Revell's (ICM's) Henschel 33 D German WW2 Truck

1
January 5, 2024
I ninja'ed this model into the feed now, as I have a terribly bad record re. finishing my wip models. I think I can finish this one though. I wanted to try out pre-shading, white on dark, and will end up having a desert yellow'ish finish. The "rod" holders at the side of the cabin on the outside were scratchbuilt with styrene, as the original parts were just solids. The entire cabin is dry fitted onto the chassis. The engine cover is also just dry fitted onto the chassis here.
2
January 9, 2024
I am very glad I bought this work lamp, lots of light bouncing around in the room.
3
January 9, 2024
I spend just a few minutes, scratch building this part I knew got knocked off some time ago, this round thingy on the radiator top. Easy enough. Used a photo etch saw and sawed off a thin round thingy, gently sanded flat with a file. After gluing on the parts with liquid cement, also I added some cyanoacrylat glue at the base to stiffen the tiny rod. Eh, might have to airbrush this with primer again and add white, before adding yellow, unsure. :|
4
January 9, 2024
This looks better I think, less random than in my first sitting. I added some bare-metal foil on the one side view mirror. There are some masked clear parts for the lights. Not sure how they will look. Chrome background inside, but with some kind of wood glue for gluing the clear part to the chrome painted cavity. I must add a panel line below each window on the two doors, build guide didn't explain well enough what the two doors was supposed to look like. I used a photo etch saw to clean up the rear truck space, so the liquid glue didn't clog up all the panel lines inbetween the few larger parts.
5
January 9, 2024
Some fuzz is on the paint here and there and I will gently sand it off before adding yellow some other day. Crap, in hindsight, I need some putty on that bumper thingy, before airbrushing on the yellow, photos are brutal in revealing small flaws. There's some fiddly bits like the dangling U shapes, that had to be gently cleaned with a Tamiya round file, carefully adding a thin layer of liquid cement to melt any fuzz on the plastic. This works well as long as the plastic isn't too thin, then the plastic tend to melt, or become brittle.
6
January 9, 2024
I also fixed the wheels second time around, adding more white. Have to make sure I glue on the wheels so the brighter parts make sense, facing up and down.

I should be lucky if these wheels glue on properly, seeing as how there's just a tiny stub on the truck for the wheels to attach to.
7
January 9, 2024
Added some chrome to the steering wheel, no idea what the steering wheel looks like.
8
January 9, 2024
Despite some suprising clean-up work on the plastic parts, I thought this was a fun build (I wish I had the additional photo etch for this kit). But not an easy build I think. Only now did I noticed that the "rods" resting outside over the engine section, just barely fit, a tight squeeze, colliding with the widest part of the cabin. The holders were scratchbuilt with bits of styrene strip, as the original parts where just solid lumps. I hope the masking tape on the windows will come off properly. 🙂
9
January 10, 2024
A circle cutter is really nice to have. Perfect result. Best only used with masking tape and not styrene sheet, unless you buy more of those tiny knives that fit inside the circle cutter.
10
January 10, 2024
This was fun. Might regret starting with desert yellow, as opposed to gray'ish tyre color. There's some openings in between the wheels that might have air passing into the spokes and all. I used 'Vallejo Model Color Desert Yellow', 20 drops of paint in 50/50 mix with 20 drops of thinner, and a four drops of flow enhancer. Airbrushed on at around 17 psi, which worked nicely. I wish I had not already glued on the two big parts for the seats inside the cabin. Hm, maybe paint should be thinner more to make the paint more transluscent, to work with pre-shading better, unsure. The preshading works here, never done this before so not sure what to expect in the end. I do know I mustn't put on too much paint.
11
January 11, 2024
I must have another round of desert yellow, to brighten some parts of the rear cargo compartment that obviously would be in direct sunlight and should be brighter in places.
12
January 11, 2024
Ah, I must rework the door by cleaning up the the one panel line I made on the door, each side of the truck, to get rid of the fuzzy bits. There's some tarp stuff on the cabin that will become olive brown, or something like that. Btw, the reason the engine covers look so nice I think, is because I rescribed several panel lines very gently with a photo etch saw, really happy about that.
13
January 13, 2024
How to NOT paint wheels. 🙂

What I learned: It is easier to mask the OUTSIDE of the rim of the wheel, so ideally no masking ON the rim itself. I'm ok with the gray anthracite rubber color, but will have to re-mask and add yellow again.

The build guide states 'olive brown' for the canvas roof, did not have that so I mixed one part 'German Cam. Med. Brown' and two parts 'olive green'.

Doors and cabin will get another touch up with yellow, and add some masking to add yellow to some canvas structure parts.
14
January 13, 2024
I think I will do the same as this youtuber, as it must be easier gluing on the fiddly wheels with less weight on the chassis I think.
15
January 15, 2024
A lot better this time around. Eh, one problem though, I think I will fix it with a small brush, the wheel on the right. Previous preshading disappeared after the first layers of gray, I thought the gray was thin, but maybe I went over with paint too many times, or, I am not able to see any preshading going through the gray.
16
January 15, 2024
Fiddly stuff. Not all of the masking job was 100%, corrected with a small brush.
I thought it would be fun trying out some pigments, but I have to figure out if I want to use Vallejo's water based panel wash, and if I am required to put on a thin gloss coat before adding a Vallejo acrylic wash in select places. Last time I tried Vallejo's wash, I thought it was rather difficult to control the moisture and the applied paint.
17
January 19, 2024
Although somewhat obnoxious/annoying to work with, the acrylic Vallejo Wash, I think I can keep using this.
Btw, I thought I had a dark brown wash, but I didn't, so I tried to use a darker gray wash.

Some things I'd like to think I've learned:
1) Wash paint will flow into all of the moist areas, and so everything requires a clean up, always, with brush tip moist with thinner.
2) Stains will/might show up, even if you thought you applied the Vallejo wash nicely at first.
3) Stains might show up in unexpected places, and requires cleanup with brush tip moist with thinner.
4) If the wash paint looks too dark, you can moist the tip of the small brush first and wiggle the paint around on the side to thin out the wash paint.
5) According to a tutorial, it is possible to paint a wash all over, let it dry, and then wipe it clean. Not practical on this model I think, but might work ok on airplanes/jets.
6) The underlying acrlyinc paint must dry at least 12 hours, and after that the painted surface will be able to withstand contact with water and thinner (but not airbrush cleaner obviously).
7) I don't like how the wash, just like Tamiya's panel line accent color, is sometimes visibly grainy. Not sure why that is happening.
18
January 19, 2024
Some more cleanup is required, I think mostly on doors, engine housing and the olive brown cabin cover.

It gets tricky if mixing in too much pigment with the thinner, as the mix is deceptively "liquidy", but will stain heavy, too heavily. Cleaning up anything that looks like droplets is important. It helps a little smearing on raw pigments, but at this point, it doesn't do much with everything so light in color already. Excess pigment staining has to be gently wiped with a brush moist with thinner, which wasn't easy if the stain is thick with pigments.
19
January 19, 2024
I've cleaned it ut some more. Should have been more careful early on mixing the pigment with thinner. I'll work some more on this, but enough for this evening. I might consider using an airbrush adding desert yellow in places, might work satisfactory to re-establish a more smooth overall look.
20
January 20, 2024
Fun part is adding some changes to the figures, bending a leg at the knee and such. Having sprue goo helps at filling in cavities and strenghtening the joint.

