MODELIK Nr 3/03
SdKfz 234/2 PUMA
Built by Jim Nunn

Second article in a series Photos by the Author

This month we finish the basic hull and start assembling the suspension system.

The first photo shows the skins that will be used to cover the hull.   I would suggest that you cut the skins on the outside of the cutting lines this will allow you to adjust for any fit errors in the hull.  

Use the skins to check the hull to see if you will need to make any adjustments that's a nice way of saying fix any errors.   If errors are not corrected now you may not be able to get other parts to fit correctly.   Here you can see where I have sanded the hull to insure that the hull will be flat with no bumps.   I also used an Xacto to trim off any excess card stock.   If necessary you could also use modelers putty to correct any errors.  



The skins are applied from the bottom of the hull up.   The paint smears on the hatch location were my attempts to get a paint match to the base color of the model.   I mix up a good-sized quantity of the base color to be used through out the building of the model to color the edges of the paper where white would show.  



The bottom of the hull is done and we can now start on the upper half of the hull.    If you find that the skin is to small keep in mind that paper shrinks and grows with changes in temperature and humidity.   You can stretch the paper by gluing one end and pulling the paper every carefully to fit the hull.  



The main hull is finished and some of the suspension points have been added to the hull.

Every model designer has his/her way of making tubes or rods.   With a few exceptions GPM and Halinski use the roll a hollow cylinder and add end covers made from thick card stock method.   Modelik has chosen to use what I call the rolled tube style.    This method asks you to take a strip of normal 20 lb paper and roll it into a tightly wound cylinder that is almost solid paper.   I personally have found this to be difficult to do and have had mixed results.  
Because of the poor quality parts I was making I decided to make a tool that would make the task easier and hopefully I would end up with better parts.   After giving it some thought the two main problems with winding the tubes were 1) you need to get a firm purchase on the paper and 2) you need to have an exact sized rod for winding the paper.   The exact size rod was the easy part you will find that 16ga solid copper wire is 1mm in diameter and 14ga wire is 2mm in diameter, you could make the rods out of wood dowels but I was looking for added strength.   To get a firm purchase on the paper I took a 2mm rod and cut 5mm long silt length wise in the rod using a Xacto micro saw.    The rod was then glued in to a � in (12.7mm) wood dowel.   The large wood dowel allows for a better grip when rolling the paper.  

Here we see a couple of parts with the winding instructions, the instructions roughly translates to "winds to precise 2mm diameter".   I have found that the longer strips need to be shortened.   To determine how much to shorten the strip I use the round end pieces as a size gage.  



I have cut a notch in the end of the paper strip to make a key that will fit in the slot on the tool for winding.   



Glue has been applied to the strip while being wound.   



The finished result is a nice tightly wound part.



Here we see the making of the arms for the suspension system.   Because the drawings do not show how the model will support it self on the suspension system I will build all of the parts and then test assemble the suspension system before I glue everything in place.



All of the cylinders in this photo were made with the winding tool, and most the cylinders have 2mm copper wire cores for strength.   The arrow is pointing to wound parts that are 3mm outside diameter 2mm inside diameter and 2 mm high.   I doubt if could have made these parts with out the winding tool.



In the next article we will assemble the suspension system and start on the road wheels.

Summary:

Model:	Nr 3/03 SdKfz 234/2 PUMA
Kit:	MODELIK
Designer:	Waldemar Rychard
Scale:	1/25
Difficulty:	Rated 4 on a scale of 5
Number of Parts:	980
Instructions:	Polish
Diagrams:	4 pages generally good
Fit:	Excellent
Coloring and Artwork:	Coloring average Artwork Excellent
Printing:	Excellent
Resources:	Elite Forces - Armoured Cars WW II Vehicles - SdKfz 234 (8 rad) SdKfz 234 Web site