Aaaand here goes the flash... or glacier sized plastic deposit, however you want to call it. It is removable, yet points towards potential fitting issues, as the molds seem to have been well used
Some assembly on the hull is done. I had to build one part of the rear door myself, but this is a general issue with these kits, as they do somehow not include a part to cover this hole in the door. Most work has been done in the rear, where I had to cut the one part rear panel to make it fit better
The finished model with the wheels left removable for painting. I had to scratch one of the front fender extensions and also had to do some filling, as there were molding imperfections present. The turrets recieved new bolts from streched sprue and visions port covers from styrene sheet.
The rear panel had to be cut to fit better and sanding was necessary on the sides, so I had to redo the stamped pattern on the boxes. I also added latches from plastic.
Towing hooks on the suspension elements had such thick sprue gates, that I did not manage to cut them without breaking. Thus I made replacements from wire. The tires had been given some more depth on their outer faces by cutting some grooves. In hindsight I maybe should have filled and completley redone the tire faces, but the result visible here hopefully suffices.
First coat is applied, the Hataka laquer did thin with Mr. Levelling Thinner, but when I added Tamiya Deck Tan to lightrn it up a little, I had slight splatters from the Tamiya paint... should have done more mixing and maybe add a tad of Tamiyas own retarder... but that is something to be considered later. First, I have to think about how to do the camo
The camouflage has been (more or less) sucessfully painted using another colour from Hataka made for French AFVs. I needed to add a little bit of retarder to prevent splattering/tip dry for me to be able to paint the brown lines properly
With the decals applied, I did some light chipping and added a pin-wash after coating the model in satin varnish. The decals were really hard to work with, as they did not really want to go off the sheet even in warm water...
Using Abteilung 502 oils, I tweaked the color in some areas and induced a "dusty look" on horizontal surfaces. The two rust washes were applied over the exhaust which has previously been painted with light grey acrylics.
Some dust weathering was done using one light dust coloured and one brown enamle paints mixed together to get a few colour variations. Also, a few stains were added with Engine Grime. Periscopes on the turret were given a gloss coat using Wet Effects.
The top of thr/turret and some fender areas also recieved some more dust deposit-texture, as crews would walk on here
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28 November 2024, 00:50 -
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The Panhard 178 or Panhard AMD was a French pre-WW2 design of a heay armoured car weighing in at 8t. The vehicle ran on a 4x4 configuration and was armed with a 25mm high velocity gun enablng it to theoretically engaged lighter armoured vehicles, however it was mainly intended for reconnaissance duties. By the start of WW2, the vehicle was - though not bad - sheduled to be replaced by a new design called the Panhard AM 40P, this being the predecessor to the well known EBR. Even though it´s welded construction was anachronistic by the end of WW2, the French continued using an upgraded version with a new turret for a while.
The RPM kit is the only injection-molding offering of the Panhard 178 in 1/72 scale and is available in practically every version of the vehicle and is also rather cheap at below 8€. The box only contains two sprues with nice detail, although improvements can certainly be made. On my example, the used-molds phenomenon struck me again and I also ran into some fit issues...
Should I pull myself through to building another one, I would definetly deviate from the instructions a little during hull construction. Anyway, I am left with some gaps that can be left open (as it is the case on bolted vehicles versus welded ones), but some parts definetly need filling and redetailing. As any sanding will however destroy some rivets, I have to come up with a method of recreating them easily. At the moments, I gravitate towards stretched sprue.
After being more ore less sucessfull with the rivets, I will paint the model using Hataka laquers which is a first for me. On the plus side they have specific colours for 1930-1940s French AFVs.
