it with one of the chair castors, but was able to get it mostly straightened out. The Alan kit parts for the radios fall into the “blobs of plastic” category IMHO and the Eduard set provides a very nice, although fragile, alternative which I took advantage of.

I’m giving some serious thought to painting the lower areas while they are still accessible but haven’t yet made a determination on that just yet.

15

The efforts begun yesterday with the details were continued with a focus on some of the exterior hull details as well as the interior.

I took this opportunity to replace the hull hinges for the engine hatches due to the fact that they ended up just slightly out of alignment with each other due to the panel join and used 4 hinges in the Eduard set that were meant for the 20mm spare gun barrel box. I wasn’t going to use them for their intended purpose anyhow so they served nicely.

The Eduard set also provides some very nice handles for the engine access hatches but they don’t include any plastic rod needed to construct the handle portion. The instructions in the set call for 0.5mm rod to be used in 3.5mm lengths but this turned out to be wrong on both counts. The holes in the handle tops are not wide enough to take 0.5mm rod, so the 3.5mm length is also too long. I found this out of course after dutifully cutting out 4 pieces to the exact specifications called for and began assembly on the first one. [;)] The first one took quite a bit of back and forth until I actually got the right length, then the other three were trimmed to the same length and the handles installed. They are much better scale-wise than the kit parts, which although hollow, are about twice the size of these. I also assembled and installed the depression guards for the Flak, these are a little fragile as the only thing holding them to the surface is a small square “foot” on each side, so some care is required with handling from here on out. Also installed are the kit supplied rests for the front superstructure fold down panel.

Next up were the details for the driver’s compartment. The Azimut set included a set of hatches for this but they were badly cast and slightly deformed with some holes and blobs of resin in places they shouldn’t have been. This rendered them unusable leaving me the only option to use the kit parts. This created another problem though in that they didn’t fit the resin opening due to the resin hull having molded on hinge points. These were shaved off and the opening slightly enlarged but I still needed side hinge points to match up with the hatches themselves. These are molded on the original Alan hull in the kit parts so I had to butcher that to get the hinge points, cut them down to the needed size, and then attach along with the hatches. Worked out ok in the end, but I massacred the original hull in the process. [:)]

Now that the exterior details were taken care of, I turned to the fighting compartment for some more attention. I decided to go ahead and fit the supserstructure base panels as they are one piece left and right and still leave plenty of room for painting the interior. I began with the left side first and had to trim the bracing panel on the lower interior side for it to fit as it was about 3mm too long to fit the space on the Azimut hull. Once taken care of along with some minor flash along the leading edges, the fit was near perfect. Some work on the back join with the back of the compartment was required with liquid cement to get it to mate up perfectly but that’s it.

Before I fit the right side, I wanted to be sure that the Tristar spare barrel box would fit in the space designated for it. Test fits showed it was a perfect match except for the handles sticking out at right angles. Tristar molded them fixed in this position instead of in a folded down position so they would have to be removed and the Eduard handles used in their place. In checking the reference photos, the box is raised and sits at an angle instead of flat against the deck, which makes sense given its position and the fold down panel right behind it allowing the box lid to clear all the way out if mounted in this way. Trouble is, the Azimut set doesn’t include this and the Alan part had a ledge molded into it but that had to be cut away to allow it to fit…so that meant I had to make my own shims to produce the angle. Some sheet stock, a sharp knife and a lot of squinting, and I had three nice little shims to glue to the bottom.

While that was drying, I installed the right side and the front panel. The right side went in first, also requiring some trimming as with the left side to get a good fit. Once it was secured, a dryfit of the front plate revealed it was too wide and some careful sanding on both ends was necessary. I had to sand it right up to the molded in bolt detail but fortunately was able to retain it with just a slight edge left. Some additional very careful sanding will be needed once it’s all set up but not much as I got it very close before glueing. [;)]

I also took the opportunity to install the 2nd radio and accompanying rain shield. The rain shield took some fiddling to get it in the right spot as I had to work around the radio mount and actually managed to knock one of the mounts loose on one test fit, but it was easily repaired. The spare barrel box was also installed and, except for the 2 MP40’s and the gas masks that I will detail and install separately, the lower compartment details are taken care of.

