Bronco Marder II D

[wbill76]

Time to clear the bench and get the next victim ready. This build log will feature Bronco's kit #35097 Panzerjager II 7.62cm Pak 36 (Sd.Kfz.132) Marder II D paired up with a set of Model Kasten SK-56 workable tracks.

[bbd468]

WOOOOHOOOO!!! Right on brother Bill! This will be the first time ive seen this built.....im in the front row and ready to go!

[deafpanzer]

COUNT ME IN! Please?!?!?!? I might even let you influence me into adding this kit to my stash with pleasure....

I know you very well... you always have AM barrel but I don't see one this time so I am assuming the kit comes with one?

Only thing will make me a very happy man... you doing figures... that would be awesome for this Marder! LOL

[tonylee]

Ridem Cowboy

Tony lee

[bigjohn]

Brother Gary, did you save me a seat in the front row?

Looking forward to this one Bill!! You going to replicate the box art?

[Leon]

Count me in Bill.getting the popcorn and tall glass of ice tea ready.

[wbill76]

Andy, no AM barrel necessary for this one, it has a single piece barrel with separate multi-piece muzzle brake that will do nicely. Adding an AM barrel would only increase the weight on this one and not add anything really in the detail process IMHO. I generally don't use AM barrels unless there's something defective or missing with the kit-supplied one in terms of detail. These days the one-piece barrels provided usually do just fine depending!

BJ, you may have to arm wrestle Gary for it! I'm planning to do the box art three-tone scheme but not hard-edged (these vehicles were produced when field-applied camo was the norm and the scheme on the box is for Normandy '44).

Glad to have all you fellas along for the ride!

[bbd468]

May 16, 2013 20:11:06 GMT -5 bigjohn said:

Brother Gary, did you save me a seat in the front row?

Ya darn tootin John! I got your seat saved.....you got the snacks right?

[Deleted]

Cool one Bill!
I may have to ruin my diet and get a family size bag of Cheeto's for snacking while viewing this one !

[danb]

This will be good im in buddy any room up the front there

Dan B

[blankingline]

Looking forward to the build. I having been looking for this kit so you can show me all the faults before I buy it. No pressure then :-)
Steve

[bullardino]

Here I am. And it has Modelkasten tracks, that I love

[wbill76]

Now gents, plenty of room for all, just so long as you've got a big enough monitor!

Carl, guess what my wife decided to get tonight for 'movie night' snacking? Good thing I'll have time to clean my fingers before starting work on this one tomorrow.

Steve, will do my best to point out anything along the way as always! Happy to break the trail for your my friend.

Luigi, I've gone through MK withdrawals working on the Neubau, it's time to return to workables!

[dupes]

No way, really? Not wasting any time on the new kit!

Very interested to see how badly it puts the Alan kit to shame.

[wbill76]

Because Bronco's kit design uses a panel arrangement to construct the lower hull, work began there instead of the usual 'remove and clean-up the road wheels' that typically is the first step for an armor build. Rest assured that will be coming soon, but the first order of business was to construct the lower hull. This is done in the first three steps of the instructions and it pays to study them first and do some test fits as there's a lot that has to go into a relatively small space and play nice with each other in the process.

Step 1 is straightforward, it installs the driver's seat and the torsion bar interior details for the suspension. Ejector marks that would be visible later on where filled with putty and sanded down prior to installing the torsion bar part. This step also calls for attaching the front hull nose armor plate, C18, but I held off doing that until later to make sure it fit just right with the hull side plates.



Step 2 has you work on components for the transmission, drive shaft, and brake drums as sub-assemblies to be used in Step 3. I did things a little differently here than in the instructions to make it easier to handle the components and install them into the hull. I installed the drive sprocket shafts, parts J10, to the transmission box directly instead of the to the brake hubs to make it easier to position the transmission box at the right spot in the hull.



Rather than attach the brake hubs to the transmission box, I installed them directly to the hull sides after doing a test fit to make sure the driver's side hub wouldn't interfere with the driver's seat. Doing things this way gave me some flexibility with the drive shafts in terms of getting things to meet up and do any adjustments when installing the hull sides into position. The base of the loader's seat was also installed but I left the cushion off for now so it could be detailed and installed later on separately.



Step 3 brings all the hull components together. Bronco designed the side panels well in terms of how the meet up with the lower hull. There's a small tab at the front that helps keep things lined up and the suspension bar part is also designed to help provide alignment and rigidity at the base. The engine compartment firewall also helps but it fits loosely, so the key to getting it lined up are the slot tabs on its base along with the transmission components that attach to it. That's another reason why I opted for the alternate method of installing the components mentioned earlier after doing some test-fits. The front nose plate was added along with the rear plate. The rear plate's fit required a little finger pressure help to get it to line up properly but otherwise the hull assembled without any major issues.





Next up will begin work on the suspension components.

[tonylee]

Duly Noted Bill.

Tony lee

[bbd468]

Great start Bill! Thanks for the detailed description of the build....great reference for the next fellers to build this kit.

Gary

[TRM]

Look at you go Bill....sneaking this one right under the radar on me!! Making a great start of her too!! Grabbing some popcorn!!!!

[bigjohn]

Great to to see this one started Bill. Looks good so far. Really looking forward to watching this one mature!

[wbill76]

Tony, my pleasure! So far so good...although I have to say I'm not a fan of slab-sided hull construction as a rule, but Bronco did a good job with this one.

Gary, happy to help for anyone else contemplating this particular subject.

T, had a good block of time available today so decided to make the most of it! More to come tomorrow as well. Keep that popcorn handy!

BJ, glad to have you along for the ride as well! The Marder II D is what every Panzer II wanted to be when it was all grown up...something about that 7.62cm gun I think.

[Leon]

Agree with the guys Bill.Great start on this one,

[deafpanzer]

An update on Saturday?!?!? Hope everything is OK with Bill? LOL

Great start buddy!!!

[Deleted]

Good progress Bill .
I cant eat cheeto's and watch a movie with my wife . All the noise I make drives her crazy . Plus I wont share them with her .
Any yellow on the fingers still ?

[Deleted]

nice looking kit, Bronco kits are very well engineered

[spud]

i dont think ive ever seen you build anything other than Dragon Bill. im looking forward to this one as its an SPG

[wbill76]

Thanks Leon!

Andy, have to keep you guessing a little bit...but things have settled down here a good bit so you may see more frequent updates as a result but not making any promises as to regularity!

Carl, the trick is to just get your wife her own bag...that's what I do and it cuts down significantly on the poaching...especially since she can never finish her own bag so I get the 'extras'. Fingers are dust-free at the moment!

Pete, it's been a while since I've built a Bronco kit and have to say they've come a long way in their approach!

Spud, it's true that the stash is largely dominated by Dragon kits but that's due mostly to the subjects I find of interest more than anything else. Now that many of the other 'big name' players are offering stuff of interest, I will pick up their kits as well when the timing/cost/subject trifecta all align. Glad to have you along!

[thug626]

Deal me in Bill. This is one that has piqued my interest.
Dave

[Deleted]

Ahhh yes Bill , sharing cheeto's .... ... thats one of the drawbacks of married life !

[wbill76]

Glad to have you on board Dave!

Carl, there are far worse potential consequences of married life to be sure!

[Thomas_M]

I have two monitors side by side, so there should be enough space for all of us...

Nice one, looking forward to see you do those MK tracks. I mostly do Friuls, so I am curious to see you doing those.