1:16 Blue Star Models/ An-Bri Hetzer Build

[Soeren]

Very nice. This is looking fantastic. Tank-Modells has a great selection of add on parts. These complement the Schumo parts nicely. I wonder who is the maker. The mg is said to be an MG3? It is based on the MG42. But there were changes made. But can't remember which.

[silversurfer1947]

At the end of Word War II the original technical drawings and data for the MG 42 were captured by the Soviets. These would eventually find their way to Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. Rheinmetall had to reverse engineer the first postwar machine guns from an original MG 42 gun. The first MG3 actually came into operation in 1968, having gone through 2 previous version, MG1 and MG2, with numerous sub variants. There is in interesting entry in Wikipedia, which is where this information came from.

[c.rainford73]

Yes indeed, Will sort through the parts this week and start to get on with the assembly.

[c.rainford73]

The Blue star kit is on hold for now.

Decided to finish up the An bri kit before any more time was spent anywhere else. I've many builds at this point so it was time to drill down and get this one going toward the end.

This particular piece will not have barrel recoil or elevation so I decided to add a Taigen late edition electronics setup with the seperate sound card. I purchased from Dave ( mr Forgebear ) He is tops in my book!

The original idler wheels setup simply did not work for me as they needed to shift backward and down a bit. Now they work fantastic.

All the Taigen bits fit snugly in the small metal lower hull but I'm very happy.

[HERMAN BIX]

Magnificent
Please do a sound set on the new Taigen electronics when you can.
I have heard the PzIV set and its brilliant.

[c.rainford73]

Will do Mr Bix, I've wanted to try them out and will post a video up when it's ready

[PainlessWolf]

Carl!
It's looking good! Will you hollow out the exhaust for appearances? Is there any rear lighting on this little monster?
regards.
Painless

[c.rainford73]

Spent some time at my work bench and started to paint and detail the An-Bri Hetzer. I've had some family matters to tend to so my time has been limited in the shop.

Sorry for the delayed response mr Painless, the Blue Star kit will have lighting and all the bells and whistles like recoil and elevation, but afraid this little beast will for the time being only have faux lighting and mostly painted details.

Deck tools are painted, machine gun and mount are painted. The upper hull superstructure slides off very nice and easy, yet simply stays in place with friction and the weight of the heavy resin cast hull.

The little beast is named "Otto"

Will get better photos tomorrow and also test the Taigen sound card electronics too

As always thank you very much for looking in

[HERMAN BIX]

Glorious
What green did you use ?

[Ad Lav]

Love it, great work Karl.

You’ve made very good progress