I bought this jus’ recently from my LHS cheaply, and as a bonus the kit comes with two figures!
The plates runnin’ alongside the hull are already moulded onto the hull, and Dragon have supplied a ‘correction sheet’ and a seperate sprue of PE containin’ two long strips that run down the edges of the fender plates, along with some very tiny bolt details.
After fittin’ these parts, they came up a little too short so I cut to size some pieces of very thin styrene sheet, and added them to the areas that needed attention. I’ll fill the small join with some liquid putty, although I reckon paint would be better ‘cos there is no gap. Jus’ need to make it look like it grew there, is all!
The turret went together well but the top plate did need a lot of sandin’ underneath to make it fit flush, and not look like its raised and jus’ hoverin’ there. The weld seams are beautiful, and all the joins have been filled with liquid putty applied with a very thin brush and a steady hand. As a result there was no need to sand it back, the putty jus’ becomes a part of the weld line.
Hi there Fingers! Glad to see that your experiernce with the Panzer I A did not turned you away from Dragon’s early panzers! [^]
I have that one or the 3 in 1 version on my future buy list. I finished the Panzer I B from Italeri/Zvezda and I’m almost done with a Panzerjager I. Although really old, you can still create something nice with some PE and imagination. I really want to try the Dragon for the Befehls, looks like less trouble than those really old kits. I will probably base my decision on your experience with the kit. I will be following really closely and I can’t wait to see the final work of art!
Cheers Jean-Michel! That experience could never turn me away from these beautiful little PzI’s. Although if it happened again, it might be another story! [:D]
I’ve assembled the upper hull to the lower now, but before this could be done the glacis needed some sandin’ to make it sit flush on the lower hull. It jus’ needed some sandin’ underneath it to make it sit down and be level with the lower hull, same as it was for the top plate with the cupola. This still left a tiny gap, so I ran some liquid putty into it, not worryin’ about those delicate weld seams, or accidentally sandin’ them off, I formed my own before the putty had finally cured. [;)]
The rear deck came as many parts, includin’ the base plate that everythin’ is anchored to, and its best to cement the base plate to the hull before you add all the side and top plates ‘cos this will ensure that everythin’ butts and fits together without any mis-alignment. Dragon call for you to assemble all these parts together off the vehicle, this is not wise.
Jus the minimal amount of putty was used to fill the small gaps and form some weld lines. It is best in this case to jus’ sand off the moulded ones and create your own!
Assembled some more details to the rear, includin’ the beautiful exhaust shroud. I lightly textured the exhaust proper with Vallejo’s Sandy Paste and scored a groove into the tip of it with the back-edge of a scalpel blade. Anythin’ else will jus’ foul it up!
Yeah, this is the kits PE so far! I’m gonna’ be usin’ some of Aber’s PE tool clamps. The tool set that runs upto ‘43, that one! I guess i’ll be waitin’ until the new year, for that to come! Cheers!
Off to a good start Fingers…I’ll echo treadwell’s sentiment, don’t want to hear about the finished product’s ballistic characteristics this time around. [;)]
I got some superdetaillin’ done over the past two days, usin’ the Voyager PE set. I gotta’ say that usin’ Voyager’s set was a breeze and a real pleasure to work with, not like some. I rate Voyager above Eduard and Aber now, 'cos of the way the pieces for the jack and extinguisher were tooled, they were real easy to apply. These pieces usually scare me but these were a breeze!
I’m lookin’ for some AM headlights for the fenders now, 'cos the ones in the kit are far too large!
I contacted Dragon as well. I am not concerned about the PE parts, but would like to see the errata sheet posted online so the rest of us with the kit can make the corrections ourselves.
