Zvezda Mercedes L4500A Chapter 7: Painting

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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.

Zvezda Mercedes L4500A Chapter 6: Wheels & tyres and kit build report

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Wheels and tyres

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

 

Schwerer Wehrmachtschlepper (sWS) armoured cargo version. Chapter 6: Decals and adding initial weathering effects with acrylics

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.

Chapter 7

Zvezda Mercedes L4500A Chapter 5: Cab assembly and engine bay

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Cab construction

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.

 

Zvezda Mercedes L4500A Chapter 4: Aftermarket resin wheels and suspension

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Aftermarket wheels

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

Axles

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.

Zvezda Mercedes L4500A Chapter 3: Cargo bed & chassis

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Cargo bed

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. 

Zvezda Mercedes L4500A Chapter 2: Engine

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Engine

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 Mercedes L4500A Chapter 1: What's in the box

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.