Luchs & Fuchs WIP

 No - not a rude phrase in German (at least not this time), this is a basic descriptor of how I have been keeping myself busy on some of the colder days we've had recently.  Consigned to one half of the house - the bit with the fire - I decided it was time to start my next project - some more German recon units.

Just as an opener, I've got to say the 1/72 Revell Luchs Spahpanzer 2 is a beauty of a kit.  At the same time, it's pretty easy to do your head in with the whole suspension.  Looky here:

While it was enough to drive me crazy - there is a real beauty to it at the same time.  Admittedly, I did leave a few bits off the suspension - but for me, this is meant to be a wargaming model, not something to make and look pretty on a shelf - so there is a limit.

I decided I needed something to differentiate the 4 different Luchs (I've already completed one years ago).  I designated 1 to be the Platoon Leader, and 1 to be a section leader.  The only negative I have with this model is that there are NO open hatches.  So I had to open a few:

... and add hatches, and some insides for the crew to stand on.  Honestly, I'm more than mildly chuffed with how these turned out.

After building 3 Luchs, I decided to build a 1/72 Revell Tpz Fuchs.  I had two previously built, so thought this would be a doddle.  And it only had 3 sets of wheels instead of four.  What could be easier.

Well, I can only say I must have been more than half out of it when I started the kit, and somehow managed to continue in that vein for the remainder of the build.  For whatever reason I had serious issues building this kit.  I even had to use a wad of green stuff when I realised that parts I had ready to add after the top of the hull had been added to the chassis, actually needed to be added before you had glued the top to the bottom.  Never quite done something that stupid before, but it fit the general theme so there you go.

Again I decided it needed to look different to the other 2 Fuchs I have, so after looking through the Tankograd book, I decided to add a Milan, from a Revell Marder kit.  It appears quite elevated in the pictures so I need to add some plastic tubing, which I jazzed up a little.  Here's how it turned out:

If you look closely you can see the green stuff near the front of the model.  Needless to say most of the front is going to get a cam net thrown over it!  I'm not going to say I'm chuffed with how this one turned out, but hopefully once cammed to within an inch of it's life, and painted, I should look quite good.  I hope.

So that's largely it for my model building.  Now it's starting to warm up a little, I hope to get onto the painting sooner rather than later.

There has also been some progress in the garage/games room.  More on that soon.

Richard