16

Lots of surgery! That looks great so far!

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hiya bill![:D]— i have been following your progress and reading every word of your tutorial style of writing— i love both!!-- this is quite an interesting piece-- and you are going full throttle on it!!

[wow][tup][tup]!!—i don’t know exactly what is the most important thing on this forum— sometimes it is pictures,sometimes the piece being modeled,sometimes it is for information exchange— you excel at all levels and i really enjoy reading your posts-- thank you man![2c]-- super job dude-- tread[:P]

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And I have the scars to prove it too! [:D] Thanks for the comments GT!

Treadwell,

Thanks for the encouragement, I know that long posts can sometimes be hard to read and I try to keep the posts to just the facts, but in this case there’s just so much happening with this build it’s hard to do at times. I don’t write any of this down as I build, just take the photos and work from that to construct the narrative. If it helps others in some small way or gives them a share in the enjoyment I have with these projects then I consider that kind of a means of giving back to the community at large considering how much I’ve learned from online communities just like this one. [;)]

19

Due to the fact that today was Inauguration Day in Mexico, I had the opportunity to get in a little extra bench time on this project. Since all my staff had the day off, I worked from home and in between email and a couple of phone calls managed to make some good progress.

I decided to work on the Flak 38 and broke open the Voyager PE set and the Tristar kit and went to work.

The first item of business had to do with fitting the Armorscale barrel in place of the Tristar styrene kit part. According to the PMMS 2cm Barrel Comparison Review by Terry Ashley the kit barrel is too long to start with and also has a plain muzzle flash suppressor, albeit hollowed out at the muzzle end. The Armorscale barrel on the other hand is the correct dimensions and has a beautifully turned brass pre-formed muzzle flash suppressor complete with drilled out holes and neck. Some quick surgery and drill out with a pin vise to accept the new replacement were all that was necessary. I will admit that it took me two attempts to install only because the first time I wasn’t paying close enough attention and actually installed it upside down. [:O]

The buildup of the Tristar parts is pretty straightforward, essentially only one sprue of parts with a small additional for the gun shield and a separate sprue for the trailer which I wouldn’t be using for this. The Tristar kit provides 2 assembly options, one with the gun level and one elevated and since it needs to clear the superstructure on the hull, I chose the elevated.

While checking on a couple of details using the Squadron/Signal “Pzkpw 38(t) In Action” which has a couple of shots of a deployed Gepard in Normandy, it didn’t have the splinter shields fitted, although a shot of a knocked out Gepard on a later page shows it with…so in the interest of doing something a little different, I left the sheilds off. This produced an ironic result of sorts…the only parts off the Voyager set I ended up using were the trigger pedal plate and the ready round magazine box on the left side. [:)] This necessitated removing the back side of the box since it was molded on and I also needed to remove the molded on shield support arms from the elevation bearing housings as well as modify the front of the gun mount cradle to reflect this decision. The Voyager parts won’t go to waste as the shields are very nice and may show up in the future on an Italeri Demag build…you never know! [;)]

The reference shots also showed the “lobster pot” type of spent shell catcher in place and fortunately the Eduard set included this in the form of several parts. The Voyager set curiously didn’t address this and Tristar doesn’t provide any sort of frame or parts to work off off, so the whole thing had to be constructed from PE. The Eduard parts are very delicate but the mesh is very well done IMHO but the inner frame supports aren’t part of the assembly, so I added the supports using 0.5mm plastic rod cut to size and glued on the interior.

The rest of the gun parts/machinery were added in the form of the hand wheels, the gun sights, etc. I drilled out both the eye-piece and the optics end of the direct fire scope since Tristar had it molded solid on both ends. Last but not least, the gunner’s seat got some kitbashing attention using the base from Tristar, the seat back from Alan up to the padded back rest, with the Eduard armored addition on top of that.

And just a quick check to see how it will look when it’s installed and ready for business…

20

Nice work thus far…

My build is progressing much, much slower. As I don’t have the replacement upper hull, I’m in the process of replacing (for those omitted, adding) just about every single round bolthead on the hull…needless to say, fun.

I really like the improvements you’ve made thus far and can’t wait to see more…