"Dragon 1/72 Brummbär - WIP kit review" Topic

Hi

I've been building my 3rd 1/72 Dragon model. Another WWII German armour piece. This time the Sd. Kfz. 166, Brummbär.

This was nothing like as easy or enjoyable a build as the Tiger I (late prod) or Stug IV (also late prod), both by Dragon, and I had several disasters, of varying degrees of magnitude.

Here's my post about the build. I'd be interested to hear if anyone else found this kit troublesome (or not!).

Dragon 1/72 Brummbär – WIP kit review

Cheers,

Sebastian

I see that this post is failing to attract any response… Ok, how about some more pics and a tale of cyanoacrylate hell?

One of the near disasters that occurred during the build was that I glued the rear spare wheel stowage frames on incorrectly, and in trying to fit the wheels after this (perhaps the wheels should've gone in the frames before?) failed to do so, only succeeding in damaging the frames. They then got further damaged when I removed them.

So I decided I'd scratch-build replacements using wire. I think I used a paper clip in the end. It was about the right thickness (poss a shade too fat!), and was both bendy and rigid enough for my porpoises, so to speak.

One thing that was an absolute nightmare was trying to glue the component parts together. It seems to me that for some jobs superglue has the peculiar and almost unique property of gluing together everything – model parts to the table, fingers, glue applicator, fingers to each other, etc. – except the joint one is trying to bond. So, you put more glue on, and by the time the joint sets, you end up with ugly blobby accretions.

Hopefully it doesn't look too bad now it's undercoated? I still can't get any wheels to fit into the frames tho'. I'll prob leave one empty, and have the other one filled with other random junk, possibly even with a tarp thrown over it, to disguise blobs of that damned cyanoacrylate …

Any tips from more experienced modellers? Could I perhaps have done this better with rods of plastic, rather than metal wire, for example?

Cheers, Sebastian

Hello Sebastian,
Ah Dragon kits…………my only problem with them is the dratted tracks. Too short is an easily solvable problem……too long as Ive just had with two Tiger I's and a Tiger II is a complete pain in the rear end. And then we have the problem of getting proper sag………… give me the Revell style tracks anyday.
Always use brass wife myself easy to work with and available in all sorts of diameters. Wire and matching tube ( Albion metals) really useful.
Never use superglue unless I have to myself, nasty stuff. Always dispense it onto a palette ( plastic milk container tops are great) and apply using shaped toothpicks or sewing needles ( haberdasheries are a terrific source of allsorts of bits and bobs, sewing needles and Tapestry needles really useful.
Either proper poly adhesive or araldite. Can be a pain fitting stuff where its supposed to go sometimes, no slack in a Dragon kit.
Is that gunmetal primer?
Looks fine to me from here.
Are you planning to fit tracks after the paint job?
I usually assemble chassis and wheels together and then prime them then finish the upper hull.Sometimes fit the tracks as well at this stage sometimes wait till upper hull done and fixed.
I then slip a L shaped bit card over the tracks to protect them when painting the hull. Then go in and give the tracks a final paint job when the airbrushing is done.
Hope that helps
L

I would suggest that for relatively expensive kits like those from DML, it could well be worth investing in after market tracks. The best around are the 'bendy' resin ones from OKB Grigorov:

link

(Usual disclaimer: I have nothing to do with this company!)

Thanks for that Hornswoggler, interesting looking stuff.
I take dealing with the tracks as a challenge and always manage to sort it. Just dont understand why some firms, when making new stuff, bother with 'rubber' tracks when better easier methods around.
L

Hi Leon

Thanks for the feedback. Like you I always put a blob of superglue into a receptacle, and then use something else to apply it. The wire wheel-racks on this were done with my usual method, using cocktail sticks to apply the superglue.

I'm amassing a horde of German WWII armour, in various states of paint-job undress. After painting the first of the models I built, an Airfix Panther, by hand (having just resumed this delightful hobby), I'm determined to buy a better airbrush than my undercoating only Badger single-action, before painting the rest.

Some kits have tracks already in position, others I'm leaving. It's all a bit of a chaotic mess, TBH!

Best, Seb

PS – Not sure about using 'brass wife'! ;o)