Mini-Hunter - Dragon 1/72 JP IV

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PrivatePublic
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Mini-Hunter - Dragon 1/72 JP IV

Post by PrivatePublic »

Hey guys, newbie here. :hi: Well not quite, I've been lurking around here for a while admiring all the awesome models people do. This time I figured I'd throw my hat in the ring too so to speak. I haven't had the amount of experience I know a lot around here have, I've been toying with models since my early teens, almost exclusively cheap Airfix kits, and in the last couple of years or so I've gotten back in to modelling again in a more serious way building pretty much anything that kinda captures my interest/imagination. Of course there's the universal issue of never having enough time/money but hey, that's what hobbies are for I guess? With university/flat hunting/other general life stuff going on updates may be few and far between but there's 2 1/2 months to turn something out. Plenty of time probably.

Usually I like to do something new or different with every build and experiment with things I see others doing. I usually prefer larger scales but this time for this SiG I decided to go smaller and get some more practice with fiddly little PE parts for the lower price. That's how I ended up with this:
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I did a little looking around and found a kit of the Jagdpanzer I liked and picked this up from ebay for a decent price that I can't remember. It was originally going to be just OOB but I found a metal barrel and PE set on hlj.com (I think) again, for quite a good price.
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Toothpick for scale. I forgot how tiny 1/72 stuff really is.
I also grabbed a 10x10 little canvas panel for a base, $1 that should keep be breaking something off when handling the model.
It's gonna be interesting working in braille scale with this sort of stuff. Sprue shots to follow
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The card of stuff with a bit of PE, nice looking decals, faces for the road wheels (an interesting way of doing it) and the DS tracks. I'm never sure what to make of these. I haven't used them too often, sometimes they've been really nice, other times terrible.
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Hull tub, nice molding and texture detail by the looks.
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Fenders will be replaced with PE. The kit ones are tapered at the edges.
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The road wheels. The far ones are the solid steel versions and the near ones have the rubber tires and open faces for the little insets.
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More running gear parts.
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Engine deck, choice of fully molded or putting it together, and where's the fun in using the pre-molded part?
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The casemate, little bit of flash down the bottom but looking good otherwise.
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Gonna have to take a look at how much of those plastic fenders have to come off to make way for the PE

Instructions:
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And the colour scheme I'm thinking of going with. Not sure where Dragon got the idea for this from but JPs did seem to have a lot of unusual schemes and this one will mean little to no masking, so that's nice. Also it looks cool.
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As for the vehicle itself I think the history has been pretty well covered by other build threads in greater depth than I could manage. So here's some pictures instead.
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:thumb1: So, I guess we'll see how this goes :th:
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Re: Mini-Hunter - Dragon 1/72 JP IV

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Progress! :banana: Apparently models are as good for procrastination as sleeping.
Anyway, I figured perhaps the reason for the separate road wheel faces was so they could be painted separately, go figure...
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So I just quickly brushed over the wheels with straight Tamiya rubber black, IMO the thickness of the paint gives it a nice bit of texture.
Moved on to the rear hull, still a little smoothing down to go
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A note on the instructions (It's Dragon, there has to be something). They say to install the exhausts early on but for ease of fitting some PE parts in later I'd recommend leaving them off until that's done.
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As for the barrels, while the kit includes a slide molded one the metal barrel is just so much nicer, especially for the price I got it at.
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Moved on to the casemate and got that all finished and ready to mount when the time comes. The PE set I'm working with has some insanely tiny parts to position, endless tedium, a little frustration and a decent amount of surgery is needed here and there, mostly in removing the kit fenders and filling some gaps they leave behind with sheet styrene, but the end result looks good enough. Just to give an idea the 15 little PE pieces around the sides are a little over 1mm long and maybe a 0.3mm wide at a push. I'm beginning to wonder how dedicated small scale guys do it :wall:
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One fender on and casemate dryfitted. It's starting to look like something
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Working on those fenders is kinda making me want to get a bending tool but this one turned out alright. Next up, the other fender and the engine deck with tools. Figure I'll try putting together the PE clamps for a challenge. Wish me luck I guess. :thumb1:
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Re: Mini-Hunter - Dragon 1/72 JP IV

Post by Sturm »

Looking good so far :clap: Can't wait to see end results!
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PrivatePublic
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Re: Mini-Hunter - Dragon 1/72 JP IV

Post by PrivatePublic »

Just something I noticed on the back of the PE packaging. Who you gonna call?
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:nena:
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Re: Mini-Hunter - Dragon 1/72 JP IV

Post by MarkVerploeg »

