Dragon 15cm s.IG.33(Sf) auf Pz.Kpfw.I Ausf.B

[Jamie Tainton]

or Bison I -yeah I know not the official name but the above is ridiculously complicated to describe this vehicle, so there.:p
I picked this up yesterday, when I saw it sitting there on the shelf, to my pleasant surprise! I was not aware it was even available in stores yet.
I have been looking forward to this kit since Dragon announced it and will be focusing on getting this built now before worrying about any other projects.

The image of a Bison I in a book years ago pricked my curiosity about German armour and has been a holy grail since then. There have been other kits (the disastrous Alan kit for example) and attempts to scratch something on my own but I never have been able to get a model of this vehicle completed and sitting on the shelf.
Here is a link to the instruction sheet images.



Here's some sprue shots. There are some sprues from earlier Panzer I kits and some new only for this kit.
https://panzerfaust.netfirms.com/plan ... index.html

One great book I will be happily flipping through for this build is Nuts & Bolts #19-
you can order directly from
hfd.duske@t-online.de.



While I did start with the wheels as prescribed in the instructions I did wander ahead to take a look at the sIG33 gun- a new tooling - I wonder how it compares to the Alan one?
Here is a typical road wheel before cleaning up. These are two frets from the earlier Panzer I/A that had the brass ring to give the proper look to them.
There are extras after using the required number, good for the spares box!




The process of cleaning up the parts is time consuming but well worth the effort.


the breach block parts-


the metal barrel has rifling inscribed on the inside of the first bit of the opening.









I did some work with the hull and wheels this aft, as well as the gun.
Here are a couple of pics showing what I meant when I took the annealed brass wheel rings and sandwiched them between to sanding blocks. (BTW I'll have to do a youtube of how I make them!;))
This ensures they are flat when I go to glue them to the plastic wheels and also it give them a tooth which helps with the adhesion.




Here a shot showing the hull tub (single piece) with the front road wheel axle in place.


Also the parts that attach to the bottom at the rear are glued in place- there was some putty needed there to fill some gaps.




The front armour plate is glued in place too- nice weld beads. There is still some clean up required here.






Idler axle parts only dry fit


I'll have to check my refs for any weld beads that I may need to add in this region.




Dragon has corrected idlers included in this kit- way nicer than the original ones way back! Still the aftermarket ones from [url="http://www.lionmarc.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_8&products_id=133"]LionMarc[/url] maybe an improvement if utmost finesse is desired. I 'll still with these ones for this build- which will be mostly OOTB.


This kit has parts for the interior- some for a Panzer IB which maybe new to this kit although I'll bet they first showed up on the earlier Panzerjager I, I'll have to check. Also parts from the Panzer I/A are included.




Parts for the gun cradle. There will be no need to fill a hard to sand middle seam on the lower plate as the engineering eliminates this pain in the ass.


A shot showing some typical suspension parts


the block has been glued to the slide and some of the other parts cleaned up. Some putty needed to fill a join.



The pressed wheels for the sIG 33...niiiccce!


The only thing you gotta watch out for is when cleaning up the mold mark along the steel band- don't want to sand the face too much-then the step will disappear.


Just a dry fit


some clean up still to come once the glue hardens overnight


The aluminum barrel given a light sand to give it a tooth for paint and then glued in place with 5 minute epoxy glue.





[QUOTE=MikkoH;73765]Those idlers looks good to me and overall nice. Only thing that points in to my eyes are those transmission covers(?) that are still too rounded in corners and missing welding detail.[/QUOTE]

Hi Mikko- do you have a picture of what you mean?:)

[QUOTE=Charlie-66;73769]James, its great to see you throwing yourself into this one. This kit is long overdue. I do have a question though. I just got mine in the mail today and was looking at your build thus far. Take a look at steps 2 and 3 in the instructions. They show a part A-10, which looks like some sort of axle that goes through one of two holes in the rear of the lower hull and through parts A12(A9). I don't see this on your kit, or mine, nor do I see the second hole in the hull where the directions show this part going. Any ideas on what's up with this?[/QUOTE]
I hope you can get into it soon! It should be fun, mine is pretty good so far. As for part A10 I do have that part it is provided. I think the length of it may be too long though and some may need to be cut off for it to fit and also the idle axle parts may need to be trimmed as well. All within a modeller's abilities:)
Not much to report today- work day and all:D Did manage to put the gun tray together and fill the seams. I'll take a photo and post it later.

Thank you guys for showing interest- it's always nice to get replies!

[Jamie Tainton]

[Jamie Tainton]

[QUOTE=Kreighshoer;73970]fltr: DML, Zvezda, Alan! clearly stated in your linked blog! SCNR!!![/QUOTE]

Actually my dear Goth girl I think those references in that article are towards a Zvezda Panzer I/B - the other one besides the Alan kit and the Dragon one is a Maquette kit- it had resin armour! :yell:




So pics from the weekend-
first you can see a dry fit for the upper front glacis- I think I should have aligned this part with the front humped armour to get it to line up better- oh well I'll just sand the underside and angles till it drops in where it supposed to be.


[SIZE="3"][COLOR="purple"]later:[/COLOR][/SIZE]




the upper armour is injection molded and is not warped.
The Dragon people even include two versions- one that goes straight across the top and one other that could be the way it was configured according to research in Nuts & Bolts, a slight downward slope at the top. These are superior to any thing available prior to now.


Here's the front


I'm going to go with the straight one.




Here's the insides- I may have the front part wrong in this dry fit


A dry fit








there are some knock out marks to fill


Here you can see I used the two Aber PE tow points at the rear of the hull wall from one of the other builds.


I'll need to add some bolts/rivets on the inside for the fender mounting. Looking at the side I used a felt pen to transfer their position.


