Have Gun Will Travel: SP Artillery GB 2011

Hi Redleg -- good point, I was thinkiing I might grind in some more pigment to get that area really beat up. This is one of the heavier weathering jobs I've done, creating as much tonal variation on a single-colour vehicle as this is a challenge. I might take a crack at a Sherman in Europe camo, the same sort of deal would apply. Maybe even try mud...

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Good job TB. There are some little things that you could've done for eye candy effect but over all great job.

Tony lee

PS: The shiny stuff Thanks You

nice job TB on your build...the subtle weathering looks great.  The finished SPG turned out great , sounds like your disappointed in the Italeri kit overall?

I've good news too....my DANA is sitting in a shipping container in Houston. I can't wait to start it after watching everyones progress.  They must recognize my voice by now...they called me by name!!! 

Jeff

Jeff -- yes and no, there were a number of annoying, fiddly details that could have been engineered better, parts that simply wouldn't fit on the finished object, but overall I'd say I was happy enough with it that I would build Italeri again at some point -- their unique M24 Chafee, for instance. I blogged about this build last night -- address below.

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Can I join with Dragon's Hummel in 1:35?

Gosh, what did I get myself into? .This thing has almost 1000 pieces...But it was a good deal, $27 at Sprue Bros as opposed to $57 at Squadron. Couldn't ressist...

Cheers...

Hi Castelnuovo -- great to see you here! You certainly can join, I'll update p1 right away.

I'll be most interested to see that one go together, I have it in my stash (or one of their Hummel editions at least) and have long hankered after building it.

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Awesome build Thunderbolt!   As everyone else said, I like the suble weathering.  A little dust goes a long way.  Great job! 

Just a quick update for this week. It was time to add some paint so the overall finish is Tamiya XF-74 JSDF OD. Then for some tone the high areas are sprayed with a XF-51 Khaki Drab wash. This is sprayed a number of times to build up the tone color

Now it was time for markings. First the stars were applied on the turret and small stars on the front. This is done using a stencil to make a mask with blue painters tape and then with the mask applied a light spray of Tamiya Flat White. The bumper numbers are made up from a stencil set, applied directly to the model and the also sprayed with Flat White. Setting up the stencils can be a female dog and take a bit of time.

The hull and turret will receive a coat of future and then some decals for the bridge weight marker and the “barrel name” Bounty Hunter.

Meanwhile I have been busy cleaning tracks and beginning track assembly with about 1/3 of one track assembled.

As always thanks for stopping by. Your comments good or bad are always appreciated.

Rounds Complete!!

Way to go Mike you can't even see the scares from the surgery.

Nice real nice

Tony lee

Finished up the last two storage boxes:

Tool clasp next I recken

Tony lee

Great job on those storage boxes Pvt Mutt!  The straps and buckles really look the part.

I did manage to get all 6 bogies assembled.  There are a lot of parts in those alone!   I also got started with the gun assembly.  Things are moving forward, albeit slowly, but forward nonetheless.

Redleg, your WIP thread has already proven itself invaluable.  Thanks for the link.  It has already been a huge help. 

I borrowed a camera so I will take some photos tonight and share them with you for evaluation.

Tony - You must be the jewelry elf.....those little boxes so perfect...Very nice

Thanks for your comments.....I'm the plastic surgery elf

Mac - Glad to have been of service...those type of comments make the effort to post all worth while.

Rounds Complete!!

Here are a few pics of the suspension bogies and the AFV Club "PITA" tracks

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 I shot some primer on the tracks to see how the look a little smoother....and maybe hold them together a little better....

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Here are a few pics of what I have done so far.

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Hey fellas..I just received wonderful news. Squadron FINALLY shipped my Dana , it will arrive early next week!!! They had trouble w/ a train crash, thought the boat sank, and my order was "mistakenly" cancelled....glad I called every week.

Hope ya all like pictures..I'll take several along the way!!

Jeff

Jack blocks for the Emil.

Till next time

Tony lee

Are those made of real wood or did you expertly paint resin/plastic?  Looks sweet!

I confess Kevin, they're balsa wood.

Thanks

Tony lee

Pvt Mutt, nice work.  You are a master of photoetch!  The real wood was definetly a nice up grade to the plastic parts.  Good choice.

I'm still plugging away at the fighting compartment and gun assembly.  I broke out the ole putty to plug up the pin marks.  I'm getting there.  The kit has a lot of tiny and fragile parts. 

