The Guild Forum (my preferred forum for wargaming) started a contest: Build and paint one or more trucks in two weeks! I decided to use the Kfz. 61 Einheitsdiesel from ZV Models for my Normandy germans – even though it is an early truck and that there was probably not many of them still around in 1944. (Sorry for the bad picture quality, most of them I took with my iPhone).
Most of the truck is built now, I am trying to fit the AB Figures into the cabin.
The model was really nice to build, everything just fitted so well together. The building instruction was not very good though and I was forced to use reference pictures to get everything right.
The truck is built and has just been spray painted. On this model I choose to paint it in two parts so that I could paint the interior before I glued them together.
The tarpaulin that comes with the set doesn’t look good at all. It looks more like a skibox than what it is supposed to be. So that goes out and I have to fix something myself.
On many pictures of the Einheitsdiesel I have seen a little rail on the roof. I decide to make one for my truck. It was harder than I had expected.
The result was ok, but not super. My hope was that a tarpaulin would hide the fact that it isn’t straight all the way around.
Here I have started converting the figure in the passenger seat. The head will be chopped off.
Here the head has been removed and refitted looking the other way. After this I added a bandage to his right eye using Milliput (I can’t understand how people prefer green stuff over Milliput…).
I have never tried to do my own tarpaulins, so I needed to do a test first in case it all went wrong and I destroyed my painted truck. But it was really easy to do. I cut some pieces of thick cardboard, glued them together as if they where boxes lying in a pile. Then I took some thin tissue paper (it was hard to find some that didn’t have patterns in it). The tissue paper I soaked with white glue that was mixed with a bit of water. I put it over the boxes, moved it around a bit until it folded the way I wanted it to, and then I let it dry. I even painted my tarpaulin test to make sure that the acrylic colours didn’t mess it all up.
Next up I had to paint the interior of the truck. I didn’t use very much time to make this beautiful as I knew that there would be glasses in every window. In the end I found out that even this low level of details was overkill.
The cabin painted.
The truck gets the first layer of camo. I wanted to do this with airbrush, but at this moment I hadn’t any (it is ordered and will be received any day now).
This is the second layer of camo. I added this layer, and the one before, with a colour mixed with a fair amount of water. This I did so that I could blend it to make it look like it was airbrushed on.
Here I have been giving the truck a wash of Armypainter’s Quickshade. This stuff has a very low surface density and will therefore float down in every depression on the model and make details stand out – the picture don’t show this very well, but it makes a huge difference on the model. After this I gave it several layers of pin washes to highlight details even more. For this I used more of the Armypainter varnish but also GW’s washes (which I think stinks). I don’t have any pictures showing the next few steps adding weathering. I started with chipping the model, then I added variations in the colour of the truck using oil paints. As the last thing I added pigments to give it a dusty look.
The two figures to sit in the cabin are finished.
There is a reason to why I made the bandage around this figures head…
The eyes look very dark, and they are… but do remember that this is only 20mm figures and when holding the model in the hand it looks ok.
I was not sure if I was going for a figure without the steering wheel and use the one that comes with the set, but I figured that it would be hard to fit the figure with the steering wheel as this sits on the other part of the truck. In the end I cut out the steering wheel and used a figure that was moulded with one.
This is the final model. Notice the bullet hole in the wind screen. This is why the passenger has a bandage to his eye – he dodged the bullet but was hit by the splinters…
I added some Armypainter Quickshade to the windows to make them look dirty. While it was drying I scratched in the varnish to give it the right look.
In this picture the middle wheels are above the surface. It isn’t bad modelling by me, it is actually the surface that bends – the quality of the set is so good that you can’t make that kind of mistakes.
I am quit happy with my home-made tarpaulin. It doesn’t blend perfect together with the one from Goffy in the front, maybe I am just too picky…
I also added some extra jerry cans and a wooden box. This stuff should have been made so it looked like it was fixed to the roof with rope, but I didn’t have the time to do this before I went on holiday with my family.
Close up of the driver.
Close up of the poor wounded soldier. The hole in the windscreen was easy to do. First I browsed for pictures on what those look like, then it was no problems to scratch the crack into the plastic with a scalpel and after that drill the hole. I did do some tests before doing the final one, though.
It is from this picture I got the idea with the bullethole and the wounded soldier. Notice the hole where the AT grenade has hit the tank.
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