Dutch Dave Model Bench

Welcome back everybody,

The heavy scratch fabrication phase for the vehicle is officially in the books. The scratch-built recovery crane is finished, base painted, and finally mounted in its home position on the Panzer I engine deck. The pivot point will be connected by a small styrene bar bolted off. The only element left is adding the chain hoist. That will be a small scratch project and blog on its own.

I decided to paint the crane structure in a clean dark sand yellow (Dunkelgelb) base coat to match the vehicle's underlying tone. Aligning the structural styrene beams onto the hull of the Panzer I Ausf. F required a lot of careful measuring and test-fitting, but seeing the crane finally fixed in place completely changes the silhouette of the vehicle. It finally looks like a dedicated, functional BergepanzerI.

Next up will be weathering the crane and finalising the tracks and fenders, putting on the camo on the hull only. This to make the crane stand out more as later field modification.

Thanks again for following along towards the final steps of this project.

Happy modelling!