It is the RSO of the Dragon Smart Kit. I made it together with the German Army infantry extreme cold equipment figure. It was built from November 2012 to February 2013.
OK, this time, I tried to make RSO Pak 40 bought in the summer last year. I couldn’t satisfy with finishing the chassis; after all, I tried to make a messy situation. I made this kit of Ltaleri more than ten years ago. At that time, too-hard rubber tracks were not a good likeness of a caterpillar; all the links of the caterpillar I chopped with nippers and adhered one by one…
In this Dragon’s kit, the accurate link caterpillar is very appealing to me.
(16-November-2012)
I found there were old photographs. I suspect that was made between around 1998 to 2000. It’s covered with mud.
It seems to have finished wet in the rain and mud. In the Eastern front mud season, this would be pretty normal circumstances. Maybe I had a lot to challenge, try, and error.
Only one mud color, without washing, dry brushing, pastel works, and weathering chipping. Sense of dynamic style… I wonder if I had not thrown it away…
Struggled during the assembly of the underbody. There is no indication in the manual mounting of E20 and E21 engine parts. Part B18 pin size is different and needs care. Trial assembly was required to avoid trouble, especially the side exhaust pipe attachment that assembles the order; you need to care.
(16-November-2012)
I want to keep this area painted; the engine can be seen from the side of the cockpit.
I was assembling and moving the situation for the Italeri kit, this time in the battle or alerting in front; the season is winter, I imagine. So the side wood panels are open, cockpit panel is left open.
I decided to stand on the side of the RSO German infantry, wearing winter equipment. Such a kit that was released, we cannot even imagine in the old days.
These are one infantry’s part. Four coat body parts combined into one is surprisingly difficult.
The right and left arms will be attached later. An unnatural gap in the coat joint will be fixed with the putty. Quite a handsome face. I molded it to emphasize the chip strap of the helmet with my design knife for easier painting later.
Probably it’s a good atmosphere after minor fixing.
(18-November-2012)
Unfortunately, I had to work this weekend. But I did a little work. I painted the engine and gun base part black, although these cannot be seen.
Assembly is almost complete. The engine can be seen from the driver seat, which is now attached to yellow masking tape.
I thought a gap between the gun mantlet skirt and the floor was the best in this photo. I adjusted the inner joint to show a good gap. The caper pillar distortion is very nice. It is thanks to the joint parts of the Dragon kit caterpillar.
(2-December-2012)
Assembly is completed, and four infantries accompany the next with Steyr. These four figures are delicate depictions of hand grenades in the coat pocket or put magazine of a submachine gun. The binoculars strap and rifle sling were made of the plate of a shredded plastic panel.
(22-December-2012)
Small gaps on the back of the fur coat, which I have corrected in the light-curing putty. Brass wire is embedded in the boots to fix the wood base for the next painting step.
Many artillery shell-related goods are attached to this RSO kit. I painted these tiny parts attached to a tree piece with double-stick tape. It was better to divide an artillery shell case and shell first, for easier to paint with color. Other parts should be divided by the paint color. My photo way causes trouble later.
Completion of primary paint at dark yellow. I purchased this Tamiya rotation stand. I used a PET bottle that was poured cement into, this was heavy, and I had to fix a tank with screw clamp fixation. This rotation stand is easier to use. It was not so expensive, and I should have purchased it earlier.
I blew the white thinly and left the base color dark yellow.
The completion of airbrush paint of these figures. After this, details are painted with a brush.
(16-February-2013)
Steyr tractor RSO was completed. These are the vehicles developed as they can move at the same speed as infantry under such severe circumstances. When the German army invaded the Soviet Union in WWII, serious trouble for transportation was caused by ordinary tracks on the road in the season of mud and heavy snow.
Well, since a 75-mm antitank gun was only mounted on the tractor, the armor was thin and had almost nothing of defense power. But probably, it was very reliable rather than artillerymen and horses pulling a gun in mud or snow.
It is the powder snow and snow effect of the white, diorama texture paint of Tamiya products. Since the winter camouflage of my past works lacks a three-dimensional appearance, these are handy items.
As this paint material was blended with white marble, it is not likely to have the most fading or discoloration in many years. It’s no problem to use brushes when washing the used brush before the paint becomes hard.
Since it’s a military operation in a snowfield, snow is attached to the caterpillar. I set the snow on the working table where the gun was mounted.
There is a space that can put four artillery shells behind a gun.
This kit attaches many shells, shell cases, etc… It’s hard work to complete. There are two kinds of 75-mm artillery shells by warheads differ. Isn’t it probably a high-explosive antitank shell? It was written “HI/B” on this decal. The other words are too small characters to read.
These artillery shells, shell cases, and wooden boxes are helpful for the present rise of this model.
I did not carry out weathering on these shells. The way of new ammunition feels like a good result of this model. It will not become dirty since it goes into the various cases and boxes to reach a battlefront.
The first figure is the surveillance soldier who signs that something was found.
The second figure is a foot soldier who is looking into binoculars. Paint on a fur coat tends to become monotonous and is challenging.
Because it was not attractive when all the members wore the same fur coat, the color changed for a while. The goggles were painted clear at the end, and it is glazed.
The foot soldier during a walk. Protection-against-the-cold boots are rugged. Since all the members are covered with the neck warmer, it isn’t easy to distinguish by different colors between the face part and the neck warmer.
Combination with a vehicle like this photo.
The appearance that something was discovered beyond the snowfield. This kind of distance from the lens and the object is a handsome face. I want to paint the faces better…
The gray color back is colder looking in the snowy field. Blue is not bad, either.
Winter camouflage was painted with a brush after being airbrushed in white. It looks like the real soldier is also painting camouflage with brush painting.
Since it was a slightly tight impression when the back was blue, I tried in gray.
I enjoyed this working fairly happily. I think it was finished well, such as snowy textures and a touch of winter camouflage. It was good to complete while it was cold during the actual season…
(22-Feb-2013)
