M26 pershing GB

Well, we had a realtor and a (hopeful) buyer in the house Saturday, so that cut my bench time down a little bit, but I still got in there and did the lower hull and suspension. I'd been doing the Friuls a little bit at a time, and had groups on 10 and 20 links in runs, so that part was quick. I wanted a "nose-down" attitude on this one, like the "super" but I"m building a Zebra Mission unit, to be in a very late war setting, probably posed hull-down on an incline (over- looking a river?). The rear swing arm is at the fully extended position, as limited by the locating pin on the hull, and the front arm and idler (linked together) are about 1/2 way lowered. The center 4 swing arms are free to swivel.

The upper hull is just laid on the lower in the pics, and all I've done on the turret is the basic assembly, no details yet. I did remove the stiffening ribs on the final drive housings and plug the hole in the rear hull for the infantry phone and tow cable brackets. I plan on having the cable draped over the front of the hull, up one side and secured, ready for quick use. That's the plan anyway, all of this is of course, unofficial.

I really like building this particular kit, it is truly one of Tamiya's better-engineered kits.

RBaer: hey... looking good.. !! I'm using the same kit.. nicly engineered indeed..

Mine is stalled due to a broken torsion arm.. hopefully my resin casting supplies show up this week and I can cast a new one and get back on it..  I got some Fruils for mine to.. this will be my first with them...

Thanks, it's a good kit.

You'll like the Friuls. One thing I will say about them, pick up some .020" steel or brass wire and use it instead of the wire supplied by Friul. That way, you can usually skip having to drill the links and simply push the new wire in. It's almost a tight enough fit to make any glue unnecessary, but I use a wee bit of white glue anyway. I use a smallish pair of end-cutters to hold and push the wire all the way in, pull it out about 1-2 mm and cut it as close as I can, then shove the wire back in with the tip of a small file. That usually leaves the end of the wire slightly recessed in the link.

I'm pretty sure mine took 102 links per side, but adjust as necessary. I have one piece of wire un-trimmed on each side in case I need to adjust the length after the base is done. I'd like to pose this thing on RR tracks, but we'll see.

cool. thanks for the tip!

Guys: Since I'm not officially in this GB I won't bog down the dial-up guys with too many pictures but I would like to post one of my favorite shots of my completed Pershing.  If you care to see a bunch more pic's go to my thread.  Anyway. here's how she looks:

OOOps....Let's try that again!

SMJ : ummm.. that doesn't look like a Pershing?? lol.. wrong pic?, and can you post a link to your build?

Thanks!

p38jl

...can you post a link to your build?

I'm not sure how to post a link to a thread...can you help me?

p38jl

...can you post a link to your build?

I'm not sure how to post a link to a thread...can you help me?

SMJ:  nice pic.. 2nd time edit worked great..lol..  Dio looks good..!

as for the link?? not sure myself,, maybe go to your thread? copy the link ? past it in a reply? I haven't tried it myself..

anyone else know ?

PS.. got my resin casting supplies today in the mail.....!!! casting and replacing lost torsion arm soon!!

all.. unofficialy of course...

SMJ, I like your Pershing. OOB? What's the fallen leaves made from?

I'll look at thread in "armor"......

Edit:

OK, looked, answered all my questions too. Very nice, trees especially.

Try this: /forums/t/122362.aspx?PageIndex=2

Great looking tanks guys! Umm Im kind of reluctant to say this but, what kind of colour would useful for the M26's ruber tracks, Is Nato black good for this?

And now that i have photobucket, can anyone show me how to put it into my profile?

TOT am pat: not sure on the track color myself, the one I am doing has all steel tracks. As for photobucket, after you load a pic, it has 4 options underneath for image codes. I think the one for HTML is the one you copy, and paste it in your profile.. try that..

Thanks p38jl, I finally uploaded the picture, Thanx!

SMJmodeler: Absolutely beautiful! The fall environment really bought me. Good job!

As for the tank tracks, I'll decide on a gunmetal or dark black,grey color and tone it down through drybrushing and some dullcotes(I need to remind myself to purchase it too!). 

Progress report: Ball turret and small pieces attached, lower and upper hull attached.Spirits high, spare time low!

After the tank tracks get painted, then i can finally stop getting pannic attacks because after that, everything will be straight forward

You guys are getting through this in a snap! If you start lose interest in this GB, that will be the time I finish my tank! So wait up and dont forget about me!

Hopefully, I will be back on track( no pun intended, unofficialy ) this weekend !

Well, Dallas unofficially got more snow than it's ever had since snowfall amounts were recorded (or close to it, but it's a lot), so I'm not opening the shop (no power). Unofficially, this means I get to model today!

