M-12 GMC WIP (update 9/21 suggested tweaks completed)

Stage Left, appreciate the comments and your time to take a look. Gotta give the tweak credit to the guys who know a lot more about artillery than I'll ever know, Gino, aka HeavyArty and Redleg. Great guys both of 'em. Everyone has been real helpful in getting me to the finish. Hopefully, one day, I'll be able to pay it forward.

-Stpehen

Good job. That looks much better.  I like the figure too.

Very nicely done, Stephen. I agree, a great job overall before, but your tweaks make this build even better.

Macattack, sure wish I could've completed with the others, alas life had different plans. However it is done and no longer on my work bench.

Deafpanzer, thanks for the compliments. This kit was pretty cheap off evil-bay, around $20 including shipping. I think it's one of academy's better older models. You should try it out.

HeavyArty and Redleg, Just when I thought this one was done someone comes along, Just kidding. I value your input and you are correct those are easy tweaks. Sooo, I pulled it back off the shelf and tried this.

And since you mentioned a figure

He's one of my older ones but I could probably tweak him a little more.

-Stephen

Stephen - Looking good. Have to agree with my brother Gino on the breech Gunmetal or Steel are good colors. I prefer Alclad Steel but each choice of brand is personal.

We all know too well the kit that fights you to the end....You showed this kit who is boss!

Rounds Complete!!

It came out nicely.  I like the groundwork.  Now it needs a figure or two to bring it to life.  There are a couple areas it could be improved though.  The rear tail lights are off, only the upper left oval is red.  The other areas are black slits for the blackout drive lights system.  The inside of the driver's hatches should be the same OD as the exterior.  This was done so they were less noticeable when open.  The breech and screw block look way too shiny and bright to me.  They should be a more dark gunmetal color.  Here are some examples of what I mean.

Lastly, you may want to put a bit of flat black down the barrel opening.  In one of the pics, it looks silver down the barrel.

Great job overall.  A few tweaks and it will be even better.

Great job!  I was signed up for the same GB and wasn't able to finish either.  Glad to see that you got the M12 finished.  

It looks great to me!   I nearly bought a kit similar to this at LHS today.  

Jester, RESlusher and Wbill,Thanks for looking in. It feels good to get one finished. Ground work came out better than I thought it would, appreciate you guys picking up on that. I guess it's on to the next project.

-Stephen

Excellent work, Stephen! 

I especially like the ground effects!

Nice looking buid Stephen, your hard work really paid off. I really like the groundwork and how the tank has tore it up significantly.

Sorry to hear it fought you so hard towards the end Stephen, but you would never know it from the pics posted. Congrats on getting this one across the finish line!

Well, fourteen days later and I'm going to call it quits or done, finished, finito or whatever. It was a pleasant model to build, just seemed that as I was finishing everytime I did something, another part would break or need to be fixed. Biggest problem was after i secured the model to the base and let it set over night, came back the next morning to find it floating off the tracks by about 1/8 of an inch. Couldn't believe it, anyway it has finally crossed the finish line. It won't win any awards but it looks good enough from three feet away, lol. Any comments, suggestions or critiques are appreciated and will most likely go towards the next build. Appreciate everyone looking in and helping out. Well on to the pics.

-Stephen

Hi gang. I don't think I'll be to much longer with this old girl. Here's what I got accomplished this weekend. (Thankfully a long and cooler weekend)

Started mudding her up.

Then alot of the small tidbits went on. Don't think you'll really see them in these next photos.

Like I said not to much more and I've already started on the base. Hope you like it so far

-Stephen

Hi Richs26, Thanks for checking in and the info. I've heard that most M-12s had the t-51s, but; that a few had the t-49s. I found a pic of one that I think has t-49s on. I'll admit it's hard to tell with all the mud on the vehicle though. In the end since I'm not a big am kind of guy I went with the provided tracks. That being said, since there are not to many rubber band affecionados out there, I'd like to show how I did these tracks. If you will indulge me.

First off clean the tracks with a good degreasing agent, I used Simple Green. Then I used an enamel grey primer for my base. If you want a more rusty appearance then use an orange-ish base. Once the enamel was dry I covered it with a grimy black pigment from Doc O'Brien's pigments. I use pigments only after the primer. This keeps the paint from building  up and cracking or flakng.

I then used a Rusty Brown on the "teeth".

This was followed by a Rusty Red in the same areas.

Then I put in some Grungy Grey to tone it down.                                                                                       

This was followed by a light dusting of Dirty Brown.

And that is it. I hope someone finds this helpful and that the pics came out well enough to see what was going on. I think I really need to make a Photo booth.

