Semper Fi War in the Pacific

deattilio,,  nice subject         will be an interesting build for sure

Carl,,  glad the pooch is ok.  Yes, they are amazing.             Your jeep frame was warped?   I noticed some issues with mine too, Opened it up and found the rear seat frame was broken and the windshied frame is a mess too.    Going to work on some repairs,,,  pretty sure I can fix them.   I just hope there is not many more surprises as such.

Great work on the engine too,  I luv it!   ,,       are you going to have the hood open or optional open?

Rob,,      DTDB                   ha,, good one

Carl- Love the details on the engine!!!    Bet you are going to have the hood open to show off your work? 

Bill and Andy

Yes , the hood will be open . i'm not going to close it after all of this scratch detail .

Have you guys gotten any snow back there yet? Clear and in the 30's out here , nice .

No snow here... BUT too cold.  It was 25 degree this morning.  It officially ends any of yard work til spring except for snow shoveling!!! 

No snow here either...     18 degrees this morning though                a bit chilly

No snow here, but cold like everyone else.

After looking through a book on island hopping (old book all B&W pictures except the drawings). I think I have found a simple tank to try to replicate. Its a Sherman (Im pretty sure its an M4A1) being off loaded from and LST at Cape Gloucester, New Britain. The only visible markings is a number 15 on the front front left, and the back left of the turret. It also looks like maybe a camo scheme rather than plain OD. I can try to scan the picture later but no garentee it will be big enough to see.

ww2psycho .... sounds good . Are you back east ?

Bill , Andy .I thought you guys where sposed to get some snow back there .

Do you guys get many deer in your yards ? I was out rappping my bushes in netting yesterday to keep the deer from munching on them this winter when the snow gets deep .........varmits !

Now that i have the engine detail done i'm going to add some details to the engine compartment . Youtube has been a really good place to get refference pictures for the jeep .

Where's Rob ..............i'm fretten .

I live in Wisconsin, about 45 minutes south of Green Bay, GO PACKERS!

Carl,,     frettin again?   tut tut,                                  Nope, no snow in the forecast..  for now anyway.     We do have deer all around this area, but, I typically don't worry about them doing damage to my yard. They tend to stay in their territories for the most part.

psycho,,,,,    the Pack are going to be real hard to beat this year,,    they have it all going on.    Gave the Raiders a spankin today...  big time

Ok Bill , tut tut......... Did you get anything figured out on repairing the broken parts of the jeep ?

Psycho , we have Packers fans out here also! One guy in town flies the Green Bay Packes flag ..................better than rooting for the Sea Hawks

Still deatailing under the hood ....................

Jeep restoration video on Youtube where i found details from .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=vYLQ5B8LmRw

DEATTILIO - Mardi Gras - NICE. Pretty cool your kit comes with the jeep. Are you going to build it also, are you planning a dio? Where is the Mardi Gras at in this photo?

BILL - That's no good to hear of the broken pieces but I know you will be able to fix them right up.

WW2PSYCHO - Is this the picture you were looking at?

Have seen a better pic of this somewhere if I see it again I'll post it.  Believe it had an olive base with a brown camo.  You said there was an option for the rotor shield in your kit.  Hard to tell for sure in the picture but the shield looks like a M34A1 gun mount.  Looks like this:

G is building a Sherman at Cape Gloucester too

CARL - No fretten.  Was suppose to start my time off but had to work some for part of the weekend.  All day Sunday was not able to get on the forum, kept coming up as an error

Now I know why you already started building, you wanted to get the first  

That is some sweet scratch work on the engine   You could have the hood taken all the way off if it's to be in the shop?  Look forward to see what else is under the hood

You all know what I'm building but here's the sprue.

Not many parts in the kit but there will be plenty added.  The parts look very well detailed, nice and crisp.  Do not like the two part track but they will be replaced with Friul's.

Have finally decided on a vehicle.  It will be the LVT-4 (A43) at yellow beach 1, Iwo Jima.  This vehicle wears a two tone camouflage and believe it is an olive base with a soft edge red brown.  Has two round shield gun positions above the cab and one .30 cal on the port quarter.  As with DEATTILIO, this vehicle has a full length armor plate on the sponson.  Will have to make some corrections to the kit.  Needs four old style cleats.  There should be no vision blocks in the vertical cab plates.  The .30 cal MG has to be removed from the cab and a new square visor hatch must be added to the vertical cab plate.

