After almost a year of slowly picking away at this, I think I might finally be done. I don’t recommend this kit, lots of fit issues, and I received a REAL BAD set of deformed or partially missing track links, the sprues were all there but not all of the link was there( half links,3/4 links, links that looked like little blobs, links missing guide horns, or holes in the middle of the link where the guide horn was supposed to be.)Bad stuff. Then doog came and saved the day and donated some tracks he had left over from his hetzer builds(Thanks Doog!!!), but the modeling gods were against me, the tracks didn’t fit (too wide and long).I was finally able to score a set of Dragon’s magic tracks from one of their Marder kits. After some serious surgery to the drive sprockets, I was able to get some tracks on this beast. I could go on forever so I’ll make it short, I had to add new rivet/bolt detail to outsides of fighting compartment( sanded off a lot of the detail using putty to fill gaps) using ca glue and the tip of the toothpick, I had to tweak the ammo to get it to fit in the fighting compartment, rebuild the radio rack with strip styrene, added some tools from the spares box(kit tools way over scale or no detail),rebuilt the tarp support using wire and drilling out the kit supplied mounts, and also had to repaint part of the decal representing the name on the side of the fighting compartment. I’m sure there are many other things that I did, but I’m going to shut up now.Hopefully it looks ok.
And here’s the other Grille that I’m working on now. This one has a list of tweaks also, but that will be on another date when she’s finished. She’s REAL BIG, I’ll take a picture later of the two Geschuzwagen (Grilles) next to each other.
All the little tweaks you did look great, and I can’t tell that they’re modified, ot NOT additional parts–which is a good thing! [:)]
The tracks look great—sorry that the tracks I sent didn’t fit; I could have sworn that they would?
Te only thing I would recemmend would be a little bit of detailing pin washes of raw umber oilsaround all the seams–it would make those details pop right out!You could also weather the floor a bit, and maybe add some chips to rusty steel/beown to the spare tracks?
Thanks Doog. The pics aren’t that great, I think that I was in too much of a hurry,because it seems that all my hard work on my weathering and my washes is getting muted out by my lighting. Even the big boy Grille has a nice wash on it, but in the pics it looks like I haven’t even touched it yet. I’ll try taking some better pics tomorrow during the day, maybe the natural light will help. Thanks again for looking and the helpful advice.[:)]
The Alan kit is definitely not for the faint of heart but it looks like you’ve whipped it into shape! Congrats on sticking with it and improvising where needed. The big bad Grille 17 looks impressive as well. [tup]
Dang, looks just as good as any DML kit with all of the extra work you put into her. Great stuff! [:D] Does this mean that you’re heading to 251-land next?
All I can say is, “Thanks guys”. I really appreciate the positive remarks/comments, especially coming from highly skilled and gifted builders like yourselves.[bow] Now I can breathe easy knowing that all of those moments of frustration[banghead] and stress[BH] were worth it. Of course while at work daydreaming today, I was thinking of things that I could do to maybe improve this build. But I think I’ll let this one rest for awhile and get working on the Grille 17, and finally start my Panther F for the Big Cat group build, and get some more progress done on my 251 “falke” for Dupe’s 251 group build.
Dupes- I have started my build and I have been over in 251 land watching all the great work that is going on over there. Just wanted to finish some things on the shelf that have been staring at me for awhile now.Believe it or not I just finished a Britsh Challenger, definitely something different, modern and allied. I’ve been hung up on that generator and all the wiring for my 251, I hope to make some progress soon and post some pics.
I really love it. The paint looks great. No fault of yours, but the tires look oversized. Of course now that you finished it, Dragon released a newly-tooled one. LOL
Thanks Tigerman. Good eye on the tires being oversized, never even noticed until I looked at my Hetzer and looks like your right. Yeah, now a nice brand new kit comes out after I fought tooth and nail with this one just to make it presentable. I guess that’s the modelling gods sick sense of humor.[(-D]
Great Job! Those kits are very hard to get right and all too easy to mess up! I can see the care patience and skills you possess with this tough build! Great work!
Very nice job. The decades old kit looks right upto date with the efforts you’ve put into the Grille. Being an open top the attention to the fit is highly visible.[tup] The work fitting the tracks paid off nicely. Great job on the “Lil’Grille”, looking forward to seeing some pics on it’s BIG brother.