I think the uniform color is 'olive drab' for the WW2 Africa Corps, unsure.
21
January 25, 2024
Uhuh, this is the best I can do. After fitting the cabin properly, then the driver figure ofc no longer fit inside like it used to. Will put matt varnish on the figures and move on. Cabin was superglued to the chassis, or I like to imagine that is what happened, so much paint and crap, no hope just adding liquid glue. Will mask the windows for the wipers and airbrush on sand. Have to mix a lighter 'desert yellow'. The pigment isn't textured like sand, much too coarse, any liquid thinner will stain the surface is in contact with pigment in unexpected places, but can be scratched off with a finger nail.
22
January 25, 2024
This was my sixth attempt at this, or something like that. Trick is to use a box for cutting cocentric circles. Maybe don't buy this circle cutter, but the one from DSPIAE that apparently comes with a centering device, no idea how good that one is for centering though. This box trick works nicely though. The cutting mat here is nicely "square angled" in one corner, butless so in the other corner on the opposite side, but I adjusted and it looked ok.
23
January 25, 2024
A bit of trial and error to figure out how to cut this.
24
January 25, 2024
I'll very carefully airbrush on "sand" color around the mask, unsure about the side windows on the doors. Have to make sure the sand color is brighter than the vehicle's "desert yellow" color, which is a little darker than the pigment I used. Hm, makes me wonder if the windows on the doors could be opened or lowered, never thought about that before, as I could have maybe just kept both windows lowered or opened if that was possible.
25
January 26, 2024
Masking tape came off the 5 lights and the one mirror. I used superglue to glue on the doors and the cargo space.
Had to hold the fragile parts steady with a tweezer to get to rip off the gunked up masking tape.
26
April 25, 2024
27
April 25, 2024
28
April 25, 2024
I find it difficult to remember all the things I must keep an eye on, and really ought to write those notes down on paper I think. Here I might as well wipe off some excess airbrushed sand color off the registration plate, which wasn't this yellow initially.
29
April 25, 2024
30
April 25, 2024
31
April 25, 2024
32
April 23, 2024
I added some of the other photos to the album, prior to this one which I moved to the end, yet again.
It is humbling for me to be reminded that the best way to make a model is to rely on reference photos, which I did not do here, and so the mix of desert sand color + sand pigments + airbrushed sand was kind of weird I thought, never knowing what it would really have looked like.
Image was improved and re-uploaded:
Ah, mistakes was made, but I bought myself a new truck.. and put it in the back yard..
Sadly, I was experimenting too much and wanted a final touch, ruining the dusty front windows, but at least I have some photos.
Background photo mixed with daylight photo of model. 🙂 Can't be assed to fixed the few mistakes.
Background had artificial blur (ramp) added, to try match the blurring of the truck in the other photo.
Blue shadows caught on white paper under model, was color corrected more gray.
I used a 2d editor to erase the background around the truck, really tedious stuff, but quick enough.
Had to wait for the snow to disappear to take the photo outside, given the "desert" theme of the truck.

30 5 January, 15:15

Villiers de Vos
Following.

5 January, 17:10

Rui S
Me too 👍

8 January, 21:29

Treehugger
I'll have to wait to Thursday until the temps drop back to -10 deg C, otherwise it's around -20'ish deg C now, but unconfortable to do any aribrushing.
I made sure to have the two doors fit with the cabin and the slanted front window. Have to go over with white again and fix some issues before adding the yellow.

Btw, I learned only recently how to heh airbrush with lower psi. When lowering psi, I have to pull the trigger way back to get the best flow, and I must keep the airbrush aimed at the same place for several seconds, otherwise there's just not enough paint coming out. Still unsure just how thin I must thin the paint. Lowering the psi is a must for airbrushing inside the cabin cavity, and inside the backside of the truck, to avoid overspray inside cavities.

Kit comes with white decals for dark vehicle (gray or camo), and black decals for a brighter colored vehicle (sand).

8 January, 23:27

Sam S
I'd suppose the temp should go down in Norway soon, we went from -23 to +3 in two days here in Finland 🙂 Been struggling with the same problem myself, too cold to airbrush without problems 🙂

9 January, 14:15

Jonathon Herring
Another great one, Treehugger. What airbrush, compressor, and paint (brand and type) are ya using?

9 January, 15:46

Treehugger
In the beginning I used one of those cheap airbrushes, but on two of them the needle was off center, and eventually I found an Iwata Eclipse HP-CS (0.35) at an affordable price on eBay years ago and it still works. I keep some spare parts around, like a couple of needles and nozzles.

The compressor is some variant of Sil Air 15 iirc, too bad it makes annoying "PCHHHT" niose when reaching max setting for pressure, I thought they would be quiet all the time.

I never got into Tamiya paints, and I sorted my Humrol tins at a toxic waste/garbage facility years ago, so I only use Vallejo for paints in general. It is very important to sift the drops coming out of a Vallejo primer paint bottle, to avoid clogging. Regular Vallejo Air tend to not give me clogging.

Not sure I can recommend Iwata Eclipse HP-CS airbrush, I suspect it doesn't perform the best at low pressure, but then again I honesty don't know how it compares to other airbrushes at lower around 20 psi. Seems there is more splatter, but maybe that means the paint isn't thinned enough perhaps. I am getting better at this, so I can't complain. I like the Eclipse HP-CS because of its one large self centering nozzle. Still fragile at the tip, but is designed to be cleaned, as is as one large nozzle without trying to screw off the tip.

