I started with the Geschutzwagen 39H(f) and decided to go with the 10.5cm Howitzer version. The gun barrel was slightly bent and I tried to push it back into a straight position just to see how much correction I might need. It promptly broke off, now its going to need some extra work, so I set the gun aside for the moment.
The vehicles are cast from a very different type of resin than I'm used to working with. It has a rougher surface and the details are not as sharp as I would like them to be. I started cleaning off the flash and mold lines and quite frankly there isn't much. It is a well cast vehicle in that regard. There is some flash around the edges of the rear of the armor compartment and the back in general. I also cleaned out the grill on the back which did not cast very clean. I think the tracks were originally modeled separate from the vehicle and then added as part of the final mold just from the mold lines which run right down the center of the tracks. Those are a little rough and took some work to clean up but they are also underneath the vehicle which means you aren't going to see them anyway. I spent most of my time here just working on the front and backs of the visible portions of the track and making sure the bogies and drive wheels were cleaned up. I think I might have spent 15 minutes cleaning everything for assembly.
The broken gun was a relatively easy fix. I could have just glued it back together but I figured it would just continue to break at the joint again. The resin is easy to drill through so I simply drilled both sides of the break out and used a pin to create a stronger joint. I also drilled out the muzzle break just to give it a cleaner look.
I think this is a nice vehicle, not as good as something from Warlord or Trenchworx but then I'm not aware of anyone else that makes this particular conversion used by the 21st Panzer Division in Normandy either. If you need the rear doors opened the resin is thin enough to make those cuts very easily, just a couple of scores with a sharp knife should take care of that. Its simple so it will really lend itself to having some extra detail added. In the end this is a kit made for gaming and its not a competition piece, its a good value for the money and should stand up pretty well to handling on the game table.
I'll follow up with some additional prep work I plan on doing when the next opportunity for some hobby time presents itself.
A few pictures to go with that wall of text.
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| The broken gun barrel, oops. You can see the bend in the gun barrel here. I held it over a candle and was able to straighten it out. |
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| flash on the inside of the back armored wall. You can see here the light seam where the doors come together. Opening them would be pretty easy. |
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| The top edge of the ack armored wall also had some flash |
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| Here you can see the excess in the grill which I cleaned out (carefully) and the mold lines on the tracks. |
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| Reconstructive surgery on the 10.5cm Howitzer |
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| A little putty work will be required to make the joint invisible. |
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| All ready for some additional prep before I start painting. |
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| You can see some of the roughness in the casting on the front armored shield here. I have some ideas to fix this before I start painting. |
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