pingvuiini
Member
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2012
- Messages
- 123
Just finished initial build and paint of 1/35 Sd. Kfz. 135 RPM Beobachtungswagen recon.
This certainly was a rough build for a number of reasons. I usually like to build the larger armored vehicles like tanks, SPGs, large halftracks, etc. This particular vehicle is pretty small and so that made it challenging. More problematic was the manufacturing and engineering. There was a ton of thick flash on many of the parts that had to be dealt with (see rear door cutaway, bottom photo) and some parts just plain didn't fit (i.e. the big radio on the left should be recessed under the armor plate according to the instructions). The plastic itself was sorta 'crumbly' and soft, with some of the more delicate parts positioned on the sprue in such a way that it was impossible to cut them off without breaking them. There are no part numbers on the sprues so you had to cross reference the sprue to the parts list diagram in the instructions. Some of the directions in the instructions were very nebulous or just plain wrong and I had to remove and reposition some delicate parts during subsequent steps, which was very aggravating and frustrating.
The final result was sorta meh and I kept wondering to myself why I was putting so much effort into it. I intended from the very start to weather the crap out of this model just for fun, but the upcoming excessive weathering now seems almost essential to hide all the goofs I made. Still, it was interesting to build a relatively uncommon and odd looking vehicle despite the problems. Granted, RPM is not on the manufacturing level of Tamiya or Dragon but I definitely gained a deeper appreciation of the quality and engineering of the bigger manufacturers.
This certainly was a rough build for a number of reasons. I usually like to build the larger armored vehicles like tanks, SPGs, large halftracks, etc. This particular vehicle is pretty small and so that made it challenging. More problematic was the manufacturing and engineering. There was a ton of thick flash on many of the parts that had to be dealt with (see rear door cutaway, bottom photo) and some parts just plain didn't fit (i.e. the big radio on the left should be recessed under the armor plate according to the instructions). The plastic itself was sorta 'crumbly' and soft, with some of the more delicate parts positioned on the sprue in such a way that it was impossible to cut them off without breaking them. There are no part numbers on the sprues so you had to cross reference the sprue to the parts list diagram in the instructions. Some of the directions in the instructions were very nebulous or just plain wrong and I had to remove and reposition some delicate parts during subsequent steps, which was very aggravating and frustrating.
The final result was sorta meh and I kept wondering to myself why I was putting so much effort into it. I intended from the very start to weather the crap out of this model just for fun, but the upcoming excessive weathering now seems almost essential to hide all the goofs I made. Still, it was interesting to build a relatively uncommon and odd looking vehicle despite the problems. Granted, RPM is not on the manufacturing level of Tamiya or Dragon but I definitely gained a deeper appreciation of the quality and engineering of the bigger manufacturers.
