The following photos are of the finished 1:35 scale Dragon Geschutzwagen 38M.
I must say that this has been the most complex build done so far. The complexity arises from the small size of the vehicle, thus the small size of the parts comprising the kit. The other complexity was the inclusion of interior lighting to show of the interior detail.
I used Fruilmodel tracks because to me they are the best in spite of their cost. However, this was the first time I had trouble with the Fruil tracks. I had to replace the front drive sprockets with the Fruil supplied sprockets(first time I have had to do that with 12 kits completed using Fruil tracks). The idler sprockets also had to be carefully removed so a spacer could be added between the halves. This is because the Fruil link pieces were just a "smidge" wider than those bloody link-and-pray tracks with the kit.
The vehicle was airbrushed with Tamiya dark yellow as a base coat. The camo pattern was airbrushed freehand with Tamiya red-brown and Tamiya dark-green and field grey mixed 50/50. After that a highly thinned coat of dark yellow was airbrushed to tone-down the brown and green. Of course prior to this the fighting compartment was already painted, detailed, and weathered. The gun assembly was painted and detailed separately.
Next was detail painting of chips/scratches with Valejo dark brown and Testors metalizer burnt-iron.Shiny edges of panels, openings, hatch edges, etc.. was done with an artists graphite pencil. A coat of Future floor polish glossed things up for the few decals to set nicely with no silvering. Next step was dot filtering with black, flat-white, burnt-umber, and dark yellow oil paint. Finally a pin wash of burnt-umber and flat black highlighted all the tiny details. The last step was an airbrushed coat of Testors lacquer dull-coat.
Viola'.... the little bugger was done.
The base is red cedar covered with celluclay topped off with three different shades of loose woodlands scenics grass. Over that is a mixture of catnip, cilantro, oregano, and bay leaves that were finely chopped up. The weeds are three colors of woodlands scenics synthetic horse-hair. The dirt is finely ground and sifted dirt from my own yard. The tree is a real wood tree I got from a railroad hobby store that was covered with loose grass, clump grass, and the same spice mixture described above. Finally, the standing water is a clear two-part epoxy resin barely tinted with clear blue and brown. The epoxy was dribbled onto several places and spread-out and settled into the low spots.
As always I am not a professional photographer so the lighting varies from picture to picture. For the close-up shots of the interior, the tight focus point made the exterior parts out of focus. To capture the detail of the fighting compartment I used a small flashlight which explains the brighter spots in some photos.
Photo below is top quadrant view.
Two photos below are left side.
Photo below is rear.
Photo below is right front.
Photo below is right rear. The exhaust was painted with Testors metallizer burnt-iron. After that dried a heavy coat of burnt-umber oil paint was applied.After about 15 minutes I used mineral spirits to wipe off most, but not all of the burnt umber. While the oil paint was still tacky I sprinkled on black and brick-red pigment powder. After all that dried a few days more brick-red pigment powder was carefully brushed on. The Testors dull-coat sealed all that in place.
Photo below is a close-up of the transmission/final drive.
Next two photos are slightly out-of focus shots of the drivers compartment.
Photo below is of the front of the engine compartment. Unfortunately alot of detail is covered by the gun-mount across the width of the chassis.... drat!!!
Following 5 photos are close-ups of the fighting compartment.
Last photo is a slightly out-of-focus shot of the breech end of the gun.
