Aur0ra145's Tamiya Flakpanzer Gepard

[aur0ra145]

Howdy folks!

Decided on this kit for the group build. With the long weekend, I'm attempting to finish it in less than a week. Also, no aftermarket. Just a quick clean build. I do plan on painting it in NATO woodland camo.

When building for speed, I've noticed myself prioritizing things that take a while to set. So, lots of TET needs a few hours to dry. CA glue sets up quickly; but is brittle. I'm going to need to prime this at some point. It will need to sit for at least 24 hours before decals, etc.

Good engineering on this kit, even with it having been made in 1977. The sprues were clean too, with no flashing.







The scene after the first session.

[digger303]

Best of luck with your aim of finishing in a week. Should be doable

[aur0ra145]

Major assembly complete. Now I just need the turret ring to dry prior to primer. I'm painting this in a few sub assemblies: hull, turret, road wheels, skirt armor, main armament. Idea is to get everything primed in grey. Then paint the under side of the hull green. Slap the wheels and side skirt armor on. Paint the root of the guns green, then place them. Paint rest of the model in the NATO woodland camo. Hopefully it all works out. I'm planning on using a lot of mud/weathering to cover up any cosmetic blemishes or mistakes. That should help with overall speed of build.

[aur0ra145]

And... she's primed! Now I've got to wait a bit for the thing to cure good enough. I'm thinking later on tonight after everyone else has gone to bed I'll be able to hit this with some NATO Green.

[digger303]

[aur0ra145]

Disaster! When going to press on the drive sprockets, one of the pins popped out. Not a huge deal; though, it will slow down the build as I need that to cure prior to putting on the tracks and skirt armor. In other news, painted the tracks XF-85 Rubber Black. I'll end up giving them a dry pigment once over with a track rust color.





I do sort of wish I had black based this, then did panel highlights with grey. In the end it won't be a big deal. Though something for me to keep in mind if doing another NATO Woodland color scheme.



One last cool thing of this old kit is that the sprue number if molded on a non seen side of the piece. Makes keeping everything organized a lot easier.

[digger303]

Wow loads of progress and well on track to get it completed by weeks end.

[aur0ra145]

Further disaster. When attempting to put the tracks on the good side. The drive sprocket cracked in half. Seems like the TET wasn't doing quite what it should. This is a rather old bottle, maybe over time the compound doesn't work as good? I should have a spare full one around here somewhere.

With this second setback, I don't think I'll finish the model tonight. However, there is enough completed that it should be finished by the end of next weekend. Which, was the initial goal.

Lesson Learned: put more TET on than you think is necessary. Especially if it's a part that is hidden and load bearing.



Until next time!

[Tomcat64]

Stewth that came together quickly - hopefully you can sort out the broken parts easily enough.

Looking at the mounting points for the sprockets this looks like it may have been one of those old Tamiya kits that was originally designed to take a battery operated motor.

Looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

[aur0ra145]

Stewth that came together quickly - hopefully you can sort out the broken parts easily enough.

Looking at the mounting points for the sprockets this looks like it may have been one of those old Tamiya kits that was originally designed to take a battery operated motor.

Looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

It definitely might have been one with a motor in it in the past. The inside of the hull looks like it has room for something like that.

Today, we had great success. The repairs on the sprockets seem to have worked and got the tracks on. In honor of this Tamiya build, I chose to actually do what the picture says. Which is to use a heated up screw driver to melt the tracks together. It worked wonderfully well. Don't fret, I also put some CA glue on afterwards for good measure as these will be hidden under the armor skirt.





Also ended up getting the skirt armor on. Now, I just need that to set up, and we'll be onto painting.

[digger303]

Almost looks aerodynamic and the details are pretty sharp too. Nicely built.

[Tomcat64]

Nice work - we saw one of these flakpanzers (can't remember if it was the Leopard though) at a show a few years back and the way the guns stayed locked on target while the tank was thrown over the obstacle course was mesmerizing.

Looking forward to seeing it under paint now

[digger303]

Nice work - we saw one of these flakpanzers (can't remember if it was the Leopard though) at a show a few years back and the way the guns stayed locked on target while the tank was thrown over the obstacle course was mesmerizing.

Looking forward to seeing it under paint now

Yeah it's like black magic....eery

[DRUMS01]

Sorry for not chiming in earlier in the build. I've also got this old kit and am liking what you're doing with it. Just a question; did you paint the rubber on the road wheels "black or rubber, or did you leave it in the green color?

Looking forward to your next update.

[aur0ra145]

Thanks for all the kind words!

Sorry for not chiming in earlier in the build. I've also got this old kit and am liking what you're doing with it. Just a question; did you paint the rubber on the road wheels "black or rubber, or did you leave it in the green color?

Looking forward to your next update.

No worries! I left them in a green color. My plan is to weather the road wheel well enough that it shouldn't be apparent that I didn't paint the rubber part rubber. We'll see how it turns out. If I was doing a longer, more drawn out build. I would have painted them rubber black, then spray the hub caps green.

[aur0ra145]

Time for some paint. Elected to tape off the tracks to avoid overspray. All colors were done with Tamiya NATO Black, Brown and Green to keep with the Tamiya theme of the build.

On another note, I haven't used Tamiya paint that much in my airbrush recently. They're such a joy to spray.





Hull all done.



The colors are a bit more subtle with the naked eye, though still pretty distinct. Yet another plug on why I should have used a black primer coat. I'll likely need to apply a filter once it's all dried to tone it down a bit. Or maybe just use dry pigments for a dusty effect?

[digger303]

Turret gun barrels look sweet.

[runnerUA]

Looks great. Coming together fast.

[aur0ra145]

That's all folks! Calling this one done!

Applied some light weathering and pigments, though decided to keep it in a more clean look. Additionally, I applied the decals directly on the paint without doing a clear coat first. Seemed to work out well on the Tamiya paints with Micro-Set and Micro-Sol. I will note that the paint had 48 hours to dry before applying decals. As a technique, if a panel was getting a decal. I applied the solution to the entire panel. That way you wouldn't see weird wet marks just where the decals was. Instead it should appear like the panels are worn slightly differently.

Keep a look out for the final reveal thread.

[digger303]