TAP, persevere! Personally, I like doing the tracks and running gear, and find painting is the part I dread . In fact, I have several  models stalled, ready for paint, that  I can't quite man-up and paint.

ok,, resin casting is in session,,,, parts being rebuilt.. we have the technology... we can rebuild it... ( cue 6 Million Dollar Man theme. )[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

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wow ya'll are doing an awesome job,i would like to know more about casting my own parts (fear of screwing up and making a mess keeps me from trying.)rbaer your tank looks great ,so does the others here,mine is still waiting for paint.....and road wheels (yuk) so my model has made an unofficial stratagic retreat to the back of my desk,however with the unofficial deadline looming on the horizion i need to get giong on it. no work for me tomorrow so maybe i'll shoot at it. any way DAYTONA is fixxin to start and the two must watch races for me are DAYTONA and TALLADAGA, so i will secretly retire to my easy chair and enjoy TONY making four left turns .enjoy your day and have fun.i wasn't here and you didn't just read this,no one knows who i am or where i'm at .unofficially this is a great thread.

What a race! Good finish for Jr, too.

Unofficially, we had no electricity for a couple of days, but I did manage to get in a couple of hours on Saturday, all bundled up by a window, working till the sun started down. The pics are pretty crappy, Ill try for better ones soon. All I got done were a few fittings and the rear deck. I did add some hinge pins to the cooling vent hinges, and textured the rear of the hull. I trimmed the front fenders since they seemed to get destroyed pretty quickly, and used a Dragon commander's cupola since the detail looked a little sharper than the kit part. Dragon puts a sprue in Sherman kits from their M26/46 kits that has the cal-50 MG on it, and also a few other nice pieces.

Time is short for a while, have a 24 Hours of Lemons race this weekend, so not much time (if any) scheduled for modeling this week. That's unofficial, of course.....

'38, how'd the mold turn out?

RBaer: the mold turned out pretty good.. I'll post an after mold pic soon..  and your Pershing is looking sweet..!

armournut: Acutally, making your own parts from rubber molds is pretty easy, a bit time comsuming( due to drying of the rubber molds and resin casts..) but pretty easy overall..

I used the Lego blocks as my mold box, easy to get, easy to reuse, cheap( stole em from my kid,,ssshhh! ) ... build the mold box big enough for the part, and have enough room for the rubber mold to extend beyond the part enough to keep the mold block stiff when removed. I then drilled a few small holes in the part and added a stiff wire to suspend the part by, coated the part and mold box with the release agent, poured in the liquid rubber molding compound, fill box up to part, and partialy up the side of the part.. set aside.. let dry... Once dry, using a sharp knife, cut in "keys" ( shapes in the mold half to keep halfs aligned when you  make copies., I cut in pointed shapes like small pyramids) spray on more mold release agent..  Fill box with more rubber mold agent. Let dry... remove Lego blocks, seperate mold halfs..  Once seperated, cut in with a sharp knife, a pour hole, and a vent hole, these should be two seperate holes in the top most part of the original part as it sits in the mold.. Air needs to escape when you pour in the resin casting agent. Coat with mold release agent, put mold halfs together aligning the keys( I use rubber bands and popsicle sticks to hold together).. Pour in resin, untill resin comes out vent hole.. Set aside.. till dry n hard. seperate.. ,, cut off excess resin.. and tada!! your done..

If your order a Resin casting starter kit from Micro Mark ( about $88.00 ) it comes with all you need, plus.... and instructions..  I'll post pics of my mold later..

ok, here are some after mold pics.. and the new torsion arm installed... the pointed looking section of the mold is a 40 MM Bofors ammo I'm doing for a friend..[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

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Shazaam! It's like magic!

p38jl: This really was an "unofficial GB"!  I thought that was a joke until I saw the badge.  Do I qualify as a participant...worthy of the badge?

Let's have an unofficial vote. I vote "yes".

I say... officialy yes... which means unofficialy,,, yes.. and I'm not here.. no one saw me.... and if you did... I'd have to kill you...

Thanks guys, I'll unofficially go grab the badge!

officialy, I did not read that last post... I did not , Mr Speaker , read that post at anytime... ( done in my best Bill Clinton voice )..

Unofficially, I have modeling time on the books for Saturday (hooray!) so if I can tear myself away from the Magach 6B- Gal I'm deep into, the Pershie gets some time. You didn't read that here however.

I saw a 1/48th Tamiya "in-progress" pic in a recent MMI that looks like what I'm going for, so I've got even more motivation.  I did dig through the extras pile the other day and found an Italeri M47 that I had begun an M46 conversion on, using AEF parts, which were truly horrible, by the way. The turret is HUGE. Probably why I stopped. I may build up the inside pieces of the gun and use it, or not..........

Assembly almost done, trying to decide whether or not to try ans add all the tie-down loops on the exterior of the side stowage boxes and fender edges. That might actually drive me over the edge.....

I do have some etch left over from various Shermans with a bunch of loops on the frets, but they're soooo small......

Casting numbers are shaved from extra sprues, mantlet cover is represented with stretched sprue. The final drive fillers are lumps of sprue, faired in with putty and Mr Surfacer. I want to hang a tow cable on a fender, hooked up and ready for use, so I knocked out the brackets from lumps of Plastruct.

Anybody see anything I've missed? Unofficially, of course......

Oops, I stuttered.