Mittlerer Zugkraftwagen 8T (Sd.Kfz.7) Holzpritsche (Dragon)

[losboz]

Jul 28, 2023 18:27:28 GMT -5 chromdome35 said:

I somehow missed your update on this.

I feel like I have a front-row seat to the build of something I would see in a magazine. That is simply awesome weathering work. The subtleness of the color fades and transitions are perfect.

Thanks for the kind words buddy,

[losboz]

Jul 28, 2023 18:29:55 GMT -5 406 Silverado said:

Jul 28, 2023 18:27:28 GMT -5 chromdome35 said:

I somehow missed your update on this.

I feel like I have a front-row seat to the build of something I would see in a magazine. That is simply awesome weathering work. The subtleness of the color fades and transitions are perfect.

Man.....this guy is just off the charts as far as building skills go. Looking forward to another update on this one.

Cheers buddy

[406 Silverado]

Sept 1, 2023 5:58:19 GMT -5 losboz said:

Jul 28, 2023 18:29:55 GMT -5 406 Silverado said:

Man.....this guy is just off the charts as far as building skills go. Looking forward to another update on this one.

Cheers buddy

PM sent brutha.

[deafpanzer]

I almost missed this! Despite checking the forum on daily basis except when I am away on trips, sometimes the threads remain hidden but I am so glad I saw your build because I am truly blown away by your weathering work!

[losboz]

Although it’s been a while, I do have a small update. With work, holidays, family commitments and the like, bench time has been virtually nonexistent. I have however, between other projects made a little progress.

Running gear fitment

With the undersides now weathered in sub-assemblies it was time to attach the running gear. The wheels have been weathered and the task of lining them all up went without incident. It is always a delicate mission getting all these overlapping and interleaved components to fit as they did before paint. The wheel fit to the axles was a touch loose upon building, so a little paint during airbrushing the base colours has now made the fit nice and snug. As a result, I deliberately left the middle row pairs un-glued, so I had some wiggle room, and relied on just attaching the inner and outer pairs to their axles instead.

Tracks completed. As the vehicle will have sat for a while the tracks exhibit for more rust than an operational set.



As the sprocket was already attached to the chassis and designed not to rotate, the track runs had to be threaded carefully over them. Due to the addition of paint they then had to be gently pressed against the sprocket pads, ensuring all the guide horns located snugly between the rollers.

The last task was to attach both track runs together. As the lengths were tested over an unpainted set of wheels, I was hoping for a smidgen less sag. This turned out exactly to be the case. I made sure the connection points were on the top of the runs to make handling easier. Scraping away the paint on the locating surface of one connecting link on each run and inserting an unpainted track pad was a simple task. A spot of rubber CA and a light squeeze with a pair of tweezers was all that was required to get a secure connection. The pad was then primed and painted. To blend them in completely the same acrylic 'rain wash' was applied to both the pads.

Due to the front axle connection point being very shallow the one remaining front tyred wheel will stay off for now to aid handling, as I have a fair bit of work adding accessories and much weathering still to do. Masking the connection between chassis and cargo frame was definitely a worthwhile exercise and this has meant I nice clean connection and the cargo bed can be repeatedly dry fitted without issue.

Choosing and painting accessories.

Before the cargo bed is added permanently to the chassis, we need to add some additional stowage or in this vehicle's case, discarded paraphernalia! I deliberately didn’t add much in the way of 'stuff' to the cargo bed before airbrushing as brush painting access due to the fragile nature of the tilt framework would have been tricky. The equipment rack was also left off to aid airbrushing.

Unfortunately, the period image reference I'm using for this project doesn’t give a clear 360-degree picture, so we cannot see the full contents of the cargo bed or fully into the cab. What is clear in addition to the few strewn about items we can see, is various items on the ground. There is also additional planking added to the tilt frame, a bread bag wrapped over the equipment rack and leaning on the fender is one of the louvred engine panels and a large rock. One split rim wheel half can be seen resting on the centre spokes and a crank handle has been left in its starting position. There is dried foliage sat over both the dislocated bonnet/hood and the flak gun and other indistinguishable items sit on the floor below the cab entrance.

Suffice to say I have a little artistic licence in this department now, so I have set about sourcing said paraphernalia. These included both the kits louvred side panel and starting crank handle, one split wheel rim half from the Trumpeter kit, Jerry cans, oil, and fuel drums, cannisters, cans, crates and lastly ammo containers.

