PUMA on zee prowl. Dragon sd.Kfz.234/2 and figures.

Post by **Coen** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 11:32 am

My entry into the six wheel sig is an almost unhappening. I accidentally built the kit that I had set aside for it.
Then I remembered that I had a pair of RAD 8s in my stash. Yay!
I ended up picking the simpler of the two kits, as I have several builds ongoing and I wanted this to be a fun easy one... Then I looked at the suspension...
Holy crap! What was I thinking?!?
Any hoo... Let's get this party stawted!

The box and sprue shots and later today some of the build.

For the kit itself its an excellent example of one of the RADs. This kit is one of three I believe, of a series of rads that dragon did. All were well received and are good kits. My first impressions are about the same. Looks awesome!

Post by **wappynutter** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 11:55 am

Awesome entry Mike..

Damn that's a nice looking box of styrene mate.
Looking forward to following this...
Popcorn ready!!

" munch...munch...munch...!"
Good luck buddy...

Post by **Yevgeny** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 2:14 pm

I can predict this is going to look sweeeet!

Post by **gustavlekstal** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 5:07 pm

I got this one yesterday after building my entry to the sig the sdkfz 232 tamiya Gonna be great to see the master build it. Good luck!!!

Post by **Nev** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 8:07 pm

That's a great looking kit mate! Good luck with this

Post by **Art17847** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 9:32 pm

luv this vehicle...its moved to the top of my must get kit list......looking forward to seeing you build this one....will you be making a dio out of it then?....good luck and have fun

Post by **Russ72** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 11:54 pm

Look forward to your build Coen, these are a cool beastie.

Post by **UKguyInUSA** » Sun Oct 26, 2014 2:24 am

Wow....that's a lot of styrene in that box, plus the added extras! Enjoy building this one mate

Post by **kiwigav** » Sun Oct 26, 2014 10:05 am

Very cool kit Coen. Look forward to see how you work your magic on this one

Post by **AchtungPanzer** » Sun Oct 26, 2014 10:25 am

Its crazy. Are You modell-machine Mike ?

Nice choice - I love it

Post by **MarkVerploeg** » Sun Oct 26, 2014 10:54 am

Nice choise
The 234's from dragon are very nice kits
The suspension looks more complex then it really is
If i have enough time i will enter the 234/1 version
Good luck with the build

Post by **Coen** » Sun Oct 26, 2014 3:46 pm

You're right about the suspension Mark. It was a breeze to build once I stopped watching Star Wars movies while I was building them haha. You make less mistakes when you pay proper attention

I spent yesterday and this morning working on this, I got the majority of it built now. I have to say, it's certainly made me interested in building the second RAD 8 that I have in my stash. It looked a lot worse than it was.

The instructions were busy and looked really complicated, but once you actually looked at them for a couple of moments you realise that they aren't even close to as crazy as your initial impression.

Here's a shot of the first step... you'll see what I mean.

It took about 10 minutes to build it...

This bit was actually trickier as I had missed a part in the first step and had to take most of it apart to fix it.

I went right into the interior after that. It's fairly acurate, but it's missing the ammo holder for the main gun. I don't know yet If I'll scratch build it or not as you won't be able to even see inside once I build this.

Two driver's seats. ... Cool!!!!

The thingy on the bottom needed a bit of help with the fit. In the end it will need a bit of filler on the bow.

More work on the suspension arms. I wanted to build it with the wheels turned for dramatic reasons so a bit of hacking was needed on the locator pins and teeth for some of the parts.

I jumped ahead to the wheel construction as I wanted to confirm the positions.
If you're wondering about the giant seem in the tires... it's supposed to be there.
The tires don't stay on with just friction so posing them proved quite difficult.

Next I jumped ahead to the turret construction. I prefer to leave the assembly and installation of the tiny details until the large pieces are built.

Next was all of the interior parts. It's fairly detailed. I won't button it up until I've finished construction as I will paint the interior fully before hand.

These vision ports were a pain to build and the instructions weren't that great either.

Dry fit Dry Fit Dry Fit!!!!

And a mock up of an idea for the vignette/dio.
I'm still not sold on this yet.
The Fallschirmjäger figures are from the Dragon King Tiger battle of the Bulge kit. The tankers I can't remember, I've had them so long.
The pointing hunter is from a set of British paratroopers that I have kicking around. I have several of that set.

Post by **MarkVerploeg** » Sun Oct 26, 2014 4:53 pm

Very nice progress
Are those fallschirmjägers the kits: fallschirmjägers 3rd battalion part1 and 2

Post by **Scaleman** » Sun Oct 26, 2014 5:42 pm

Wow, I really like this thread mike. That is one subject that is high on my wishlist.

