VonL Posted January 30, 2012 Report Share Posted January 30, 2012 Very cool stuff here. Dave - What are those kits? Metal? Plastic? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philp Posted January 31, 2012 Report Share Posted January 31, 2012 I am tempted by this kit from Retrokits. RSF020painted.jpg 40 Euros plus shipping may be a bit much but if Starshipmodelers site comes back up will see if they have one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RGronovius Posted February 21, 2012 Report Share Posted February 21, 2012 Another Braille scale WIP. This is the old Monogram StuG IV kit from 1996. It was one of the first Revell of Germany original 1/72 scale armor kits and they released it in the US using the Monogram name (Revell and Monogram had already merged). Accuracy wise, this is a fairly poor kit. The stubby gun tube had a huge muzzle brake that was about the diameter of one of the road wheels. I replaced the kit tube with a Jagdpanther gun tube that was an unused part in a Dragon Panther kit. The headlight was also huge and I had an excess Hasegawa Panther headlight in the parts box. The tracks are link & length and devoid of even the basic detail most vinyl tracks have. I don't know if I'll bother to replace them or not. Likewise, the road wheels are single instead of doubled. I'd have to steal the suspension off of a better kit to upgrade the running gear and I just don't know if it is worth it. I had an ExtraTech PE set for this kit that adds some missing detail and enhances others. The machine gun consists of three small pieces that are sandwiched together to give the gun thickness. It's sitting on the penny in the pictured. I was skeptical, but it looks pretty good, better than the kit part. There is an error in the assembly instructions for the kit. The instructions do not mention nor show the assembly or placement of the four piece muffler. The painting and marking guide shows the muffler in place and there are mounting holes for it on the rear plate. I guess Revell was still trying to smooth out the wrinkles in their Braille scale armor line. All in all, it assembles well and looks like a StuG, just not a good StuG. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Bell Posted February 22, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2012 Any hints on working with small scale PE? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RGronovius Posted February 22, 2012 Report Share Posted February 22, 2012 Be careful is all. One tweezer launch and good luck finding that micro part. I use a flat chisel blade in the X-Acto knife as a guillotine to cut the part as close as possible. I put the part in a pair of cross clamp tweezers with a wide, flat jaws and position the burr as close to the edge of the jaws as possible. I then use a small file to swipe the burr away being careful not to apply too much pressure to deform the piece. If I'm able, I'll try to take a close up of the PE machine gun next to the kit part. Although it is flat, it contains a lot more detail than the kit plastic part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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