Wow…you are tricking this MoFo out—stunning !!!
Huxy, the first step is one you just have to take in small sub-sections…and you have to think through how you do the brake drum assembly since the straps have to go on first before adding the base of the steering mount or you won’t have enough space to fit them. I’m very impressed with the level of detail that the Tristar kit provides and definitely think it’s worth the money…GM has it on sale right now for $19 USD and provides superior detail to the Verlinden set in almost every way. As for the steering, yes the Pz 38ts were an anomaly for German vehicles in that they were right-hand steered.
Karl, thanks as always! I’m going to display the hatches for the driver and radio operator open so quite a bit will be viewable there. The brakes aren’t too visible unless the glacis hatch is openend and it’s molded close on the Tamiya part so I won’t open that up…but I wanted to see how this assembled in case I wanted to use the same set again in the future on some of the Tristar 38t kits I’ve got in the stash.
LB, PE12 is a flat piece that needs to be bent into a U-shape and the base of the U glues directly to H21. When you fold up PE12, it creates a small base. H21 then attaches to the lever via the PE12 open-ended U and the end of H21 then glues to the top of H12 in Step 4 of the Interior Set instructions…not sure what step that might be in your kit. The instructions say not to glue to the post and I guess you could attempt to make it workable but that wasn’t possible for me since the “stack” of all the parts is higher than the post. HTH.
Marc, thanks for the comments! I’m going to do my best to leave as much of it as possible visible.
MR, thanks as well, I’m having fun with this one and the scope has increased a little bit as a result of the Tristar kit…which is kind of ironic because I initially wanted it only for the missing radios/transformers but got much more than that! [(-D]
Bill thank you, I cant tell you how much I appreciate it!!
Zoinks! Bill ya beat me too another one i have this and the cmk interior and eduard PE just been looking for tracks and lo and behold here you are knocking it out, i bet i have 50% of your builds sitting on my shelf at the top of my build list, amazing, anyway looking great as always Bill keep her coming.
LB, no problem! DML’s not the only one with instruction issues from time to time. [:D]
Ron, you’ve done the same thing to me on occasion as well so it’s nice to return the favor! [;)] My motivation lately has been to get these things built because if I wait too long a new-tool will get released…it’s happened already with several that had been quietly waiting in line. [(-D] Thanks for the comments and hope you enjoy the ride.
I’ve been making some slow progress here and there working on some of the remaining items during the week in anticipation of being able to paint the interior this weekend. The remaining items were the radios and their transformers as well as the details for the rear bulkhead.
Pics of the interior of 38ts are hard to come by and the interior shots shown in Panzer Tracts #18 are from a field manual that doesn’t show the radios fitted in a Slovak LT38…so they weren’t much help. The Nuts & Bolts #15 however has a couple of shots that helped and there were really all I had to go on. The Tristar interior set instructions are extremely unhelpful in the placement of the radios with no diagram for them whatsoever and only a very vague placement instruction for the transformer/battery tray.
After studying those two (plus one more that shows the underside of the drive shaft housing on the rear bulkhead) and looking at the instructions inside the Tristar Marder III H was I finally able to figure it out. The radio rack mounts directly to the drive shaft and is held in place by two small sheet metal brackets on either end. The transformer tray installs directly to the floor underneath the drive shaft.
With that out of the way, I now had my way forward and assembled the transformer/battery packs as well as the radio transmitter and receiver. I prepped these with a micro-drill in a pin vise to create some mount holes for 0.5mm solder wiring that will get installed after painting.
The Tristar radio racks aren’t quite accurate for the Marder either as the racks are individual for each radio instead of one single rack with a divider, but these are close enough for my purposes. The side mounts are those designed to attach a vertical surface vs. the horizontal, so these were modified by trimming down with sharp side cutters to get it to the size and position needed. The radios can easily slide in and out, so I left them separate to make it easier to paint/detail and wire them up. The racks where then glued directly to the drive shaft cover with CA gel.
With the racks in place, it was possible to determine where to install the transformer/battery rack. The transformers were glued into the rack and then the rack installed to the hull floor. There’s just enough clearance for everything and it demonstrates just how tight/packed the interior was on these vehicles.
The last item was the rear bulkhead separating the fighting compartment from the engine compartment. The bulkhead received the engine cap that has the drive shaft connection and the PE heating vent slides were installed in the closed position and the PE screen and wrench tool added to round things out.
The interior is now ready for paint. The transmission/brakes/drive shaft is only dry-fit for now and will be painted as a separate module. Lots of fun still ahead!
hi Bill [:)]
Ya know, sometimes i think to my self, man,-- that is great for 1/48 scale, or 'I couldn’t believe some one could do that in 1/72–or for craps sake,–that is 1/16 --it should have ALOT more detail–and then there is your interior work in 1/35 (and you know I am a sucker for interior)---------anyway, my point, that i am having trouble saying, is that your work seems to transend scale-I look at the 1/1 pictures and then your 1/35 pics and damn man–so impressive-----I love 1/1 reference directly translated like magic before my eyes—tread[8D]
Thanks tread, I get what you’re saying and really appreciate it especially given the level of detail you put into your interiors. [tup] [;)]
Wow Bill this is something else. The amount of detail that your putting into this is amazing.
Yup, therewill be lots of litle goodies to look at when thsi is done. Lookin’ good.
Beautiful , Bill. That interior is purrrdy!
