Bauhaus GBT-49 Grizzly Tank

So, with my Bauhaus troops nearing their completion fast, it was no time for their heavy tank… the Grizzly. Background wise it is one huge behemoth. It is armed with a 230mm mortar and 180mm anti-tank gun in the turret, no less than eight gattling type LMGs in the front and sides and two 45mm cannons in small turrets to the rear. And this is essentially the small version, with Bauhaus fielding even larger versions of the Grizzly, so big that they even have a mess complete with cook and steward inside.

At first the model gave me some headache, since the upper and lower body halves had somewhat distorted when cooling after casting and would not fit. So I dumped them both in boiling water and fitted them to a jig together before putting them in cold water. Which did the trick and cooled the whole thing in place. There was only one minor section to the rear where the halves would not properly align. At first I thought about sculpting that section up with green stuff, but then I decided to build and ammo rack from plasticard and some WWII T-34 ammo boxes that I had lying around. A little filling was required at the front glacis plate, but that was about it. The main and two rear firing turrets were magnetized and I fitted a base between the hull and main turret to have it ride higher (I was afraid the lower edge of the turret would scratch the hull roof otherwise). And that was it and the painting could begin.

As a base I did a very broad WWI style camo of green, red-brown and dark yellow edges in black on the tank. Up next were the tank and unit markings were added to the front glacis plate and taped off. This was followed a coat of high gloss varnish, followed by hairspray and an overspray of off-white. To complete the hairspray technique the whitewash was partially removed allowing the original camo to show through. Then there was detailing (almost a day worth of it) and it all was done. I will also add some pigments to add to the rust on the exhaust pipes and add dirt to the tracks, but I am still waiting for pigment fixer (one would not imagine how hard that stuff is to order online here in Germany!). And this is it… a nice big tank fitting the winter theme of my forces.

Grizzly

Grizzly

Grizzly

Grizzly (top)

Grizzly (front / markings)

Grizzly (rear 45mm turrets)

Grizzly (kill rings)

Grizzly (ammo rack)