I am in awe of everything you've done thus far.  Absolutely amazing!  

I'm glad you enjoy your NEO Iwata Gravity Feed.  I too love that AB, I am contemplating purchasing the NEO Iwata TRN1 Side Feed Handgun AB as I can better grip that AB.  I'll keep you up to date on that purchase.  

I went to an artist studio of which this particular artist exclusively uses Iwata AB.  I tried his Custom Micron and it was a dream to just hold.  I think the only other AB that can come close is the top of the line German made Harder and Steenbeck AB.  

Once again, a fantastic job on a great kit, I'll keep up to date on this wonderful build sir!

Toshi 

  Amour builders are plain nuts ( and bolts ), but in a good way.  Watching a normal armour build with pe and indi track links is witnessing first hand a masochistic ritual.  Then there are those, like yourself, that up the crazy by going inside the tank.

      I dont know a lot about tanks so I won't comment much, but I am following and your work is fantastic.                                              

                                    knox

I've got the lighting and I'm getting ready to install it soon.  :)

I've wasted a lot of time building up the figures that come with the M-48. They're actually still decent figures to work with. Some rescribing, carving in new details, and a few scratch built add-ons and they don't look too shabby.

It did take some work to get that old Tamiya .50 to look good enough to use. I had to fill in the troughs on the upper and lower cooling jacket and re-drill the holes. I made a new rear sight block, added a longer charging handle, and swiped a shield from the Academy acc. kit. The MG mounting post is just a bit of sprue drilled-out and I added the welds to the bottom to give it credibility. All of this consumed my time recently and I'm not 100% happy with it, but it will probably look much better with paint on it lol.

I worked on the lens of the searchlight. Taped both sides and very carefully cut out a circle with my trusty siscors.

Com box(?) and gun elevation are installed.

And I built the turret rotation handle and put that in there too.

Then I tried, very unsuccesfully, to make bullets for the MG. Of all the stuff I've scrathed up this has been the most frustrating challenge thus far. I've tried using different meterials in different methods, but I just can't seem to make them convincing enough. Using the metal rod had the best consistency, but proved to be the hardest to get lined up right.

For some nice .50 cal belts, check out the Academy U.S. MG set.  It has some really nice .30 and .50 guns, mounts ammo cans and .30 cal and .50 cal belts.

Bish

That's some lovely work there Mike. Not sure if I missed it before, what's with the clear cupola, is that an AM part.

 

That comes with the AFVC kit. I've got my hands on some liquid masking meterial so I can have tose spill a touch of light in there once its painted. I tried Tamiya tape, but I only managed to get two ports cut out. The tape just didn't want to stay put on the tiny little slits on the inside so I gave up on that method.

Thank you Arty! I will see if I can get my Dad to put that on order. Those MG's will come in handy later as well as those belts will now.   :)  Thank you for that!

This is an awesome build, really looking forward to see how you install the lights and light the interior to show off all that work.

For the ammo have you looked into the Live Resin stuff?  They have linked .50cal belts that also come with individual rounds and spent cases in the same set.  I don't know if this turret was similar to the "Star Wars" turret with M85 on the AAVP7A1 but we had feed chute to guide the rounds and subsequently take a toll of skin and blood from the user.  But, Live Resin also offers a .50cal feed chute if that is needed too.

Thank you for that info deatillio! I will look into Live Resin as well.

I'm glad you like what I've done so far. I've had a lot of great input from my Dad what things were and what they did. So many little details that have function! Its been a real pleasure so far every time he visits and tells me about some new part I'm building and how it should really look and what it did. It helps me figure out the best ways to replicate the pieces.

I pulled out the old turret basket floor. You can see where I made guide marks (which I did not use) with various Sharpies and how they beld through the paint.

It came out without any damage to the model or the basket floor. I may use it for something els in the future, but I don't know.

I made a rough mock-up of the correct layout last night before bed time. I've included the three round readyrack as well as the main upright storage and on the left side is the purge cannister that sits in front of the gunner's position.

