Dragon 1/35 Sd.Kfz. 250/3, Tunisia, 1942.

[kahunaminor]

Nice save matey!

Pity about the MM primer. When I do use a primer, I find Tamiya’s line pretty bulletproof, even straight from the rattle can.

I also have this kit so taking copious notes.

Regards,

[speedgraflex]

Thank you for following, Kent! I do know that the more locator pins I remove, the better the kit fits together, and the closer the form appears to its actual one. Great point about Tamiya’s primers. My favorites are the 1200/1500 Mr. Surfacer primers. Choosing Model Master was, I hoped, an interesting prelude to using MM gray enamels, but it looks like I will be using Mr Hobby lacquers on this... and Mission Models for the RAL colors. Time and money are the usual factors involved, of course. Cheers!

[Stikpusher]

I would second the recommendation of Tamiya primers. But, Mr Surfacer is great stuff too. And nothing says that you can’t still use the Model Master enamels over any primer...

[KSaarni]

After a number of different Primers "here and there", I could not recommend anything more than this one:

Same product is sold under 3 (what I am aware of) different brands, but the product is the same
(many different colors also, white, grey etc)

In US it is "Badger Stynylrez"
In UK it is "Ultimate Primer"
Elsewhere it is "Mig Ammo One Shot Primer"

- Kari

[speedgraflex]

Thanks, Carlos and Kari! I appreciate your advice. I did something unusual last night and watched a time lapse video of someone building and painting a Tamiya halftrack. I don’t usually watch videos for ideas, but I was curious how to approach building and painting. I assumed that the most effective approach would be to build and paint in multiple subassembly stages, but this fella treated the interior as one stage and the exterior as the other. Interesting.

Also: I do not intend to give Model Master Enamel Primer a bad rap. The soft plastic is as culpable. As they say, “It takes two to tango!”

Design Critique

1. Fat locating pins. I assume this is to make a snug fit with the parts. Okaaay. What this does instead is put pressure on the joins. Contacts under pressure will eventually fail in my opinion.

2. Soft, ABS style plastic. Thankfully, I like working with CA, but see note 1, putting pressure on any join held with “CA Effect” will pop apart.

3. Incomplete instructions. I still have no idea where the good folk who designed this puppy want me to put the engine.

[Duke Maddog]

Well Bruce, I finally caught up with this build and now I know why all other builds of yours have slowed down. That is awesome as I'm thrilled to see you making such progress on something. As everyone has said, you are a master of seam filling, shaping and sanding. Brilliant work Bruce! next time a seam pops, try gluing it with the liquid cement to get the bind, then add the CA glue as reinforcement. That might help keep the seams from popping again. Just a thought.

I'm looking forward to seeing more. Keep it going Bruce! I do hope to see you at Spruefest!

[speedgraflex]

Duke! Thank you so much for reading through the posts, as well as your great tips on seam sealing. I would love to be slinging paint, but I am going to try gluing axles as preparation for assembling drive wheels. I found myself paring down projects by subject, so when my ideas get a little stale, I have the option to bounce out to either science fiction or aircraft models. My hope is rather than start another kit I will move between these three.

Any skills I have that are improving are a direct result of following projects here—particularly the multitude of kits you build! I remember last year being agog truly gob smacked by your ability to shape shift between vintage weapons, sci-fi and fantasy cars (Speed Racer’s Mach 5), as well as a slew of aircraft, armor and ship builds. These would be in addition to gaming miniatures, too. Even typing the overview leaves me breathless!

... and now a possible diorama idea!

I have been studying the link Carlos posted earlier and researching Afrika Korps photos of halftracks in action. I found this startling image of a shelled out Sd.Kfz. 250 being inspected by the U.S. (I assume the figure is U.S. with the U.S. tank in the b.g., let me know if I am correct.)



Great composition. A single figure. Open compartments. I still grieve for Kari's engine being buttoned up completely. This opens up the engine doors and at least one of the small tools compartments (again, correct me if I am... incorrect). I like the dangling binoculars. The figure's pose is great.



I am not sure what he may be doing in the inspection. Is this a hunt for souvenirs? Again correct me here.

Still this would be exciting and I feel relief from my grandfather that I would take the path of showing what remains of machinery during war... and by extension the men who fought on either side are represented by the absence of the halftrack's crew and the presence of the U.S. soldier. There is also a nice fill in the blanks feeling to the pose. It's not a strong, heroic pose. It's realistic. Natural. And that says even more.

[speedgraflex]

[mustang1989]

Bummer about the primer Bruce. I've gotten to where I rarely primer anything any more unless the plastic is molded in something like yellow, red or some other ridiculuous color or if I'm using acrylic paints. I can see where armor builds, particularly German subjects, get a coat of red oxide primer but other than that I've gotten away from primer for a number of reasons. Loss of detail, the risk for yet even more paint blemishes than I already have and for me it just prolongs the build another couple of days to a week.

I will say that if I do primer I'll use Tamiya from the rattle can. Haven't ever had an issue with it.

[speedgraflex]

Thanks so much for your reply, Joe! You have given me much to think about. I generally use primer to cover putty lines then blend out from the filled section as thinly as possible to the first hard edge, but I could certainly try to reduce the primer even sooner than that. With this project I was going to prime the bottom as well, but I am going to try a color coat shot first on some sprues to see if the plastic “gets along” with the paint, then I will cross my fingers and take a shot at one side of the “tub.”

I am starting to sketch ideas for the diorama elements—attempting to decode what happened. My assumption is this was a stationary target and the blast happened close enough to the rear to effectively disable the vehicle... again, any thoughts would be helpful. In my mind, the shell came down like a hammer behind them, exploded, and blast fragments traveled outward.

Diorama elements:

1. Blast crater
2. SdKfz 250
3. U.S. Tank Commander

Overhead angle: