Tamiya's Sd.Kfz. 7/1 "Flakvierling" in 1:35 scale, with photo etch.

Treehugger
I wrote earlier that kit is mostly flash free, and I still think that is true, but obviously some cleaning up is required as flat surfaces tend to have a subtle raised edge at the ends. I like this kit a lot. 🙂 I will work on this project and the Challenger kit I started on. I hope I can finish in late December month. And with three sheets of photo etch this kit is fun to build.

Steven Van Dyck
The "alignment issue" is perfectly normal, the idler wheel could be moved to the aft to tension the tracks. Looks like a nice kit, but if you took the effort to add the PE, maybe it also pays off to replace the barrels with some that are drilled out or turned. I once made the Bronco Flakvierling and used some nice Griffon barrels for it. These will really catch the attention of your model.

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Treehugger
I got some nice aftermarket market barrels and then there will be a tiny piece of PE around the fed magazine on the guns. Ah, and some PE for the shield plates which may or may not look too thin, and some minor two plates in PE.

The weak part of all of this will be my airbrushing skills. I know I can airbrush on a smooth surface, but I think I have yet to master airbrushing.

A trick I learned, was to prime with one color and be done with it. 😄 I did that with an artillery piece and it looks very nice, I will try to use mainly the German panzer gray primer from Vallejo, and maybe add the white. I wonder how good the white paint was applied. I also have Tamiya "snow" weathering pastel goo, but I haven't tried that out, if that can be used to camo a vehicle white or not.

Hm, I should experiment with primer + white pastel on a separate piece of plastic. Also, I have a bottle of Tamiya snow powder (feels a little moist in the bottle), so I should probably go for a winter theme given that the figures are wearing winter clothing.

Treehugger
This Tamiya kit comes with a tension feature for the rear wheels, but it is only for a few millimeters. I tried the tracks on, loosely, and it seems like the tracks will be a tight fit.

Lee Fogel
Very nice work. I've got the Flak 37 version. This pair are terrific kits and you're doing this one justice.

Olivier
What colour did you paint the exhaust pipe ? Seems steel first and then dark?

Treehugger
Wrong project? I haven't started painting yet. 🙂

Olivier
On photograph number 4 I see a silvery pipe. Are my eyes that bad ?

Treehugger
Ah. Nah, that is just the shiny plastic. After scraping off mold lines, I like to smear the parts with liquid glue to make it more smooth, removing small fluff, making it more shiny.

Olivier
Ah ha...

Bryn Crandell
Looking good so far. Enjoy how you put text onto the photo. What program do you use for that?

Lee Fogel
Agreed, Bryn. That is super handy!

Treehugger
@Bryn Crandell , I use Photoshop CC (subscription based, about £10/month) Simplest free option might be eh um Gimp. Fusion 8 is also free (compositing) but is node based and somewhat complicated. Fusion 8 is imo better than photoshop for reducing photos to make them look the best because you can chose different sampling filters and easily preview the result.

Also, there might be more or less free online services that allow image editing and I am sure you can add text as well.

Treehugger
Btw, I think I will stick with the kit parts in plastic shown in image 12, unfortunately. I had fun making that part with PE + styrene and it looked really good. 🙁

I will try this again with the two larger PE shield plates for the "vierling", mixing PE and styrene to add thickness.

Steven Van Dyck
The PE part is not too thin, Treehugger.

flickr.com/photos/massimofoti/4902766860

Treehugger
I still think so. :| Imho PE sheet is 70-80% of the thickness depicted on the photo.

Holger Kranich
Oh cool, i am in here!

Steven Van Dyck
I thought you were comparing to the plastic part. Seen from the side, your adaptation seems fine. The holes should indeed be excentric, maybe it's adviseable to copy the outline on a metal sheet and try to cut it yourself.

Dave Flitton
Looking like a busy build.

Treehugger
I had hoped to avoid airbrushing a bunch of smaller parts but I don't think I can avoid that for the flak guns.

@Steven Van Dyck , I decided to just use the plastic parts. I managed to scrape off a lot of the plastic and they are now fairly evenly thinned I think. Probably a little too thick still, but I don't dare go any further else they might snap or bend.

Seems like I can't stall starting airbrushing, to get some paint on the chassis, and then finish working on the top side of the truck after that. Not sure how I am going to paint/assemble the flak guns.