Well I'm off to muddy this bad boy up. This will be my first attempt at making and appling mud. Hope it comes out well. I'll get those pics up as son as I'm done.

-Stephen

A book I saw in the library said they came with T-51 tracks which must be the same that the Ft Sill's musem example uses, I'm guessing.  I have an M-12 in the stash which I want to do as the one that the 740th Tank Battalion used at the Chateau de Froid-Cour firing on La Gleize.

Redleg, thanks for checking in. It's getting there.

RESlusher, appreciate the artillery lesson sure helps out. Thanks for stopping by.

-Stephen

I'm sure Mike and Gino (RedLeg12 and HeavyArty) respectively can  correct me if I'm wrong; but it's my understanding that whether something is classified as a "gun" or a "howitzer" depends on the angle of trajectory that the round takes.

A field gun has a relatively flat trajectory.  A howitzer is steeper up to say 45 degrees and a mortar up above 45.  I'm totally guessing on 45 degrees.  I'll leave that to the subject matter experts!  Just thought I'd throw in my

They wouldn't let me be in Artillery when I was in the Army.  My parents were married before I was born!! 

Decals are much better. Looking good.

Rounds Complete!!

Bill, I Think it's finally comming together. With the long weekend and hopefully cooler weather I may finally get it done. It does look pretty big.

Deafpanzer, How's it going? Yeah, I couldn't leave those decals like that, it just wouldn't be right. Still going to put other equipment in the fighting compartment to make it look more homey.

Another question comes to mind tho. I've got the rounds in there, but shouldn't there be some kind of propellent charges? And where do they go? I was thinking the open compartments under the seat.

Thanks again for checking it out.

-Stephen

  Decals look alot better now.  Looking great especially the interior!

Replacement decals are an improvement for sure Stephen. The added details for the gun and ammo are making this one come alive. She sure is a big one!

Okay, well, I corrected my silvering issue with the decals. Basically just removed them and put on a different set. Came out pretty good but the paint is still "fresh" where the decal was removed, this is even after weathering it again. I'm at a loss for what to do about it. One side is worse than the other, here are the pics.

Even with that problem, I think it looks a whole lot better.

Was actually pretty cool this morning, so I got in about four hours modeling time today. A total of six this weekend. It aloud me to get pretty far even with the decal problem. Here's where I'm at with it.

Used AFV Club's ammo. Nice little pieces. The decals I think are a little think which made them hard to wrap around the ammo. Used plenty of squadron's decal solution to help them settle.

Attached the cannon.

Really starting to come together for me. Here's a question for you arty guys. What is the difference between a howitzer, cannon and/or gun? The AFV package shows different artillery pieces and they use this different wording. I thought one had rifeling while the other did not, but then they threw in this third option now I don't know for sure.

Anyway thanks for looking and any critique is always welcome

-Stephen

Thnx guys. I normally do that but I have heard some talk that it isn't necessary to do all of that. Live and learn. I think I may remove the deals altogether, anyone know where i might get some dry transfers kind of quick. BTW still looking on confirmation on the tracks. Can't find anything on the web and my limited reasources only indicate that they weren't used on shermans and that the british favored them.

-Stephen

....well you know what I mean Bill !!!

I have found it is always better to set the decals on a smooth future surface then seal with future. The seal coat is also a good gcoat to put on your washes. I use future mixed with Tamiya flat base for my flat coat and then pigments!!

Rounds Complete!!

Stephen,

Sorry to see/hear about the decals showing up under the pigments. This can happen when the decals don't snug down tight to the vehicle surface and get integrated with the paint work. Did you seal in the decals prior to the pigments? When you applied the decals, did you do it directly onto the painted vehicle surface or over a layer of Future? If not, then the pigments may have permeated the exposed decal surface and thus highlighted the edges. I'm not certain you can correct it at this stage...applying a sealing coat (such as Future) over the decals so that you have a uniform surface and re-applying the pigments might work but I can't guarantee the outcome.  

Alright, got some work done on the upper hull weathering. I am not happy with the way the decal edges have been bhighlighted by the filters and pigments, but don't know what to do about it. Also still trying to find out if the T49 steel treads are accurate for this vehicle. Anybody know?

Well on to the pics only four this time.

I Still have the top of the hull, fighting compartment, and the spade. Then just need to load it up.

-Stephen

Redleg and Heavyarty,

    Once again thanks for taking a look. Not where I wanted to be progress wise but I am liking the results so far. Was grateful for Roy's advice and glad it was simple enough to fix. Looking forward to getting some work done on the hull,just have to wait for the weekend.

-Stephen

Steven - she is looking great.  The weathering is coming along nicely.  This one is going to look great.  Good job.