Kit Build/Review: 1/72 Roden SdKfz 234/4, pt. I.

Despite the Coronavirus lockdown, I’ve hardly done any mini-military stuff for ages. 

I thought being forced to stay home would mean a massive bonanza of model making and figure painting. But no, instead I’ve been either resting, reading, working (from home) or doing household stuff, from the quotidian chores, to building a shed and a greenhouse. 

And as a result, I’ve not had the time or energy to model or paint. I even had a bit of a break from the reading. But now I’m making a conscious effort to get back in the saddle. And in that vein, here’s my first 1/72 kit build and review since, well... poss before Xmas!?

The latest kit to go on the production line is this lovely Roden 1/72 SdKfz 234/4. I do love Roden’s box art! Very colourful and evocative. David Willey of Tank Museum curatorial fame does a great Tank Chat on the German 8-rad’ line of AFVs. I include a link to it here, for reference/interest. 

I started the build out of sequence, with the Pak-40 type gun. It’s a very detailed little sub-construction. Very fiddly and intricate, but great. Unfortunately I didn't photograph the building of the gun. So construction pics start with the running-gear.

The somewhat open cab design of this vehicle also required that I paint the interior. Willey notes in his chat how the Bovington example is painted incorrectly, the vehicle itself only came into series production in the later part of the war, the dunkelgelb as opposed to dunkelgrau era! The interior is also similarly incorrect. I decided to give mine an elfenbein interior, such as was sported by German tanks.

After I’d built the gun, I went back to the ‘proper order of things’, which meant running-gear. And boy is the Roden’s 234 style eight-wheeler assembly complex and fiddly! I think it’s designed such that, in theory, the wheels can be aligned at differing angles, and even, possibly, rotate! But in reality this doesn’t work. Or at least it didn’t for me. This is my second Roden 234. My first was a Puma variant (see the build of that here). And it was the same story, re the wheels. 

My version of an elfenbein interior, blocked in.

Washes and weathering, early stages.

Washes and weathering, pretty much done.

Painting and weathering the interior, and the gun, which I decided to attach (another out of sequence improvisation of my own choosing) was kind of fun, and yet also kind of frustrating. I’ve learned that I’m really bad at the ‘pin-wash’/panel line type stuff.

Anyway, I did the best I could, and after a while, I achieved a result I decided was good enough. I was thinking of putting driver figures into the fore and aft driving seats. But I haven’t. I definitely will on the next 234 with a similarly open fighting compartment. 

Basically finished, assembly wise.

I'll prob' add a few bits of extra stowage. But not much.

At the time of posting, this 234/4 variant is now basically built. But before I paint the exterior, some gaps need filling. And I’ll probably add a little detailing, such as stowage. 

I noticed in many wartime images online that there appear to be rods - barrel-cleaning stuff, perhaps? - on the left side of the vehicle, that are not a feature included in this kit. They should be a fun and easy scratch-build addition!

Part two will be painting and decals. To follow soon, I hope!

Book Review: Strabokran, Volker Ruff

Got myself this for Xmas, 2020. I have a yen to scratch-build one or two of these cranes, in 1/72. The few kits of the Strabokran I found in 1/72 seem to be about £30-40+. I managed to get my copy of this book for a little over £20. That seemed, to me, better use of my limited funds; this way I can build my own models, for the cost of a few bits of plastic profile, plus I get this plush reference work, for about the same cost, or poss’ even less, as buying an off the shelf kit.

Of the several similar format books I've bought in the last few years, this isn't the best, or my favourite. The minimal bi-lingual text (in English and German) isn't terrific, and the quality of the images is quite patchy. But, nevertheless, overall it's still excellent reference, gathering together plentiful contemporary photographic imagery - albeit of very mixed quality - and supplemented by numerous line diagrams. 