Steve, Marc, Karl, thanks for the comments…I’m having a lot of fun with the details on this little guy…almost overlooked what I need to do on the superstructure front plate in terms of mounting the hull MG and adding the Verlinden panel, so have to take care of that first before painting. Should have another update later today if everything goes according to plan. [;)]
I thought I was all ready for paint but had overlooked the superstructure front plate that houses the hull MG and the driver and radio operator view ports. The Verlinden set includes a very nice panel that inserts to the Tamiya plate and also provides a replacement rear half of the MG but requires some pretty hefty surgery to mate it up to the Tamiya MG to be workable. Instead of doing all that, I pirated the spare from a Tristar Marder III H kit (it has two but only one is needed) because it has the correct detail on the outer ball face whereas the Tamiya part was smooth and missing the targeting scope port and the direct fire peep hole. Only minor surgery was necessary to the Tamiya part to remove a small nub that interfered and some CA gel secured the Verlinden interior detail plate with no problem. I did discover however that some trimming on the left hull side interior plate was necessary since the open view flap needed some clearance, so good thing I hadn’t started painting yet!
The Tristar ball mount has the gun and support tray separate which makes it much easier to fit the Lion Marc replacement barrel and tray. The Lion Marc barrel has a small mount pin but it’s too small in diameter vs. the opening in the Tristar part, so the pin was removed with side cutters and the nub carefully ground down with my Dremel Mighty Mite and then glued in place with CA gel. The tray was then glued to the barrel and the delicate little gun sight left off until later to avoid losing it from all the handling that it will have to go through before final installation.
The final little detail was the installation of some type of cable that attaches to the rear end of the MG and then connects up to the transmission housing…possibly a power cord? This was added by drilling a small hole with the pin vise and then gluing in place a length of 0.5mm solder that was bent to the necessary shape. I also used the Verlinden sighting scope and glued it into position with CA gel since it had better detail than the part in the Tristar Marder III H kit as that part is also a little undersized.
With that taken care of, I used the airbrush to paint all of the interior panels with Testors enamel Panzer Interior Buff since that’s their version of elfenbein. The radios, transformer/battery pack, and the transmission/brakes were airbrushed with Russian Armor Green. Once that had dried, I went to work on the details. The radios were detailed using the magnifier and Aircraft Interior Black for their dials and knobs and Light Gray for the display faces. The 0.5mm solder wiring was added to connect up the receiver and transmitter as well as to the battery/transformers and the wiring was also painted with Aircraft Interior Black. The long wire to connect the antenna on the hull exterior was also added at this point…it took a lot of careful study with the exterior panels as well as some reference photos to determine the best way to handle it. I decided to install a long length of solder that can be bent and trimmed to connect to the base of the antenna mount when the time comes vs. trying to install it later when all the superstructure parts were in place.
The lower floor was weathered first with some dry-brushed Raw Umber to create scuffs and scrapes and then some dirt/mud accumulation added using Mig Europe Dust applied as a dry powder and scrubbed into various corners. This was fixed in position using both dry and wet Q-tips to buff and blend it into the paint. The seat cushions were painted using thinned down Aircraft Interior Black to allow the very finely molded leather pattern to show through just a bit to round things out and the transmission/brake housing glued into a fixed position. The transmission was weathered by applying a thin wash of black followed by a very light dry-brushing of Steel to the cooling fins and bolts.
The rest of the panels were weathered next by dry-brushing some Raw Umber to create scuffs and nicks here and there and then a pin wash of Raw Umber applied carefully since the surface was unsealed. Some of the Panzer Interior Buff was then dry brushed to blend things back in. The MG and scope were painted and detailed with Metalizer Non-Buffing Gunmetal and then dry-brushed with Steel. The little signal lights for the driver were painted with Tamiya Clear Red, Green, and Green + Yellow (I didn’t have Blue!) and the driver’s armored glass viewport simulated with a base coat of Silver and Tamiya Clear Smoke over that.
Finally, the moment of truth had arrived! It was time to construct the lower hull following the Tamiya instructions for Step 1…the front armor was added first, then the left side, followed by the right, and the rear panel added last. To help square things up, I then added the interior bulkhead and the glacis plate. The glacis plate required a rubber band to get the front sides to close up properly, so this will be left on overnight to allow it to thoroughly set. I also dry-fit the superstructure front plate to make sure everything was sitting properly. The Eduard set included a short ammo belt for the MG, so I added that and painted the shell casings with Metalizer Brass to round things out.
Because of the way the superstructure plate interacts with the fenders and the upper portion of the fighting compartment, it’s not going to be installed just yet. The hull will set up overnight and next will be the suspension and other exterior details to keep this one moving along.
That interior looks the business Bill very nice indeed the paintjob ready brings out all those great details im definatly saving a pic or two for reference to take the guesswork out when i build mine.
Moving nicely. The usual Bill attention to detail…[;)]
Rounds Complete!!
Thanks Mike and Ron!
A few more detail shots with better lighting and after the rubber band had been removed from the front hull.
WOW!! very nice work on the intirior Bill!!
[:)]
Very cool…you do good interior…
Thanks stick man and MR!
Once again, just superb, Bill!
I’m curious–why’d you go with a bare metal look for the tranny block there? Didn’t they normally paint them in a grey-green?
You know; I have to believ that at some point, the IPMS is going to allow photos of interiors next to builds at contests, to show off the great detailing which unfortunately gets hidden in so many kits like these?