Sd. Kfz. 164 Nashorn - 1:35 Dragon

[Jochen]

Hi all

latest project ever so slowly gathering pace. Has had good consultations regarding references on among others this new beast and techniques in general with a couple of you guys - thanks a lot...

Well, not much to say as of yet: Dragon (the "older" kit) with an Aber barrel, Eduard PE, and AFV Club suspension and wheel set. Maybe a set of Modelkasten tracks will come off an old Tamiya Jagdpanzer IV which unfortunately turned out rather ghastly...

I also included a picture of a Nashorn seized by Polish troops in Italy: the picture gives a good impression of the size of the propellant charge for this 88 mm variant. No wonder the AT shell had a virtually flat trajectory out till 1,000 m.

So far I have spent a LOT of time cleaning up bit and pieces - primarily the gun parts as well as the suspension but also making the hull ready. The pics show all the little and now cleaned pieces... and a long time it took...

Assembly should start shortly...

rgds

Jochen

[Pvt Mutt]

Alright, Jochen do your thing.

Tony lee

[Torben Nielsen]

Hi Jochen

Great start on the project. I am looking forward to see how it turns out in the end, so keep it comming

Virkelig en skam du ikke er hjemme i forbindelse med DM i modelbygning. Kunne sgu have været sjovt!

Greetings from Denmark
Torben

[Jochen]

Oh boy, was I right when in September 2013 I described this project gaining pace ever so slowly...

Well, the picture speaks for itself, I guess. This Nashorn is temporarily in parc fermé. Nice vehicle, though, and I will return to it.

One explanation is to be found elsewhere on this blog.

All the best,

Jochen

[Jochen]

Hi all

Well, some months down the line a brief update. I sort of expanded the Nashorn kit: on the shelf waiting was also a Dragon Hummel, so starting that one up more or less simultaneously made sense... economy of scale. After a long period of cleaning, then some more cleaning, and finally some additional cleaning, a first coat of Vallejo RAL 8012 red brown primer.

These are the old Dragon kits, 6166 and 6150 respectively, and they are not brilliant: there are fit issues and a lot of ejector punch marks. But with some decent barrels and some other AM stuff, I hope to make some honest models out of them. The little boxes in one of the photos are Eduard's ammo boxes for the Nashorn and the Hummel plus the radio set for the Nashorn (the small frames on one side of one of the large boxes).

Regret the quite appalling photos: will try to get more light in future photos. More to come.

Many regards

J

[Torben Nielsen]

Hallo Jochen

So good to see you back here. Have been wondering what you where up to
Nice Progress you have made with TWO kits at the same time, but you are quite right that it make sence to build them together.

Recently I purchased a Nashorn Premium kit, but when it will move from stash to the table is unknown, but hopefully within the next 10 years.....

Now, I am expecting some colors on those two beasts soon, so back to Work

Greeting from the better part of Denmark
Torben

[canjuaan]

Hello Jochen,

the Nashorn is one of my favorite German vehicles from WWII. Good to see you're picking up on your build again. Good work so far.

However, like many other modellers so far, it seems like you fell victim to DML's notoriously bad instructions:


Did you glue this part (the same one is on the opposite side)? It's only a jig for the placement of the travel lock pieces and should not be fixed but removed after the installement of said pieces. There're even more faults in the instructions. Tery Ashley did a good job mentioning each and one of the in his detailed review: http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.co...gon/dr6166.htm

It also comes in handy for the Premium Edition, because DML have not corrected the screw-ups in the instructions in the re-release.

Hope you still can fix it!

/Johannes

[Jochen]

Torben, Johannes

Thanks for comments...

And particularly you Johannes, thanks a bunch for pointing out stupid mistake...

Only one thing to say: AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHH....

Bloddy thing is that a good friend had supplied all the references I needed: I should just have looked carefully at the photos.

Will try to fix it.

Guess the same thing applies to the other model - the Nashorn?

many regards

J

[canjuaan]

Jochen, both the Nashorn and the Hornisse kits suffer from this mistake in their respective instructions. It's a shame.

Hope you can fix it easily or w/o too much damage to the interior!

Good luck!

[Jochen]

Well, a little violence may come in handy from time to time: fortunately I use glue in small quantities, so the small buggers came off without too much damage to the interior - only a minor hole had to be putty'ed up. Some parts of the suspension, however, did not take too well to the firm grip needed, when the misplaced parts were pried off. But these can be glued on again.

So much for making stupid mistakes - it'll cost ya...

I can tell from reference photos (and thanks again, Torben...) that the Nashorn had a forward mounted antenna socket on the inside of the right-hand side armour plate as well as MG mounts for close defence on both side armour plates. Will do those and look at wiring before returning to the paint job.

But again, thanks for pointing out, Johannes... particularly at this early stage...

many regards

J