Building of Schwerer Kanonenjagdpanzer (sKanJPz)

At first I cut away the way to thick, (even for the Wehrmacht) tow hooks. 

After that I added holder for tow hooks. They have been made of the original ones. Fill the hole for the spotlight. I‘ll add resin Parts Form Perfect Scale instead in the drilled holes.  

Also at the front I cut away the tow hooks.
Than: fill and sand and sand and fill ahhhh yes: sand.
Luckily the material is quite soft and "melts" when you apply glue. 

Today I started assembling. Honestly, a trained monkey could do that. Everything fits perfectly. However, the "melting" plastic requires a lot of sanding. 

On the turret I drilled holes for handlebars and antennas. The handelbars will be made of wire. Antennas are spare Parts. 

The first "Bundeswehr" parts are glued on. Later, a protective bracket made of sheet will be added around the lamps. Notice how small the hooks look. But the scale is right. 

I made some protective brackets of plastic sheet (0,5 mm) 

Assembly of the road wheels. I grind the the surface with a Vallejo sandig sponge (60/120)to create a used look. (16 road wheels with two parts. Where is my monkey…?.) 

Add the suspension bars. Note the asymmetric construction.  

During the assembly of the hull, i recognize that you can look into the empty space behind the exhausts.  

I applied some black cardboard on the backside to create the illusion of darkness  

Together with the PE parts it should work…hopefully. After I attached it, i recognized that it would be very…interesting to paint the hull.  

After that , I added the PE parts. Easy and simple! 

I applied the spotlights and the typical indicators from the Perfect Scale set. I decided to build a protective bar, because without it looks a little bit boring. Yes.. the Bundeswehr don’t use this kind of bars. They also don’t use 100 ton double-barrel tanks…… 

My Sunday started with the idea of adding some mud-flaps. My 8yo trainee and i mixed Tamiya XF-85 Rubber Black and white glue (“Ponal”). We put it on a piece of glass (from a frame). After a few hours in the sun, you can cut out the shapes you would like. It looks like thick rubber. You can also use the method to create tarps etc. The grey parts on the top are parts i melted from the sprue. 

According to the instructions, you have to add the small parts to the roof, which is obviously stupid. You have to add the heavy barrels afterward and turn the turret around several times. So i did this step first. The barrels are high quality Aluminium parts. They are not mentioned in the instructions, so I am supposing, I bought some kind of special edition. 

To make the roof more interesting, i built a carriage for the MG 3. I used spare parts from my M41 Walker Bulldog 

The barrels are too heavy. I have to build something in the turret to keep them in position.  

In Germany we call it „Truppenlösung“ and i think it is beautiful.  

Prime Time. A grey model with grey primer… I‘m a real genius to do that in the dusk…..:-/ 

After a few days i continued with the paintjob. You may recognize the ne part on the glacis. I added a scratch-build holder for track-parts. It covers a small bump left from the spotlight holder.  

I started with a thin layer of AK Real Color „Gelboliv (initial)“ 

The paint dried very quick on this warm sunny afternoon (thanks to climate change…..), so i continued with the highlighting. I added AK RealColor „Nato Black“ for the darker parts and later „Sandbeige“ for plains and edges to the basic color, to create varied, used look. 

At last a layer of the basic color.
Pro hint: DONT try to clean your airbrush with water, when you used the AK real Colors. It clogs immediately and you will have no problems to decide what to do the rest of the day…… 

A few days ago i applied the decals. They are also from the AFV-Club M41 Walker Bulldog.  

After a layer of flat coat had dried, i attached the tools etc. Aside from the original parts, I attached additional tools from the spares box at the rear and the turret. Also the details like the indicators, the hatches etc. have been painted.
A note on the red dots: It’s common in the german army to mark „your“ tools, so it is obvious when somebody steals them, because he lost his ones.  

The unit signs and license plates are from my KaJaPa 4-5 by Revell.

I started today with the assembly of the tracks. I decided to glue the parts together on the tank to make two large sections. These are then removed and painted.
Theoretical....
I HATE SEGMENT TRACKS. 

The tracks have been painted with Tamiya „Dark iron“ and later in the middle, where the wheels touch the track, with Vallejo Steel.
After they have tried, I applied AK „Track Wash“.  

For the outside I used AKs „Real Metal“ „Steel“. I usually put a little bit (!!!!) on my finger (with gloves) and than i rub it on the high parts. It worked very good.
 

At least for this evening, i added the IR Night-vision device and the crew. To make it more realistic, i added a power cable to the Night-vision device made of lead wire.
 

The assembly is complete. Next step will be the weathering.  

At first I applied a thin washing of AK „Wash for NATO Vehicles“. After that i did a pin-wash with AK „Track Wash“. Because of the dark basic color, I have to add a self-made washing, consisting of White spirit and black and brown oil-paint.  

After that i used Ammo of Mig „Rainmarks Effects“ on the side of the hull. The drybrushinmg was made with the „Tamiya weather Master“ sets A, B and E.  

At last i opened my Vallejo Pigmets and applied light dirt on the side and top. On the tracks and the mud flaps Ammo of Mig’s „Pigments Fixer“ worked again very fine. I just created light dirt, because we are in the peaceful 60s and the conscripts have had a looooot of time to clean the tanks over and over.  

DONE !
The base is part of a display case. With the help of my patient and tolerate wife i put a self adhesive „Street“ from Busch (mainly used for model trains) on it. The edge was pasted with grass and stones, also from railroad modeling.