Plastic Soldier Company 15mm Marder III And Bitsrecycling With The 3D Printer

Yesterday I built another Marder III kit from the Plastic Soldier Company. It is a nice little tank and it's built went without any problems. There were neither sinkholes nor flash on the sprue. It will get the same paintjob than the one I already painted.

From this kit you can build three different tanks: the Panzerkampfwagen 38(t), the Sd.Kfz. 139 and the Marder III, which I built. When I was finished with the constuction of the left tank on the first picture some months ago, there was a massive amount of bits left in the sprue just as today.

Take a look at the picture below:

Not only that there are 8 crewmen included, there was a full 38(t) turret and a complete Sd.Kfz. 139 upper structure left in the sprue.

This would be a lot of plastic that would vanish in the bitsbox, maybe I could use the 38(t) turret to build a bunker, they were used to guard borders and other structures. But this means there is still the complete upper half of a tank, which may be used.

Days later I had an idea. I turned on the 3D printer and printed a Panzer 38(t) hull from this great collection. Then I tried to build a Sd.Kfz.139 from the structure of the PSC kit and the selfprinted hull. With some sanding, some putty and a lot of superglue I made it. I had to replace the mg barrel but the only things I had to build from scratch were the exhaust and the storage box on the back.

While we are running low on filament, today I did not print a hull for the actual structure I have left, but I did this two times before. When I will do the modification to a third tank, I will make a post about the built.

Both lower parts of these tanks were printed. While it looks a little crude on close sight, these tanks will be decent gaming pieces. They will be used as custom units for TANKS, I made first tries on creating new units for the game from this template.

But before this will be done there are a lot of things to finish before.

1:144 Zvezda IL-2 Stormovik

Pictures of my recently finished IL-2 Stormovik from Russian producer's Zvezda "Art of Tactics" range. The build went fast and without any problems. It was primed and basecoated by airbrush, pictures of it's unfinished state can be found in the post below. The final details were added with the brush.

Since I could not find the original decal sheet in the chaos of my modelling desk, I had to improvise. The numbers were taken from a Revell tank kit, and the red stars were taken from an 1:72 IL-2 kit, they may be a little oversized.

At the moment I am working on a bitsrecycling project. Maybe I will write about that in the later evening.

More Works In Progress

Zvezda's 1:144 Ilyushin Il-2 Stormovik. I built it today, then it got it's base colors via airbrush. The lower part was masked with tape, the camouflage pattern was created with liquid masking solution. When I removed the tape, some parts of the color kept sticking on it, so I had to repaint some parts with a brush.

The next steps will be to paint the details followed by a coat of gloss coat to prepare it for decaling. The decals of both of the Zvezda planes are generic ´numbers and nationalsigns, not too bad and usable.

Zvezda's 1:144 Messerschmitt BF 109 F/2. This was built today too, but at the moment it got only primed and the lower hull was painted grey. I am still unclear how to paint the upper hull.

Two Plastic Soldier Company SD.Kfz. 251/D in 15mm scale. Both got nightfighting equipment. The left model got upgraded to the Sd.Kfz. 251/20 UHU with the Heer46 conversion parts. Since I did not like the driver's night vision piece I changed it with a matching piece from the Heer46 Panther night vision conversion pack. I also added a clear lense to the searchlight which is not on the pictures.

On the other halftrack I changed the closed doors to scratchbuilt open ones. 

I forgot to make pictures of Olli's stuff but I think soon he will upload some pictures in his own blog. Another successful building session for the Montagsmaler even when it is Wednesday.

Revell 1:144 Ju 87b Stuka Todays W.I.P.

Two pictures of Revell's 1:144 Micro Wings Stuka kit. Revell's Micro Wings range offered 16 world war 2 planes in 1:144 scale made from moulds from the early seventies. My mate Olli made pictures of another two Revell Micro Wings fighters which he will publish in his blog soon (update: this post).

Due to the age of the kits' moulds there was a lot of flash and some parts did not went together without putty and some mild violence. I painted it with the brush, using masking tape for the camouflage pattern. While I am not 100 percent satisfied with the results, it will be a decent game piece.

The (still unfinished) diorama base was made with a picture frame and some cartonage.

Today my mate Olli joined me for another Montagmaler session. Our roguish goals for today are to build two Zwezda "Art of Tactics" 1:144 planes, I will try to build a Sd.Kfz. 215/20 "UHU" from the PSC Sd.Kfz.251/D kit and the Heer46 UHU conversion kit. Olli wants to remove its paint before he starts to repaint one of his Tigers. Maybe we will build and paint some more stuff, but the clock is ticking.

 

Later in the evening I will post some pictures of today's progress.

Rügen'46: Achtung, Spione!

A group of allied commando forces accompanied by their trusty drone. In my Rügen'46 background settings, the allied commands decided after devastating losses of men and material to withdraw all their troops from the continent while the plague is spreading

Allied specialists can join any faction as so-called military advisors, but since the plague spread over the oceans, their armies are needed to defend the homeland.

Two minis from the Warm Acres boardgame "Hour of Glory". Due to the game mechanics you get the same character in a sneaking and in a fighting pose.
I replaced the left miniature's knife with a bad looking pistol which will be replaced when I get a new one. The other figure got not only a pretty weird view but also a cigarette.

Again two miniatures from "Hour of Glory" and again the same character in a sneaking and in a fighting pose. I did not do any changes to the figures but if I get a nice looking revolver the actual revolver of the left mini will be replaced.
The overall quality of these "Hour of Glory" figures could be a lot better.

Today I finished this Mr. Gutsy inspired robot figure made by Brother Vinni. Made from very soft resin, the 8 parts went together very well. It was the first time I used UHU Hart glue for resin and like the actual result. For the paintjob I used the same colors that I use for my 15mm US tanks.

A specialist armed with a revolver and a sharpened wooden peg by East Riding Miniatures. The other mini came in a blister with the vampire miniature from this post.

These miniatures were mainly painted with Revell Aquacolor Khakibraun and an unlabeled olive green. The main wash I used was thinned down GW Agrax Earthshade. For the bases I used the materials which can be seen in the background of the first picture.