Painting a plastic “Hanomag” – part 1: Assembly

By  Jonas Faering of The Army Painter

Get more time for Gaming! The Army Painter’s company slogan sums up what their range of hobby products is designed for – helping gamers get their armies painted and on the battlefield gaming, without spending an unrealistic amount of time.

In this three-part tutorial I’ve assembled and painted a Bolt Action Hanomag German half-track using only The Army Painter tools, glues and paint – and, of course, the brand new Bolt Action WWII Colour Primer sprays.

In this first part I’ll run through the assembly stages.

Step 1: Right tools for the job

With my Hanomag plastic boxed set and a Plastic Assembly Set I had everything I needed to assemble the 1:56 scale kit; Plastic Glue, Plastic Clipper and a Hobby Knife. There are 2 Assembly Sets in The Army Painter range – one for metal/resin models and one for hard plastic models.

Step 2: clipping parts from the frame

Using the Plastic Clippers I simply removed all the components from the sprue. Don’t try to snap the bits off the sprue (I know it’s a bit faster and therefore tempting!) as you’ll invariably snap the odd piece and have to buy in repairs before you’ve even begun.

At this stage I like to do a quick dry-fit, piecing the bits together without glue in order to get a feel for the kit as whole and ensure I’ve understood the instructions. I cannot count the times I’ve just thrown myself into the assembly, only to find out at the last step that I should have glued in component so-and-so from the very start. Somehow, this reminds me of Ikea furniture…

Step 3: plastic glue

The Army Painter Plastic Glue is ideal for gluing together plastic kits like this; it’s thick and bonds the components much faster than thinner plastic glues. This means you can move on to the next component without having to wait forever for each section to set.

Follow the instructions from the box and you can’t go wrong.

Step 4: gunner on the loose

I didn’t glue the gunner in place as I want to spray him with Bolt Action Colour Primer: German Field Grey and paint him separately.

Step 5: Ready for Colour Primer spray

The Hanomag was built and ready for a spray coat of with Bolt Action Colour Primer: German Dunkelgelb. More of that next week…