The latter include 1/35 scale plans, which will be very useful for me, once all the dimensions are halved. Another of my minor gripes, however, relates to the overall clarity of all the info', both textual and graphic. I'm well past my third, fourth and now even fifth perusal of the book, and I still find it all very confusing, what with all the differing variants, and issues around the quality of the translation from German, and clarity of images, etc.

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Still, despite these several caveats, I'd like to add my 'amen' to the 'hallelujah chorus' of approval that this book has received elsewhere online. 

Momentarily returning to the translation from the author's German into English, it almost feels like it’s been arrived at by simply running the German text through Google Translate, or something of that ilk. The resulting combo of strangely Germanic lumpen prose and editorial slips make the text heavier going than I'd like.  

And, despite the huge number of illustrations, which are - unusually for books in this line on similar subjects - split between mostly WWII archival photographs, and more recent line diagrams, I don't feel that there's as great a degree of visual clarity here as one might wish for. 

I bought this book partly simply because I'm a WWII/Panzer nut, and partly because, following on from the former, I wish to build models of these cranes. Repeated intensive perusal of the masses of material presented here still leaves me uncertain on several details of these fascinating machines.

However, having returned throughout this review to certain critical points, I'll end by conceding that it'd be pretty churlish to score this much less than five kreuz stars. As, after all, it does indeed gather together an immense amount of reference on its subject. 

The following short recitation of certain section headings (and contents) gives an idea of the level of detail:

After a brief intro, there's a potted history of the company that made the cranes.

Then we have info on the 15t, 16t, 20t variants, plus other stuff (inc. postwar production).

Parts of an Allied report, Operation Backfire, are reproduced, which includes illustrated descriptions of deployment.

'Strabokran in Action' shows them in use with Tigers, Panthers, Elefant and V2 rockets.

Further sections on rarities (other cranes used when Strabokran weren't available), survivors, patent applications (!), and unit formations/allocations add detail.

But best of all, for the modeller like me, there’s both a detailed photographic 'walk around’, and lots of 1/35 scale drawings.

And, whilst not perfectly rendered, nearly all the textual content is presented in both English and German. 

All in all, then, whilst admittedly not perfect, this certainly is a fascinatingly interesting and very useful resource, if - like me - you're a dedicated 'beyond hope' Panzer nut.

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Volker Ruff's strabokran website

https://www.strabokran.de/index.php?seite=strabokran

Misc: Current Armour, on the go...

Oldies and newbies.

With a nice kind of symmetry, here's a bunch of older models, and my current crop. Amongst the older ones, the first WWII mini-military model I made on returning to these ol' hobbies, the 1/76 Airfix Panther, in late-war 'ambush' type camo'. This remains one of very few completed models, thus far. The vast bulk of my kits require varying degrees of painting/finishing.

The latest bits of building, today and yesterday, were the rear bins on the newer Airfix Panther, and a second go at the mortar crane/winch, on the B&P Sturmtiger. Whilst I was at it, I also changed the Sturmtiger's upper casemate access hatch handles to wire ones. Looks nicer, methinks.

Rear stowage bins on ye olde Panther, one open.

I really took my time and had a look at a load of ref for the second attempt at the winch. And I think it's come out okay. Nicer, indeed, than the one on the ACM Sturmtiger. I also roughed up the 'fenders' a little, and added some dings and hits to give the ol' beast a more worn in look. I'm looking forward to painting the Sturmtigers. I think I'll go for one of those late war funky three colour disc camo' patterns.

Winch deployed inboard this time.

Suitably chunky for this rather oversize model.

From behind...

Kit Build/Review; 1/72 Forces of Valor Pz III ausf N

This is my second kit from this company (the first was a King Tiger), and I like it. I bought it 'cause I wanted to build a knocked out tank. So I had a look through several of my Panzer Wrecks titles. I was somewhat surprised how few Pz IIIs there are in the editions of the Panzer Wrecks series I happen to have.

The main bits.

Strange how they have the commander figure on the track sprue!

More bitzenbobz...

Very nice finely moulded running gear!

And the last bits, inc. instructaloids.

