Awright Mike, let's see how do you like the 1/72 scale! Good luck with your build and have a nice day

Paweł

That's what that is on the end of some barrels? A counter weight? I never knew that and never even questioned it. 

I've been away from here for awhile building a model train car and when I get back I see you're building a tiny kit. The last time I was here you were building a giant tank and another with a giant turret...  I'll be following this

Thanks guys.  :)

This is not my first forray into braille scale tanks though. I did find a build review that I will follow, plus add a few of my own ideas to. http://www.amps-armor.org/ampssite/reviews/showReview.aspx?ID=3060&Type=FB

It points out a more historical build that I'm after and many points of interest that will guide me to making a better finished model. First, I'm not really buying the brown paint job that Dragon says these come in. I've not seen any in brown before and I don't like it at all.

I'l be painting mine in a more greenish color with brown tones as I think it'll look more appropriate for the finish.

I built this Revell Sherman with my oldest son last year.

And this Revell T-90 after that.

1/72 Armor is not a new area for me to dabble in lol.

Not enough braille scale builds on this forum, nice to see someone with your talent take one on. Nice start by the way. Looking forward  to see how it progresses. Now if only I could finish the T-34 I started some six months ago.

. 

Yeah I noticed that when I went to go look for other builds of this kit. I figured I'd not be one of the first to do so lol.

Thank you for the kind compliment. I aim to not disappoint lol.

If you need motivation to finish your T-34, then I challenge you to do so. Double dare! lol  :D

yes, I remember the T-90. Very tight painting on these. Well done

Thanks Sprue! I'm planning on making the Chruchill even better than these two examples.  :)

Last night before bed I laid down all of the stretched sprue for my welding beads.

I also started on the the upper hull by thinning down the fenders to a more respectable thickness.

^ You can see the thickness reduced on the left side in comparison to the right side. (My camera didn't want to focus, sorry)

This morning I went over all of my weld beads with my 45 degree exacto blade and shaped the sprue into weld beads.

You can also see that I extended this bit of the lower turret as it is supposed to be sticking out from the upper turret. Dragon has made this detail opposite of what it should be and it needed to be corrected.

The periscopes for an early Mk III need to be flush, and not raised. i drilled out the periscope holes and just dropped them in without issue.

Then I added the early type commander's sight vane.

And then lastly, a bit of dry fitting to see how it looks so far.

That's all for now. I'm trying to figure out how the fenders were attached so I can replicate those details when I assemble the hull halves together later. I'm pretty sure they were not attached by magnets lol.

Those tiny SP weld seams... 

What does SP stand for?

LOL... I don't know. I meant to refer to Stretched Sprue.

Oh yeah, Sunday afternoon 

lol I'm just gumming some Popeye's chicken. Still getting used to not having all of my teeth lol. Just a few more weeks and I'll have new ones.

That sprue is hair thick and I waited over night before making the bead detail. I wanted to keep them as uniform as possible because of the scale. Going overboard on that would make it look terrible.

In the end i hope to fool the uninitiated into assuming its 1/35 lol.

Looking good. Really like how those weld beads turned out.

Popeyes Louisiana Chicken is Bomb as far as fast food fried chicken is concerned. Ways better than KFC-idge.

Hello Mike!

Nice work on that Churchill!

Say, what is happening to you? Those passing references of pain killers, teeth taken out? I'm starting to worry about you! I hope you get better soon and good luck with your models!

Paweł

Weld seams on a 1/72nd kit??? Are you sure your pain-killers aren't making you crazy? 

All joking aside very cool and I hope you're feeling better soon, sounds very painful.

lol. I'm fine guys! Just had my upper teeth taken out because I DID NOT take care of them. They were causing my problems so I'm having them replaced. I'm just on the IB 800's now so no odd effects with fuzzy memory now lol.

And no, that didn't effect my judgement on the weld seams on a 1/72 model lol!!

It was more of a personal challenge to see if I can do it and I'm happy with these results, so yeah, welds on a 1/72! He,he,he,he,he!

I carried on with the welds onto the hull as well. They look really cool and they hide the glue seams like a champ. I'm not sure about the accuracy of where they are located, but they look really good.

Even added some to the back hull just for visual interest.

I removed and replaced the angled plates on the front hull sides. Dragon has also reversed these as well and molded them backwards, which works well for adding the correct detail in the end.

I've got the tracks on now as well. I wanted to paint all of those wheel assemblies first, but I don't trust those dang DS tracks to stick to anything but a clean surface. So I'll try using a wash "bath" to get some dark color deep in there later and see if that will get me to where I want to be concerning the unpainted deep recesses in there.

I still have some more pieces to put on there, but it's shaping up very nicely!

That's how far I've gotten on this project. 1/72 moves a lot farther than 1/35 even when adding details and modifications. But this is a pretty simple build. The only issue I've had so far has been the suspension. There are way too many sprue connections and they are not so simple to remove as they should have been because they are thick.

