chap mei wespe spotted at Rite Aid

[tmanthegreat]

I know last night (or rather early this morning) I seemed somewhat bummed out about the Wespe, but as I sit here on my computer at work, I can't stop looking at my own pictures and thinking of all the custom potential that this thing has... So I may very well keep it for the time being

It does seem to be not quite a Wespe and not quite a Marder III, so I may very well go ahead and take some liberties with the custom work and essentially make up my own custom SP gun variant - and give it some cool-sounding German name. I want to add a 21c Pak 40 (minus the shield) instead of the stock weapon and do some basic detailing inside the fighting compartment. Some serious work to the lower hull and wheels will need to be performed, though I am OK with the upper hull detailing.

I think that if I do not constrain myself with the vehicle being exactly a Marder or exactly a Wespe, I can make something interesting out of it that is realistic enough to be plausible... In the end, it will likely be good model-building practice

[aferguson]

if you add the pak 40 just think of it as a marder iii. It will look the part, be the right size, it's just not a 100% correct marder iii, that's all. Cover up the most inaccurate bits with mud, foilage etc.

I'll be getting some to make into wespes and at least one other to make into a marder. I think this is an awesome product from chap mei. I hope it sells well and will encourage similarily correct vehicles in future from them.

[Panzer]

A Wespe would be also pretty easy to make out of the basic shape. If you could dremel the boogies smooth it would be a lot more like the Wespe suspension. Either way it is a pretty neat little tank. I can't wait to see all of your conversions.

[aferguson]

i can't wait to see what jnewboy and all the other ebay expert converters come up with.

[VMF115]

i can't wait to see what jnewboy and all the other ebay expert converters come up with.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

[normandy]

This "tank" has some potential. The upper hull may need some work but the lower half I hate when the tracks don't move Well when I find one I"ll pick it up.
I think it's very nice of Chap Mei to pack all that other crap in the playset.......... gives me something to blow up on the 4th of July.

[flyboy_fx]

i can't wait to see what jnewboy and all the other ebay expert converters come up with.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

LMFAO

[aferguson]

i just picked up 3 of these little tanks on ebay. All for a pretty decent price i guess (about $20 each, shipped). One is going to be a Wespe, another a marder IIIM and not sure about the third. I think it will be a wespe too, probably a winter wespe. With the dearh of german armour and in fact any armour in 1/18 i'm looking forward to doing some customizin'.

[pickelhaube]

Boss Dude,

What is your critique of it ?

Is it worth getting to do mods ?

[aferguson]

i dont have them yet. I've seen a lot of good pictures of it and my critique is that some will like it and some will hate it. My accuracy threshold is pretty low and i just want things that are sorta to scale and look the part.; which in my view these do. They're fairly close to scale except on width, where theyre about and inch too narrow. They can be made into reasonable representatives of marderr iii's and wespes but will be far from accurate, just having the overall look. Which is fine with me.

Those who want more accuracy in detail will probably not like them and i doubt that they can be modded to be made highly accurate; it would be simpler just to scratchbuild.

But for me, i like what i see and am looking forward to getthing them to work on.

[pickelhaube]

i dont have them yet. I've seen a lot of good pictures of it and my critique is that some will like it and some will hate it. My accuracy threshold is pretty low and i just want things that are sorta to scale and look the part.; which in my view these do. They're fairly close to scale except on width, where theyre about and inch too narrow. They can be made into reasonable representatives of marderr iii's and wespes but will be far from accurate, just having the overall look. Which is fine with me.

Those who want more accuracy in detail will probably not like them and i doubt that they can be modded to be made highly accurate; it would be simpler just to scratchbuild.

But for me, i like what i see and am looking forward to getthing them to work on.

How much did you have to pay for them ?

[aferguson]

and i quote:

"All for a pretty decent price i guess (about $20 each, shipped). One is going ..."

[Jnewboy]

Any help on finding those on ebay???

[aferguson]

i looked under 'soldier force vi' and found two sellers that had them.

you could also try 'battlefield playset' and 'storm heroes playset'.

[Jay]

.....well I wasn't expecting it but I found one of these "ACME wespe's" in a department store, here in New Zealand. Will put this in the "to do" pile but yeah, those fixed tracks have got to go.

[aferguson]

the first of my Wespes came today. It's about 1/20 in length and height and about 1/22 in width. About what i expected. Still looks decent beside XD armour, thanks to the fact that the real vehicle wasn't very large. Interestingly the gun barrel and recoil mechanism are nearly 1/18.

The dark yellow plastic is a very good match for german dark yellow and the brown a very good match for panzer brunviolet, so they did a bit of research.

It will fit an xd pak 40, although the barrel will over hang too far at the front....this could be disquised by setting the barrel to full recoil positon or, just live with it.

Overall it's about what i expected and i'm happy to have it. We're not going to see either Wespe or Marder IIIm ever in 1/18 and it's nice to have a reasonable looking representative of both. Boy, the rivet counters will hate this thing though.

As with a lot of chap mei items it is frustratingly close to being really good and is instead just pleasingly acceptable.

[tmanthegreat]

The resurgence of this thread has made me decide to go back and give my Wespe project a second go. It sort of stalled October/November 2009 and has been sitting in a box in my attic ever since. Basically, I was trying to graft the Chap Mei Wespe upper shell to the tracks of an XD halftrack I butchered and then fit an XD Pak-40 (minus the shield) to the Wespe shell. The intent was to creat some sort of German SP gun that was not quite a Wespe or a Marder, but something believable nevertheless - and which had working tracks and a better gun than the Chap Mei vehicle

With lots of putty, sanding, and a bit of luck, it just might come out all right. After a few Pickelhaube projects during the intervening months, I've certainly improved my modeling/customizing skills from when I first started my project...