Krupp Protze - Construction Completed

I finished the pre-painting construction this afternoon, adding all the fiddly bits that have a high percentage of being broken or knocked off never to be seen again. These included the headlights, width indicators, and mirrors. Those of you with keen eyesight will notice that I removed the broken shovel from the rear left side. I removed the shovel parts with a sharp #11 blade leaving the brackets attached. The wind screen was loose so I removed it. This will facilitate the painting of the cab (notably the dash) and the masked wind screen. This will be re-attached after finishing along with the eight wheels.

Now the big decision--what color to paint it--panzer grey or desert yellow? I'm leaning heavily towards the desert yellow but I need to research any unique markings that I may need.

M8 Greyhound - Interior Pre-Paint

Well, the holidays have wound-down and it's time to get back to work in earnest on the M8. The schedule calls for the group build to be completed by the end of March so that the collection can be exhibited at the AMPS Nationals in Auburn, Indiana in April. While I didn't do much actual modeling over the holidays, I did do a lot of thinking and planning re this build.

The M8 presents me with quite a few "nots": it is not North African, it is not pre-war (WWII), it is not British, and it is not German. When I couple all those with the shrinking time frame, my conclusion is that I cannot delve as deeply into the detailing as I had planned at the outset.

The above photo shows the interior more or less ready for painting. The resin pieces (communication boxes, carbines, flashlights) and clutch, brake, and gas PE  pedals are from the Verlinden detail set. The interior will be viewed only through the open-top turret and through the open front hatches so the parts were placed in their approximate positions just to "busy up" the interior. I tried to build the shell rack out of PE for the right sponson but could never get it to fit right, so I closed the compartment off with the sliding door section from the kit. The kit radio was nicely reproduced so I used it in the left sponson in lieu of the resin piece. The fire extinguisher is just sitting behind the seats and will be removed prior to painting.

Next up is adding a few pieces to the upper hull interior and painting the interior. Then I can close-up the hull and move on to building the exterior and the turret.