Armour Dreams

[Jonathan Moore]

Well I have stripped the hull of all the fittings, which was a very unenjoyable job but it means that the project is entering it's final stages, albeit the end is still a long way off. I dragged the hull out and washed it inside and out and when it had dried off hoovered it out ready for painting.

[Jonathan Moore]

All nicely painted, in day light it's not actually gray but a green-grey RAL 7003 . I had always assumed that the internal areas in German tanks that weren't painted in RAL1001 Ivory, were just left as red oxide until I found some good pictures of the inside of the Tank Museums PZ2. The exact colour, from the pictures, is hard to establish but I found another taken in day light and the colour was definitely a green grey rather than grey. There seemed to be two choices, ( sorry my wife has corrected my poor grammar that should be options) RAL 7003 or RAL 7009 which looks grey as opposed to green-grey, so I decided on the 7003 which according to the book Real colours of WW2 was used by German industry for painting machinery components or the luftwaffe for painting aircraft interiors and I like it.



Sad I know but that's me.

[Jonathan Moore]

As I look at all the parts in storage and realise that they all have to be finished sprayed I find it horrifying and yet I have a plan.

Progress is being made although it seems to be very slow. I am spraying and to create enough room to spray inside my workshop, I had to extend it, hence the slow pace. I am trying to only spray the parts that I intend to assemble next, so that I don't have to store loads of finished items and risk damaging them and I can create some extra room. The road wheels and the return rollers were a right pain to mask up, my son said that I should have just sprayed them all grey and let the tracks rub the paint off but I couldn't bring myself to do it as it seems lazy.
It's quite satisfying assembling it in it's finished state but I had noticed some areas that I thought needed alteration or lubrication points adding when I stripped it down, so I am making those alterations as I go along. Maybe I am being too anal but that's me.

That's it so far, all up to date.


That's all for now.

Jon

[ChaseR83]

Your build is simply amazing.

I've read through the pages numerous times and I'm still in awe every time I do. I too have armor dreams that are much larger than my pocketbook... and your build is proof it can be done.

I do have a question for you though, what are you using for documentation? I've started researching a few early war tanks with dreams of building a replica... but info on German tanks always seems scarce. Even Hilary Doyle's Panzer Tracts have become difficult to find.

[Tim Bell]

Originally Posted by ChaseR83

Your build is simply amazing.

I've read through the pages numerous times and I'm still in awe every time I do. I too have armor dreams that are much larger than my pocketbook... and your build is proof it can be done.

I do have a question for you though, what are you using for documentation? I've started researching a few early war tanks with dreams of building a replica... but info on German tanks always seems scarce. Even Hilary Doyle's Panzer Tracts have become difficult to find.

Research wise, no doubt publications such as these are handy... though sadly I dont have any for the PZ2.

PZ-3.jpg

PZ4-1.jpg

PZ4-2.jpg

Tim

[Jonathan Moore]

Tim,
I have to ask where did you get those, are they in reprint? I would love a copy of both of those.

Chase,

I have found getting any specific documentation, apart from published books, impossible but I suppose someone somewhere will have it and It will probably come to light after I have finished. I have bought every book that I can find on the Panzer II but most of them hold very little reliable information and a lot of them can be very misleading. The best books that I have found are the "Panzer tract" books and the "AFV super detail photo books", there is also an excellent cd Called German Tank Interiors. The hardest part is finding pictures of tanks that haven't been restored, some restorations are very suspect regarding their accuracy, especially the interiors.
I have contacted the Tank Museum and they kindly forwarded me some interior pictures but most of these are available in the AFV super detail book, Other than that they didn't appear to have much.
My wife finds me staring at pictures trying to work out how, why and where but I am always amazed at how much detail a good clear photo contains, most of the time it just needs to be interpreted correctly.

Dimension wise, the best bet is to find one to measure and failing that, find the best pictures and scale them but as I have found check, check and check again.

I have spent many hours trawling the internet, most of which has been wasted time but some times I have found some thing of interest.

I hope that helps.

Jon

[ChaseR83]

Originally Posted by Jonathan Moore

Tim,
I have to ask where did you get those, are they in reprint? I would love a copy of both of those.

I too, would love to know if reprints are available. The Panzer III is on my short list of tanks to research.

[ChaseR83]

Originally Posted by Jonathan Moore

Chase,

I have found getting any specific documentation, apart from published books, impossible but I suppose someone somewhere will have it and It will probably come to light after I have finished. I have bought every book that I can find on the Panzer II but most of them hold very little reliable information and a lot of them can be very misleading. The best books that I have found are the "Panzer tract" books and the "AFV super detail photo books", there is also an excellent cd Called German Tank Interiors. The hardest part is finding pictures of tanks that haven't been restored, some restorations are very suspect regarding their accuracy, especially the interiors.
I have contacted the Tank Museum and they kindly forwarded me some interior pictures but most of these are available in the AFV super detail book, Other than that they didn't appear to have much.
My wife finds me staring at pictures trying to work out how, why and where but I am always amazed at how much detail a good clear photo contains, most of the time it just needs to be interpreted correctly.

Dimension wise, the best bet is to find one to measure and failing that, find the best pictures and scale them but as I have found check, check and check again.

I have spent many hours trawling the internet, most of which has been wasted time but some times I have found some thing of interest.

I hope that helps.

Jon

Jon,

Thank you for the reply. I have the added difficulty of being in the US.... which often means "in-person" research is very difficult on tanks with few survivors. I'd love to visit Bovington or Samur.... but it would be quite an undertaking... and I don't think they would allow some nutter from across the pond crawl around inside their exhibits to take pictures.

I've gathered some excellent info on several British and French tanks... but for now all is far too incomplete to start a replica attempt.

If you are still looking for documentation for your build... I have a book that lists the locations of surviving German manuals by archive. I can forward the locations for various Panzer 2 manuals... but they appear to be incomplete as German manuals are divided up by hull, superstructure and turret, etc.

[Tim Bell]

Originally Posted by Jonathan Moore

Tim,
I have to ask where did you get those, are they in reprint? I would love a copy of both of those.

Jon

Found them with an online book dealer in the USA some time ago... very interesting... ironic that they have far more detail than the British manuals produced for the Firefly.

I did a limited reprint of the Pz3 books, but have not bothered with the Pz4 ones because one of the recipients of the Pz3 books constantly hassled me about some reprint "errors" for over 6 months afterwards.

The print company got some pages in the wrong order when binding and had to slightly photo-reduce pages to fit A4 (original is letter size).

If you are happy to accept these slight differences, I can consider getting more reprinted. No doubt we can the page order error fixed, but I can do nothing for the photo-reduction challenge.

Are you interested in just the Pz3 ones, or Pz3 and Pz4.

If anyone else is interested in any, please let me know - I will do another print run for MLU members.

Let me know

Tim