A contender for the most paltry decal sheet ever?

Prepping parts for the running gear.

So I wound up using images of Pz IVs, instead. The kit has schurzen, on both turret and body. I noticed many tanks lose their body armour, and yet retain the turret armour. Numerous wrecked Pz IV in the books I was referring to are in this state: schurzen up top, but not below. 

I also wanted to create battle damage, and this kit, quite chunky, presented some challenges in doing that. I also wanted numerous hatches open. Again, not always easy, with this kit. For example, the styrene behind the turret side hatches is very thick. So instead I had the schurzen open, instead. 

A combo of mine damage and a shell penetration ...

... have upset this side.

This side is mostly unscathed.

The wheels as supplied are mostly on two pairs of large strips, to make construction easier. Sometimes I would go with this type of arrangement. But in this instance I knew I wasn't going to go with it, for two reasons: first, the joining parts would be all too visible, and detract form the realism o' the resulting model; second, as a battle-damaged tank, I want the wheels all wobbly and out of alignment.

Turret cupola surgery.

The bulk is built.

Getting into detailing some battle damage.

The commander's hatch is designed to be open. But I didn't want to use the commander figure. The tank is going to be empty/abandoned. I sawed off the 'bucket' below the cupola. I also modelled the storage bin at the back of the turret open, and put some crew gear in it.

Battle damage wise, this tank drove over a mine, throwing off the track. Once immobilised, it's been hit low in the hull, rught where the mine blew up, more or less. There's a shell penetration in the lower forward hull, which has blow a return roller off, and some bent fenders and schurzen, and a few smaller caliber penetrations in the turret armour. The return roller that's been knocked out of position has also come apart, and some of the wheels near the point of the two impacts are knocked out of alignment.

Starting to add stowage.

Turret bin open...

Some growage of stowage. Plus opening turret schurzen.

Poor scribing this side.

Track sag.

Track sag is always a nice touch. but it's not always easy to achieve, and depends to quite a large degree on the type of track the kit uses. This kit has tracks of the better than average but won't glue with model glue variety. I had to glue them using Gorilla Glue superglue gel. The tracks are decent enough looking, detail wise. And I'm pleased with the overall effect.

Much more drastic track sag.

Adding some detail/interest to the rear engine deck.

I really want to start finishing some of my models. This one is intended to be a diorama. But hopefully also one I can still deploy on a wargame table, if desired. Most of my builds thus far have been with mid to late war stuff in mind. But this is finished in earlier war dark grey. I'm hoping I might learn to get better at single colour paint jobs. At present it's just blocked in. Weathering and shading are yet to be begun.

Started work on a base.

Halford's grey basecoat.

Revell dunkelgrau, decals, and a little blocking in of colours.

I don't think I'll be buying the Revell dunkelgrau spray can I used on this again. It took most of the rather small can to do this one model. And at about £5 a can, or thereabouts, that's simply too much. I don't know if I'll regret it, but I decided to put the decals on - using transfers from my spares box - at this stage. I'll work on shading and weathering over and around them, being careful not to obscure them altogether.

I'll end this post for now with a few more pics of the tank as she looks at close of play today. There's still a long ways to go. But at least I'm further on with her than with most models I post, where I more or less stop once construction is complete. I must get better at finishing stuff!

I'm quite pleased with progress so far.

Markings make such a difference!

The open hatches add some interest.

I like this view from the rear, with added suff, and open turret bin.

Just need to work on making the paint job more interesting!

To conclude, I really like the two Forces of Valor models I've built so far. They're less than half the price of certain other brands; Dragon, for example, have long been very expensive. But more recently, and rather depressingly, Revell kit prices at my local shop have gone up to similarly over-inflated levels. These FoV kits are, currently, cheaper than those hoary ol' Airfix 'vintage classics'!!! And they build into really quite good models, esp. with a bit of effort. It's a shame the range is, at present, really rather limited.

Misc: Moulding & Casting, cont.

My erdpfahl. Far from perfect, but passable... I hope?

I'm kind of getting ahead of myself here, starting with the above image of numerous erdpfahl, or stakes, and other bits and bobs. But they are the item I first had a yen to scratch-built and cast in resin, thereby launching this whole moulding and casting saga.

I did a lot of mould-making and quite a bit of casting after the episodes I've blogged already. And I'm not showing all of them. One thing I did was cut the big mould which contained ammo boxes and shells down into two smaller moulds. And in turn I then further cut these moulds in two, adding more pouring and venting channels. The improved results, pictured below, show that this was a better idea than simply chucking the mould out.

Much better results from modified moulds.

The largest group, at the top, are best.

In the image above, I've cleaned up the castings from the modified moulds, and 75% or thereabouts are great. There's one iffy one, and one outright dodgy/unusable one per item: spent shell, live round, and ammo box.

Next up I decided to revisit copying some wheels. But this time in sets of four, and with properly laid out pouring and venting channels. Would this extra effort produce better results? Indeed, would it yield usable items?

Sets of better prepared wheels, ready to be moulded.

Wheel moulds in progress, plus another single erdpfahl mould.

Once all the new moulds were made I get the whole lot ready for a potential complete casting session (not, alas, of the Hollywood starlet variety). And here they all are. A good little set, quantity wise, even if not quality wise. One issue however, is that the resin I'm using cures so quickly I can't really cast a whole set as big as this lot. If I try to, the resin is already going off before I've done all the pouring.

Lots of luvverly blue moulds...

Before I move on to the final chapter in this saga, for the time being at least. Here are a couple of pics of some of the multiple little gubbins that I made for the 88s, this time cast in several sub-sets, as opposed to the over-filled single mould attempt I made earlier on. As can be seen in the upper of the two images below, I usually try and do a few other little moulds as well, to use up all the resin I've mixed.

Casting the 'multiple gubbins' moulds.

The results of splitting stuff up speak for themselves, I think

As the lower pic above shows, pretty clearly, breaking the over-filled mould grouping into smaller sub-sets paid off. Air flows far more freely through the admittedly still tiny passages, and the items are, as a result, far more likely to cast properly. The wheel on its own and a tiny erdpfahl, nigh on invisible below the wheel, were the only successes out of the several other smaller moulds in the upper of the two pics above.

After the steps shown just above, I moved on to a more mass production casting stage, and the results are shown immediately below. Including one set each of the new tyre casts. The latter aren't perfect. But I think they are usable. I'll be doing this with a few wheel sets. Primarily on account of Chester, our new cat/kitten, waging a pretty successful war on my mini-Wehrmacht forces. I have artillery, cars, trucks and even tanks needing various bits - mostly wheels - replacing. I had to move my whole modelling workspace upstairs out of the lounge on his account. The little devil! 

Once I got a stockpile going, I started to feel reasonably pleased.

Bagged up, sorted into groups for specific jobs.

And so it finally came time to add some of this stuff to a few of the models for which they've been produced. The moment of truth, I suppose! I started with the Hasegawa 88s, both of which needed erdpfahl, linkages, and handles. I've done one as if just deployed, before being staked, and the other with the stakes going through the arms/legs, whatever they are, ready to fire.

A Hasegawa 88with added stakes (stowed), linkages and handles.

Stakes deployed, and ammo and boxes added to the scene.

This is the Airfix 88, with stakes deployed, linkages, and (not visible) handles.

Another view of an Hasegawa 88, with stowed stakes, plus ammo stuff.

I've gone to great effort, considerable expense, and produced some not too great parts, that most folk probably won't even notice. Yay! That's the life for me. And, I think, quite typical model-making behavious, from what I see elsewhere. But I've had a lot of fun, and learned a fair bit. I think for my next attempts at mechanical reproduction, I'll try another and much cheaper technique. But before I get to that point, I think I need to paint these 88mm guns. And perhaps even base them?