The engine and cab are now firmly attached to the chassis. It was a nerve racking moment making sure it all aligned correctly. There are no actual locating tabs! There are raised runners under the cab floor but nothing to channel the alignment. It basically just locates over the fenders using the arch profiles as a guide.
Moving onto the running gear, with the intention of displaying both the
L4500 and trailer abandoned in a ditch at the side of the road, the
height of the truck will mean the underside of one side will remain
highly visible. With this in mind, I needed to create a well worn and
mucky chassis.
The fact that only the one side would be visible meant the next process could first be experimented on the dark side.
To start proceedings, a selection of dark coloured Abteilung oils were
chosen, squeezed out onto a piece of card and left for an hour to
ensure they would leave a nice matt finish. These included grease, raw
umber, brown wash and light mud. So as not to end up with a splodgy mess
selected areas were applied dry and left for a few hours. These
included all the moving parts like the propshaft universal joints,
steering linkages and differentials with grease. Raw umber and brown
wash colours were, much like a pin wash, but added dry, to recessed
areas that would capture dirt and debris. Finaly light mud was added to
areas where the tyres would rotate.
The trailer I choose was an old Azimut resin kit that I purchased from SMC many moons ago. It was a pretty basic kit but somehow Azimut managed to still managed to supply one of the side panels 20mm short. The axles were also lead items so collapsed under the weight splaying out the wheels. It was pretty terrible OOTB TBH and although I fixed it up it went straight to the shelf of doom.
Being a simple cuboid I figured a snazzy camo job would liven things up.
With
the kit fully built in sub assemblies I plan to show this as a late war
supply vehicle towing a trailer which has been pushed off the road on a
French road during the retreat to the Rhine.
Preparing softskins for paint is often a tricky business. For one there
is rarely anywhere suitable on the vehicle to suspend it safely. Then
there is the issue of completing the interior before masking glass areas
to complete the exterior. I often prepare at the building stage and
this almost always make the whole project a far more enjoyable
experience.
Although the kits narrow shoulder treaded tyres do look a little odd they do appear to be authentic and there are pictures of them on L4500's
A light coat of sand coloured lifecolor acrylics were airbrushed over a coat of hairspray and scrubbed back leaving remnants of the sand colour to simulate the first layers of dust and dirt. A further coat of VMS satin varnish sealed all the work in preparation for upcoming pin washes.
Once the main chassis compenents have been fitted we move onto the cab construction and is often the case with trucks and cars we are faced with the dilemma of how to approach painting the interior. Unfortunately, Zvezda have not helped us with this task! They have designed the cab roof to join just behind the screen where there is not actually a joint on the real vehicle (so far as I could determine) Masking the joint after painting the interior would not be my preferred plan of attack so I figured that issue would need to be addressed first.
I have built the Zvezda L4500 S with the wooden cab so a fair amount of parts on this kit are identical. You got both the metal and wooden cab with that kit and as I had built this cab previously, I employed the same method of construction with this kit.
To be able to get decent access to the cab interior with the
airbrush and add the instrument decals the cab needs to be built in two
halves. The windows on mine will be left
off until the cab is painted. I started by building up the rear section,
cementing the floor and cab rear together. I left off both the seat and seat
back until both parts had cured to avoid any potential interference. There are
a couple of tabs on the inside of the rear panel to line up to the floor and it
is important to make sure the lower points of the rear panel sit at the same
height as the bottom of the floor moulding. I found out in my earlier build this
positioning is critical for getting the best overall alignment of the cab, and more so
if building with the doors shown closed.
Once dry the front panel and roof can then be attached to one another. Whilst curing I dry fitted them to the rear section already built up with masking tape to ensure the roof dried at the right angle. Once fully cured the any joint line can be easily cleaned up and masked. Once dry the dash panel can be fitted.