Nice looking kit
The baby version of what i am building
Great work with the photo etch so far
Nice to see Voyager packed all the stuff in 1 set
I had to get the fenders and side skirts seperate and missed out on the basic set
Keep up the good work
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Personal builds
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PrivatePublic
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Re: Mini-Hunter - Dragon 1/72 JP IV

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Right, it's been a long while since my last update, enough time to finish exams, sort out my living situation and build a Zvezda BTR-80a in the meantime because reasons. Anyway got back into this thing and nearly finished the build. It's coming together slowly but I'm in no rush atm.
Engine deck all done including tools. I'm not really happy with the fire extinguisher but it's small enough that it's not really noticeable unless you're looking for it.
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Just to get an idea of the size, I present the axe on a 1cm grid
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Completed rear section, there's a few glue spots, if I can find a place that actually carries acetone based nail polish remover or something I may clean that up
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All the side skirt holders in place, fiddly but they all went in the right place first time once I figured out the right technique.
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And one side of the side skirts in place. They went on pretty nicely apart from being a bit off kilter, I could rectify that once painted with a bit of glue but I like the idea of leaving them like that, it looks a little more interesting. That and it means I can take them off or put them on as I please
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Just the last set of skirts to go on then on to priming and paint, plenty of time over the next few weeks though so that's nice :thumb1:
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Re: Mini-Hunter - Dragon 1/72 JP IV

Post by OliveDrab »

WOW! The level of detail is unbelievable in 1/72 scale. Fantastic work :th: :th:
Curt :cheers2:
PrivatePublic
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Re: Mini-Hunter - Dragon 1/72 JP IV

Post by PrivatePublic »

Heya :hi: Quick update now that I've wrenched myself away from Fallout 4 for a bit. The JP is coming along still.
Build finished and primed with the Tamiya rattle can stuff.
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And basecoated in Tamiya dark yellow
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Next will be the camo scheme, which brings me to a question.
Anyone out there who may read this have any recommendations for a decent brush paintable clear coat? Still haven't really been able to find one I like and I currently have MM Acryl and Lacquer on hand and some others I could get my hands on. Now often I find the Acryl coat doesn't tend to hold up terribly well when piling stuff on top of it (at least from my experience) and using lacquer over enamels is generally risky unless I give the paint a good week or more to cure, though I've found the primer tends to stop it getting at the plastic even if it hits the paint which is nice, so does anyone else have some tips to lend?

Anyways that's all for now, hopefully I'll figure something out. :th:
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Re: Mini-Hunter - Dragon 1/72 JP IV

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Short update here. Went with the lacquer over the enamel after giving it 3 days to cure and it worked out pretty nicely even with a brush, just using a dabbing technique instead of brush strokes, so that's nice. Now the painting and some of the weathering is all done and I just want to give it another couple of days to cure before another gloss coat ready for decals and washes. So far I'm reasonably happy with how it's looking.
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And here's those little 2 piece wheels. I found it a bit weird initially but seeing how they turned out I really quite like this system, saves so much hassle with masking.
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Anyway, next will be track weathering and a couple of little bits I forgot about (*cough* drive sprockets *cough cough*) as well as making a simple base, something like a fence and a couple of bushes to hide behind as I want to see how well wire frame foliage works in 1/72. :thumb1:

P.S. Almost forgot, thanks guys for the replies
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Re: Mini-Hunter - Dragon 1/72 JP IV

Post by PrivatePublic »

Welp nearly there :th:
Tracks finished off. I'm still experimenting with different techniques but the usual go-to atm is Tamiya Dark Iron with some rust (either pigment, wash or paint), AKs Track Wash and then a steel/silver drybrush. It's simple but it works IMO
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The start of the base with the scratch built matchstick fence and the twig for a tree-trunk/convenient handle to pick it up by.
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And a close up of the fence, again AKs Track Wash brought out a reasonable old wood look. Could do with a bit of lighter detail weathering but I'll probably leave that for a bigger subject
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Base was then layered in a bit of PVA and modeling clay with a basecoat
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The kit all together with the roadwheels and decals set in place. Weathering done with an overall wash, pin wash and pigments from ground up chalk pastels. The paint job is kinda meh but not terrible. It'll do
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And the mostly finished base
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Seeing if I can get the tracks to sag reasonably
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That's a yes, kinda
And it's pretty much done. Just a few little bits I want to play with before I'll call it done :dance:
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Thanks!
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Re: Mini-Hunter - Dragon 1/72 JP IV

Post by Coen »

That's a fine bit of work bud. I built a kit similar to this one a little while ago and really enjoyed it. Haven't finished painting it yet.
I love the dio and the weathering.
Nicely done.
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