I cleaned it up this morning and it's looking good.

This should look fantastic after its painted.  :)

I've got the ready rack shaping up.

And I've got the latch-knobs for the drawers on there and I'll cut them to length tomorrow. I wish I had some details for the floor where the gunner sits. A chair would be nice too lol. I'll have to see if I can find some reference pictures.

That does it for today I think.  :)

Lots of impressive detail and loving care going into this build, Mike. It's shaping up to be really impressive!

Hi mike, I haven't been around much I am still checking the progress on your magnificent work. I jsut started a tamiya 1:48  M26 kit with a lot more parts than I am used to with my other tanks but I am taking my time. You are doing a great job.

I'll be back.    dt  73

Karl, Hard Stripe, thank you very, very much!  :D

I got the electronics sorted out. I settled on a configuration last night and I'm getting really close to finishing up the interior.

Besides painting the turret basket I just need to make the battery box and get this assembly located and installed.

And one of those moment you all have been waiting for; The driver's compartment under it's own power!

Wow, all the detail you added looks even better with the lighting! 

I know, right? LMAO! I feel as giddy as a schoolgirl about it LMAO!! That's the neatest thing I've ever done with a model and I like it a lot LOL!

Even if the figures are standing in the hatches of the turret you'll still be able to see the light spill into the turret. I didn't get any pictures, but I had to see if it would lol. This kit does have a fully detailed gun breach and the radios I stuffed in the back of the turret show up a bit even unpainted. I can't wait to start getting  a bit farther into this build. This is going to be cool.  :)

Mike thats so cool, just brilliant. When Radio Shack went out of business I scooped up a handful of micro switches and some other things to try out when I get a chance, looks like yours was easy enough after you worked it out.

Terry

lol, thanks Terry! I had a heck of a time remembering my basic electronics! I actually had to resolder that switch two times lol. The first time I wired it up it would have been a constant two lights on, until the battery was disconnected. The second time was because I found that one of the leads on the white LED had come off in the bag and it only had one wire on it lol. The third time I concentrated really hard and then soldered it all back together using the switch "correctly" to channel the pos (+) flow and ran the grounds to common.

When it was all done and finally worked I found that the white LED blinked and cut out intermittently. I found that the Pico, or Micro, LED wasn't soldered on one side. That was a nerve wracking job of reconnecting that super tiny solder joint with my huge soldering iron lol. But I finally got it to just touch the spot and it reconnected solidly.

So quality control on some of these Pico lights is a little loose, but its nothing that can't be fixed by someone, who like me, doesn't have a lot of experience soldering tiny little circuts. If careful enough, one can manage.

We have a store down here in Olympia called ERI (Electronic Resources Incorporated) that is exaclty what Radio Shack began its life as. Gadgets, gizmos, and doo-dads galore. The only cell phone parts they carry are batteries lol. No RC cars or helicopters anywhere in sight lol. I picked up a couple of switches, two industrial grade 9v batteries that should last for years, two potentiometers (which I did not use afterall), and the only thing they didn't have were 9v battery connectors. Fotunately I already had some from an older electric airsoft gun that I rigged to run on 18v for fun.

I also found two more micro switches in the box with the 9v connectors, so I'm good for a little while lol. I'm seriously considering using one of these Pico lights to power on the searchlight on the M-48 later. It sounds like fun lol.

Wow Mike,this build is off the hook,all the details and even lighting,just outstanding.

Thank you Tojo!  :D

The lighting is a neally neat addition. Now you've got me all jazzed to do an interior on a build.......

You totally should Baer! With your technical abilties it would be amazing. Those pico lights are really freakin' tiny and I can fit them into the headlights and maybe even shoehorn one into a tail light if I got crazy enough. I can think of hundreds of possibilities to use these lights on.
With the utilization of a Potentiameter you can even turn down their brightness for whatever application you want. They already come with bridge rectifiers installed so you really can't screw them up by accident either. They are very user friendly. You just need to supply 7v-15v and they work perfectly.