9 January, 16:26

Jonathon Herring
I have that Iwata as well as a Neo (x2), two cheap Chinese ones (Don't bother unless you want a disposable airbrush) and now I'm trying a Neoeco that I can't remember the model designation off the top of my head.
My compressor isn't tanked and not super silent but compared to using my Porter Cable pancake compressor (yup, that's called working on a budget) it's like a kittens purr.
Paints🤣 I have too many varieties. I do stay in acrylics for airbrushing to save my self the fumes. Acrylic paint won't forgive none washed, finger printed kits, that's for sure. I finally got some Green Stuff World strainers, which has helped the "clean airbrush not working" for sure. What strainers are you using? I also add flow improver and slow dry from Liquitex. They have a draw back. The cause any paint to gain gloss to semi gloss finish. I just use a satin clear coat (VMS. Love there products. Thanks Uncle Nightshift😄) and all works out.
I'm no expert (ask my ex, children, family and friends) but, I do love our hobby and friends.
I believe that each hobbyist has to find out what works for them. I'm in NY so, humidity and temp can be all over (Mother nature needs some Prozac). I soldier on though.
One more thing……I use too many brackets in my posts. I think I may have a problem (or at lest everybody tells me so🤔)

9 January, 17:51

Tini Hendriks
Always nice to see such a big boy 💪🏼

9 January, 18:19

Treehugger
I will have to make sure to start airbrushing the difficult parts first, so I don't end up flooding the model with paint as I try to get the hard-to-reach parts last.
Really happy with the Valljo Model Color mix here in my last upload. 50/50 mix with thinner, and some drops of flow enhancer. I did not have any yellow'ish color in Vallejo Air range, so I had to use my Model Color bottle here.

10 January, 16:01

Jonathon Herring
Ya know, every time I superglue details without scraping away some paint from the mounting point, one detail or two decides it's going on vacation!😤 Yet, Ammo by MiG Ultra glue doesn't want to budge if I take a hammer to it (exaggerating, I know but it's my comment and I'm sticking to it 🤭🤭). I'm glad to see your making great progress and your problem solving is far superior to a figure that expanded in the wash (international man of excuses right here and available for Burfdays, weddings, and baptisms).

25 January, 15:02

Treehugger
I learned today how to use a circle cutter to make cocentric circles. 🙂 DSPIEA sells a circle cutter variant with a centering device, but I don't have that.
Trick is to use a hard plastic box with square shape to it. Then place an ideally rectangular cutting mat inside the box, and then place the small cutting mat and the circle cutter up against the corner of the plastic box. 🙂

25 January, 15:47

James C
Looking good 👍

25 January, 15:55

Treehugger
Thank you. I think I might have to scratch at the pigment stuff before going over the vehicle airbrushing on sand. Haven't done this before. No reason to think the pigment will come off with thinner I think (and I thinner might create splotches of "clean" areas looking weird), so I'll gently try scratch off any excessive stuff. I am not entirely happy, but the idea was that the truck was caked down with sand, and I guess I got carried away when putting pigment on the wheels.

Another small thing, chrome pen doesn't flow well on flat surfaces it seems, best used in cavities and on round shapes, but not on flat areas, as the paint does seem to create an uneven non-mirror surface because of the thickness of the accumulated paint from the pen if one isn't careful. I can try use metal foil for two tiny parts and use the circle cutter (ca 2mm diameter circles at front of vehicle).

25 January, 15:57

Neuling
Looks good and deserves more pictures!

23 April, 08:48

Treehugger
Hehe. Oof. I ruined the front window dusty sand look, but I took some 12 photos with the model rotated. Might create some more photos later.
I forgot to photograph the entire shadow on some photos, as the model was sitting on an A4 piece of white paper, and some shade fell over the edge of the paper and wasn't captured. I guess I can take some new photos not showing the front windows. 🙂

Hmm, I guess I could simply wipe off the dust off the front windows, and reapply it all.

Edit: I re-uploaded the image. Image should be more sharp now and the truck is now also a little larger in the photo.

23 April, 09:15

Neuling
Oops 🙂

23 April, 13:18

Villiers de Vos
Very nice work.

23 April, 22:36