Kit supplied cleats / vision blocks.  Will not use these.

Will have to fill the location holes for the vision blocks and the MG mount.

Will also have to remove this molded mesh and add some brass mesh in it's place

These are the kit supplied shields.  Will not use these.  Will hope I get the new shields for Christmas from the TRAKZ detail set (Thanks DEATTILIO) if not will make them from brass sheet.

QUESTION:  It was a wire rope used for the rear cargo ramp correct?  Kit came with a piece of string and think I will replace this with some twizzeled wire.

While waiting for Christmas (hopefully the rest of my parts) I will go ahead and begin to work on some figures and get some boots on the ground.  These four figures came with the kit.

Rob , good to have you back here . You are to busy !  I hadnt thought about leaving the hood off .................i will give that idea some thought ............ok i thought about it and i will leave the hood mounted but have it all the way open and leaning back against the windshield . Looks like you have a lot of modifications planed ................should be real cool   I'm sure that the ramp would use wire rope . What else was available ? Only chain back in the 1940's i would say and that isnt what it looks like .Whats twizzled wire ? Christmas is coming , hope you get all of your stuff in time . i'm not getting anything model related for Christmas . I've dont give my wife any hints and she doesnt ask anyway ......................

I googled  Cape Glouchester and came up with this picture of the DML kit . No credit is given for a builder of the kit ..? Thought maybe it would help with the camo colors . Does this look correct ?

G - Do you know when they started modifying and making the M34 mount and how long or how many vehicles had it before the M34A1 was fully implemented?  Just curious.

CARL - Was thinking wire rope also.  I asked because on some other builds I saw they had used chain.  Wire rope makes more since to me.  I'll take some pic's of twizzled wire.  It's nothing more then wrapping wire together to get a wire rope effect.

There's no telling what will come for Christmas???  Never used to make a list but after receiving some candle holders and such in the past have now started to make a list

Thats exactly the picture I was looking at! Youre good...

PSYCHO, CARL - That model you posted of the M4A1 "15"  looks like it's it   They used black instead of brown for the camo, wonder which is right?  Could get away with either color if using only the black and white photo.  Most of the real pics of USMC vehicles I've seen have a brown camo though.  I also wonder if the "Remember Pearl Harbor" on the quarter panel is correct?  Cool find.

CARL - This is what I meant about twizzled wire.

I use a wire twisting plier.

It's made for wire locking bolts and such.  It is a cross between a wire cutter, vise grip, and corkscrew.  Can twist wire of any size and as many strands as you want as long as it fits in it's jaws.  Just put the wire in the jaws and lock them.  Then secure the other end of the wire in some pliers or in this case a vise.

Then you hold / stretch out the full length of the wire and pull on the knob on back of the pliers.  The back end is threaded and it spins both the plier and the wire, twisting the wire together.

I use this often to make things such as towing cables.

Rob , i guess if we could get a look at the instructions for that kit then that would help . The "Remember Pearl harbor " may not be authentic .I was thinking olive and brown also , need to check more . Lets make sure about the wire rope also . Now that you saw a kit using the chain i wouldnt want to jump to a conclusion . Thats a nice tool . I've seen the wire used for locking nuts in place but hadnt heard of the tool . I bet my son has used that B4 on some of the equipment he repairs .

Granddaughter here today so noyhing done on the jeep yet . I had to sneak down to the basement to post this ......................

Rob , this youtube clearly shows cables on the ramp .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYi6kKHBkaA&feature=related

PANZERWAFFE,

                I am not sure what I will do with the jeep.  If it can pass for a M151 I may stick it in one of my 1/72 AAVs as we use take with us on deployments up until about 1995.  The picture of Mardis Gras, according to the caption on the news photo, was at Iheya Jima the island 15 miles from Okinawa that was invaded on June 3 1945.