It is unclear whether this vehicle would have been assigned to operate with this small flak gun. Due to its overkill pulling power, I suspect not. It is more likely just another vehicle that was available to tow an operational armament briskly away from the front. I do have plenty of 3.7cm ammo containers. Both photo-etch and from Bronco’s Sd.Ah.52 3.7cm Flak36/37 Ammo Carriage trailer kit, so I will add a few of those too.

Primed with Mr Hobby surfacer 1500 all the accessories were airbrushed with Tamiya acrylics and brush painted with Vallejo acrylics and are yet to be weathered with both enamels and oils.

[deafpanzer]

Everything looks GREAT especially the tracks!!! Where did you get those cool ammo boxes and damaged jerry cans & drums? And can I pay you to come over here in Indiana and teach me how to do those???

[stikpusher]

Fantastic work on those items! I'm now quite curious to see how all of this will go together.

[Joe Rix]

Whoa! That is some amazing progress. Those tracks and accessories are absolutely realistic. You have some real talent in the weathering department.

[kyledehart5]

The weathering is absolutely on point. Everything looks fantastic!

[moparmadness]

Oh man this is some top grade weathering!

[406 Silverado]

Sept 1, 2023 9:38:36 GMT -5 losboz said:

Although it’s been a while, I do have a small update. With work, holidays, family commitments and the like, bench time has been virtually nonexistent. I have however, between other projects made a little progress.

Running gear fitment

With the undersides now weathered in sub-assemblies it was time to attach the running gear. The wheels have been weathered and the task of lining them all up went without incident. It is always a delicate mission getting all these overlapping and interleaved components to fit as they did before paint. The wheel fit to the axles was a touch loose upon building, so a little paint during airbrushing the base colours has now made the fit nice and snug. As a result, I deliberately left the middle row pairs un-glued, so I had some wiggle room, and relied on just attaching the inner and outer pairs to their axles instead.

Tracks completed. As the vehicle will have sat for a while the tracks exhibit for more rust than an operational set.

As the sprocket was already attached to the chassis and designed not to rotate, the track runs had to be threaded carefully over them. Due to the addition of paint they then had to be gently pressed against the sprocket pads, ensuring all the guide horns located snugly between the rollers.

The last task was to attach both track runs together. As the lengths were tested over an unpainted set of wheels, I was hoping for a smidgen less sag. This turned out exactly to be the case. I made sure the connection points were on the top of the runs to make handling easier. Scraping away the paint on the locating surface of one connecting link on each run and inserting an unpainted track pad was a simple task. A spot of rubber CA and a light squeeze with a pair of tweezers was all that was required to get a secure connection. The pad was then primed and painted. To blend them in completely the same acrylic 'rain wash' was applied to both the pads.

Due to the front axle connection point being very shallow the one remaining front tyred wheel will stay off for now to aid handling, as I have a fair bit of work adding accessories and much weathering still to do. Masking the connection between chassis and cargo frame was definitely a worthwhile exercise and this has meant I nice clean connection and the cargo bed can be repeatedly dry fitted without issue.

Choosing and painting accessories.

Before the cargo bed is added permanently to the chassis, we need to add some additional stowage or in this vehicle's case, discarded paraphernalia! I deliberately didn’t add much in the way of 'stuff' to the cargo bed before airbrushing as brush painting access due to the fragile nature of the tilt framework would have been tricky. The equipment rack was also left off to aid airbrushing.

Unfortunately, the period image reference I'm using for this project doesn’t give a clear 360-degree picture, so we cannot see the full contents of the cargo bed or fully into the cab. What is clear in addition to the few strewn about items we can see, is various items on the ground. There is also additional planking added to the tilt frame, a bread bag wrapped over the equipment rack and leaning on the fender is one of the louvred engine panels and a large rock. One split rim wheel half can be seen resting on the centre spokes and a crank handle has been left in its starting position. There is dried foliage sat over both the dislocated bonnet/hood and the flak gun and other indistinguishable items sit on the floor below the cab entrance.

Suffice to say I have a little artistic licence in this department now, so I have set about sourcing said paraphernalia. These included both the kits louvred side panel and starting crank handle, one split wheel rim half from the Trumpeter kit, Jerry cans, oil, and fuel drums, cannisters, cans, crates and lastly ammo containers.

