Pendraken A7V "SchnucK"

[Terry37]

I have begun working on my Weird WWI German army and could not wait to do the A7V tank for it. An A7V is specifically mentioned in the book the army is based on - "By the Blood of Heroes" by Joseph Nasssie. Even though this is a Weird WWI army I still wanted to do an accurate model of the tank, and I had stumbled upon some great color pictures of A7V 504, "SchnucK" in Albt 2 (I believe the pictures have been colorized, but the colors match very well to those believed used, and the pattern also seems to match the few black and white photos of "SchnucK" .

In cleaning and assembling the Pendraken model I felt the forward cannon was a bit too long, so shortened it about a MM or so, and also reduced the length of the machine guns that extended from the sides and rear. Much to my despair I realized there were two round access panels near the right front side HMG and the left rear side HMG, and that these would not allow me to apply the decals for doing this model. I also triple checked my three references on the A7V and could not find these panels, so after the model was fully painted I had to some how remove them without destroying the paint job. The solution was I drilled them out, and then very carefully filled the holes with liquid green stuff and then when that dried I carefully cut it down and then sanded just that area and repainted it.

Another lesson learned was when I had to thinly paint over the centrally placed crosses on each side, so they would still show through the paint. I first sprayed a coat of semi-gloss and when dry applied the crosses deciding to just go ahead and put a wash over them - but little did I realize that water based paints do NOT go well over shiny glossy decals! Seemed like it took forever, but I finally achieved the look I was after, and knew that next time I would use a coat of flat clear before trying to was over decals.

Then after several hours of dealing with uncooperative decals I got her finished. Here are a few pictures of "SchnucK" and one of the pictures I used as a painting guide. The base will be done when the army is finished for constancy.







it was a delightful model to do, in spite of my blunders.

Terry

[Leon]

Very nice!

[Matt J]

Really like that, crackin' job Terry

[Ithoriel]

Stonking looking model, great stuff!

[FierceKitty]

Bizarre vehicle, but super painting.

[d_Guy]

Lovely and lovingly done,Terry!  The extra detail work that you did (and I've seen others do here) is the difference between a modeler and a mere dabbler such as myself.   

[lowlylowlycook]

Ridiculous.  Awesome.  Ridiculously awesome!

[Techno]

Terrific job, you've done on that, Terry !!

Cheers - Phil

[Steve J]

That's a lovely paint job

[Luddite]

Wonderful model and a great little paintjob there. 

Keep us up to date on your WWWI project.   

[paulr]

 

I wonder how those Kiwis "acquired" her

[Ithoriel]

I wonder how those Kiwis "acquired" her

Wikipedia says:

Damaged by friendly fire at Fremicourt, 31 August 1918. Abandoned by crew, and captured by New Zealand Division 3 days later.

Displayed in London on Horse Guards Parade 1918/19. Given to the Imperial War Museum in 1919, but disposed of in 1922 with only the main gun kept

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Very cool

[Terry37]

Thank you all for the kind words. I have to give credit to Leon and the folks at Pendraken because their models are just so great to work with. And also thanks to Kevin Hammond for the custom decals to truly make the model SchnucK.

The colors are a bit darker in person, but I regret the base gray color I used did not have more brown in it. I had a better match, but that would have made it far too dark after applying the washes, so I opted for a little lighter and less brownish gray.

Not sure why the picture I worked from dropped off???

I will indeed be sharing the entire army with you as it gets completed. But for now, I will also be sharing a picture of the V-Strutter I did for the army too. I'll post pictures of it under the Non-Pendraken section.

Terry

[paulr]

Wikipedia says:

Damaged by friendly fire at Fremicourt, 31 August 1918. Abandoned by crew, and captured by New Zealand Division 3 days later.

Displayed in London on Horse Guards Parade 1918/19. Given to the Imperial War Museum in 1919, but disposed of in 1922 with only the main gun kept

Typically generous Kiwis The Ozzies kept theirs