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Life is short, break the rules. Forgive quickly, kiss slowly. Love truly, laugh uncontrollably and never regret anything that makes you smile. - Samuel Longhorne Clemens (Mark Twain)

Friday, January 6, 2017

Assembling WWII German Armor from Madbob's Miniatures - PaK 40 Auf S307(f)

I worked on all the vehicles I received from Madbob's Kickstarter at the same time but I figured it would be better if I broke them out into two different posts. With the glue on the Geschutzwagen 39H(f) drying I pulled out the two PaK 40 Auf S307(f) (the PaK 40 AT gun mounted on a French Unix Halftrack). Warlord does make this particular kit but I don't own one so I can't compare the two directly.

This kit was cast from the same resin as the 39H(f) so I was a bit more careful in handling things right out of the package. One of the PaK 40s had a very significant bend to it while the other was very straight. I don't know what the setting time is like for this resin but I'm guessing that it was pulled from the mold to soon. There were a few more pieces to this vehicle, the tires and the fenders come mounted on their own sprues and they are identical so don't worry about mixing up the pieces after you have cut them from the sprue.


The vehicle itself is a very clean cast although there are a number of areas that need to be cleaned up. Most noticeable was a seam on the front bottom edge that only took a few swipes with a file to take care of. Much like the 39H(f) the tracks need quite a bit of work to get rid of those mold lines but again the worst part is on the bottom edge which you are not going to see on the table. You do need to cut out an area between the bottom edge of the hull and the running gear though. Fortunately someone else thought about this and there are a couple of lines that you just need to follow with your knife to remove the offending resin. Its relatively thick so best to go slow and make sure your knife doesn't slip and get buried in your hand!


I found that the hardest part for me was making sure that the front tires were straight and for some reason my super glue just did not want to setup properly and it drove me a little nuts. 


I think this is a nice vehicle, although I'm going to buy the third one I need from Warlord just so I can compare them. Its a very empty fighting compartment though so it could stand to have a little dressing up done to it. 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.

A few pictures:



A few more pieces to deal with this time.


After you cut the fenders from the sprue be sure to remove this little section , otherwise it won't fit in the slot.


Tracks need a little work



Here you can see the lines were you need to cut out resin from around the running gear. You could leave it and just paint it black but I prefer to remove material where it shouldn't be.


I tried to get them straight. you would think this would be such and easy thing to do.


The drooping gun barrel. Again a little time over a candle flame soften up the resin enough for me to, mostly, straighten it out.




In this shot you can see the rougher nature of the resin. Shouldn't be an issue after primer is applied although I may use a wash of Miliputt to help smooth it out.


2 comments:

  1. It looks quite good,I might add a few to my railway bogies on my German armaments train. Although I buy plastic kits! Greetings from a rather wet and windy Fiddle Wood. BB

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    1. I think they would be great for that. The price is pretty good too.

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