It is unclear whether this vehicle would have been assigned to operate with this small flak gun. Due to its overkill pulling power, I suspect not. It is more likely just another vehicle that was available to tow an operational armament briskly away from the front. I do have plenty of 3.7cm ammo containers. Both photo-etch and from Bronco’s Sd.Ah.52 3.7cm Flak36/37 Ammo Carriage trailer kit, so I will add a few of those too.

Primed with Mr Hobby surfacer 1500 all the accessories were airbrushed with Tamiya acrylics and brush painted with Vallejo acrylics and are yet to be weathered with both enamels and oils.

Man Los .....you make me want to build one of these things SO bad. Looking forward to having you back in here again brother.

[Green KreationZ]

Fantastic job on weathering those accessories. I am also curios as to where you purchased them?

[tcoat]

[M1Carbine]

losboz - WOW! that looks freaking fantastic. Holy cow the tracks, cans and drums...........WOW!

-Bob

[moparmadness]

Looking really good!

[handiabled]

I can't believe I have missed this thread now! Your weathering skills are next level great!

[losboz]

Sept 1, 2023 10:09:56 GMT -5 deafpanzer said:

Everything looks GREAT especially the tracks!!! Where did you get those cool ammo boxes and damaged jerry cans & drums? And can I pay you to come over here in Indiana and teach me how to do those???

Thanks buddy

Ammo boxes are from MIG, I'm not 100% on where the resin jerry cans and drums came from

Indiana sounds pretty cool compared to UK waether this time of year. Mail me the airfair and I'ill get me teaching outfit on

[losboz]

Sept 1, 2023 11:56:57 GMT -5 stikpusher said:

Fantastic work on those items! I'm now quite curious to see how all of this will go together.

Cheers, and you and me too bud   The vehicles are pretty much 95% built, just got to create a realistic scene and blend everything together on the base.

[losboz]

Sept 1, 2023 12:54:42 GMT -5 Joe Rix said:

Whoa! That is some amazing progress. Those tracks and accessories are absolutely realistic. You have some real talent in the weathering department.

Thanks for the kind words Joe. I l ike to play

[losboz]

Sept 1, 2023 18:37:05 GMT -5 kyledehart5 said:

The weathering is absolutely on point. Everything looks fantastic!

Thanks buddy

[losboz]

Sept 2, 2023 20:25:50 GMT -5 moparmadness said:

Oh man this is some top grade weathering!

Cheers man

[losboz]

Dec 8, 2023 2:46:07 GMT -5 handiabled said:

I can't believe I have missed this thread now! Your weathering skills are next level great!

Thank you, I like to think I'm slowy improving.  practice, practice, practice

[losboz]

Dec 5, 2023 15:49:23 GMT -5 406 Silverado said:

Sept 1, 2023 9:38:36 GMT -5 losboz said:

Although it’s been a while, I do have a small update. With work, holidays, family commitments and the like, bench time has been virtually nonexistent. I have however, between other projects made a little progress.

Running gear fitment

With the undersides now weathered in sub-assemblies it was time to attach the running gear. The wheels have been weathered and the task of lining them all up went without incident. It is always a delicate mission getting all these overlapping and interleaved components to fit as they did before paint. The wheel fit to the axles was a touch loose upon building, so a little paint during airbrushing the base colours has now made the fit nice and snug. As a result, I deliberately left the middle row pairs un-glued, so I had some wiggle room, and relied on just attaching the inner and outer pairs to their axles instead.

Tracks completed. As the vehicle will have sat for a while the tracks exhibit for more rust than an operational set.

As the sprocket was already attached to the chassis and designed not to rotate, the track runs had to be threaded carefully over them. Due to the addition of paint they then had to be gently pressed against the sprocket pads, ensuring all the guide horns located snugly between the rollers.

The last task was to attach both track runs together. As the lengths were tested over an unpainted set of wheels, I was hoping for a smidgen less sag. This turned out exactly to be the case. I made sure the connection points were on the top of the runs to make handling easier. Scraping away the paint on the locating surface of one connecting link on each run and inserting an unpainted track pad was a simple task. A spot of rubber CA and a light squeeze with a pair of tweezers was all that was required to get a secure connection. The pad was then primed and painted. To blend them in completely the same acrylic 'rain wash' was applied to both the pads.

Due to the front axle connection point being very shallow the one remaining front tyred wheel will stay off for now to aid handling, as I have a fair bit of work adding accessories and much weathering still to do. Masking the connection between chassis and cargo frame was definitely a worthwhile exercise and this has meant I nice clean connection and the cargo bed can be repeatedly dry fitted without issue.

