Project II/17

Indirect fire is the best fire

I have always liked rocket launchers, they're just awesome devices. Years ago I've built three Nebelwerfers (15 cm NbW 41;30 cm NbW 42; Panzerwerfer auf SWS) and wanted to look at them from a different angle this time. For a long while I meant to get a classic Katjushka (BM-13) but the more I thought of it I wanted a more modern unit instead. I've witnessed 122 RakH 89 rocket launchers live (Chech RM-70) but I couldn't get a hold of a model of one - yet. They're bulky, but they look awesome. Still, I had to settle with some older hardware, a Soviet BM-21 rocket launcher built on an Ural 375D chassis.

Bits and pieces

The Trumpeter box revealed two matfuls of pieces mixed with some PE bits, a minuscule offering of decals and a set of large rubber tyres. All these would eat quite a bit of time. I also didn't think of checking if the set contained anything to full the forty tubes, or was it supposed to represent a post-firing state. I assumed the latter.

The instructions

A bit surprisingly the painting guide was very simple. A solid green frame with rubber-black wheels. I was thinking of doing something a tiny bit more entertaining myself.

The instructions were a handy booklet. The first proper page revealed a very interesting and nice detail: this had a modeled engine. I had really not expected that kind of a thing straight out of the box and was very pleased.

As my experiences with Trumpeter's ground-bound models have not been filled with the perfectness of pieces fitting together, I was somehow suspicious of how easy this build would be and was therefore mentally preparing for some swearing and fighting. Of course my memories may be from old kits and the reality (considering when this set was manufactured) may disagree, in which case I'd openly admit being wrong and prejudiced.

Project I/17

Leopard 2A6M

My Project Assistant felt like she needed a new tank to paint. Naturally we went for a bit of model shopping, that wasn't quite as successful as I had hoped for. In the end we popped by the local supermarket's toy department as our last hope. I started reading out the names of the five kits. The word "Leopard" had barely escaped my lips when she had already grabbed the packet and was declaring "I want this one". Daddy's girl.

The eagle-eyes among the audience may have noticed the left edge of the box and how it carries the name logo of Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, the company that manufactures the actual big cat on tracks. I assumed that this Revell kit was properly licensed and therefore a very decent model.

Quick assembly

I didn't rush with the build but spent a few evenings on it. Most of the tiniest and flimsiest details I skipped altogether as I knew that she'd be playing with this and those would most definitely not survive such life.

Revell's idea for the tracks was itneresting: two long bits per side were to be softened up in very hot but not boiling-hot water and then quickly bent into shape. Want to guess how well that worked out? I replaced the useless pieces with a more play-durable approach: tactically opposite and offset strips of masking tape of a handy width. Of course these tracks weren't true to scale in their thickness but they settled in beautifully and they'd also survive being driven around the floors, sofas and whatnot.

First I measured good lengths of tape, dry-fitted and fine-tuned a bit. As soon as the tracks (bands?) were just the way I wanted them, I dabbed a bit of white glue onto all the contact points of the roadwheels etc so that my tracks wouldn't fall off accidentally.

Slow painting

The model was primed simply white. After this I released it to my subcontractor, who also happened to be its owner.

As the muses were not too reliable, the painting process was shot around the calendar and took three sessions. But there was no sense to try to force or coerce a four-year-old to do anything like this when she didn't really find it interesting enough. I just asked occasionally "would you like to paint your tank today?" Just like the delightfully positive Bob Ross said: "Painting should never be hard work. Painting should be fun."

From some angles the tank looked as if the driver had gone at full speed into a patch of blueberries and kept rolling there with great happiness. The excited painter sometimes mixed all the paints together and was a bit confused when the result was brown instead of a custom rainbow. I guess it'd been fun to paint rainbows etc that easily but paints don't quite work that way. We'll be iterating this discussion a bunch of times in the coming years...

And these were the paints that were used in this, should I say unusual, painting process:

VMA 71065 Steel
VMA 71111 UK Mediterranean Blue
VMA 71094 Green Zinc Chromate
VMA 71085 Ferrari Red
VGC 72013 Squid Pink
VGC 72014 Warlord Purple
VGC 72008 Orange Fire
VMC 70733 Orange Fluorescent

All systems ready

When the artist had done with all her last touchups and modifications on the patterns at the last moment, it was done at last. I checked repeatedly if she wanted any decals to be used but the answer was consistently a stern no. To finish everything up I applied a layer of matt varnish to make it maybe a bit more durable for the playtime adventures.

I just have to quote the artist herself: "This is a fire tank. It brings fire. In the colours of the rainbow!" A rainbow-like set of more or less concentric arcs did appear on the rear deck of the tank at some point, but you wouldn't know it if I didn't tell you that. Or you couldn't tell it even then. Of course I was very pleased with the Flammpanzer idea, she indeed is daddy's girl :)

Finished: Project IX/16

A German-captured Soviet tank

As it is known, Germany wasn't the only participant in the WWII that was steered by a moustached somethingopath. This time the team of one of those had stolen a tank from the other one's group and then modified it a bit to look more like their own toys. In short that was the theme and motivation for this model.

Sneakily and tactically this wrap-up post ended up at the end of the year. Therefore the modeling year 2016 of the Project Mumblings blog was also wrapped up as the ninth project of the year was declared finished. So: have a nice new year and we'll most likely continue the next year just as idiotically as all the previous ones here at the Project Mumblings.

Imagery

The flash isn't my friend but at least you can see the dirtification a bit differently

The turret was turnable and you could adjust the elevation of the D-25T gun, within the physical limits of the model itself.

I did start marking down the time I used but then I forgot that, just about before the installation of the tracks. The build itself took very little time (a few hours), as the Tamiya kits have always been quick and easy. All the adjusting and painting took many times more time, as it always goes and as was to be expected.