1/48 Armor GB (Non Aircraft)

taxtp wrote:

Hi Everyone, Here's a bit more of my Stug, painted with 3 shades of Tamiya XF-60 Dark Yellow. I've also painted a piece of plastic card with the three shades to use as a test bed for the camo and weathering.   Cheers Tony

love that Stug   one of my favorite AFV'S can't wait to see it done.

Jeeves wrote:

OK-- some progress on my AFV Club Tiger...   Pretty good amount of detail on this one-- I am pleased with the progress so far...I should be priming her up within a day or two...   Rear side looks pretty busy... And the turret...I love the one piece barrel-- why doesn't Tamiya do it this way?

That Tiger's coming real nice,I actually enjoyed the AFV Club over the Tamiya's,looking foward to see it finished.

waikong: That is an awesome vingette for a sweet little vehicle. Love the grimy look of your Kurogane, not to mention I like the look of that figgie too.

To answer your question(sorry about not answering it sooner), "Where do you get iron powder from? An actual rusted item or is it something they sell?" You can't get it from a rusted item, it's something I assume they sell. I asked someone about this powder and they told me it might be an iron powder used to clean Xerox printers, since the grains of powder are so fine. Luckily I came across some in my dad's basement(that's where I got mine from), because I honestly don't know where you can specificly buy it from.

The pic below shows how the powder looks normally.

The pic below shows what I do it with it.....put the powder in water for weeks and let it sit there, mixing ocasionally, then when I need it I use an old brush and apply it like a wash. Giving a model a nice grimy-soot finish.

Some progress...I guess. I can fairly say I am not a fan of the rubber band tracks...especially ones that appear to be too short. Trying to glue them in, I popped off more than one road wheel-- and in the end, the track sag was not present. So I had to try super gluing the top side down-- and here are my results--

I don't think the outer road wheels should be jutting out like that-- but I have no idea how to fix it. Also-- the paint peeled right off the tracks...grrrr... One side of the tracks have a gap in them as I couldn't get them to stay together due to the tension. I suppose I could have gone with AM tracks-- but the model budget is on hiatus right now... This is why I end up in slumps...

Nice job Jeeves.For future reference,take the pics from the sunny side.

I should be getting my staff car tomorrow.Can't wait to get started on it.

Jeeves: Your Tiger's lookin' sweet so far. Look's like you overcame the track problem, but it looks like you need to touch up the roadwheels where the superglue dried. Probably won't be too much work. Lookin' forward to your next update.

Guys: As for an update w/pics on my Bren carrier, I hope to have one up soon. I decided the suspension coils from Tamiya were terrible detail wise, plus they had a huge seam, so I decided to replace all eight with real springs(never guess where I found them) and some homemade ones out of copper wire. Not to mention I also scratched the prominent towcable, by using the kit one as a base for the replacement cable. 

I'm a bit slow on the Stug III at the moment as I try to finish off the 1/48 Panzer IV I've got going for the 1000 Roadwheels GB. Should be back to it shortly, though.

I think I'll try the hairspray thing with the whitewash, it'll be fun anyway.

Cheers

Tony

TD, can't wait to see your staff car. I've always wanted to build an AVG Staff car and I think that staff car is the right model.

Tony, post your Panzer IV pictures here too, its 1/48 afterall.

I've actually started on my Autoblinda 41 since the Kurogane was small and easy. I seem to be in the mood for these more obscure (too me anyway)  vehicles.

I think its a 1942 Ford, check out this image

http://news.webshots.com/photo/1519988276056627778ZgIfRf

waikong wrote:

I think its a 1942 Ford, check out this image http://news.webshots.com/photo/1519988276056627778ZgIfRf

Thanks guys!  I still have some touching up to do-- but I am on the home stretch with this one.  I will be putting this one in an appropriate Kursk-like vignette-- I am going to have to cover up the bottom sides of the tracks where they don't meet somehow...I have the topsides and track/roadwheels area pretty well dirtied up-- thinking mud and grime from the Motherland here.  Still have some work to do on the turret and hull sides- and then I'll blend everything together a bit...

Other than your track issues everything looks good!

That was a fun kit - I went for the Panzer Gray on mine:

That doeslook awesome dupes!

 This is my first time dealing with rubber band tracks-- I am used to the ones in the Tamiya kits...but once I have it on a base sunk in under it's own "weight", it should look fine...

Finally, here's my long overdue update on my Bren carrier. Alot of pics, since most are progress shots of what I started with and how it progressed.

Here's a pic of the tracks without the mask before they go on the carrier.

Here's the kit supplied tow cable, but it just looked too plain since it would be going on the front hood of the carrier. So I decided to make my own using the string you see in the background.

I had to carve off all the tow cable on the kit piece, but keep a minimal amount since I needed a base for the new tow cable to go around. The other piece is the radio, for which I had to scratch a back for, since Tamiya seemed ignorant of adding one.

Here's the improved radio and the tow cable so far. Wrapped the string around the plastic piece, using super glue to get the ends connected, then just a slight dip in some Elmer's glue water. Then it was painted a basecoat of Testor's Steel, washed black, then covered in hydrated iron powder(haven't gotten around to removing most of the powder yet, so it looks darker then it will be.)

The suspension springs looked like c***, so they had to go. My replacment......the springs from inside a lock. Yes, you heard right a lock. I needed super small springs, so I cracked open some old locks in the basement, and presto! Perfect 1/48 suspension coils. However I didn't have enough so I had to scratch a few out of copper wire. Nevertheless how's that for scratching!

They were painted a darkened mixture of Testor's steel and black, then roughly covered with MM acrylic green. The bar inside the coils are actually the kits suspension coils that I cut off. After sanding off any detail, I shaved them down to fit in the springs.

Here's some pics of the entire Bren carrier so far:

Thanks for lookin'!

Mike, the Tiger is looking nice. I like the work around the exhaust stroud.

Mg, excellent work improving on the bren carrier. The suspension/track assembly has to be the weakest part of that kit.

Mikael - those improvements you made on the Bren look really good. Can only imagine how small this thing is - I'm already amazed at the diminutive size of my Hetzer!

Thanks for the Tiger comments fellas...I like how it turned out, but only earned a bronze at AMPS East last year. Bummer. 

well I have been waiting for the gasoline cannon conversion for the Tamiya 250 and it seems to be VERY back ordered so I am switching to a Sherman Firely with the black dog Hessian tape..

starting NOW

dostacos: I'm lookin forward to seeing that Hessian tape camo! I've seen that acessory from Black Dog, heck I even posted an update about that here in this thread, so I'm excited to see how your Firefly turns out!!

lots of little parts I don't need to use

they fit nice over the kit, minor surgery on the resin {removing the sprue parts to get the stuff to lay flat. the insides look like they are molded off the Tamiya body.

A few WIP shots of my entry.So far a fantastic kit.Perfectly engineered but not much to it.I can't understand why it is priced so high in most cases.