Choosing and painting accessories.

Before the cargo bed is added permanently to the chassis, we need to add some additional stowage or in this vehicle's case, discarded paraphernalia! I deliberately didn’t add much in the way of 'stuff' to the cargo bed before airbrushing as brush painting access due to the fragile nature of the tilt framework would have been tricky. The equipment rack was also left off to aid airbrushing.

Unfortunately, the period image reference I'm using for this project doesn’t give a clear 360-degree picture, so we cannot see the full contents of the cargo bed or fully into the cab. What is clear in addition to the few strewn about items we can see, is various items on the ground. There is also additional planking added to the tilt frame, a bread bag wrapped over the equipment rack and leaning on the fender is one of the louvred engine panels and a large rock. One split rim wheel half can be seen resting on the centre spokes and a crank handle has been left in its starting position. There is dried foliage sat over both the dislocated bonnet/hood and the flak gun and other indistinguishable items sit on the floor below the cab entrance.

Suffice to say I have a little artistic licence in this department now, so I have set about sourcing said paraphernalia. These included both the kits louvred side panel and starting crank handle, one split wheel rim half from the Trumpeter kit, Jerry cans, oil, and fuel drums, cannisters, cans, crates and lastly ammo containers.

It is unclear whether this vehicle would have been assigned to operate with this small flak gun. Due to its overkill pulling power, I suspect not. It is more likely just another vehicle that was available to tow an operational armament briskly away from the front. I do have plenty of 3.7cm ammo containers. Both photo-etch and from Bronco’s Sd.Ah.52 3.7cm Flak36/37 Ammo Carriage trailer kit, so I will add a few of those too.

Primed with Mr Hobby surfacer 1500 all the accessories were airbrushed with Tamiya acrylics and brush painted with Vallejo acrylics and are yet to be weathered with both enamels and oils.

Man Los .....you make me want to build one of these things SO bad. Looking forward to having you back in here again brother.

Cheers man.  I will get a big update on this in the new year, I've just got too many plates in the air at the moment

[losboz]

Dec 6, 2023 17:51:58 GMT -5 Green KreationZ said:

Fantastic job on weathering those accessories. I am also curios as to where you purchased them?

Cheers bud

TBH I've just accumulated bits from kits and bought most of the smaller accessories from hobby fairs and model expo's.  The crates are fairly new wooden products from MIG.  The jerry cans are from Bronco, the damaged cans and drums are resin items. The ladders were just scratch built from the wooden sprues for the MIG wooden crates.

[losboz]

Dec 6, 2023 19:05:39 GMT -5 tcoat said:

You can't beat rusty beat up s@*t man

[losboz]

Dec 6, 2023 20:00:52 GMT -5 M1Carbine said:

losboz - WOW! that looks freaking fantastic. Holy cow the tracks, cans and drums...........WOW!

-Bob

Appreciated Bob

[losboz]

Dec 8, 2023 2:46:07 GMT -5 handiabled said:

I can't believe I have missed this thread now! Your weathering skills are next level great!

Cheers bud

[losboz]

There are far to many accessories on the vehicle in this pic below but I plan to slowly whittle the amount down and play around with placement until I'm happy. Then I just gotta blend it all together on the little base.





I plan to get this project back on the bench in the new year.

[ossie262]

hi iosboz

sorry I missed this but hell that's a lot of work . great paint finish has well .
the cargo version is on my wants list , many years ago i scratch built one using Tamiya sdkfz 7 that was a long time ago
keep it coming
well done
Ossie

[deafpanzer]

Dec 14, 2023 12:01:24 GMT -5 losboz said:

Sept 1, 2023 10:09:56 GMT -5 deafpanzer said:

Everything looks GREAT especially the tracks!!! Where did you get those cool ammo boxes and damaged jerry cans & drums? And can I pay you to come over here in Indiana and teach me how to do those???

Thanks buddy

Ammo boxes are from MIG, I'm not 100% on where the resin jerry cans and drums came from

Indiana sounds pretty cool compared to UK waether this time of year. Mail me the airfair and I'ill get me teaching outfit on

Trust me Indiana is not as exciting as UK!!! No worries because I am really hoping that I will visit UK in August 2024 so you better clear your calendar so you can teach me EVERYTHING. LOL