The main issue with the whole cab assembly, I found, is with
the doors. They do require some trimming to sit well in the closed position and
any paint added will make this even worse such are the fine tolerances of the
fit. The sprue gate position on the door
parts is awkward to clean up as they are positioned right over the intersection
of outer skin and inner body. If you wish to model the kit with the cab doors closed
a great deal of trimming and test fitting will be required to get a good
overall fit. I dry fitted my front and
rear cab assemblies together with the doors with masking tape. Much test fitting was made before I was happy to proceed
In step 22 you are to attach the steering box and column to the chassis at the same time as you add the completed cab assembly. This is fine if you follow the instructions as the steering wheel can easily be fitted to the column inside the cab as the roof top part is still unattached. This also allows you to complete the steering link assembly in step 22
As I had adopted a different approach my solution was to cut the column off just above the steering box, drill both pieces and insert a piece of copper wire. This way I could attach the steering box to the chassis, complete the steering link assembly and still be able to line the column up once the cab was painted and completed. Using my method of cab construction the steering wheel will still need to be cemented to the column inside the cab after it has been pushed through the bulkhead as the roof I had connected to the front panel will obstruct the fitment if connected together. To aid painting the steering wheel in its final resting place I dry fitted the cab to the chassis and with the aid of the copper wire attachment to the steering box, was able to determine the wheel location in the cab. I then added a spot of Blu-Tak to the column as it passed through the bulkhead to hold it in place for painting.
As already mentioned the engine assembly will not locate in the engine bay once the cab is fitted so the chassis so if you wish to paint the engine separately you will also have to leave the cab assembly off.
In my last L4500 s build I displayed the vehicle with the bonnet/hood completely removed but this time I planned on only removing the top half of the driver’s side panel. This meant that the radiator housing, bonnet/hood and bulkhead all needed to line up neatly. Making this an altogether more difficult task was that both fenders also locate to points on both the chassis, cab floor and engine side panels.
The instructions have you adding the fenders to both the chassis and cab floor after the cab is fitted to the chassis. In leaving the cab assembly unattached for painting this meant I would now attach the bonnet/hood, engine side panels and the radiator housing together to ensure a good fit.
Attaching the strengthening bar to the underside of the bonnet/hood first, I then cemented it to the cab front assembly (bulkhead). Once dry I added both engine side panels and finally the radiator housing making sure that all parts sat at the correct angles. Once this now bigger sub assembly was dry I test fitted the engine for any clearance issues. All appears to fit well.
As for how the engine sits in the bay pay particular attention as to how the rear of the engine locates onto the chassis. There are two location slots, but they will require widening to get the engine to sit flush on the crossbeam. This is a particularly important step as if the engine sits too high it will interfere with the cab assembly.
With the engine snugly located in the engine bay the front cab assembly was test fitted to the chassis. As with the previous L4500S build the tab at the rear of the block needed trimming and also the top of the gearbox needed shaving a little to get the cab to fit on its two forward location brackets. Happy that all looked to fit well and that the steering column located into the steering box I could now position the front fenders to the chassis. The cut out for the steering box outer arm on the driver’s side fender needed widening on my kit but once addressed the underside cut out makes positioning them easy.
If you are to employ an aftermarket set of wheels beware to check before adding parts C42 and C43 to the rear axle. The outer hub moulding is included as part of the outer wheel in my aftermarket set so the inner rear wheels mount directly to the backplate parts C39 and C40
The front and rear axles are nicely rendered, and all the small assemblies go together without hitch. The front wheels are designed to rotate. If you wish to model the kit with moveable wheels you can first squish down the idler arm tops with a little heat effectively trapping the tie rod but still letting it move. Next, carefully drill out the steering arm and drag link to the knuckle arms. I did this successfully with the L4500S kit so it if I can do it……
This time I decided to fix the wheels at a rotated angle.
