A Bear of a Kit, Building the German Grizzly Bear

Greetings all,

In recent years I have perfected many techniques for adding realism to all  of my 1/35th scale armor as well as 1/48th scale aircraft, all of which I have in Hobbies in a Barn on Facebook as well as this site to show those techniques.

I have chosen the Tamiya release of the German Grizzly Bear which represents a late World War Two issue of a true assault gun mounted on a tank chassis as was the practice of the German Army and this was no exception. With only a few conversions these Grizzly Bear guns did not change any thing in a major way but most certainly wreaked havoc for the Allied forces in Italy where most of the Bears were assigned.  So follow along with the photos I have provided and enjoy a build that anyone can accomplish.

When starting any kit the same applies, check your kit for broken or missing parts as this is the most frustrating thing that can happen.

Next, clean off the big parts using a plain green kitchen scouring pad about 3″x5″ with cool water, this leaves tiny scratches in the surface of the parts and the paint will stick much better.  Rinse all the parts thoroughly and dry using a hand hair dryer set on LOW heat. This method will also dry the acrylic paints onto the parts very well.

I stress using all acrylic paints as they are much less hazardous to one’s health and they clean up and mix with water. In the case of airbrushing I mix the paint at about 50/50 with blue tinted windshield wiper fluid and as you can see in the photos the finish is really smooth. Practice is the key to airbrushing at any point in experience.

So, lets take a photo tour of the building of the Grizzly Bear, it’s really not an “bear” of a kit after all!