I fabricated some side walls to slip in place but may not utilize them- still deciding.


The gun wheels gettin' done




Added some of the kit PE








Parts for where the gun wheels are secured on the fender.


[QUOTE=panamadan;73988]James, on your side walls-is that .010? Maybe .005 would work better as it's thinner?
Dan[/QUOTE]

I have a pic I wanted to scan which shows a pretty good lip with the interior- and I think the thickness I have here would simulate that pretty well.
I'll get to that later.
Here's some pics of my gun.
























I got the gun together and dry fit it into place- and it all fits it seems to me pretty good.




One important update I need to let all you good people in on is there is a mistake in the instructions. Remember the issue with the rear axle- and how to place it? Well that problem just got a little more troublesome. The part A10 which is called out in the instructions is not the correct one. As you can see it is actually part M11 you need to use for the rear axle... I was coming to the end of the build and was wondering were this part, M11 was going to fit in as I see this type of reinforcement in reference pics, and low and behold what do I find- the mistaken instruction to use A10!
So now I have to figure out what I'm going to do to fix this.


Oh another thing- make sure when you glue the wheels to the brake drums that there is an area between two spokes at the bottom so when you go to put the sIG 33 into it's harness you will be able to thread to securing bolts into place- I got mine wrong and will have to wait till I build another of these or Dragon comes out with a separate gun kit- maybe the next one I will build in a scene were the gun is being lifted onto the Panzer I chassis with the block and tackle arrangement seen in contemporary photos.




This is a good thing but it would have been nice if DML included the wheels that were common for these Bison I's. These wood spoked ones were used as well but definitely not as much. Looks like they have improved on the breech as well- including the two metal hoops at the back- the Bison kit doesn't have them.

So a few posts of where it's at these days although these pics are from the weekend- can't do much till I get some Humbrol white... and I need it to mix colours for painting the interior.
But I did manage to get the gun together for the most part.




















something else I noticed today- the PE metal parts that are to go on the sides of the fenders have the wrong numbers on the instruction sheet.

[QUOTE=chadperkins;74284]so you're just going to leave us hanging on the painted steel then?[/QUOTE]

Sorry Chad- couldn't read this till now- I will answer with Humbrol Metal Cote 27003, (thinned with lacquer thinner) airbrushed on and after a 1.2 buffed up and then rubbed with a penciil. It really is only a base as the real one would have dirt and grime and have a more used look.

The weld beads were Tamiya plastic sprues stretched, cut to length, glued in place and after that has set over night cut with a knife after wetting the beads with Testors liquid cement. This was repeated several times over a few days- you need to let things set up.

Some pics showing an interior painted out with Humbrol 122- I did add some rivet details- not as many as a Panzer 1 would have as the mounts for the sIG 33 wheels need to go where more could go.




The surrounding armour-with the rear doors added- which are perfect with no warpage at all.

[Jamie Tainton]

[Jamie Tainton]

because of the limitations with the PE parts and the fact the rubber ammo containers need to be installed, my only option really was to CA the metal together. I'm not bothered with this as this is only an OOTB build- the next one will be more in depth once some of the aftermarket options become available, (Voyager, Aber?)

Another angle with the main subassemblies. There is a bit of a boo boo on the side door of the armour structure- but that will disappear with successive painting.


Added the last few parts onto the gun such as the sight items.


Here you can see I have taken a lighter Panzer Gray from Humbrol (#67) to the upper surfaces of the chassis. I tried to stay to the center of the panels.


The sides are left dark gray


Same for the gun- hitting the top planes for the most part








Did some on the armour as well- and fixed the unsightly blemish.:thumb:


you can see that in this photo I left the interior dark gray


I think decal-ling is next after a spot of Future to seal everything in, (after a though drying and curing)


On second look it might be something that may need a bit of attention as some on the more central ones may show in the armour opening.

Another thing that I'm surprised no one has jumped on me for is the knock out mark on the sight assembly. I noticed it when I took it off the sprue but just haven't bothered to do anything about it as this is a low stress OOTB build. (Thanks to Astral Scooter for the pic)

[Jamie Tainton]

[Jamie Tainton]

Here are some more pics- I have taken some of the pigment off the tires and added a grimey black filter of sorts to help distinguish the tires from the layed on dust/dirt on the rest of the vehicle. More work yet to be done mind you. I don't know how much further I want to goo with this weathering- I don't want to get stuck just inching my way along... I have other projects I want to start/finish!! Like a Panzerjager I??? I've taken this series against a blue/white BG as the brown from before was not popping the weathering to a degree I liked. Here that stuff will be more obvious.













In this pic you can see some damage caused by the liquid plastic cement to the paint surface. I will try to get rid of this, so take warning- if you assemble the way I have only use glues that will not weld the plastic of the casement to the fender, use CA or 5 minute Epoxy. Also I thought- if I were to do this again maybe paint all interior stuff and hold off painting the fenders until the casement is glued in? Only paint the outside after that is accomplished. BTW you really can't see the "ripples" in real 1:1 eyeball world- just these damned Macro shots!- But they are helpful in becoming a better modeller, no?;)


More work to be done here yet as well...


Gotta figure out a way to secure the spare track and wheel...


I added some lighter pigments , (yes- I see the finger prints but there is still more to be done...) since those last pics and have been trying to find some appropriate figures to liven this thing up...
still more work to be done, I hope to incorporate this into a base/scene of some kind.

[Tony Lee Watts]

Nice

Tony

[Jamie Tainton]

Thanks Tony

[Dan Reed]

Nice looking BIG PZ I here! I like to see the figures here as it gives one a idea on how hard it must have been to service the gun.
Dan