Thanks Feldgrau! She's getting there. I just need to finish what I started lol. I'm not really happy with the way the dot filtering has turned out so far, but that only because I didn't clear it with a gloss before adding the filter. It doesn't blend as well over the dull surface. But once I get a gloss on her I'll be going over the filters again and blending hem in even further. This tank is going to get a bit green-er lol.

Dang Mike I step away for a couple days and you have turned this into a winner!!. Fantastic looking build  Mike!!

I finally decided on which driver's vision blocks to use. The kit came with solid or clear parts for this area, but not for any of the other vision blocks on the model. Since all of the others are solid and need to be painted I chose to keep with the solid block theme here. The clear ones would look great, no doubt, but they would be the only clear ones on the entire tank.

I finished the green dot filtering on the hull.

And I even found the headlight lenses that were temporarily missing due to being a cat owner lol.

Not much in the way of exciting, but a little progress is better than none I suppose.

The M6, yes that was a dead end because it was already outdated before the war started for us. The Pershing was only in the last couple of weeks of the closing of the war. If it had come sooner however, things would've been different. None of this speculation matters in the end though. Its already history and can't be rewritten lol.

Well we did have a heavy tank in the M6 but it wasn't very good so it never entered combat. 

Then the US Army hit a crash program with the T29, T30, and T34 heavy tanks that missed the war but were updated to the M103 to deal with Soviet Cold War heavy hardware. 

Then you had just weird stuff like the M7 and T20...

Strange stuff you pick up from World of Tanks, stopped playing over a year ago but I'm glad I did just due to the introduction to stuff like this. 

Paper straws?? I'm going to look for those.

Funny thing about us before WWII. We developed the Sherman to compete with the Panzer IV's. Why in the world we didn't contemplate building a complete battlefield dominator is beyond me. We should have been thinking of tanks that would have beat the crap out of the Panzer IV's and thinking further ahead than we were.

If we had M-26's even a few years earlier we would've run over the Germans in a matter of months perhaps. With the Air power available to us at the time of Normandy we would have had the same logistics problems as Romel did in the desert lol. We would have simply run too far, too fast. The war would've been vastly different.

Jump forward to the M-48 and M-60 programs and think of how different it would've been had we been more inclined to get more of that type of thinking sooner than we did.

But that didn't happen.

Just one M-103 would've made an enormous difference in France back then. While we're thinking of it, let''s just imagine one Abrams transported back in time lol. What a heck of a thing that would've been lol!!

Cool Mike, gives a good impression of what a brute the M-103 was.

Nice work on the figures too. Though it does make me think about how many big fat holes the M-103's 120mm would punch in a Royal Tiger if it had been around a decade earlier.

Looking impressive, Mike. I was honestly confused about the figures until I read the post, lol. They look nice though!

I am surprised you can't find a paper straw with that accordion style thing happening? I'm sure they're out there, but finding them might be another issue..

Now that I've got the 109 in primer and sitting on the sidelines I've taken some pictures of the M-103 all together with my German crew for scale. This is a really huge tank my friends. Enormous! Just scroll and see for yourself. This photo shoot was also really good for bringing back my mo jo for this project... and the figures. They look like mannequins lol.

She's a big'un! Now, to get this project restarted.  :)

Yeah, that is too bad. If I could find a glue that would stick to it I could have dealt with the paint chipping off because it wouldn't be touched. But I couldn't even get that much to cooperate with me.

Fortunately I have references that show the type I made was used on some of the A2's.

Looking good, Mike.

I've thought about using an accordion straw myself, sorry to hear it 's a dead end.

Thank you all.  :D

Yes this is a commissioned build. I found out last week that the guy I'm building this for knows the guy who used to command this exact tank.

I won't have too much of a problem giving it up after knowing who will be displaying it.  :)

I had to double check with my Dad about that searchlight cover. He's always modeled them that way and I asked him if they were really like that. Indeed, there was a piece of plywood in there to keep it flat so the material wouldn't rub against the glass.

And that IS the biggest turret I've ever seen as well. lol

Thanks for the comments guys. :)

Looking forward to seeing this one finished Mike. Excellent work on the Spotlight.

