This is going to be an old build, and the second 1/35 model in this blog; I built this tank about ten years ago under the sunny skies of Florida. This does account for the execution. (Not that I’ve became a master since then.) It’s probably the first model I’ve done some serious weathering on, and the second “diorama” I’ve made. (If you can call a desolate winter setting a diorama.) Looking back at photos of my previous builts I have to say there will be some serious weathering done once they get out of their boxes in my mother’s attic.

Mobelwagen- a furniture transporter indeed. In travel position this vehicle does look like someone stuck a cabinet on top of a tank.

This vehicle grow out of the desperate need of the German armored forces for some protection from fighter-bombers, since the Allied airforces (Western and Soviet) had quite a lot of air superiority at the later stages of the war, and nobody likes rockets and cannons raining fire on top of their tanks, where the armor is thinnest, anyway. So they kept sticking AA guns on top of everything that moved. One of the first attempt was using a PnzIV chassis. It looked quite ungainly, especially with the sides up, and it took a couple of minutes to prepare for deployment. This might not sound like a lot of time, but when an IL-2 formation is making a low level attack run on you 300kph, it does make a difference. This issue was remedied in later versions (like the Whiberwind) of AAA tanks.

I have gotten this kit as a present from a friend in the US. He was a generous soul, and sent a couple of kits over the years as he knew I was struggling financially. It’s an old Alan kit (I think) and the result of an unholy matrimony between a Tamiya base kit, and an injection-moulded conversion with some PE thrown in. (Back then the Tamiya Mobelwagen has not been issued yet.) The difference in quality of the plastic between the two parts was very much visible. The construction was not a very easy process; as expected, the Tamiya parts went together like a dream, but the conversion was not the easiest thing to finish with my –then even more- limited skills. This also explains the setting. I could claim I was planning it as a deserted, abandoned tank, but I’d be lying. (It’s a nice counterpoint to the previous post- a burned out Jeep on a forgotten Pacific beach.) The truth is I just gave up on trying aligning the sides perfectly, not to mention the gun itself needed a lot of extra work. The flash was horrible, some parts were warped, and in general the detail was just not good enough. It should have been swapped to another model of the Flak gun, but I was on a budget, as I said. (And at that point I was pretty much frustrated with the whole built, so I would have been reluctant to throw money –and effort- at it.) The PE mudguards were nice, though, as they made it easy to make the tank look a bit “used”. (This was the first ever time I actually dared to damage and bend PE parts… someone suggested using my teeth, but I resorted to use a small plyer and a pen.)

Once ready, the model was treated as usual: small pin washes with oils, scratches painted on, and faded paint applied with an airbrush. The weathering was done using the hairspray method. Once the whitewash was on, it took some time to make the hairspray dissolve with a brush first- and then using a blunt piece of wood for the scratches. The effect was remarkably nice; I wish I could say it was intentional. Nevertheless, I’m pretty proud if it. (A lot of these weathering techniques have quite random effects; this actually leads to a convincing finish, but makes them hard to replicate accurately.) Once I was happy with the worn effect, I sealed the paintwork with some matt varnish.

This tank was also my first dabbing into the world of pigments –ground up chalk. White, in this case. I dissolved some in water (well, not dissolved, technically, but mixed into), and layered it onto the surface of the winter camouflage. This softened the contrast between the original camo and the whitewash.

The snow is just baking soda and white glue mixed together, heaped onto the base, and into the crevices of the model. I wanted to show the tank as abandoned and frozen up in the Russian winter. The crew obviously made it out alive, escaped the hell of war, and lead productive, peaceful lives, trying to forget the horrors they were part of.

All in all, this model turned out to be much better than I was hoping for, and was a very good testbed for several techniques. The moral of this story, I think, is to be brave enough to experiment. I did notice before (and since) that I’m very reluctant to “damage” good builds. You spend a lot of money and time to build a very nice model, and you don’t want to risk it by bending some PE, or cutting some holes. Since I wrote this model off during the construction phase, I was bolder than usual to try my hands out in different techniques.