'' Stubborn Emil resting '' - Trumpeter 1:35 Sturer Emil

Greeting my beloved readers ...

I feel good today. As you all know, I have a dissertation to write and I need to write at least 18000 words. Today, I have got up to 19087 words so, I'm actually feeling good. I just need to write a final conclusion, fix some words and sentences and some more touch ups and I should be ready to submit by the 11th of September. Therefore, I have decided to celebrate by finishing the photo shoot, editing the photos and launch another finished kit.  

I have been working for this kit for quite some time now, it just got pushed back and back and finally managed to finished it. 

This is the one and only kit of the Sturer Emil avaiable in 1/35 and quite a lot of extensive reviews have been done when it comes out so I will not be wasting any time saying how is the kit. 

I painted the entire thing in VMA German Grey. Since it was a mono-tone vehicle, I had a great time playing with the highlights and shadows. I used Black and Nato Black (from VMA) and Deck Tan, buff and Wodden Deck Tan (Tamiya) to get the darkened and lighted colours of the German Grey.

The kit is build out of the box with the exception of the metal barrel, which was sourced from RB Model. It was a right decision to upgrade with the metal barrel as the kit's barrel is shorter than it actually supposed to be. 

I bought a set of SPG rider crew from Mini-art and fixed the poses accordingly to fit on my Sturer Emil. Unwilling to pose the figures in any kind of action pose, I decided to make them relaxed and fooling around on their vehicle between the fighting. The figures are painted with an assortment of colour; VMC, Tamiya, Panzer Aces and Citidal. 

For the weathering, I wanted to show it used well enough but not entirely beat up so much from the Offensive during Operation Babarossa. I decided to go heavy on the dried mud and accumulated soils as well as a moderate bit of dusts collected on the upper surfaces due to the dusty summer of Russia. 

It's time for the photos - 
(Just click on the smaller ones and they will pop out ) 

The running gears -

The dust and numerous chippings from severe usage -

The exhaust and the rusts on the spare tracks -

The on-board tools -

The Crew -

And as usual, my show case photos from various angles -

And as usual from me  ( taking a Gary Wintin Shot with the gun locked like this is kinda silly but meh :P ) 

Well, that's all I can say about this. In retrospect, I regretted not going for the After-market Indi-tracks (doesn't matter which one) but since they would cost me a further substantial amount ( Posted ), I just opted out of it. I do regret that decision as the indi-tracks would have look much better than the vinyl I used out of the box.


I also totally forgot to put on the cover tarp at the back of the superstructure. I totally forgot about it until I read AFV Modeller issue 69 again today which have a very nice build article of this same vehicle. 

Another thing I have forgotten to put on was the little box/bracket for the jerry cans as described by the same articles and some references photos. Oh well....... 

Another think I have noticed and greatly unhappy about is that I have totally messed up the shoulders on the figure. I did a poor job with them and now, their uniforms are not flush and looks totally horrible.

The fifth point that I am not happy about is the spare tracks. I have my doubts about the state of rusts I put them in. Maybe I should have just keep them dark metallic colour instead of all rust. I think it looks silly. I don't know.

Apart from these five points, I am really happy with this baby. The vehicles look just lovely and this is a milestone in my skills in applying streakins and chippings.  This is one baby I will be proud to have on my shelf or another one shelf should anybody would buy it as I have plans to sell it ).

Speaking of selling, I am selling some of my built models so if any of you are interested, shoot me an offer on ebay -
http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/romance6688
Internationals are welcomed as well but most likely have to be communicated via email and paypal as I did not turn on international shipping on ebay. So shoot me an offer on ebay or from email if anybody's interested.

Thank you guys for always supporting me. Thank you dear readers for your patronage as well.

Until the next post.