Post by **Coen** » Mon Oct 27, 2014 3:29 am

Thanks Scaleman, I'm glad that you like it bud.

Mark, they came from dragon's battle of the bulge King tiger kit,
Dragon Sd.Kfz. 182 King Tiger Henschel Turret Battle of the Bulge sPzAbt 501 (6254)
It came with two sets of Fallschirmjaegers, #6113 and #6143, in the box. I believe they're modeled after a photograph.

Post by **MarkVerploeg** » Mon Oct 27, 2014 9:21 am

Then they are those part 1 and 2 figures
They do look nice with this vehicle
Come to think of it I still have those figure in my stash and from the same kit too

Post by **Jan01** » Tue Oct 28, 2014 6:54 am

Great build so far Mike, looking good. Liking the figures and there positions on the vehicle.

I have the 234/1 2cm gun variant, so might get a start with that soon once I have done my other build.

Post by **Paul** » Tue Oct 28, 2014 8:01 am

Off to a flying start mike, makes me wish i had something in the stash to take part in this sig

Post by **Nev** » Tue Oct 28, 2014 8:55 am

Of to great start Mike! Boy those drives and axels are a work of art shame to hide them!!

Post by **alextheblue** » Tue Oct 28, 2014 9:12 am

Great progress so far Mike - love these Panzerspahwagen's. My first Dragon kit was the 234/4 that you very kindly helped me with, with some great tips and advice.

And only 10 figures - wasn't that suspension enough work for you!!

Looking forward to this one, it's going to look real nice.

Post by **Deacon** » Tue Oct 28, 2014 12:15 pm

Looking forward to this mate.

Post by **Tiger131** » Tue Oct 28, 2014 4:36 pm

No messing about coen you planning a big dio bud

Post by **HamilkarBarkas** » Tue Oct 28, 2014 7:47 pm

Zis is gut mein Herr, werry gut! Ze Puma was a deadly maschine, could deal with Shermans too

I built this kit already some years ago, it is outstanding

I really like the figures you have to go along the model, highly interesting!

Post by **Coen** » Tue Oct 28, 2014 10:26 pm

Not a big Dio no. This will be a vignette size. 8" x 5" approximately. I buy bases at a local arts and craft shop that are already precut and routered. They're a good size and still allow a fair amount of models on the shelf.

I would have to agree with you Michael, for what's in the box this is a really nice kit with tonnes of potential. If I'd planned further ahead I would have sourced some after market for it to give it some pizzazz. I have a second one in my stash that has a bit of aftermarket in its box that I'm saving for later. The sprues are the same so now I'm really looking forward to that build.

Post by **Coen** » Wed Oct 29, 2014 8:57 am

So I've been pretty much been going balls to the walls on this one over the weekend and the last couple of days.
I have to say that I really loved this little kit. I'm certainly going to do another one and I'm going to really ramp up the goodies with the next one.
I'll be acquiring more extensive research material first though.
Right now I have to rely on the internet and that's full of hoaky BS and crap. I can't trust the info on the net enough. I'm old fashioned I guess.. I need me some books.

The first thing that I did was prime the interior with one of Mig's primer colours. Which one wasn't that important as long as it was a dark one.

I went over that with white and a drop of desert sand in it to make that weird cream colour that was on the interior of German armour.
I wasn't going to go crazy with the details or the precision on the interior since it will be totally invisible. I just did it because I felt like it hahaha.

I also did a tiny bit of detail painting on the interior, painted the seats, gas mask canaster, steering wheel, etc. Then I glued the stupid thing together and didn't take any pictures of it.
That's what happens when you're on a hang out and not paying attention. haha.
Oh well... there wasn't much to look at anyway.

Next I went back to construction. The fenders were a total pain in the but as was joining the upper and lower hull pieces. They didn't seem to want to line up no matter what I sanded, clamped or swore at. So I'll have to find a clever way to cover the gap in the rear right hand side later.
The exhaust system went together well, once I puzzled out what the hell the instructions where trying to tell me. They were really unclear.
This isn't the first time, there were a few times where I had a hell of a time trying to figure out what was supposed to fit where.

The rear plate has a mounting set for the spare tire. I decided to add this even though the detail sorta sucks.
The problem isn't with the mounting, it's with the tire. There's no detail on the back and it's very visible. I may end up leaving the tire off and just have the mount.

Next... all the tiny details.... where doo they all belong....

haha.... see what I did there?

Now that the main assembly is finished, I can add all the small bits. Some modellers will leave these off and paint them separately. This isn't wrong or right, it's a preference. It's done one way or the other because you find it more comfortable to do it that way. Either way will not alter your final result.

So now that the construction is complete the vignette needs to be mocked up and sorted out.
This is what it looks like so far... it may change three or four times yet.