My first build issue I did have was with both sets of leaf springs. Neither of the rear ones in my kit sat nicely in the chassis location recesses. They both required a small amount of plastic to be removed to get a good fit. On attaching both of my front leaf springs completely snapped in half! Luckily, I had used some slow drying cement to add them to the chassis for the sole reason of giving me some wiggle room to get a good alignment of the axle. Thankfully, this saved both pieces. Upon inspection I am confident that the design of the front leaf springs is not strong enough. As the part has a large cut out at its centre (to line up with a tab on the axle) this becomes a weak point when any weight is applied to it (i.e. when fitting the axle). As I had rescued both springs from the chassis, I was able to cement both ends together, let them set and then re-attached them to the chassis. A second and far more careful attachment of the front axle was then achieved without incident.
The cargo bed is attached to the chassis by way of a wooden frame and three beams that sit on top of the chassis. The beams are fixed down to the chassis by U-shaped shackle pins. As access to insert the shackle pins will be extremely difficult if you keep the cargo bed, frame and beams separate, there is an alternative build process to those in the instructions worth considering. I followed the instructions but the method explained below is definitely a better idea as I discovered as it will aid painting and finishing.
This option is to just attach the cargo beam parts F17, F26 and F27 (step 8) once the chassis is built up leaving you to attach the remaining frame parts as per step 7 to the cargo bed. This way you can add the U- shaped shackle pins but keep the cargo bed separate.
The instructions start with the engine and gearbox and the Mercedes-Benz OM 67/4, Diesel is quite a substantial assembly once built up. Noteworthy from the outset is the engine and gearbox will not fit in the engine bay once the cab floor is fitted. A mistake I have made with other similarly designed kits on the odd occasion in my enthusiasm to complete a build. Sadly, one half of my engine block was severely warped. Whether this was a manufacturing defect or a direct result of being packaged in a loose bag and getting trapped against another sprue in transit will remain a mystery.
The whole assembly is nicely detailed and even includes an oil dipstick, however, looking at ref pics there does look like a chunk of cooling pipework is missing over the manifold. If displaying the bonnet/hood completely open, fuel pipes to the injectors will also need to be added as will a battery and bulkhead pipework and wiring.
Zvezda kit # 3596
The Mercedes-Benz L 4500 was built by Daimler-Benz from 1939 –1944 in the Mercedes-Benz plant Gaggenau,[1] and from 1944 – 1945 by Saurer. The vehicle is a long-bonnet truck and was offered as a rear-wheel-drive truck (L 4500 S) and as an all-wheel-drive truck (L 4500 A). The German Wehrmacht used the L 4500 with armoured cabins as Flaks during World War II. Due to the lack of production material, the cabin was replaced with the simplified standardised Wehrmacht cabin and the mudwings with simplified wings in 1943.[2] Also, the L 4500 chassis was used for the Sonderkraftfahrzeug 4.
I’ve just got back in my man cave after a protracted absence, and I have been musing on why there are some projects, that don’t pan out as intended. I always plan to push myself and better my last creation, but on occasion many things can and do conspire against that happening. One such example is a shelf queen resurrection project, already some eight years gathering dust. Although to be fair, it was in fact thankfully sat in a box quite dust free, but the gathering bit sounds more appropriate😊 In February I had just finished a lightning quick build of the same vehicle by a different manufacturer and was lucky enough to get it published. This inspired me to pull this older build off the shelf and make it even better.
After
a month away from the bench I've taken a fresh look at how the whitewash looks
and although it didn't come out at all as I was intending, a step away has made
all the difference. I’m now slowly working my way through areas of the cab that
I feel still need improving and have started on a list of small things to do to
prepare for all the sub-assemblies and tracks coming together.
Before the cab assemblies can be fixed together the instrument binnacle, radio and wiring, seats and roof tarp were brush painted with Vallejo acrylics and the instrument decals added. My kit included two sets which was fortunate as decal number one did not represent the dial in anyway shape or form. Decal number two was used twice to represent the largest dials and some extra placards were also added from my decal spares box.
