1/35 Bronco Pak 36(r)

[galileo1]

Hi all,

I don't normally post pictures of my own work on forums but being that I really like this community here I decided to to share of few pics of a project that has sat on my bench for a LONG time but that now is finally getting closer to being completed. This particular kit has truly been a marathon for me so far as, during construction, I kept changing my mind about what I wanted to do with it. I wasn't really happy with what Bronco provided out of the box and so I went looking for aftermarket items to improve the look. As many of you who build armor may be aware, Bronco kits are some of the most complex (read over-engineered) kits out there. Despite this being an artillery kit it is just as complex and contains so many small and fiddly bits that at times I came close to loosing it. All I can tell you is that the construction stage is now complete and that I'm finally ready to apply some paint. Here are some pics with a few captions:

Box art:





Just in case there's some interest, here are some pics of the real deal:







Now picks of the kit in progress:

As I can't seem to build anything without adding some aftermarket items, I decided to get the now OOP K59 resin set for the 7.62cm F22 Russian Divisional gun (which is also made by Bronco). Being that the German Pak 36(r) is actually the captured Russian F22 gun with some modifications (gun shield, gun sight, wheels, muzzle break, etc), the K59 set has pretty much everything needed to enhance the Pak 36(r). Only a few items were left unused from the set as these are specific to the F22 Russian weapon.



I decided to replace the cradle holding bar with a metal piece as the resin item was a bit flimsy for my taste



The gun breech took a while to assemble as it's made up of at least 7 parts, which need to be removed carefully from its resin block to avoid damaging them.



On the gun kit itself, I lost several rivets on both of the legs/arms as these were very soft and just flicked away when I touched them. I ended up using some Archer decal rivets to replace them. They worked nice in the end...



Here's the gun fully assembled. The K59 set really sets this apart from the stock gun cradle parts (which are fiddly and a bit hard to get a good overall finish).







Because the barrel, as provided by K59, is designed for the F22 gun, one has to enlarge the opening in the kit's muzzle break to make it fit. It took quite a few tries with a round file to get it to fit snugly.



So, this were where I am at the moment. Next steps is the primer and a nice base coat. I'm still debating whether I should use a primer like AK or whether I should just shoot some Tamiya paint to get the surface ready for the base coat. I'm afraid the AK might be too heavy for such small parts. What do you all think?

Sorry for poor pics. Still trying to get this photography thing working..

More later...

[arkbuilder2012]

Looks great especially with the K59 upgrade. Looking forward to seeing it painted up and displayed.

[Polly]

Looking good look forward to pic's of the finished model

[galileo1]

Thanks guys. Much appreciated!