Chinook camo is painted. Need to do some additional details before decals and weathering
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Nice job on the camo, Alex 
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Before starting my Airacobra I made some investments and bought some Eduard Big package for this kit:
I don’t know if I will be able to use them or I’ll just destroy them i attempt to glue them together instead of my fingers… But we need to go bold sometimes to fail miserably 
So first cuts are after me. First I made cockpit parts
And tried to replace wrongly moulded air vents. That wasn’t the easy task and good that Arma Hobby decided to include double package of printed replacemed … I used them all 
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Wow! That is a lot of PE! Looking forward to see what you get from it - I am sure it will look great!
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Looking good, Alex! 
Congrats on finishing 
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Takom Flakpanzer 38 Kugelblitz
Starting picture…
First morning of progress…
In another attempt to break out of a three month model building slump, I decided to start my Takom Flakpanzer 38 Kugelblitz for this campaign.
So far, so good. This model has far fewer access panels and periscopes than a Takom Jagdpanzer 38 making it easier to build. There are a lot of spare parts.
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Takom Flakpanzer 38 Kugelblitz
Progress. There is a knockout pin mark on every other track link. When I built a Takom Jagdpanzer 38 Late, I scraped them all out leaving lots of divots. This time I will fill and sand.
As with every Takom model I have built so far, everything goes great…until it doesn’t. The parts comprising the front face of the turret do not fit. I ended up scraping away plastic until the three problem panels sat in a fairly nice line. With some filling, sanding, and shimming, it should look okay.
The turret base is a half tailed design that leaves large gaps, allowing a viewer to see into the guts of the model. Fixing that will take some effort.
I really dislike the design of the engine air intake grill. To keep a viewer from seeing into the guts of the model, I added a backing plate below the grill. Paint will probably not get down in there, leaving an ugly white plate visible. I may try to rip that out and replace it with a black plate.
The model does not come with a proper antenna which is very annoying. All 4 Takom Jagdpanzer 38s in my possession have the same problem.
All tow cable eyes have a slide molded hole to receive twisted wire but the hole is too small and too shallow. All four pieces need to be drilled out. This introduces the possibility that a piece may chip or split. Two chipped on me.
The mounting pins for the idler wheel axles are too anemic. The mounting pins for the return rollers are tiny. On my first Takom Jagdpanzer 38, the latter pins both sheered off. This time, I know what is coming and will leave off the return rollers until the very end.
I will also leave off the apron plates until very late in the painting process. I would have designed the mounting system for those plates differently to make things easier on the builder.
It is a mystery to me how a driver could fit into this vehicle. They must have anticipated drafting 10 year olds to operate these things.
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Takom Flakpanzer 38 Kugelblitz
Link and length tracks are easy sailing. Ball turret is mostly cleaned up but needs some sanding. I recommend spraying primer on all major turret parts before assembly. The gap between the upper and lower turret parts is big enough to see down but small enough to confound an airbrush.
I doubt this vehicle would make it to production with one driver vision port and one turret periscope. It would benefit from an ammunition trailer.
This vehicle hull with a Lynx or Puma turret would make a neat scout tank. It is fairly far along to becoming a small armored personnel carrier.
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Looks very nice, Doug. Very nice job despite the issues you point out. I do agree the gap in the turret probably allows too much view into the empty hull.
Looking forward to see more
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Doug, the 38t WAS made into the world’s first tracked APC - the German Katzchen, 1944.
Unfortunately only built as a working prototype.
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@SGTJKJ Thank you, Jesper. It feels good to be building again. I do not want to initiate another decade long model holiday.
@SSGToms Oh, hey! That looks familiar. 
Having just read up on the Katzchen I am experiencing some deja vu. Now I want to go all Dr. Frankenstein on another Takom Jagdpanzer 38…
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Takom Flakpanzer 38 Kugelblitz
Ball turret is all fixed up. It should look decent under a coat of primer. Most detail parts are installed. (The turret can still be pulled apart for painting.) I added some factory unauthorized modifications that void the warranty–two periscopes, two pistol ports, grab handles, smoke grenade launchers, a tow hitch, and a bunch of lifting hooks.
If I had a spare set of Panzer 38 road wheels and tracks they would become an ammunition trailer. Unfortunately, my spare parts bins are running low so that idea may need to get the axe.
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Ha! It is available from Scale Hobbyist for $45.49 US. I probably skimmed past it many times over the last two years.
Upon further consideration, it is a bad model for me. Open top vehicles are my bane. I will stick with closed top tanks.
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Doug, nice details you added. That is one of the fun parts of “paper panzers” - you can add extra details if you want to and go crazy on markings and camouflage. Anything goes
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Takom Flakpanzer 38 Kugelblitz
My solution to the, “I can see inside the model”, problem.
Fits pretty good!
Gonna call this ready for paint. I usually put side stowage bins on everything so…not gonna do that this time. Gave it a turret bin instead.
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@SGTJKJ Completely agree. Conjectural vehicles are my very favorite things to build precisely because there are no limits. Now I need to decide how to paint this thing.
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Takom Flakpanzer 38 Kugelblitz
For the first time in 3.5 months I actually sprayed some paint. This could happen.
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Takom Flakpanzer 38 Kugelblitz
My airbrush behaved this morning and now the Kugelblitz is green. Two observations governed this decision. First, in an alternate universe where Germany fields this vehicle, it seems unlikely to appear before 1945. Second, according to Panzer Tracts, green was the base color for vehicles in 1945. One could argue that, in an alternate universe, the order to paint vehicles green would not happen, or happen later, but it seems like a good vehicle color for the Spring and Summer months.
In order to avoid any paint lifting, I am going to let this dry overnight before masking for the camouflage.
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Takom Flakpanzer 38 Kugelblitz
I decided to try a new technique and made some camouflage stencils. That experiment failed fairly badly. Next, I tried to spray soft edge camouflage. That also failed badly. Since I do not want this project to stall, I repainted everything accept the wheels green and sprayed some mud. Unfortunately, I was unable to finish that step and will need to spray again tomorrow.
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Looking good, Doug. I have also tried stencils on tanks and I also could not make it work. I had good results on big bunkers with straight walls, but not tanks.
Looking good so far - looking forward to see more.
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