Heya Helo,

That tanker truck is a quick and easy build.  The decals were nice, the only thing that I'd add to it is stains from filling it and use some smaller black insulated wire for the hoses.  The one dude is supposed to be filling something, but he doesn't have a nozzle in his hand.  Easy enough to make a simple one with plastic chunks.  I've already got this in my collection, and I was going to add it to the F-84 diorama I'm going to make with the Verlinden base.  Lots and lots of .50 cal ammo cans laying around, the nose panel for the .50's on the Thunder chicken up, and the tanker truck filling the a/c.Would look nice and sweet I'm thinking!

Helo, I will say yes on the tanker truck Deuce 1/2. It sure looks like the same vehicle to me in that pic- two dual wheel axles in the rear, single wheels in the front, canvas top cab, and of course the fueling tank.

I have read about vehicles being disassembled for air transport. I wonder if the C-119 could carry one in one piece?

Well here is my F9F as of this afternoon. White vertical and horizontal stabilizer tips applied and Aluminum and Sea Blue touched up where needed. In the morning I will apply a coat of Future and in the evening I will apply the decals.

Hi Stik ;

Thanks for updating the front page

I'm not sure if the 1/72 Hasegawa GMC CCKW 353 Gasoline Tank Truck were used in Korea ....

There is a small photo in Squadrons Air War over Korea book of a similar small refueller with some F-51D Mustangs ;

Would Hasegawa's Gasoline Tank Truck be suitable ?

Another interesting pic in Squadrons GMC 353 Walk Around book is how the 2.5 Ton truck could be disassembled for transport ....

Makes for an interesting build sitting next to a cargo / transport aircraft .

                                     John .

Gregbbear

Really awesome stuff John!  Great additions to your personal collection and the GB front page.  The Centurion came out great.  Like it was factory made!

 

I could not have said it better, I got your Sherman and RF-51 added as well.

Well, I just went thru the past month of postings and updated the front page gallery as best I could. If I missed something let me know. Between work and family life this past month I have not been able to properly keep up with running this show. Too much going on in here and in real life... But it's all good.

Hi Greg ;

Thank's for the compliments on the Centurion build and other vehicles , I was quite happy with the end results on all of them .

Nice score on the booty by the way , particulary the Italeri dodge trucks and M7B1 priest .

Speaking of trucks the Squadron Signal GMC CCKW 2.5 Ton Truck Walk Around book arrived today and its chock full of great color photos ; In fact out of the 80 pages in total only two pages are B&W , the rest are color .

There is an interesting version of the GMC 353 with a LeRoi 105 GA compressor fitted onto the chassie ;

According to Squadrons book these compressor trucks were used during the Korean War .

Hannants have a 1/72 CMK Le Roi compressor conversion set for the GMC 353 and I have ordered one ;

Should make an interesting trio of GMC 353 Trucks , Searchlight , Clubmobile and now Compressor truck .

Something I spotted on the net was a pic of a Scammell Explorer Heavy Recovery Vehicle ...

According to the web site at least one of these Scammell Recovery Trucks operated during the Korean War ;

Although no mention of exactly where abouts ?

So I started looking around the net and ebay for 1/76 Scammell Recovery Trucks and saw lot's of Matchbox / Linsay die cast Scammells and bought this one for $8 bucks ;

I was thinking of using the chassie and axle's and wheels from the 1/76 Airfix Scammell Tank Transporter kit to kitbash with the die cast model and a new paint job .

I did see a 1/76 White Metal Scammell Recovery truck kit on the net by a company in Scotland called BW Models ; http://www.bwmodels.co.uk  ; they had a lot of interesting vehicle and truck kits in white metal , however there is currently no method of ordering items via their website but they will take orders by telephone ..................I wonder if it's expensive to call the UK from Sydney ???

The kit looks okay ; Although it's a little pricey at 21 pounds , which is about $33 Aus .

I guess I will think about it some more ...

Anyway I've made a start on the 1/72 Academy Dragon Wagon , I've glued the cab front , side and back pieces together and added the seats to the front floor section ; It's been slow going as my neck and upper back are still causing me some grief . Luckly I'm home and can lay flat on the floor when I need too , my hat's off to you Greg with your bad back and you still manage to go off to work each day at the Fire Dept.

Anyway , I think that Compressor GMC 353 truck might look quite good climbing the hill on my styrofoam display base with the searchlight truck , the foam base is 350mm x 200mm x 60mm high and the Searchlight truck looks a little small and lonely all by itself , perhaps I'll add another Hasegawa Jeep and Trailer as well !

                                   John .

Really awesome stuff John!  Great additions to your personal collection and the GB front page.  The Centurion came out great.  Like it was factory made!

The Austin Scale Model show wasn't very big vendor wise, but the constest material was excellent.  I, of course, forgot my camera since I was busy trying to hurd the family out the door.  There was an excellent Matchbox Skyknight.  It wasn't in war paint, but a USMC training squadron in Sea Blue.  If you didn't know the kit, you'd swear it was some kind of Tamigawa product.  There was also a nice USMC flamethrower Sherm, but it had the old T-66 tracks on it, so I assume it was a WWII piece.

As for booty, I went out of my scale and bought an Academy USMC Sherman with a dozer blade for $15.  When I got home, I opened the box, and found that there was also a Jordi Rubio metal barrel and mantlet too!  In small scale, I picked up a couple of Italeri dodge WC's, a Fujimi Priest, and some resin jerry cans.  The guy I bought the Priest from, gave me a partial Esci M12.  It is missing the body/hull, but it has some figures, and some howitzer shells that will most definetly come in handy.  Real nice of that guy! 

Hopefully, the October Armor show will have more small scale stuff (that isn't german, anyways).

Cheers,

Greg

John and Draken Andy: Great stuff as always! Gee, maybe I should switch over to 1/72-76 I might actually get something built.

Helo H-34

On your workbench , what's the Royal Canin used for ?

                  John

HA HA HA HA HA! 

It's gushy fudz I use as a treat for my cat.  I just hadn't gotten around to putting it on his food shelf yet.  Thanks for reminding me, though!

stick -- pm inbound

The Commando is looking nice Andy .

Nice touch dropping the flaps , I also noticed that you cut the smaller door completely out from the large cargo door , I think I will do the same.

I decided to buy Squadrons vacuform canopy for the Commando as well as some pre cut masks , as I also struggled with the kits two piece canopy

I see your props worked out okay and the silver finish overall looks great as well .

Once I knock out a few more vehicles , I'm sure I'll get the itch back for things with wings .

On your workbench , what's the Royal Canin used for ?

                  John

Hi Andy ;

Thank's for the kind words on the recent builds , they are very much appreciated .

I've had Academy's Dragon Wagon on and off the bench a few times and I think it's time to get it built .

I already gave the parts a few light coats of olive drab while on the sprue , so it's time to start cutting parts off and glueing ...

I keep looking at your Dragon Wagon build Andy for reference , hopfully mine should turn out okay .

I was going to start another Academy 2.5 Ton truck and another Heller GMC 353 as well as a Centurion Tug but it's the Dragon Wagon  that shoud get done first .

                          John .

Yo, Helo!

In the words of Ray Davies of the Kinks, "You've really got me going now, I don't know what I'm ever gonna do."

Here's the progress on the Commando.  I have to mask and paint the walkway strips, and then string the multitude of antennae.  But the DECALS ARE ON!

Yeah, the canopy joint is really nasty on mine.  i tried to putty it twice and it always seemed to break away.  And don't remind me, I've got the landing gear swapped left to right!  I broke off half of the antennae while trying to mask off the nose to do a white portion and gave up.  I went with a full red nose, but will be adding a black line to differentiate.  The same goes with the tail between the red and white.  I made it two different heights to show that the rudder had been replaced from a different a/c.  The majority of the antennae came from the Testors/Italeri C-46 and stretched sprue.  I had opened up everything available (except for the under fuselage doors, which I now regret not doing!) and the only thing not showing is the door for the passengers that hangs down when the cargo door is open.  I've got the tail wheel turned as though it's on the tarmac having already landed and awaiting a new cargo.  I might just use one of my GMC trucks and make a loading ramp for it.  Who knows!  Now that I can keep the younguns outta mmy office, I can display stuff like this on a table or shelf without fear of breakage!

WOW!  AWESOME WORK HELO! 

One of these days I'll get the decals on my C-46 and jump into something else.  Strange but true, I noticed that my rubber tires on it are flat on the bottom with bulges.  ISTR leaving on top of my toaster oven for a few minutes while toasting some bread.  Who'd'a thunk that would work!

Anyway, can't wait to see some more from Helo, that braille scale armour is AWESOME!

Thanks for the tip on the size of the tree , Andy .

Like Greg , I did notice very little vegertation while looking through the Squadron Armor book ; I can cut some of the smaller branches and just have shrub size trees in a few spots .

I'm still messing around with sheet styrofoam for the Searchlight Truck display base , in the meantime the 1/72 Heller GMC 353 Searchlight truck is finished , so here's a sneek peek ....

Here are some finished pic's of the other Armor / Vehicles I've been working on  ;

1/76 Airfix Centurion Tank from the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars 1950 ...

Overall I'm quite happy with the build and there was no problem stretching the tracks to fit given the overall 5mm extended length in the hull

1/72 Academy U.S. 2.5 Ton Cargo Truck ;

1/72 Hasegawa M3 Halftrack Ambulance ;

1/72 Hasegawa Jeep and Trailer with Italeri Jeep in the background and Imex Korean War figures ;

Here's the 1/72 Airfix M3 Halftrack kitbashed with SHQ metal M15A1 Turret ...

Like the Centurion build , I'm really happy how the M15A1 came together ;

I used some of the figures from the Hasegawa M3 Halftrack and I cut a small piece of clear plastic and painted some frame lines for a windscreen ;

Well , that's it for the time being , hopfully the display base will work out for the Searchlight Truck dio .

Thank's for looking .

                            John .

Found this with StumbleUpon.  Some guy visited Ft. Sill and took pictures of everything on display.  There's a lot of more modern stuff, as well as some WWI stuff.  I was very happy to see some of the specifically KW equipment, including Communist Forces artillery.  Check it out, it's pretty nice!

http://www.cdsg.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=482

Gregbbear

Draken, well your earler comment makes sense of some things for me.  Seeing all the KW pictures of a treeless Korea, and when I was there in the '90's it had lots of pine trees, I was wondering what had changed????  Now I know, thanks.

I'm on friendly terms with the director of the 2ID museum on Camp Red Cloud and he tells me that one of the first things that the returning vets mention to him when they talk is that they want to kinow where all the f'n trees came from!

And it's STILL a problem up in the DPRK.  The famines are a result of not only mismanagement and lack of good farmland.  It's also a result of the severe erosion due to the destruction of forests for heating and building.  Because the coal is being exported for hard currency and taken by the elites, the masses are forced to take down the trees.  The trees in turn hold most of the soil down and without them, there's no land to plant.  And massive flooding because the rains don't soak into the ground.  Sad but true.

On another note, I'm still debating what to start next.  I've been dead dog tired when I get home and haven't been doing any modeling.  I've got the C-46 ready for decals and then I'm going to start something, maybe the LSU, I've got it out and it's looking kinda nice.  Would be cool to have another boat for the build.

Hope that this helps!

Your group post John, AWESOME!  What a cool bunch of additions to your ever growing ground collection.

Draken, well your earler comment makes sense of some things for me.  Seeing all the KW pictures of a treeless Korea, and when I was there in the '90's it had lots of pine trees, I was wondering what had changed????  Now I know, thanks.

No progress at all.  First week of paramedic school has been busy.  It is pretty cool, but lots of reading.

Pepper, I hope we can meet up in October then.  I'll try and remember my camera for once, and post any interesting finds.

Cheers,

Greg

John: She's looking good! I like the styrofoam since it's cheap, light, and easy to shape to get what I want.

You might want to find a copy of Shep Paine's 'How To Build Dioramas'. It's an older book so it won't include some of the newer stuff but still I've found it worth it's weight in gold. It's stuffed with useful information.

Draken Andy: I had no idea about the trees. Makes perfect sense but I never thought about it- gee you learn something new every day.

Heya John!

Another option for a base is to buy a picture frame with glass in it.  That's what I've done and then used 'spakle' or what we call 'dry-wall compund' in the USA.  One suggestion on yours:  Leave the tree out, or make it a very short, de-limbed one.  Due to the Japanese occupation taking all of the coal for war use and for the Japanese elites, the native Koreans were required to use all the wood that they could find for cooking and heating.  By the end of the Korean War (and even at the beginning) there were virtually no trees left on the peninsula over about 6' tall.

BTW, AWESOME WORK ON THE ARMOUR!  That stuff you're doing is finally coming together all at once.  And it's beautiful.  Can't wait to see the final pics. 

Pepper and Cliff , thanks for the tips on making the dio .

The display board I was thinkinking of using already has a piece of laminate (laminex) glued to the top , so I suppose that would eliminate any warpping issue's .

I never thought about using styrofoam as the main base and then adding spackle on top where needed , I have some sheet styrofoam and I cut a piece to see how things might look ...

It needs to be a little higher overall but I think the base piece is a good start .

I'll keep playing around some more .

Thanks again guy's

                        John .

Gamera

 I picked up a base at a craft store, cut some styrofoam in the shape I wanted, covered it with spackle, painted it brown, and glued static grass to it. You can take a motor tool or flat screwdriver and chip away tracks and then paint that light brown with a dark brown wash. That's what I did with my K1A1 scene.  

Heya Guys:

Great suggestion and something i forgot ... if you put foam down and the Spackle on top of that, you won't have the warping problem I spoke of ... you can get foam at any craft store down there I'm sure, John ... I use 1, 2 and 4 inch thick foam on my layout and 3 and 5 mm thick white foam on dio bases ...

Give that a try and let us know what works for you ...

pepper

PK: Gee I like your explanation about the earthquake on the school project Looking forward to the P/F-80 photos.

John: You might want to check over in the dioramas section of this site if you haven't already. Several WiPs have been posted over there recently and von Hammer is running a dio GB that you might ask advice in.

I've done a few dios but nothing really involved. I picked up a base at a craft store, cut some styrofoam in the shape I wanted, covered it with spackle, painted it brown, and glued static grass to it. You can take a motor tool or flat screwdriver and chip away tracks and then paint that light brown with a dark brown wash. That's what I did with my K1A1 scene.  

Helo H-34

So is just ordinary spakle okay to use , I'll only mix a little at a time and build the hill and roadway slowly ???

Hi John:

Spakle is a great medium for building up the ground on a dio base BUT, please, please be sure you put down a good coat of latex house paint - top, bottom, even the sides of the base before you put the Spackle on it ... in fact, 2 coats simply (but smoothly and neatly) slathered on your plywood base would be in order ...

Reason ? ... the Spackle is a 'wet' medium and as it dries, your wooden base is gonna warp and look like a pretzel ... don't ask me how I know ... when we lived in San Diego, all 4th graders had a project every year to build one of the missions which are a part of the California scene ...

My youngest and I build a grand clone of the Mission San Diego de Alcala and when finished, put it out on the back porch to dry and set up hard ... next morning, we came out to see our mission had crumbled as if it had been struck by a California earthquake and all caused by the Spackle warping the ply base ... too late to make another, my daughter took it to school with a placard stating that this is what might happen should such a quake occur ... her teacher was not amused ...

Otherwise, Spackle is good stuff - easy to work with - sands nicely - builds up the underlying groundwork like a champ ... takes paint and ground cover beautifully ... when I use it, after it has dried, I paint it with the base earth tones, then use model railroad ballast, grass and weeds and such to get the desired effect ... I shop a lot in the railroad section of my LHS for just such materials ... you can also smooth it out nicely, paint it concrete color and stripe it to look like a runway or taxiway at an airport ...

All in all, good stuff ...

As always guys, kudos to one and all ...

BTW - the Shooting Star is finished and just as the sun dips below the horizon this day, I'll shoot some photos to share and 1 to go up on the first page of this GB ...

pepper

Andy , you must have been suprised to see that ROK M19 truck still in use ; I really like the look of the GMC CCKW 353 rag top truck and I have ordered another three Heller 1/72 kits and one 1/35 kit .

Greg , excellent progress on the LVT and those sandbags look good , as does the concentina wire ; Please share your technique on making the wire , I'm busting to have some on my truck bumpers .

As for me I have been making steady progress on my 1/72 Armor builds , I have added the Airfix AEC Matador and Hasegawa jeep and trailer into the mix with the other vehicles I'm working on ...

My AEC Matador kit was missing a front cab door , so I went to the spares box and found an old Airfix AEC Matador Tanker . It's the second time I have used parts from this scrapped vehicle , I used part of the chassie to fix the broken / missing section on the Revell M19 Tank Transporter . This time the whole front cab section was still all glued together , so it made sense to just use the old cab , rather than trying to cut out one door .

Here's Hasegawa's Jeep and Trailer sprue pic ;

Both builds are quite straight forward and it only took one evening to have them ready for the spraybooth ;

The last three evenings I've been decaling all the other vehicles and Centurion tank , as well as 24 soldiers to place in and around the vehicles ;

Tonight I added a little black enamel wash and all the armor and vehicles are now ready for a final flat clear coat . So I'm quite happy that I'm in the home straight on these beauties .

I do have an idea floating around in my busy little head and I was thinking about having a first attempt and building a display base for the Searchlight Truck to sit on just like the photo in Squadrons Armor in Korea book ....

Do you guy's think these materials are suitable to use ;

The Searchlight Truck appears to be sitting high on a mostly gravel hill top , so I thought about using some spakle powder mixed with water to make the hill top along with some Noch Light Gray medium ballast as the surface , there's a tree for one corner of the display board and the variety pack of camouflage netting arrive today to go over the searchlight Truck . Academy have some nice gun mounts in their 2.5 Ton truck as well as machine guns , so I can place a couple of those on the hill top as well .

So is just ordinary spakle okay to use , I'll only mix a little at a time and build the hill and roadway slowly ???

Any advice would be greatly appreciated .

                            John .

Hi Greg:

Can't make the show this weekend but do plan to attend the October bash ... when we get a bit closer, let's put our heads together and figure a way to meet up down there and enjoy the modeling and more ...

pepper

Weird, but true!

On the way home from work yesterday I happened to notice that the RoK Army truck turning in front of me looked unusual.  Definitely not one of the M-35's or Daewoo equivalents.  It was a 'workshop' truck; welders, generators, etc.  And it was definitely an M-19!!!

No kidding, they are apparently still in use with the RoK Army! 

Hi Pepper, the AMPS show is on October 22nd.  The Korean War is the theme.  I would love to have my M32 done by then, and it be worthy of showing.  We'll see....  Are you still going to the Austin show this weekend?

I wish my workbench was that clean!  I have a 90% done Ju-290 occupying most of it.  I need to finish it, but it is too big to put anywhere.

Cheers,

Greg

Geez, Greg:

That can't possibly be your workbench top we're looking at in these pictures ... man, that thing is cleaner than my kitchen table :-) ...

BTW, what was the October date for the show down your way ? ...

pepper

PS  M'thinks your sandbags and concertina wire look great ! ...

Black SA-16, me likey!

I am now ready for the flat coat, weathering, and adding all the little things on the LVT.  Hopefully, I will get to the paint booth this week.  I also tried my hand at making some sandbags, and concertina wire.  Looks okay, I think.

Cheers,

Greg

DP&SP: thanks for the help guys. Going to have to do some web-searching to correct the uniforms.

Dr. Win: Think I commented about a month ago about the same thing happening to me on a IJA SPG that I'd spent about two months painting and weathering. Hope you're able to fix the situation. Really ticks me off to do all that work and then have it go bad at the last step

Greg: Great P-51- I mean RF-51, well Mustang!

John: Looking forward to seeing how the searchlight truck comes out. And that Black Dog storage looks really neat.