That is looking fantastic Mike! You are a braver man than I Gunga Din! I've built 680 small scale armor and military vehicles and I never dared once to add weld seams to such small models. I bow to you sir. Well Done!

Looking forward to seeing more.

Thank you very, VERY much sir!

It is surprisingly easier than you would think. Same as adding them to 1/35th but I wait and let the sprue cure overnight because its so thin. The next morning its still soft but it won't try to wander out of place as I shape it with a needle point. There's a bit of squinting involved, but its not too hard on my eyes since I'm naturally near-sighted.

No need for any bowing, and there will be more lol.

Painting this little monster is going to be the biggest challenge because of the suspension I believe. We'll see if my ideas will work to sort that out when the time comes.  :)

Thank you for the read, and reply. :D You have a great day, sir!

Mike - look out on the hull! Seeing those rows of rivets or bolts on the hull I'm afraid those welds might not be correct there - but I didn't research the Churchill, so I can't say for sure. Good luck with your build and have a nice day

Paweł

Thanks Pawel! I'm not sure if the hull was still bolted together or if they changed that out for the welded hull when they changed out the cast turret for the welded one on the Mk III.

So far the indications are that they did switch to welded hulls at, or around, the same time. However, I'm not finding the type of information I want for this build. Such as how the fender attachments looked without the fenders on. I'm not finding those types of details, so I'm winging it, as I usually do, with what looks cool.

I'm surprised that I haven't run into any kind of Churchill expert like the Sherman experts here, who know where almost every bolt was located and what it was for. I could use some of that help here lol.

Thank you again, my friend, for watching my back.  :)

Looking good as usual. Yeah I kinda know what you mean, I'm having a bit of difficulty finding good accurate info. for my build a 1942 T 34 /76 with applique armor. Anyway have you by chance looked into Prime Portal . They have walk arounds  of eight Churchill variants including two MKIIIs. Carry on....

No I didn't know about Prime Portal. I'll have to check into that.

As far as this build is concerned I've already moved past the building stage and I've got primer on it now.

For those of you who have been wondering if simulating weld seams on a 1/72 model will even bother showing up after paint, well it shows up just fine after primer and I'm pretty confident it will still show up after painting is complete. As long as I keep the paint thin lol.

I added the last of the parts that needed to go on and thinned those front fender walls down so they wouldn't touch the tracks. I played with the idea of completely rebuilding them from scratch, but there are some fine details on there that would be easier to save by just thinning down the kit parts.

The antennas were rebuilt just this morning after I squished them by accident earlier. The rebuilds look better anyways.

I also added a few tiny details to the top of the turret so it didn't look quite so flat.

So now the real fun begins. :D

Those weld beads really make it pop. Should really do  justice to the build when it's done. Just curious if you are going to keep the molded on tow cables or replace them. 

Personally, I think I'm going to keep the molded-on tow cables. I know, I know, they look like poo. That is the one detail I really wish Dragon would have included as a separate part, but I'm not going to invest the time to fix that mistake. Not this time anyways. I am really liking the time this has NOT taken up to get this far into it lol. I'm almost ready for paint and it's been, what, a week?

After some paint it won't look too bad I hope, but yes, I know it drags down the overall feel of the build. Next time.

I shot some Tamiya (TF-5?) Olive Drab from a spray can on it this morning and although I like that color it didn't look right. I decided to go with the recommended Tamiya XF-51 Khaki Drab and it looks much better for the base color and I'm certain it will look a whole lot better then the red-brown the instructions are calling for (which doesn't look right to me at all).


^ Tamiya Olive Drab (TF-5?)





That's the base color that was recommended and I have to agree it looks like the best color to start with. After some highlighting, washes, and details, I'll add a green filter so its not too brown. 

I'm also not positive which of the three markings I'll be choosing for this build. "Calgary", I believe, was a Mk I, but "Beefy" was a Mk III for sure (Lots of pictures of it knocked out on the beach), and "Blossom" may have been one of the 7 Churchill's that made it off the beach and into town, but I'm pretty sure it was a Mk III also (I haven't found any pictures of it yet). So yeah, I'm leaning towards "Beefy" for the moment. If anyone has any clarification to this dilemma please let me know.

Well... now I have to watch paint dry.  :)

Happy modelling, mates!!  :D

I was just given the perfect references over on Armorama!

There's a photo of 'Blossom' here still on the beach:
http://www.ramtank.ca/churchill%20registry%202b.htm

Also colour photo here which you've possibly already seen:
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/world-war-two/weapons-of-world-war-two/churchill-tank/

Absolutley perfect! :D

Hi Mike ,what a small fantastic tank model u got here...

i see your still like tamiya painting :)

you gonna use the shades on this one?

Looking good Mike!