Matchbox/Revell 1/76 sd.kfz. 234/2 Puma
Final dry fit before painting begins.
Everything OOB except a jack chopped off an old Airfix Pz.kpfw. IV. Pistol port added to turret rear. I discovered a way to deal with the skinny gun barrel (which is also not circular) was to dip it into a bottle of Mr Surfacer, then suspend vertically while it dried. Once dry, a gentle rotation inside a folded piece of wet and dry brought it to a much better profile.
Kit exhaust outlets and pipes scratched from plastic and aluminium tubes
Smoke launchers and gun barrels drilled. Vision flap slits engraved.
Mantlet textured and commander's hatch interior detailed.
Gunze 1500 Mr Finishing Surfacer black primer.
Good news and bad news. First time I have tried the new Tamiya Dunkelgelb, they call Dark Yellow 2 XF88. Yes lots of arguments about the 'true' colour(s) but this paint looks like a good 'typical' dunkelgelb hue to me. Not so good news is that as this comparison pic shows, the turret is too tall - I estimate about 1mm. Too late for me to fix, but anyone else mad enough to care could...
Turret height doesn't appear quite so bad from this angle, but still too high I reckon. And those stowage bin hinges really should be removed.
I think the mouldings are still quite crisp for a 1978 tooling.
First time I could properly see if I'd made a mess of the vision slots, but I'm pleased they are straight and in roughly the right place. Mind you the simplified shape of the vision covers now bugs me.
Poor quality picture but my home made exhaust and its awkward angles turned out alright in the end I reckon.
Kommentare
25 3 April 2022, 11:03
Neil PatrickThank you Alec and Guy. Alec, yes I was a bit shocked too after I saw the pics under some paint. Those must have pumped out tens of thousands of these things over the years. Almost no flash either. 🙂
1 May 2022, 14:41
Neil PatrickThanks Neil. The camo was the thing that I was most anxious about. I used the new Tamiya XF88 and XF89 for the dark yellow and green. But their red brown XF90 looks very strange to me, so I mixed hull red and german grey for the brown. Colourwise at least this looks about right to me.
1 May 2022, 21:56
Łukasz GlińskiWow, that's pretty impressive 👍
Are you going to add the included stand? Is it included at all?
6 May 2022, 13:06
Neil PatrickThank you Chan Li and Lukasz. Yes the camo painting was a bit stressful, but it turned out okay I think. Very thin paint, very low air pressure, very close up - about 0.5-1cm distance between the model and the airbrush.
And yes Lukasz I plan to do the base too. I have prepared a little plan to make the scene a bit more interesting - stay tuned to find out what it is!
7 May 2022, 08:08
Neil PatrickThank you Simon. It was a bit scary trying to make it in scale. It's softer than I was trying to do but I'm not done yet...😉
21 May 2022, 10:38
Neil PatrickThank you Roy! I do enjoy trying to make something that looks okay from COP (crappy old plastic)! Except as we both know old Matchbox kits are not really crappy at all. Good shapes and dimensions, good moulding and good fit. A little bit of extra detail here and there and a decent paint job and they hold their own even today I reckon. The sd.kfz. 251 Hanomag is on the bench now. It needs a bit more work than the Puma as the interior is minimal and exterior details such as tools etc, are lacking. But it's rising from its attic grave pretty well now.
4 September 2022, 09:04
Rui SIt seems I missed this one too. Are the front Jerry cans finished🤔
Beautiful cat, Great camo. Well done 👍
2 October 2022, 10:44
Neil PatrickThank you very much Rui. Now you mention it, I see what you mean about the jerry cans. I think I will weather them up a bit more when I do the final weathering and incorporate the base and figures.
2 October 2022, 11:19
Project info
Group Build
Matchbox 50th anniversary group build
1. April 2022 bis 31. Dezember 2023
1. April 2022 bis 31. Dezember 2023