Excuse me, have you seen any Russians?
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jhull123Great project! I have the same Mini Art figures in my stash so I was interested to read what you thought of them.
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"Hey guys, have you seen any Russians around here?" Crew of Sd. Kfz 232 Is getting information from squad of tired W-SS grenadiers during 3rd battle for Kharkov, 1943
I figured it was time for me to step up the gamer and tackle something bigger, both in terms of primary item in do and size. Plus I wanted to do winter camo. Also while vehicle is "early", Serie 1 actually, I figured placing it on battlefield in early 1943 is not impossible.
Sd. Kfz 232 is very nice kit. My first time building AFV kit and I was pleasantly surprised. Very nice fits, practically no flash and understandable instructions. Most parts have building pins/holes so you set piece properly and securely. Some excess plastic on some parts so care has to be taken when trimming them so you don't cut off something by mistake. While PMMS called out some mistakes I decided to ignore them as they were fairly minor and me messing around wold likely turn out worse. Some larger and thinner pieces show some warping but I'm not entirely sure whether this is kit issue or due to the fact that kit I bought had sprues removed from bags (reasons unknown and not addressed). It made for some issues where larger and longer pieces are glued together, such as hull pieces. So it was mostly a question of how to glue them together so that problems are least visible and easiest to fix by either putty or weathering. A small PE fret is included but only two large pieces require work like bending. Since both ends of vehicle look similar attention needs to be paid when attaching smaller pieces later so you put them on proper end. Instructions are clear on that, you just have to double check.
Kit has some interior parts. Just enough so they can claim it includes interior but not nearly enough to be full one. Which in the end isn't an issue anyway, it has small hatches so even if you were to make all of them one interior wouldn't be visible that much. I opted for only two open hatches so I didn't bother with most of interior, only in places where it would be seen. I ended painting small part of interior with grey primer and painted stuff like wheel and shifting sticks only. Rest is not visible so I didn't bother. Speaking of hatches, kit has most of them designed so you can build them open or close, even access panels. Nice touch if you want to play around with this but I suggest getting some reference photos to see exactly how hatches look open. Also since kit on has Heer licence plates I had to cover WH marking with some mud. I also replaced gun barrel with RB Models metal one, MG is original. Vehicle also has some parts and equipment not present on early version, early vs late version can be identified by number of access hatches on hull, some research is needed if you want to make it accurate. If that's not something that concerns you much it's no big deal.
This was my first attempt at snow camouflage on such kit (I've build Pak 40 in wintery camo before) so entire thing was learning process for most part. It's combination of AK Interactive Washable White pain and sponge method for chipping and fixing paint. I was going for late winter/early spring look when whitewash would be worn down. Since I couldn't fit photos of such conditions I improvised a lot. It was also a lot of back-and-forthing where I removed too much white paint and had to reapply grey then covered too much white with it and reapplied white then repeat. Overall I think it looks decent enough for first attempt. Wheels and undercarriage were weathered with mix of couple of pigments and enamels followed by a touch of wet Ammo of MiG Wet Effects and AK Interactive Snow Sprinkles. The look I'm going for is heavy mud/snow slush. I limited applying that to wheels and mudguards because such mix isn't thrown up that high. Also I think it looks decent.
Figures are typical MiniArt. Significant seam lines, some flash and excess plastic that needs to be carefully removed, but plastic is soft enough this can be quickly and easily done with a blade. Face details are average but for my skill level good enough. MiniArt figures are not my first choice as far as quality goes but MiniArt has plenty of different sets and they tend to be 5-6 figure sets as opposed to usual 4 figures in Dragon sets for slightly lower price. And they fit together well enough with minimal filling required so it balances out to a degree. MiniArt uses same approach for weapons sprues as Dragon, basic standard equipment and weapons sprues and then extra weapons added in additional sprues as needed. They are included even with tank crew set so nice addition to spares box. Also basic sprues are big and diverse enough so you'll always end up with some extras. Nice thing. Uniforms are a mish mash realistic for the time period.
House is something off brand I bought on eBay. Nice details but wood is very thing and breaks easily. As I managed to break couple of pieces here and there I improvised and didn't build it as intended.
Terrain is my first serious attempt at various snowy in related elements. Using mostly AK Interactive materials I tried to create snow drifts, partially melted snow and traffic that turned dirt road into muddy mess. With that in mind I didn't want to get too creative or complex, just regular ground with snow materials on top, combined with some materials to make puddles. Overall I think it turned out quite well.
Overall I'm quite happy with how it all turned out and how finished build looks like. Of course there is always room for improvement and several lessons were learned for next time…… but considering size, number of elements and terrain, several of which were first for me I think end result looks fine.