                If you are having a tough time finding the Trakz resin sets, a potentially cheaper alternative is the Voyager PE set for the AFV Club LVT-4.  It has the rounded gun shields along with a host of other parts that could replace many on the Italeri mold.  I purchased one not too long ago for my AFV Club LVT-4 from ebay.  I did a quick search on ebay and found one in no time, the link is below.  Although I have not put any pieces together the PE set looks really nice in the box.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Voyager-1-35-PE35448-WWII-US-LVT-4-Water-Buffalo-Landing-Vehicle-Tracked-basic-/220900826669?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item336eb71e2d

CARL - Thats ashame...your a grown man and your off sneaking around   Know what your talking about, had to sneak off a couple of times to get to the bench  I would say almost for sure your son would have used that wire tool.  Will defiantly be going with the wire rope for the ramp.  Thanks

DEATTILIO - I know of the island Iheya Jima. 

Had found the Trakz kit but this Voyager one looks like it might have better shields and exterior pieces?  One way or another will have one of the two by the time I get to that part of the build.  Thanks again

G - That was some great info about the M4, thanks.  Still have a lot of learning to do with the Sherman's, have not built many of them and do not know all the in and outs with them.

This is going to be the first figure.

Not very exciting but thought would show y'all my first time consuming project.  The lose clothing and position of the figure makes what should be large openings around the arms and legs. 

Have decided to drill and carve the openings open.  Had thought about cutting off the hands and feet then cutting the hole but thought would lose to much needed material in the cut.  That meant doing it the long difficult way.  Here is the first leg have done work on.

Rob- You are going to do figures?  Life is good!  You know how much I enjoy figures... looking good with the openings now.

ANDY - You know I'm doing these figs just for you............Use to build figs all the time but have not in about a year or more.  You may have to give me some pointers at times.  Mine are not as good as yours.  You do a FINE job on your figs.

Still opening up the holes on the first fig.  This is going to take a while to do.  May also look around for some more figs, 10 -20 more.  Would be pretty cool to load them up in the back of the LVT with them disembarking from the rear.  Would definitely like to find some to man the MG's on the LVT.

Have you found any more pics of an M8 or you still plan on using the one picture you had found?

Rob , 10 to 20 figures ................ now thats going to look cool . Lots of ways to position that many figures . with the ramp being lowered you have a lot of options . The extra work your doing on the figures will add realism . I take it your not going with the flame throwers on the trak . I looked for info LVT 4 with flamethrowers but only came up with a British version the "Seahorse".  Oh , the grandaughter found me down here in the basement yesterday . I ended up playing 5 year old girl games for the next 2 hours .......

Andy , I also enjoy figures

Carl thats the figure set I have been looking for to go in my LVT!!!

It is really good that you spend the time with your granddaughter.  I'm sure it means a lot to her and you.  Just don't be to upset if you cant win at the games or don't look as pretty when you play dress-up

Had found a few more pictures of the flame version but not many.  Ruled it out, could not find any real detail of the gun itself.  Like the idea of having all the Marines in and around the LVT anyway.  Don't really know if I will be able to find that many figures of USMC.  They would probably mostly have to be resin figs and that would be pricey.  Will see what I can find but mainly want some to man the MG's on the vehicle and then can add other figures as they are found and can get.  Would have to find the MG figures soon so that they can be positioned when fitting the guns on.

Almost done drilling on the first figure and will post results of him hopefully soon.

Nice figures Carl.................

I'd say those figures are better than anything andy can do !

Rob , your talking from experience about the games aren you .......she had me playing a game she made up and i could never win because the rules kept changing .Sound familiar ? Yes , i'm very happy to be in her life now . After raising two boys she's something else for me and grandma .

I agree , resin figs , could be expensive . I have a Italeri USMC set but its probably out of production and not up to todays standards . Havent looked at them yet . I should do that .

Yep, played many of those games

I use to have that Italeri figure set but don't remember anything about it.  I am pretty selective when buying figure sets so I don't have many.  This set I'm now working on is alright but I have seen better ones by Dragon.  Being that they came with the kit I'm happy with them.

First figure almost ready for paint.  Will let the arm dry more before sanding the putty around the arm.  The last arm will need to be put on with the shotgun in hand so will wait and paint the gun first.  Had to fill good size gap from front to back in the crouch and see in the picture that it needs a little more put in the back.  The rest of the seam filled in fine.  Mainly trying to show how the openings for the hands and feet came out.

While this one drys will start opening the same spots on the next figure, the flame thrower man.