WAK Panzer 1F Build (resurrected)

[CharlieC]

Originally Posted by Jim Nunn
Very nice, are the shovel and ax heads made with foil or paper? Either way they look great the shovel handle is spot on.

Jim Nunn

I used heavy foil for the shovel and axe head - it came from the air seal of a coffee can. The shovel handle was sanded down from a bamboo skewer in a Dremel. The trash screens on the air inlets came from a mesh bag that garlic came in - painted with black acrylic.

I generally make up a solution from what's to hand - I think it's an Australian thing - works often enough to keep doing it.

Regards,

Charlie

[CharlieC]

Originally Posted by rockpaperscissor
It's coming out beautifully Charlie. Do you make it a practice to weather your armor models, or do you leave them assembly line pristine? Good arguments can be made for either presentation. Is the antenna made of wire? In my plastic days, I used to make antennas from stretched track sprue. That's why I still have two eyes. Can't wait to see it done.

Regards,
Don

I've done both weathered and factory fresh - I think I like a little weathering - helps hide obvious mistakes. I weathered the tracks so it will look odd if the running gear is pristine. I'll give the coloured chalk dust technique a try - it sounds effective and not too difficult.

Yup - the antenna is wire - it's easy in this model because the base is a tiny cylinder with some supporting struts which the wire fits into. All I had to do was use the antenna wire as a mandrel to roll the base cylinder around.

My problem is what do I do next - I'm tempted to do the Supermodel Panzer 1A - a sort of first and last pair. The colour of the Supermodel Pz 1 is wierd - a sort of orange-pink colour. I think it should be a dull brown colour for 1941 North Africa. There's also a Porsche Tiger which turned up the other day ex-eBay - decisions, decisions.

Regards,

Charlie

[CharlieC]

The turret is done. I had a small disaster with the mantlet (dropped on floor and run over by chair castor). I didn't like the original design so rebuilt by laminating the part from multiple layers of copy paper. The armour shields around the machine gun barrels aren't right - the photo evidence shows an end cap with the gun barrel running through it. It's another error in the drawing used.

The gun barrels were supposed to be wire with a couple of paper pieces added - too fiddly for me. I turned the barrels out of a bamboo skewer held in a Dremel at lowest speed - like wood turning on a micro scale.

The aerial push over rings aren't correct in the kit - the photo evidence shows they were circular rather than the oval shape in the model (and the MK drawing).


Regards,

Charlie

[CharlieC]

Wheels and tracks on - it just needs some weathering now.

I'll try to come up with an overview of the build to help anyone who wants to tackle this model.

Regards,

Charlie

[CharlieC]

My overall impressions about the WAK PzKpfw 1F.....

Firstly I think WAK needs to be applauded for releasing models of more obscure WW2 AFVs. To tackle fairly obscure armour designs, I believe, gives a designer an added problem in that there is much less reference material available.

In the case of the PzKpfw 1F there is a reasonable amount of information available including a "Panzer Tract" on the Pz 1. Unfortunately, this design seems to be based mostly on a drawing published in the Russian publication Modelist Konstructor. I've picked up some of the errors in this drawing but there are probably more. Perhaps I'm a bit fanatical about accuracy but if one's objective is to build a model of a particular tank rather than just assemble a model kit the errors do irritate.

This kit is quite complex and runs to something over 1500 parts. In part, the high part number is a result of the design technique used (I've made comment on this ealrier in this thread). The printing and fit of the parts is generally very good. I found if I was getting misfits it was usually because I was making a mistake in the build. There are a few places where the structural strength of the model is a bit suspect, such as the mudguards, but the model hull is strong and resists distortion well.

The build diagrams are not easy to use - they remind me of kits from about 10 years ago and are not in the same class as the recent Halinski or GPM kits. This is especially true of the roadwheels - all that is provided is a cross section with lots of parts references. In the case of this model with complex roadwheeels an exploded diagram of the assemblies would have saved a lot of bad language on my part.

Perhaps this model could have been improved with another beta build - it's not Halinski but it makes an interesting and different model.

Regards,

Charlie

[CharlieC]

Originally Posted by eatcrow2
Wonderful Model!!!!!!! Love the attention to detail, as it looks very realistic......

Most of the credit for the detail must go to the designer - Mariusz Kurzynski - for making the effort to design all the parts on top of the guards and hull top.
As an example of the level of design detail - on the left side guard the storage box is raised on short legs - underneath this are the wire cutter and crank handle - you can barely see them but they are there. I just implemented the design - sometimes by changing media.

Regards,

Charlie

[Clashster]

I relished following this build when it first occured, and I enjoyed going through your report again! Great looking build. This one is in the stack and may have worked it's way up the list... perhaps I will try your track technique on this one, since I now can easily refer to it! Thanks!

[NOBI]

very clean build...thank you very much to share picture to us. Really like your tank can't wait to see weathering version.

[Stev0]

Theres nothing wrong with being picky about model errors. Complacency would deffinately be a bad thing. Sad to see that WAK did have some significant issues with accuracy which even though the final build was satisfactory to your standard ... others would run into the same issues.

[John Griffin]

Wow Charlie... despite what you claim, I think you are a master builder- and one who knows what his subject as well. After reading this thread I am a bit intimidated now about my on-going design of the M48! I will have to make doubly sure that I get all of the small details right. There are so many of them; it never ends- I am getting down to deciding whether or not to add bolts along the fender tops, etc.
I see your point about over-reliance on the computer for the final design of every piece. I am finding that for ease of construction and simplicity, (does that equal design elegance?) some parts are better just done straight in 2D (in PS, for instance). It is also just plain faster to design bits that way sometimes- negating all the unfolding.
Here's hoping I get it right...
Thanks for the photos- they give me something to aim for in level of detail.