Panzerkampfwagen I ausf F

[Heavens Eagle]

UGH! Well I am home with a head cold today. Between sneezing the roof off, my nose dripping like a faucet and my sinuses aching, it isn't much fun. I did go in and work a little on this beastie and have some little updates.

I will probably go back in and work some more in a bit. Right now my sinuses are making me miserable. Between the sneezing and other stuff it was a good thing that I didn't go in today.

Anyway, Hope you like what is going on so far.

 

[moon puppy]

Nice job Paul. Dig the lathe painting.

 

[Heavens Eagle]

Thanks Bob! It ended up being faster and easier than trying to paint by hand. I was able to work a fine brush right up to the edge and paint the Vallejo dark rubber quite easily. Of course it wasn't running that fast, but it was definitely much easier.

Still sneezing and snotting. Also did you notice, I finally updated my sig.

 

[moon puppy]

Hope you feel better Paul.

 

[Heavens Eagle]

It's 1:00pm here and I just woke up this morning. Have a slight cough and sinus ache from sleeping so late, but seem to be feeling better, Thanks.

 

[Gator]

Nice work!

 

[Duke Maddog]

Excellent work Paul, despite the health issues. Glad to hear you're getting better.

 

[Heavens Eagle]

I have spent a lot of the last couple of weeks fighting with the track links and other minor issues. It is coming along and is getting close. There are a number of smaller parts that need to be placed, and I am debating about building a box to mount on the left rear fender as is shown in some photos.
The track links were horrible, but I managed to make them work. Part of it was that there were only 140 links max. In building this it has been quite obvious that it probably never really had a good test build done. Parts fit, pin sizes and alignments are worse than I have seen on old limited run kits. Anyway I am in the home stretch now.

At this point I discovered that the horn (beep beep) is completely missing (short shot) and half of the jack handle is also missing. The little round tail light had a sink mark in it that couldn't really be dealt with either. As to the horn, I made a mold back when I was building the Ju88 as it had a BOSCH auto horn in the cockpit for some kind of warning. I found a really crisp part in one of my tank kits and made a mold to generate some more parts. Thus I have a nice resin part to replace it. The handle for the jack will just have to be scratch built, and I can make the tail light easy enough as well.

Until next time!

 

[helios]

Liking the colours. Certainly whipping this kit into shape.

 

[mustang1989]

Coming together very nicely. Lookin' great!!!

 

[moon puppy]

Git'er done Paul

 

[errains]

Looking sweet Paul!!

 

[Heavens Eagle]

After having my house all messed up for the last 6 months or so, I "FINALLY" got my hobby room back to some semblence of organization. This build got put on the bench and restarted this weekend. I was able to get all the littleadd on parts painted. the handle on the jack scratchbuilt, (it was a short shot) and the 2 machine guns blackened and mounted in the turret. They needed some sleeves placed on the inner ends to adapt them to the holes in the turret. It is now well on the way to being done. Mount a couple more parts, place decals, (hope they work from this Russian kit) and weather it. I also finally painted the undersides of my Stug III commander's hatch grey.

The plan then is to build and paint up 2 figures for these 2 tanks. Might be after MM Month, depends on how that build moves along.

Pictures will be forthcoming.

 

[Heavens Eagle]

As of tomorrow it will be nine months since my last update. A lot has happened since then, and I am glad that I am finally able to get back to this and get a big step closer to having it done. I also pulled out an old build and did a minor fix so it is now ready to have a figure added.

On with the photos.

Something about the photos that I need to point out is that the colors are a lot lighter, and there seems to be a bit of an orange cast to them. This is something with the settings in my camera which I have yet to fully figure out. Also, once the decals are on and the flat coats and weathering it will tone down and blend in a bit better. I also used the old Paasche AB Turbine to spray paint for the first time. I finally worked out how to seal down all the excess air leaks in it including the air valve which was the worst leak through the top. It is definitely a touchy little beast and works completely differently than just about any other airbrush out there.

Here are some photos from when I was doing a rebuild on it. It was given to me and needed some tlc.

In this photo you can see somewhat how the unit works. The turbine wheel in the housing spins with a high pitch whine. It has an offset center pin that moves an arm back and forth pushing a fine needle in and out of a paint groove at the end of the cup. The tip of the needle carries paint in front of the air nozzle which then sprays a very fine line to a very fine mist. In the photo you can see the arm slightly blurry and the needle out in front of the air nozzle. It is basically a dual action, external mix, super fine airbrush with at least 6 different adjustments. With the use of some bees wax around the various screw adjustments and adding an extra O-ring from a watch parts source I managed to reduce the air leaks to about 10% of what they were originally.
It is going to take a lot of practice to learn to use it for anything worth while. It is also quite delicate and touchy. Bump it wrong and the air nozzle can be canted out of alignment, or the paint cup can drip out.

Thanks for looking in!

 

[moon puppy]

You have fun with that airbrush, interesting to see but I'm sure glad they found another way to do it.

 

[Brokeneagle]

Great work on the model Paul. A great fix on that kit and a lot of effeort but well worth it!
Skills man, Skills!