I have been having a great time John.
I have been in the Balkan Heatwave for the last 2 months. Lucky I come from Queensland in Australia and are used to high 30C temps. Mind you 45C in Mostar, Bosnia was not fun…
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Yeap, Bos in the summer can be hot !!
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It’s been in the low 30’s where I am for the past month. And it’s actually a mild summer compared to prior years.
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Congrats for this very nicely made diorama !
I like the worned effect of the paint.
Even if it is so small, the whole thing is very convincing.
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Very nice duo Alex.
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Iltis build - The body
I should point out before going further that it helps to make some choices before starting this build! The biggest is bonnet open or closed. If you choose to have it closed you can leave out most of the engine-compartment details as they won’t be seen, and just build the basic block and engine mounts A32 & A34, saving an absolute ton of work. I chose to open the bonnet so had to spend ages adding and fitting parts with the goal of being able to fit the frame/drivetrain to the body after everything was painted, but if I’d closed it I could glue the frame to the body earlier in the build and paint the whole thing as a lump. If I ever build another one “closed” is the way to go…
The second area of choices is the canvas roof – up or down. The kit has the frame parts for the folded roof but fails to mention they need to be left off if fitting the canvas, as these frame bars are all moulded into the canvas top. I used the roof to set the angle for the windscreen as there is no other positive location for it. (With care the roof can be left loose to remove for showing off the interior!) Adding the roof doomed me to adding all the PE tie-downs (21 tiny bits). You can also add the side doors or leave them off. And related to all this, the windscreen can be up or folded forward. As these choices all affect how you build it, you’ll want to make them early…
The crew tub is straight-forward but the seat supports are tricky and need to be just right to fit inside the rear corners of the seat frames – I did a LOT of test-fitting here! And the handbrake assembly is a test of patience.
The fit of the rear floor to the crew tub and sides was tricky, and required a fair amount of fettling. It doesn’t help that thee are no real positive locators for these floors on the side walls. Then ther are the front inner wings – it did not help that the parts were mis-numbered for left and right, and the only obvious alignment groove was actually on the inner side facing into the engine bay! Getting all the parts to line up square was a challenge, so if you want Tamiya-style simplicity you won’t find it here.
The radiator was another challenge – I wanted to fit it to the chassis so I could add the hoses, but that’s a story for the next instalment…
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Sounds like a regular Ace to me only just slightly bigger.
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Excellent!!!
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Hello all !
A little update,
Roll bar cage in place with the turret ring.
IED alimentation in the cargo bed.
Spare wheel mount is from DEF Model, included in the wheel set.
New front part with a cover molded on the dashboard.
Photoetch frame with hinges for armor panel on both sides
Test fit for crew members.
Body armor are from Gecko and legs from Blackdog.
Close up picture on the dashboard with transparent areas for instruments.
One pedal is removed to fit the driver.
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Coming along very nicely guys.
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Hello thank you,
Wish you a good travel !
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Body pt2
The Iltis is almost ready for priming! Since the “glass” is moulded into the clear windscreen and canvas hood I had to mask it both inside and out prior to any painting.
The interior is rather busy, and following on from the last update this shot shows the seat-supports that need a lot of care:
The radiator is supposed to be mounted in the bodywork, but that means access to paint it is hard, and the hoses cannot be attached until the body and frame are joined. I chose to mount the radiator on the frame instead, using a couple of sprue offcuts to hold it up. (This was after assembling the front bodywork so I could see exactly where it needed to go!) I found there wasn’t enough room for it behind the raised edges the grille was meant to go on, as the fans were pressed against the drive belt, so I had to add strips of 0.030” Evergreen around the bodywork to push the grille forward just enough to clear the radiator. With a fair amount of fettling the whole chassis/engine/radiator simply drops into place!
I chose the “roof up” option to show off the NATO-flage camo, but as mentioned before it can be left loose.
But if you choose the “top-down” version the parts are there too:
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The Luv’e is spreading nice builds going on. My entry with this resin kit
I think we will see a 3D print of this one in the future (at least i hope) as it’s a funky East German Traband version of some sort anyway straight forward build.
I did a bit of addition of some aluminium strips just to give it a bit of live.
After primer a green base coat with a bit of variation
Decals ,… only 4 and these where printed on a very tiny sheet,…
and while i was playing with the greens i decided to also spray a ZIL truck from my collection “Built not finished models” 
And Finished with some oils
Thanks for this interesting Campaign
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Wow ! What a fast built !
Well done.
What is the nationality of this brand ?
Hi the Brand is “Werk 803” from Germany i got the kit from a shop sale for like 10 euro or something like that, originally it is a bit expensive to be honest.
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More progresses.
Masking tape on registration plate
Ammo boxes added on rack
Ammo boxes added
Masking tape on registration plate.
New fenders with antenna bases molded on
Door strips added. Accurate armour update set normally provides two parts for each side.
In my kit there was only 1 of the 2 parts. So the white one is my own, made in styrene. Same scratchbuilt part for the left side.
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'Love the P3! There used to be a resin manufacturer who did one of these (and lots of other NVA stuff) in 1:35 - sadly long gone - but I’d kill for one of these in 1:35.
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