To seal in the paintwork and prepare for the external decals and all the upcoming weathering stages I turned to my favourite product, VMS satin varnish. This can be airbrushed direct from the bottle with a little thinner giving the model a good wet coat to level. It can be left a couple of hours in-between coats if required.
Decals for this kit include just Wehrmacht number plates which you can add your own individual numbers, a weight stencil, and divisional insignia. I added just the weight and number plates. These were sealed with another coat of VMS satin varnish.
This
is the only internal reference pic I have. The instrument binnacle
appears to sit a little higher than it does in the open top cargo
variant. Im not 100% sure that a radio was fitted to these vehicles. As I
added the one provided in the kit I will have to find a suitable spot
on the exterior to add the aerial mount.
Decals
Now the Alliance Model Works instrument decals had finally arrived it was time to get back to work on the 8ton. As well as the instrument decals the Wehrmacht licence plates were also added. These were made up from the individually numbered kit decals. A weight stencil included on the kit decal sheet was also added to the driver’s side of the cab. They were all sealed with an airbrushed coat of VMS satin varnish.
Whilst waiting for scenic supplies for the diorama base, it was time to start work on the towed vehicle. In this case a Flak 36/37. This was taken from the recently released Tamiya/ICM Renault AHN combo kit. As the Sd.Ah 52 trailer wheels had been removed in the image I used a set of 3D resin brake drums from a Sd.Ah56/57 trailer. To replicate the hub and wheel studs I sanded the rear of a pair of outer Sd.Kfz 251 wheels until just the central hub remained. These were then added to the 3D drums and fixed to the trailer axles. Looking at the image the trailer also had a few grab handles that were not present on the kit, so these were made up from copper wire.
Over the last few years, I have started to base more and more projects on period images of vehicles. With such a wealth of online material it is often possible to find multiple images which makes the task of replicating them accurately a real possibility.
Before I added the decals which included the licence plate, I did a little research and picked out a vehicle that I would loosely replicate. Two images caught my eye from the fantastic Canfora publication ‘AFV Photo Album’ As per the caption this 8t was likely to have been from the 6th Pz.Div and together with the 3.7cm Flak it was towing was abandoned in Polná, Czechoslovakia in 1945.
The engine details and visible portions of the exhaust were brush painted with Vallejo acrylics.
Hairspray chipping
I
have always found the best results can be
obtained using acrylic paints but with a slightly different approach it
can
also be effective using lacquers. Keeping the paint layers thin with
just the
right amount of hairspray coverage is the key. To achieve a realistic
effect
over multiple colours means adding hairspray in-between each layer.
Although it is possible to ‘chip’ after all three layers have been
added, it is much harder to achieve and I have found chipping each layer
as you go makes life a little easier. It is then far easier to adjust
the level of chipping and fine-tune the effects along the way. To illustrate the process, we can use the bonnet as an example.
Before I committed to priming the model, some more paraphernalia including tarps were added to the cargo and cab areas. The cab bench received some crew gear along with some rope and a canteen lid. The engine bay also received some rags and cloths to give the impression the engine had been worked on before it was abandoned.
Primer coat.
The whole model received a primer coat of Mr Surfacer 1500 black. Any imperfections were dealt with and then it was time to decide on a base coat. Unlike the strangely coloured box art all these late war vehicles would have left the factory in plain Dark yellow (Dunkelgelb). Any camouflage would then have been applied in the field.
An introduction to modelling the Sd.Kfz.7 can be found here
The pics below were taken before the Trumpeter kit was painted so we can compare them side by side. The most striking difference is the height of the tilt frame! The Trumpeter tilt looks far too low, and this seems to be confirmed in period images.
The next thing to notice is how soft the Trumpeter kit’s details look. The Radiator housing fins being a prime example. The front fender profile difference is also clear to see here. The Dragon kit has the correct one. The Trumpeter model's running gear and front wheels also sit a little lower on the chassis.
