Shelf queen resurrection

[Panzerwrecker]

First post on this forum so a big wave to members from a small island in the UK

This year has been such a shocker for so many reasons and to top it off, at one point I thought that I might be forced into packing a 48-year fiddling with small pieces of plastic obsession in altogether! Aside from all the personal life dramas, and regular BS I was suddenly faced with the dilemma of not being able to build any more due to the tools I use literally messing with my head. It’s a long story so in a nutshell; I developed a nasty allergy to the hobby adhesives I was using. At first, I thought entering the mancave was going to be a complete no go but thankfully it is just the adhesives and not weathering products or airbrushing etc. Long term exposure is obviously to blame so I am hoping my body will recover and I can return sometime soon to full time building models again.

In the meantime, I’ve had to re-evaluate what I can manage and as I’ve always been a glacially slow builder, and ever distracted by all the shiny new releases, a large chunk of my work has remained unfinished. This is now a blessing as I have literally dozens of projects that are fully built, in varying stages of paint or weathering progress or even just require a small base to display on…

Here is just a small selection of projects that I need to take over the finishing line.

Zvezda L4500A & Azimut cargo trailer

Riich Models Skoda Radschlepper

Dragon Ferdinand

Meng Jagdpanther

Dragon Sd.Kfz.7 final variant

Bronco sWS Armoured cargo

Takom StuG III Ausf G early

Dragon StuG III F8

RFM StuG III Ausf G Late

Tamiya T26 Pershing

So as you can see I’m big on Axis AFV’s and I’ve way more than plenty to be getting along with, and absolutely no distractions or excuses to begin culling my fat stash of shelf queens

Los

[18bravo]

Welcome to the forum. That’s some nice work there.

[Tank_1812]

Welcome aboard. That is a nice shelf stash.

[Nito74]

Welcome !!
Great work !

[Armor_Buff]

Los, welcome to the forum! Sweet looking builds, thanks for sharing them.

Coild one of the alternative citrus based liquid cements be a work around?

I’ve used the MicroWeld nontoxic on several occasions. It works well enough, it’s a little slower allowing time to position. Haven’t used the Tamiya version but it might be more accessible.

[Panzerwrecker]

ooooh! thanks buddy. I didnt know there was such a thing. My shelf queens could be in trouble!

[Barney]

Welcome, that is some fine work.

[TankCarlN3w]

How much ventilation do you have? I think a fan blowing from behind you, and towards an open window, could keep fumes low/nonproblematic.

[Johnnych01]

Welcome to the madness … some very nice projects there ready for paint and the final finishing touch … hopefully you can find a work around solution to the building and fumes issue (and thats probably something I should address as well !!! )

[GlennRH]

I see from your list you have built stuff produced by many companies I have yet to take a chance with. Are there any that have been a letdown?

[BootsDMS]

@Panzerwrecker

a glacially slow builder,

That’s my job spec too!

Welcome; that’s some fine work there - worth the wait I’m sure. 'Look very forward to seeing more, no matter how long it takes(!)

[Keith_Ranson]

Very Good Work!

[GlennRH]

I can’t seem to edit post. By letdown I don’t mean inaccurate rivet count , I mean as far as the moulding in general.

[SSGToms]

Welcome to Armorama Los! You have some spectacular work! You are going to fit right in here.

[Panzerwrecker]

Thank you

[Panzerwrecker]

Thanks

[Panzerwrecker]

Thanks Barney, appreciated

[Panzerwrecker]

Once my symptoms began, I did start sticking my spray booth on to ventilate the room, but it looks like the exposure had already been too great. I would get Flu like symptoms the next day, sometimes lasting 48hrs. It took around three or four sessions at the bench to figure things were not right, and to realise time spent in the cave had a direct correlation. I then started experimenting using different glues or no glues at all etc until I pinpointed the issue.

I’ve always airbrushed with a mask but TBH ventilation at night is restricted so exposure in a confined area over a few months took its toll. Looking back, I had purely been on a construction bender for a few months whereas previously I had only ever built a single kit and then moved on to paint and weathering. The effect of exposure to the adhesive (Tamiya thin) combined with far too little ventilation had obviously started as an irritation. The accumulative effect has turned into an allergy, so much so that even a minute exposure will now see a consequence.

[Panzerwrecker]

Cheers Johnny. Yep, it’s one that I really should have seen coming. My bad, but hopefully I can get back to building soon.

[Panzerwrecker]

Thanks Glenn. From the kits I have posted above I would think Zvezda are the worst offenders for inconsistency with their releases. The Mercedes 4500A range is pretty good on the whole.

I’ve only built this one Riich kit and this is an excellent kit both in terms of engineering and detail. One of those rare pleasurable builds that makes you question why other builds need be so frustrating.

The Dragon Ferdinand is a Premium edition offered in their heyday of releases in the mid noughties. Oodles of photoetch but still alternatives in plastic. Good engineering and on this kit, no perplexities with the instructions

The Meng kit was OK, some questionable engineering but on the whole not bad. Beware of their multi-link tracks though

The Dragon Sd.Kfz.7 has accuracy issues but I love a softskin and it looks good. It builds up well and you can address most of the visual accuracy problems thesedays with aftermarket goodies should that be your thing

The sWS is only my second Bronco kit and it’s a pretty simple affair TBH. The mouldings were originally from Great wall Hobby. This is built almost OOTB with just a few tweeks to address accuracy issues mainly around the cab area.

The Takom StuG III G kit is a nice simple kit to build but it’s not one I would recommend (as are any of their Stug III kits) to go for if accuracy is high up on your agenda.

The Dragon StuG F8 is a beauty. However, like the majority of Dragon kits (that I have attempted), you do have to learn to manage their ridiculously busy and often confusing instructions.

I’m a relatively newcomer to RFM kits and TBH they are probably to blame for my aversion to the sticky stuff right now. I had a great time with their Pz.IV Ausf J kit (up there with the very best Dragon ever offered and much, much better than the Border or Miniart equivalent variants IMO), so much so that I tucked right into building their Ausf J interior kit and then right onto this StuG III Ausf G without any trips to the spray booth! They are obviously not perfect and I’m sure they have been around long enough now to knock out some howlers, but they were like a breath of fresh air. Think Tamiya engineering (on the whole), but with much more attention to fine detail. I understand from reading on missing Lynx from StuG aficionados that this StuG kit is probably the best base to build an Ausf G from in 1/35 scale. Oh, and their workable multi-link tracks (on this kit) are the best I’ve constructed in plastic.

What can you say about Tamiya kits. They are unquestionably the most prolific and consistently release the best engineered kits you can buy. Sure, some of their earliest (motorised) kits are worth avoiding, but taken as a range, THE most enjoyable kits to build bar the odd jem from other manufacturers (see the Riich radchelepper above). The M26 Pershing kit is 22 years old this year, it is lacking quite a lot of fine detail, much of which I am not going to address, but who cares. With a few choice accessories it looks pretty dam menacing.