Westwind Stug Mech part two

So, as I mentioned the Westwind Stugmech had the feet attached to a base. I cut them off with a razor saw. I drilled through the hole in the foot to take the locating pin.

To attach the hip joint, I drilled through the ball joint out through the outer part of the leg. As you can see I have pushed a brass rod through to demonstrate. I then removed the rod and placed the hip joint against the pelvis sockets. I then drilled through from the outside. This was then used to pin the hip joint. The foot was then placed in position on the ankle ball joint and again drilled through from the underside, pinned and glued,

Once one leg was in place, the other leg was pinned at the hip and the foot attached to match.

The Stugmech with William Killian for scale.

A  Warlord Games Galahad armoured infantry suit.

A Westwind SOTR British Steel armoured infantryman.

A Westwind SOTR M100 Comanche walker

A Warlord Games SDKFZ 234/2 Puma armoured car.

 A Warlord Grizzly for scale.

SDKFZ 234/2 Puma revisited

A couple of items on the Warlord Games Puma.

As mentioned earlier in the thread, for reasons best known to the Italeri/Warlord designers, a decision was made to mould the tyres/wheels hollow.

I decided to fill the backs of the tyres with Milliput. Unfortunately I did not photograph them before attaching them to the hull.

Here are two photographs of the wheels in place.

 I chose the best ones for the front and rear.

 I do need to paint the joins , probably black/burnt umber.

 It is very difficult to photograph the inside of the wheels, but the effect is not too bad,

The other item was the lack of damage to the doors on the mudguards. I have added some chipped paint effects to the doors and surrounding paintwork.

It probably needs some more.

SDKFZ 234/2 Puma

This has been a long term project.

The eight wheels, the turret and the hull were undercoated with Citadel Chaos Black spray. The turret and hull were then sprayed with PSC Panzer Dark Yellow. The area of the lower hull under the mud guards had Citadel Stirland Mud textured paint applied. This was then covered with Vallejo Burnt Umber. This was then dry brushed with Citadel Steel Legion Drab. Citadel Agrax Earthshade was then washed over the whole body and turret.

After glueing the wheels in place (one needed a reinforcing bar added), the tyres were drybrushed with Vallejo Black Grey and a wash made from Citadel Nuln Oil and black was applied over the dry brushing.

The hull and turret were dry brushed with Vallejo Dunkelgelb. The wheel hubs were also painted with Vallejo Dunkelgelb. The hubs were washed with Agrax Eathshade.

The tyres and the mudguard were then dry brushed with Vallejo Burnt Umber .

As mentioned earlier, it has been fitted with an IR spotlight (made from a PSC Panther cupola) and two fuel drums (with a pump).

The "cracks" on the turret front (and elsewhere) are the result of a failing spray can.

 The Balkenkreuz is from the supplied decal sheet, but the numbers are from the Rubicon German AFV sheet (I am lazy and they come pre-assembled).

SDKFZ 234/2 Puma work in progress - the second fuel drum

So the continuing story of the SDKFZ 234/2 Puma.

Having removed the box from the right rear mudguard, I added the second fuel drum in its place.

Microstrip is used for the straps and a piece of microstrip is used as a bracket under the drum.

Additionally mounting points have been added by the driver's compartment and on the roof of the turret for the IR sights.

SDKFZ 234/2 Work in progress

So having shared the previous photographs, I received feedback on the stowage.

Having discussed the stowage arrangement, I have removed the supplied box and will add a balancing fuel drum on the right hand rear mudguard.

The fixing slots in the hull will need to be filled with Milliput and the drum will be then be fixed on top. Additional soft stowage will fill the gap between the drum and the spade.

SDKFZ 234/2 Puma - work in progress

This is another model that has taken a long time to get anywhere.

One of the concerns was the terrible wheels. This is an eight wheel armoured car, but for some reason the kit designers decided that they would use a strange hollow design.

So, as they will be rather obvious, I have filled the hollow with Milliput. Hopefully when painted black they will look the part.

While building the turret, I did not use sufficient liquid poly to fix the smoke dischargers, and managed to lose one of them.

While looking through the spare parts box, I spotted some PSC Panther cupolas, and thought that they would make a nice protected IR search light for a Weird War vehicle.

A Rubicon German Stowage box for scale.

As this is now going to be a Weird War vehicle I decided that it needed lots of stowage as it would be ranging far and wide. One feature of the SDKFZ 234 series is the rear driving position allowing the vehicle to be driven equally in both directions. This does mean that the rear deck has to be kept clear to allow the second driver to see where he is going.

Fuel would be an issue, so a Rubicon fuel drum was added to the side deck. A fuel pump was added to the rear deck and a fuel hose was made up from solder.

I have not added the other four wheels as they will be painted separately.

The search light was added where the smoke discharger should have been located.

A piece from the SDKFZ 251 kit was added under the front bumper to represent tow lines.