I've added the barrel to the carriage since this seemed to make sense for painting, but I'll leave the rest of it separate because otherwise I'll struggle to paint the interior of the wheels. In addition the lovely limber has been built.
This was a real joy and it went together without much fuss. Once again the only difficulty came with trying to interpret the instructions, with the key problem being vague illustrations and a lack of anything showing the way different elements should look once constructed. Building the central box should have been straightforward, for instance, but actually it took a lot of guesswork and fiddling around. I got there in the end but there were two quite noticable gaps on the top and the bottom which were filled with Vallejo Putty (the gap underneath and so out of sight) and Zap-A-Gap CA glue (the gap on top) since this tends to pull the plastic together as it dries.
Apart from these minor gripes the limber was a joy to build, with the PE mud guards and the tiny drawers for the ammunition being particular favourites. I'm very much looking forward to finding out how these will look once painted.
I've also made progress on different elements of the diorama for the gun. I'm planning to place the gun and limber in a desert scene, so I've made some barbed wire using different thicknesses of copper wire. I also made the vertical supports for the barbed wire by bending copper wire and fuse wire around the end of a Mission Models Multi-Tool (Small), which is a lovely piece of kit and really came in handy in this instance. The kit shell cases are rather poor so I made my own using styrene tube which was cut into sections and then drilled out as thin as possible. The bases were made using thin styrene sheet which was punched out using a Waldron Punch and Die Set. Some of these casings will be carried by the crew, some will be strewn around the gun, as shown in numerous photos.
I've also cut a sign saying 'Achtung Minen' from a set by Plus Model which I had spare. I used some strip styrene to make a wooden post for this sign. This was done by sanding the post on a rough sanding stick, then scoring it with a new X-Acto blade. I wanted to give a rough-sawn look so I nicked the sides of the post in random places - this is just visible in the above photo. I'm very pleased with the result.
Finally, I've built the six crew figures provided in the kit. These are in a variety of poses and they look very good. They go together well, with a minimum of clean-up and gap-filling. The one problem is the helmets, which several reviews have noted are very obviously incorrect. As a result I bought some Hornet heads from Historex (to the amusement of my wife, who was also intrigued that Historex sell eye-balls for figures) and am very impressed with them. I've never used them before so at first tried fitting one by cutting the resin around the neck to get it to fit. This had mixed results so I then tried drilling out the neck and then I used an X-Acto blade and a Mission Models Micro Chisel to sort out the fit. The result was a much better fit and a much easier process of posing the heads, as shown above and below.
Another issue I've noticed elsewhere is a tendency to fit heads with necks which look far too long, and this tends to ruin the effect of otherwise wonderful figures, so with this in mind I've cut the very long necks back to more natural proportions. I have a small amount of cleaning up to do and then we're ready for paint which I always feel is the best bit.
So far, then, this kit has been a delight and I've tried a few new things with which I've been impressed, most notably the Hornet heads.
Back soon.
Zigerastica
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