1/35 Tamiya Krupp Protze mit Takom Skoda 42cm M.1917 Heavy Siege Howitzer Dio

[Donkeywalloper]

Afternoon all

So as a mini break from the Chieftain, and a rest from my mini obsession with PE, and the sublimely ridiculous small pieces I love & hate .
I have decided to have a go at a kit I last assembled 40 years ago.
The 1/35 Tamiya Krupp Protze.
A relatively simple build, but a build which if carried out well should give an excellent result.
The other component of the build is the Takom Howitzer and Mini-Art German Artillery Crew Riders.
I am, as I write, just waiting on delivery of the Tamiya Protze, as this has been ordered from http://www.emodels.co.uk and should arrive this week.
The Takom Howitzer and Mini-Art makes are manufacturers that I have not built before.
The diorama will consist of the Howitzer and Artillery crew and Protze in rest between salvos
So lets get on with some photos then.....................
Takom Box Art.

Takom Howitzer Instructions.






Not a lot of colour on this


The wee bit of PE available is shown is its bag next to painting instructions.

Here come the crew

And the three parts sheets.



This is a chunky model with big parts and I have been used to the more fiddly pieces, so imagine my joy for my Sausage Fingers, when the first parts (B1 & B2) are huge pieces of plastic that take filing and sanding with no chance of crumble and dissolving to nothing.

So as Mr Postman wings the rest of the Dio to me and the glue dries on the "Chunky Bits" already crafted from sprues I bid you a good evening chaps.
John

[SKANKSTA]

What a monster! Good luck!

[Donkeywalloper]

Cheers Andrew.
Krupp arrived today so will get photos up of build progress (not much other than a lot of chunky barrel bits), but due to pressing crap like work, it will steam ahead this weekend.
Thanks for kind words.
John

[gustavlekstal]

God damn! I getting this one. Looks like fuuuun! Good luck buddy

[Donkeywalloper]

Cheers Gustav
Get one mate, just for a change of model and make its a blast
John

[rodrant]

Seems a nice kit and a beautifl diorama idea !

Good luck with your build mate ! All the best !

[Nev]

Following this one mate great job so far

[Donkeywalloper]

Cheers Nev
Okay chaps bit more.
As I said, big chunky pieces, but remember these bits are all very cylindrical.........
This calls for the fabulous Ultimate Sander (big and squashy) and that ace piece the Flexi-File.
May I present part B3 & B5, which is the bottom part of this huge Howitzer.

Now you can see the seam, which is without sanding a nice fit.
These two bits B3 & B5 and the bottom part is C12.

The seam has had a wee bit of sanding with the trusty Ultimate and as I speak I am going along now with the Flexi-File making those seams invisible.
Do you want to see the main barrel? Course you do.......

Never taken so long sanding a piece of Waste Pipe from a sink

Anyway, back to rubbing my tubes, steady chaps.
Love and Peace.
John

[Coen]

Ahhh! Too much awesome!
I love that kit John! This is going to make a wonderful dio bud.
Well chosen.

[Donkeywalloper]

Cheers Mike.
Just fancied a change of format I.e a bit of Artillery.
Hope it works.
Dio will take some work, but fancy it will be worth it.
My best to you and your family
John

[Donkeywalloper]

Hey ho from Sunny Midlands.

Just came in from cutting grass and tidying Garden. So with streaming eyes from Hay fever (the Modellers curse).
Hope your all well?
Well, are we on this build?
The work is delayed by my new work so the time at The Bench has been seriously curtailed
As I mentioned earlier in this thread, this is my first Takom and I am sure many of you out there have built them and some will love and some will have, well views.
Me......well
This is chunky monkey of a kit.
Its Artillery for a start, and big artillery at that, so the parts are gonna be big.
Also a lot of thin tubes for winding wheels and such.
I have found a major part, one of the sides (A10), with a large "Acorn" feature on the top of the part snapped off in the bag.
Not probably Takoms fault, and more down to shipping. Although the parts ratio in the huge box does let the bags of plastic slip around a fair bit and damage will occur (when will Manufacturers pack better in boxes, maybe when hell freezes over ).
Anyway, this has been mended with trust Revell Contacta Professional (my go to glue).

I have been building after work and taking pictures, but this is the first time I have had free time to up-load some stuff for you to glance at Brethren of the Dark Arts....
Feast thy eyes on these.
Below is the main section of "Big Gun" and is the completion of parts 1, 2, and 3 in the instructions.

Two bits of PE have been used (supplied in kit) for this mechanism that comprises C9, C32, TP3, C48 and TP2.

The sprues are quite thickly attached to the parts, so some care is taken with my Xuron Clipper and various trimmings with Xacto and Ultimate sanders to get a flush fit. I have also encountered a fair bit of flash

Sorry about crap photos. All shadow and such. The light in room was playing merry hell with camera.


The main barrel you will notice has not yet been fitted (boy its gonna be large when fitted ).
I have tough fitted the part C29, which is a separate section of barrel (B11 & B12) and has some lovely rifling moulded in it.
This is the join, which will need some filling and sanding to make a flush join.

Here is the lovely rifling detail.

Finally the section from part 6 and 7.
This includes some PE and a few aiming wheels.

Apart from minor flash, broken part and lot of cleaning up, its all going swimmingly well chaps.
So as I disappear for a spot of lunch and watch the 2nd Stage of Tour de France (you know this time last year, we were in Yorkshire watching the 2nd Stage ourselves, before the big dash down to London to watch it on the Mall. Christ time flies ).
Look after yourselves you lovely bunch of people.
John

[Donkeywalloper]

Good evening my little chums

I have been in the proverbial neck high faecal matter (work) and just been to busy to post a thing.
I have a tiny window to be able to post some piccies of progress.......
I apologise up front as the Artillery piece is finished and so you can see in pictures its just waiting for some undercoat then its paint job.
My first Takom build, and what can I say.
Maybe my kit, and maybe its in all Takom kits, but its not been without its head scratching moments (much to do with very unclear instructions)
One bit that left me very perturbed was the barrel.

This length of barrel with the added tube that is moulded for the barrels rifling detail was not required.

More to the point it didn't fit.
I had to cut the tube to get the whole tube to sit flush inside the outer casing.

What is not clear is that this whole tube is supposed to be pushed deep into the casing.

Anyhoo, just a niggle, not the worse thing in the world.
On with some pictures eh..................







And the next part of the Diorama will consist of this.........

I last built one of these when I was a 12 year old and now 50, you can see how its aged (the model not the builder).
Its crammed with extras like stowage and weaponry and is a really, really nice little kit that lends itself to any WW2 dio (well except Naval or Airplanes.... )

I'm a bit rushed tonight, but hope to have more detailed stuff soon for you to have butchers at.
Love and peace.
John

[Coen]

Damn that's a cool looking piece John. That rifling in the barrel looks damn fine. Excellent detail.
The Protze should be an awesome addition

[thecookiam]

Cant wait for some more pics mate