Now on to an update...

ii got back to work on the turret basket this morning. I eyeballed a good position as there is now way to get an accurate measurement in the hull with the equipment I have at hand, but I did get it really well centered. I drilled a shallow depression for a peg and built up a location post for it to slide into.

I braced that with more scraps of my thickest styrene and glued the ever livin' crud out of it to make sure it never breaks loose.

So now it sits fairly level and rotates left and right, but not completely 360 degrees. I'm going to leave it unglued so I can change it's position in relation to the turret above. I would attach it to the turret, but since its not completely centered that will only cause problems later so I'm going to avoid that frustration before it happens lol.

So now I need to work on the battery box. The challenge for this piece is going to be getting it to be level on that concave hull floor. Once I get that figured out I need to figure out how to make the few batteries that will barely show.

I've got some reference pictures coming in soon so I guess I'll be making an almost complete turret floor. Also, my hydraulic resevoir is too short and I'll need to make a new one of those.

No worries! :)

I couldn't pry the old reservoir off the turret floor without damaging it, so I had to add to what is already there. That leaves a really noticable gap so what I've done is to wrap it in the thinnest tape I've got and try to pull it off as being almost unnoticable  :P

I've also added some fittings for the hydraulic lines that will hang in mid air out of sight later. Fortunately I think I'll be able to get away with it this time (even though it sets off my OCD like a firecracker) because the turret will not be illuminated except from the driver's compartment and seeing where they go shouldn't be an issue.

Trust me, if this ends up bugging me too much I WILL fix it.

This morning I decided that I needed to add another detail to the driver's compartment that stands out in my reference photos. To the right of the driver's seat on the hull floor is a handle that looks like an e-brake in any modern vehicle with four wheels. What it is, is the manual fuel system priming pump handle.



This tiny little handle is easily seen sitting next to the seat on the floor with many lines of plumbing running out of it, like so many of the other objects in this vehicle.

Hello Mike!

NIce pump - could you please show me, where it should be installed? Thanks for sharing and have a nice day

Paweł

Pawel

Hello Mike!

NIce pump - could you please show me, where it should be installed? Thanks for sharing and have a nice day

Paweł

 

You bet I will. I have to wait for the glue to cure so I can finish shaping this part. Right now you see the basic parts I used to assemble the general structure of it. It will look different when I'm done.

I will show you where it goes as soon as I get it installed.  :)

Until then I can tell you that it goes right next to the seat on the floor in an almost direct line back from the cruise control knob, next to the gear selector on the torsion bar cover.

Looking directly down the hatch you can see it clearly.

Bish - Thank you! :D

I was chatting with my Dad on the phone yesterday when he said that, as per the norm in this industry, someone will eventually come along and make a full interior detail kit for this model. "if they do, we'll build it again" he said lol.

The lighting was his idea. He wanted to show what little detail it already came with. Its my desire that has brought it this far into the detail though. What good is it to just see 1/4th of the detail that should be there? When the lighting will show all that is missing?

Well... I don't know. But if I build it, they will come. Right? lol

Nevermind my wierdness. Its been a very unusual morning.

Okay Pawel, this is where that handle should approximately be located.

I haven't painted it and its not yet glued in. But that's about the right size and location. Only in the real vehicle there would be some lines going in and out of it.

Mike I had a thought on your bullets. What if you use some plastic stock at the right diamter and use one of those cheap pencil sharpeners to make a nice point then it would be a matter of sanding the nose a bit, maybe a round scribe where the projectile meets the casing.  Just a thought, really great work Mike.

I had thought of that, certainly, but that's not the problem I'm running into. I can't seem to keep them aligned unless they're in a straight line lol.

I think I will be having some Live Resin deliviered when Dad finds them back in stock at Sprue Bros. Those are the best and most realistic products I have ever seen. Spent brass and disintergrating links as well, I hope. :)

It all depends on what he wants in this dio and how much detail he wants in it.  :)  I'd be happy with the Academy set lol.