Mike that is looking impressive in the detailing! I'm kinda bummed now that I didn't get the A2 version with the spotlight. It adds some cool interest to it, and your cover is killer. Loving the mantlet cover too.

Is this a commission build? I don't know how you could give something like this up after putting so much hear and work into it!

That is one awesome beast,loving that detail on the spot light.I can't believe that massive turret.

Thanks Gamera.  :D

Matching these things up to all of the pictures isn't easy. I'd like to think I'm pretty close lol.

Too bad the straw didn't work out but the mantlet and searchlight cover look pretty darn good.

That's would make sense, to avoid glare off the glass.

Thanks Bish  :)  I found out that the only time those covers were off of the searchlights is when the lead tank was on night patrol. Otherwise they were always covered, and so I had to cover it. Too bad for all that detail on the inside lol.

Oh, no I have not actually used any actual cloth yet, but I have considered it yes. I work with all types of paper and most of them work really well. I've recently started using news print and the texture is amazing for 1/48th scale.

I'm always saving a scrap of something lol.

That's a nice looking build you have there Mike, nice work on detailing that searchlight. I am not familiar with the type, but it looks a bit of a beast.

Thank you very much guys. You've just made my day lol.

I've sorted out the searchlight cover now.


^ I cut out some thin sheet styrene for the cover's underlying structure.

I then added the tie -down straps as they were described to me by Dad. They're only missing the brass buckles.




A little paint, this fine morning.  :)







I think it all looks pretty good together so far.



Thanks for looking fellas. I really do appreciate it.  :)

While the turret does have a sort of (deflated) football shape to it, you guys weren't suppose to toss it around  like that.   Good save though. I can't see where any damage occurred. 

The straw not working…. I don't have any better suggestions either. It looks fine as is now 

What a great looking build Mike!!!! May have to get me one of these beast. I have been on a Post WWII armor building kick lately and this would fit in nicely!!!

Hey Mr Brindo, it starts to look awesome, yep, no clue where the damaged occured.

As for the mantlet have you consider using actual cloth, like from old t-shirt or so??

I have never used it, but I would experiment with it if I had the chance.

Maybe you can also try "paper mache" with tissue paper ...

A badly needed update:



I finished up the mantlet cover. I tried every glue I have to get the straw I was using as an accordion gun tube recoil cover. Nothing would stick to it. So even if I had found a paint that would stick to the stupid thing, it would not have worked anyways.

Also, the damage done due to clumbsy fingers has been repaired and you can't even tell. I'm happy about that lol. (Dad and I fumbled it and broke off 5 wheels and some of the rails.)



I had to reattach the no. 2, 4, 5, 6, and 7 road wheels on this side.

If you look close you can see some of the spot filtering has taken place. I need to finish that part and then I will be adding more spot filtering after a gloss to seal up what I have.

Sorry for not getting this updated in so long. I've had it on the side in que till I figured out how to get the straw to work in the way that I wanted it to (screw that dumb thing lol).

Thanks for looking in mates.  :)

Update time. Not much done but one more step towards the end goal. I've started sorting out some of the minor details such as headlights and tail lights. I've got the black-green filter wash over the lower half of the tank now and it's really starting to look better than real as it sits on my bench. "Pictures, or it never happened!", right?

I'm going to clear it after this and then I need to sort out the wheels. Dad also sourced out some "Milk Shake" straws so I now have the accordion part of the gun tube shroud. Progress is in motion. :)

Oh, and the Krylon stuck to the DS tracks so now I have something for my acrylics to stick to.

Thanks for looking guys!

Thanks guys. I'm thinking of that plastic bonding Krylon at the moment. I've used it in the past on things like PVC without issues and I'm probably going to save some change for a can later. I'll stick to what I remember works and I should have thought of it sooner lol.

Bu that rubber paint is definitely worth experimenting with later.

Mike: A friend pointed me toward using 'rubber bumper' paint from the auto parts store as a primer on rubber type tracks. It usually works though I sometimes still get a little paint flaking off.

Mike, thanks for the comments on the M10. That was a few years ago. Interestingly, Finescale bought the article, but it has yet to be published. It's here online at M10

I am sorry to hear about your troubles with the tracks. I hate DS track because of the inability to sag them, but haven't had trouble with paint sticking. I ope your set is an anomaly. Hope you find something that works, too!