Decorating a sWS schwerer Wehrmatch Schepper

From time to time, there is a question that modelers ask to each other: "What is more important, the construction or the painting?".
Of course, if a kit has not correctly been built, no matter how we try to do a perfect painting job, It will not get better, but, if we do a nice and careful building, we'll get a worthwhile result.
Since this kit was built straight from the box, you'll soon understand the purpose of this note. In short, we'll also corroborate the words of the Editor of Modeler Site in January's 2003 editorial. "please remember that probably, whatever you need to have fun -being happy with plastic modeling- may be inside de box…"
Let's see...

The kit
The sWS is the last example of the German's halftracks development, during WWII. It turned up during the last year of conflict. It seems that photographers didn't take notice of it since it's very difficult to find good photos from that epoch where the vehicle appears.

This is one of the reasons why It was ideal to build this kit straight from the box, without being worried about the bibliography we've to look for to get a superdetailed model.
OK though there are PE, resin wheels, engines, tracks of separated links and a lot of aftermarket suitable for this kit, my idea was to build it straight from the box and to devote all my effort to the painting job.
Among all possible versions, I chose the cargo one, to have the chance to paint it, simulating the wooden planks of the cargo box.
Following the instructions, this kit is very easy to be built. We only have to take into account to plan the painting job into three stages: cabin, chassis and cargo box, and not to forget that these subassemblies must remain without being glued until the end; just as if they were three separate kits.

The full article can be found here: