Because this GB has been extended for two more years, I have been thinking about building Dragon 1/35 M3 Halftrack.  I did a quick checking and it showed that M3 saw alot of action in Korea War so I will join you again with another build perhaps in 2012. 

I finally returned to my workbench over the weekend to finish my M24 Chaffee and I am pleased to share that it is finally completed.  But I didn't have the chance to take pictures.  Will post the results soon...

Lots of good work showing so far guys!

DP, I am looking forward to seeing that Chaffee.

Helo, the amount of kits you churn out continues to amaze me!

Draken, your input and apparent passion for the subject here are a great asset to us all!

Deafpanzer: Cool, looking forward to seeing the finished photos! And the M3 will be cool.

John, cool LVT!  Finally, an Amtrak appears. 

Cheers,

Greg

Guys, I think I am going to call my M24 Chaffee done unless there is something I may have missed! LOL

GRAY POSTER:

I still want to build a diomara base for this... a dirt road with a ditch or something like that.  And a patch from my friend Greg (detailfreak).  I hope to do the base this summer...

Comments and feedbacks are always welcome!  Thanks for looking...

EXCELLENT CHAFFEE!  But there's only one problem...  Like the lyrics to the song go:

"’relax,’ said the night man,
'We are programmed to receive.
You can checkout any time you like,
But you can never leave!'"  ~Hotel California

This group will not let you go, we're more addictive than sniffing glue.  You'll be back, another day, another time, another kit.  You know you will.

Deaf she's a beauty!!!! Excellent work mate!!! Figures are great as well!!

Now that I see the deadline has been extended for the duration, I will surely get time to finally finish off my -4B Corsair. Dunno when but that's plenty of time even for me lol.

DP: WOW!!! Fantastic work man, great job on the Chaffee and terrific figures! All around great work! Now as the Draken says you must build the halftrack- there is no escape!

Simpilot: Yes! Corsairs are awesome!

ABSOLUTLY AWESOME CHAFFEE

Amazing work DP ; Your skills and workmanship are truely something to be admired .

Well done Sir !

                        John .

Sticking with the current armour theme , I started to do a little prelim work on the Millcast resin LVT-3 Amtrac ;

I cut and filed one lower track assembly to begin with ;

As well as a little filing on the inside face of the lower track section ;

I went back and looked at the Millcast web site and they have a couple of pic's of a finished LVT-3 , so I printed those out for reference . Anyway I have gone nice and steady filing and sanding and so far no problems .

I'll continue on tomorrow evening after dinner and clean up the other lower track assembly .

                                John .

Heya John!

Weirdly enough, I had just been looking at mine before I saw your post!  Great minds think a like, what say? 

I may have to go out and buy a few more Academy truck kits to get some M-2 MG's for those resin babies.  I just don't think that I can handle 5 parts for a 1/76 scale M-2!  On a side note, I pulled my LVT3 out of the baggy and noticed that my front crew housing is seriously warped!  Also, the two sprues with the barrel brushes for my M-19 dual 40mm are mega warped.  What's the best way to handle that?  The old 'hot water trick' working with resin as well as styrene? 

On a further note...  Artillery came up for me as a question last night, for some bizarre reason, and I did some searching and found that the M-101 originally had two splinter shields, and that in its guise as the renamed M-2A2 only had a single shield.  That's the difference between the Ace 1/72 M-101 kit and the Revell 105mm gun that comes with the CH-46 Tarhe helo kit.  Go figure, it's the 'lightweight' version that I'd thought it was. 

Lemme know what colour you decide to go with on the Amtrac, dude!    I'll do mine a different, but still equally likely colour, to keep everything different.

I would imagine the Amtracs should be OD or USMC Green. The use of water camoflage on Amtracs was discontinued in 1944 from all photos I have seen. Multi color pattern land camo schemes were not seen much after Iwo Jima in 1945...

the_draken

EXCELLENT CHAFFEE!  But there's only one problem...  Like the lyrics to the song go:

"’relax,’ said the night man,
'We are programmed to receive.
You can checkout any time you like,
But you can never leave!'"  ~Hotel California

This group will not let you go, we're more addictive than sniffing glue.  You'll be back, another day, another time, another kit.  You know you will.

LOL!  Definitely I will be back because I had fun with you guys and it doesn't mean I am done here.  I will watching everybody's WIP too.  Thanks for the song... my wife loved it. 

Simpilot- Thank you for the nice comments!   I look forward to see your Corsair. 

Gamera- I will be back definitely... maybe not with Dragon M3 Halftrack but a Tamiya M8 Greyhound instead as I could use a break from tracks because my next three builds will involve tracks.   Wait and see... we have plenty of time... LOL

Helo- Thank you for the compliment.  I look forward to see more of your work especially the LVT.  Like I said I was not really into wings but I have been learning a great deal from you guys.  I am so glad I signed up for this GB! 

Looking forward to see more WIPs here...

Andy , I'm sorry to hear that the crew housing is warped on your LVT-3 , I guess I would try soaking the part in hot water , I really don't know of anything else that would work .

I thought I might paint my amtrac Marine Green as Stik mentioned ; That would be Gunze H-340 (FS 34097) Field Green .

Andy , you also mentioned a while back about Academy's KF-16C ROKAF , could you email me regarding the kit ....

I was thinking of another "Face-Off" pairing of the KF-16C and a DPRK MiG-29 ;

I found a camouflage patten artwork on wings palette and thought about using Italeri's MiG-29 ;

I'll have to search around for some DPRK insignia decals as well .

Seriously thinking about buying the Millcast M4 High Speed Tractor ; did you get that one !

                                                          John .

Heya Helo!

I kinda figured that the hot water would be the best option.  I honestly can't figure anything else out on that end.  Of course, I haven't started either the M39 or the Amtrac, so I'm not really looking hard as of yet.  I'll probably go with either Marine Green or OD green.  It's gonna be a nice build when I do it, I like the look of the thing, especially when compared with the LVT-4.  I'm thinking about putting fine wire mesh in place of the cargo grill on mine.  Maybe add some thick string in place of rope and add some spare tires as bumpers.  As if it were used in ship-to-shore cargo like a DUKW.

There is a manufacturer for the DPRK MiG-29 decals, I'll be dipped if I can remember who makes 'em.  I've got a set with a Fulcrum back home in the states.

Andy, yes; I did order the M-4 as well as a replacement M-39.  I figure, if I'm going to be ordering from Limey-Land (Pommyland?) I might as well get everything I need.  I'll let you know how that works out.

Question for the group:

Helo and Doc are probably going to be the first to answer this, since the three of us all build the same scale.  I've got the Academy 1/72 Thunderjet and will be building it with different decals (the kit ones SUX! as they don't stay on the plastic).  I'm thinking about using a different set of decals on another T-jet, but don't want to do the same manufacturer.  Is the Heller kit worth a dang?  I've seen it on eBay a few times and almost jumped at it.  I'd just rather not spend the $$$ if it's not worthy of the price.

advTHANXance!

And you'd be right there! :) I also have the Academy kit, but with the Aeromaster aftermarket decals  - mine is 'Four Queens' based out of Taegu. I did use the Academy stencils though, they went on alright - wasn't going to risk the unit marking though from much painful experience with Academy decals...

I've not done the Heller kit so can't offer you any advice there but I do know that Tamiya also do an F-84 in 1/72nd which is quite nice apparently...

Anyway heres my F-84 - 

I'm going to have to become an observer rather than a participant on this GB for the next few weeks as I'm back to work on Monday and will be away from my desk and all my modelling kit. Still haven't decided what to do next yet...

Doc

Oh and officially it is Her Majesties Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Or Britain to most of us draken... :p

I usually call you guys 'the 51st state,' but lately I've been reserving that for Canada, which is often referred to as America's Hat.

Dr Win

Oh and officially it is Her Majesties Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Or Britain to most of us draken... :p

Ohhhhh Draken you're going to get yelled at

 I tend to go with Britain or if I'm feeling formal Great Britain...

Sometimes I just go with 'the UK' which I suppose is ok, I mean unless someone is likely to think I'm refering to the University of Kentucky....

I have only built the Airfix F-84F bird and the decals were no problem , the only Heller kit I put together with the kit decals was a T-28 Trojon with VNAF markings , they were okay too . Most Heller kits I have built have been for the Israeli IDF and I've used aftermarket decals for those builds . Sorry I couldn't be of more help Andy .

Back to Korean War Armour , I ordered two UM 1/72 Sherman tanks , M4A2 with Dozer blade and M4A3 105mm HVSS . there are a couple of pic's in my Armour in Korea book of the M4A3 105mm with a Dozer blade , so I thought I would very much like to have one in the collection .(thanks to the Draken for the tip on the UM kits).

I also bought some hobby tools , Trumpeter rivet maker , Waldron punch and die set , some more glamps , mini files and tweezer set .

I have been using the same needle file set for about 15 years now , i definitly needed some new ones !

Doc , Very nice F-84E

                                John .

Outstanding work on your F-84!   So many decals... loved the colorful decals  How many decals did you put on this one? 

That's a really beautiful T-jet!  Rather than the rainbow, I'm thinking of going with the same black/yellow checkerboard as the Academy kit, but with good decals. 

In other news, I'm slowly but surely updating my web page about this build.  Not including anything YOU guys have done, only the kits that I'm building.  Not bragging here, because I have no right to.  But I do want it to get a few hits and help out fellow modelers who may want to follow in our footsteps.  Essentially, it's a review of all of the kits that I'm building/have built for the Korean War collection.

https://sites.google.com/site/modelingthekoreanwarin172scale/home

That's the home page and I've set it up in several different easy to understand categories.  At the moment I can't load anymore pictures on the site!  It ahs a set number of images and I've apparently reached the image limit.  I'm playing around, toying with different ideas of what to do to get around that.  Right now it's not really on the top of my list of THINGS TO DO!  I figure, as long as I get the reviews up dated, I can at least put in links to pics or pics themselves, somehow, at a later date.  If there's a link to the kit, it's probably got a review of it, I've also included other people's reviews, because two different modelers can have TOTALLY different experiences. 

I'm kind of at a stopping point with the C-46.  I need to sit down and mask it (I hate masking almost as much as I hate wheels!) then hit it with the silver rattle can.  Right now we're experiencing the 'rainy season' and it's been raining every day since Sunday.  I just can't get the gumption to get to work on it.  I'm looking at working on something else in the meantime, but I'm out of OD Green rattle can and the LHS is two hours away on the train.  One way.   I might head there on Saturday, maybe on Sunday.

Other news.  I can't freaking believe how ballsy the kids in my school are.  They stole my Chinese machine guner, the Banshee, my MiG-15, and a halftrack WHILE I WAS ASLEEP IN MY CLASSROOM!  That takes some freaking guts.  As of today I'm just taking the vast majority of the kits home, especially the expensive ones.  It really hurts me to do that, since I haven't had any troubles at all for two years, and now I'm losing stuff every week.I can replace the halftrack and the Banshee easy.  I'm not spending $$$ for the Imex figures a second time!  And I don't know where i can get a MiG-15 here in Korea at all, that's gotta come from the states.  It's just frustrating, I see it as stealing from their own history.  I know, yeah they're just kids, but they KNOW to leave this stuff alone.

Well, as soon as I get somewhere on the Commando, or decide what to build next, I'll let you guys know!

Happy modelling folks!

Deafpanzer, I lost count, the stencils took a couple of days to do by themselves before I even started on the other markings! Although looking at the paintwork I could do better - I built her about 4 years ago before I'd switched to airbrush painting and before I'd discovered parafilm for canopies!

The decal sheet is the Aeromaster 'Thunderjets over korea Pt 2 '

Draken, the black and yellow striped Thunderjet decals are also done by Aeromaster on the 'Thunderjets over Korea Pt1'

Doc.

Doc: Fantastic F-84! Please if you get a chance I'd love to see more photos.

Draken: Sorry to hear about the continuing thieving. shame but seems like you're going to have to either lock your stuff up, take it with you, or put it out of reach. And it's probably one student that's doing it. Always seems that way that some jerk wrecks things for everyone else.

Draken, when I was out there I was all in favour of giving the miscreants a short sharp shock. Of course it all depended on how tightly I could tie them to the lightning conductor... (insert maniacal laughter here)

And now specially for Gamera - (you're in luck I was doing WIP and completed shots for a customer so just dusted of the F-84 and took some new shots of her, enjoy...)

Doc.

Doc: Thanks! She looks even better now that I can see her from different angles. Flawless work on the NM and all those crazy decals.

Doc, that Thunderjet sure is a beauty! The 1/48 Pro Modleler kit comes with the same markings option. I know what you mean about the stencils. On my 1/48 build the unit markings were applied in one session, but it took and additional three or four sessions to apply all the stencils...

Draken, might I suggest a note home to all the parents of your students advising them of a thief in your class and for them to keep an eye out to see if their child has some new "acquisitions". I am pretty sure that such activity is frowned upon by parents in that culture and if the offender is caught he will be punished better than most of us can dream up...

And to all, apologies for not updating the roster page sooner on the latest completed builds from the past couple weeks.... it is current as of today...

Hiya All:

After too many unexpected 'events' and lousy 'issues', I'm back and  feeling rather perky ...

Weather is hotter than snot ~ too hot to airbrush,  but I've nothing ready right now so it doesn't matter ...

Got caught up with everybody and their builds and progress ~ KUDOS to one and all ... I am constantly learning things here and enjoy looking at WIP and then the finished item ...

I have finally finished my Sabre Jet ... pictures below ... this is now a done deal ... I think the best picture(s)are of each side view so why not use both for my DONE deal ? ...

   Right side cockpit view

   Head On View

   Right  side view

This aircraft flown by Capt. Charles McSwain, 39 FIS/51 FIW, Suwon (K-13), Korea, 1953

   # 616, 'Q', 2 Squadron, SAAF, K55, Osan AB, Korea, 1953

The whole rear fuselage was a replacement seection from a USAF 67th FBS Sabre, thus the markings ...

So, I've two jets in one ...

Next on my plate is this ...

pepper

PS  I ordered the Bell helo through Brookhurst Hobbies on April 22 and have yet to receive it  ... I did receive some decals I ordered, but they were 1/72 rather than 1/48 ...

My experience to date with them is poor ... Group Builders beware ...