Post by **ForbesHutton** » Wed Oct 29, 2014 9:34 am

^ The third photo, am I the only one that sees Mickey Mouse?

Post by **Coen** » Wed Oct 29, 2014 10:37 am

Hahaha!

Post by **Tiger131** » Wed Oct 29, 2014 5:21 pm

top stuff coen love the stance of this vehicle

Post by **hansolo** » Wed Oct 29, 2014 10:37 pm

Coming along very nicely, Coen!

Despite of the problems you said you had putting it together, a very clean build!
Love the kinda crowded dio setup. It looks nicely busy.

I'm stickin' around! See where this goes!

cheers

Post by **MikeyKb** » Wed Oct 29, 2014 10:51 pm

obviously, this looks amazing!

what the hell does that word say written across the dio?!
one side says 'fence' the other side says 'PILTqJL'

awesome work

Post by **MarkVerploeg** » Wed Oct 29, 2014 11:07 pm

MikeyKb wrote:obviously, this looks amazing!
what the hell does that word say written across the dio?!
one side says 'fence' the other side says 'PILTqJL'

awesome work

Maybe Coen is really a russian that lives in Canada
But no matter how you look at that line it makes no sense what so ever

Post by **Coen** » Wed Oct 29, 2014 11:25 pm

Ahahaha!
It says ditch. Haha.

Post by **MarkVerploeg** » Wed Oct 29, 2014 11:57 pm

In wich language russian or hebrew

The lines make it a bit hard to see

Post by **Coen** » Thu Oct 30, 2014 3:02 am

haha English.

Post by **ForbesHutton** » Thu Oct 30, 2014 4:50 am

MarkVerploeg wrote:In wich language russian or hebrew
The lines make it a bit hard to see

Post by **Nige201980** » Thu Oct 30, 2014 6:33 am

That is one cool looking thing mate and looks great as always.

Post by **Deacon** » Thu Oct 30, 2014 7:29 am

Nice neat construction as always mate and as has been said the idea for the dio looks very busy,
wonderful.

The use of the Gamekeeper/poacher talking to the troops really is telling a story: is he giving them the benefit of his local knowledge about terrain; has he spotted allied troops; or, is he just showing them the best place to bag a few rabbits?

"Where did you get the rabbit?"
"From over there."
"Very good. I think we will try to get some ourselves."
Poacher looks at the 5cm gun on the Puma and smiles, "I think you may be over doing it a bit with that thing!"
"Not really. Anyway, we can't use our usual method of bagging rabbits."
"Oh, what do you usually use then?"
"Land mines!"

Post by **Coen** » Thu Oct 30, 2014 8:26 am

Hahahahahah!
I was more going for a, "Why are you driving that nasty thing through my field? Look! You knocked down my fence! How are you going to fix that hmmm? With machine gun bullets?"

Post by **Coen** » Thu Oct 30, 2014 8:27 am

Aliens make me do everything.

Post by **Deacon** » Thu Oct 30, 2014 1:25 pm

Coen wrote:Aliens make me do everything.

I always thouight your builds were out of this world!

Post by **Coen** » Thu Oct 30, 2014 3:18 pm

Suddenly... Sunshine erupts from my pants!

Curious.

Hahaha.

Post by **MikeyKb** » Thu Oct 30, 2014 3:26 pm

Sun even where the sun don't shine, eh?
Gotta be the aliens. Maybe that's how they write the word 'ditch' ...

Post by **Coen** » Thu Oct 30, 2014 3:31 pm

From the inside...

Post by **wappynutter** » Thu Oct 30, 2014 3:39 pm

Coen wrote:Suddenly... Sunshine erupts from my pants!

Curious.

Hahaha.

Coen wrote:From the inside...

Hahahahaha........

Post by **fly1ngdutchm4n** » Fri Oct 31, 2014 10:04 pm

What more do I need to say then

Post by **Coen** » Sat Nov 01, 2014 3:35 am

Haha... That's not creepy at all Frans haha.

Post by **ForbesHutton** » Sat Nov 01, 2014 7:13 pm

Coen wrote:Suddenly... Sunshine erupts from my pants!

Curious.

Hahaha.

[youtube]OH-6ycwsMOg[/youtube]

Post by **Hillbilly** » Sun Nov 02, 2014 2:28 am

Great build of what I feel is one of the ugliest AFV's of WW2

Post by **Coen** » Sun Nov 02, 2014 3:24 am

Oh ya! Ugly... But effective.

Post by **HamilkarBarkas** » Sun Nov 02, 2014 11:27 am

Hillbilly wrote:Great build of what I feel is one of the ugliest AFV's of WW2

Ugly? Nooooooooo

The Puma is a sexy beauty.