Pak43 & L4500R Maultier

Hi Folks

Having had to deal with a steady succession of irritations, I can now show my first half of my entry to the Artillery GB.



The Trumpeter Pak43 and Revell/Zvezda Mercedes L4500R Maultier.

Date confirmation.



The Pak



And the Mule



This should be fun...

Simon

Ohh! Another big ole "88"

I am going to really enjoy watching all of these come together here.


Gary

Hi Gary

Pavel's gun is indeed the same as the one I'm building.

But where mine is the original Krupp design with the cruciform platform, Pavels 43/41 is a hybrid.

The production of guns was outweighing that of carriages. So the carriage for the 43/41 was a mix of parts from the 15cm S.Fh18 Heavy Howitzer, and the 10.5cm Le.Fh18 Light Howitzer.
The gun worked superbly, but the carriage made the weapon very difficult to manhandle by the crews, who nicknamed it Scheuntor, or Barndoor.

Simon

Hi Simon.

Always liked the PAK 43.Does this one come with a metal barrel in the kit?[can't tell for sure from the picture]

Looking forward to this build!

Greetings,Ron.

Hi Ron

The model comes with metal and plastic barrels, etch or plastic shields, and etch base plates for the ammunition.

For the money it's a very good model, only requiring a few additional weld beads and bolt heads.

Simon

Perfect Idea Simon, I'm looking forward when I see it together.
Nice long vehicle.

Pavel

Hi Folks

I've been busy on the Pak43 this afternoon, but it's late now for photography so pictures by the weekend.

My initial impressions of the model have faded somewhat. A lot of the parts have quite heavy flash, which on the smaller parts is a swine to remove.
I'm currently building the cruciform platform, and the outrigger legs are poorly finished. The jointing surfaces are very uneven, and the outside edges have radiused back on themselves, leaving a concave profile where it should be flat.

I've smoothed out the worst of it with sanding blocks, but I've also had something new to play with.

Recently I received a test pot of a new water-soluble plastic putty from John Bristow at Deluxe Materials.
It should be released at Nuremburg in February.

Anyway it's fixed this job, so I'm turning in for the night.

Pictures to follow over the weekend.

Simon

I look forward to seeing the pix Simon.

The Zod wrote:I look forward to seeing the pix Simon.

Yep....me to!


Greetings,Ron.

Looking forward to seeing this , the whole idea of replacing the rear axles with a Pz II is madness ! I love it

Jenny

Hi Folks

It's been a crazy few days, but I've made a start on some of the Pak43 assemblies.

The cruciform platform went together after a fashion, but required a lot of filler to replicate the very tidy Krupp construction. The outrigger legs were especially poor, and it was neccesary to remove the weld detail to retain the box-section of the legs. I'll restore this with some textured styrene rod.

[img][/img]

The travel lock for the barrel was also fitted at this point, and was a much better fit than the other parts of the carriage.


[img][/img]

While the cement was setting on this section, I turned my attention to the breech assembly. If you ever get to see any artillery piece up close, take a good look at the breech. I'm fairly sure it won't look like this...


[img][/img]

More putty required as you can see here.

I'm still enjoying the build, but I feel I've got a "Monday Morning Special" on my hands. Loads of flash, and parts that are not-quite-formed, as if insufficient plastic was injected into the moulds.

Simon

Hi Simon
Looking good so far!

I'm getting the impression that although Trumpeter kits are attractively priced, generally they don't stand up to the fit of other more expensive brands. I could be wrong, I havent seen many Trumpy build logs.

By the way - any chance of making the picamatures bigger?

Cheers
JT

Hi John

I'm working on the image sizing, I hate Photobucket!

As for the kit...

It's ok, but no more than that. It's certainly not a match for Tamiya when it comes to fit.

Simon

Here goes with some bigger images...
[img][/img]





That's better

This will have to go on the shelf for a few days as I've some other projects to work on.

Simon