I plan on trying to get the cast texture that Redleg used on his M40 build.  I hope you don't  hold a patent on it.  I may owe you some money......  The instructions are a little vague on the placement on some parts.  Luckily I have Redleg's WIP thread to use a a walk around.  Thanks again!

macattack80

I'm still plugging away at the fighting compartment and gun assembly.  I broke out the ole putty to plug up the pin marks.  I'm getting there.  The kit has a lot of tiny and fragile parts.  Yep

I plan on trying to get the cast texture that Redleg used on his M40 build.  I hope you don't  hold a patent on it.  I may owe you some money......  The instructions are a little vague on the placement on some parts.  Luckily I have Redleg's WIP thread to use a a walk around.  Thanks again!

 The whole purpose of the WIP is so other may follow and try and even expand. It is always an honor and humbles me whenever someone uses one of my WIP...no patents or pending and all rights are reseved for all modelers!!  Thanks and glad to help!! 

Rounds Complete!!

Assembled the jack block for this side, Reworked the cleaning rods and shaved off all the molded on tool clamps and replaced them with the PE clamps.

Thanks for lookin

Tony lee

OK.....my Dana arrived!!!  I  started the build , and amazed how big this model will be when finished. I purchased the Tankograd book dedicated to this vehicle, so that will be my main reference. 

I found the drivers compartment was lacking some prominent details...the floor is coverd in a rubber floor mat. I tried creating this w/ alum. foil burnished over a wire. I removed the radio from the right side, and added the small box on the floor..this will hold a fire extinguisher

After  painting it black..it doesn't look  correct. Does anyone have any advice how I could recreate the mat?

I started on the chassis , and heres the front axle

Theers a few parts missing, but working out how to make them appear turned!

Any constructive comments welcome..

Jeff

Pvt Mutt

 

 

That is a work of art!  Nice job.

Jeff, The Dana is a wicked looking machine!  Looking forward to watching your build take shape.  The only thing I can think of for recreating a rubber mat is to use an old, thin mouse pad (for your computer) and cut it to shape.  The bottom side is a rubber type material.

Here are a few pics of where I am on the build.   I got most of the fighting compartment installed but I noticed that after I installed some parts the walls bent in toward the middle of the compartment and some of the other parts didn't sit right while the glue was drying and are now a little messed up.

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Got the PE screens on.

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A few pin marks to fill....

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When I went to put this subassembly in my "finished sub-assembly tray I managed to knock off 2 of the pullies.  I might just drill a few holes and replace the kit parts with some wire.

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Any helpful comments would be appreciated.

Ok ...I started getting overwhelmed w/ the cab, so off to the other end of this beast..

heres the front axle assembly...I wanted to turn the wheels. OOPS ..I glued the unit in, before installing the steering links. Anyone ever built a ship in a bottle...yeah, this was a close second!!!

Now here comes the side compartments..

I am going to disply the stairs open, the PE brackets are mounted in the 1st pic.

Now the tail end..this model builds pretty quick.

This was the good news......

well, there was a few issues that surprised me along the build. I didn't realize  one until today..they include stablizers tween the wheels. The only option is down, firing position!  Someone molded them different lenghts!!!!  I had both glued in, mounted, and set the frame on the axles...teeter totter.

heres the "legs"  after cutting them off the stowage boxes....

Just for fun, I measured the diameter of the legs..they're .5 of a mm different, and a lot short. Guess the easy option is to mount them stowed....

I found a doozy while reading the tankograd picture book at work. The rear of the cab has some strange details not seen in my pics.  One side is ok, the other should be rebult ..and that s where I hit a wall. I've never attempted scratch building before, so bear with me.....

I need to reshape the drivers side, and have started rebuilding the missing travel lock and cab wall. would it be ok to post the correct pic from the book?  I'm unsure where to go from here.

OK..heres the pics of the cab from the Tankograd book. I am trying to rebuild the left side cab wall, and roof area.  The hard part right now is maintaining the shelf looking parts along the back, and the angled wall..

Thanks for any help..this is my first try at  reshaping ,and actually looking forwards to the challenge!!!

Jeff

Well Guys I've finally got started on my M-12!!

I'll be building pretty much straight out of the box. After catching up on the thread here I hope my humble attempt will be up to par. Any way that's (obviously) the box art and hopefully mine will turn out something like that. I got the bogie units together:

and they were real nice, even had the casting numbers on them. They did however lack the bolt detail on the support arm and front of the bogie unit. I ended up shaving some from unused parts and putting them in hopefully the right position.

Filled in the seems and sanded, other than priming and painting I think they will be done.

Moved on to the gun (couldn't wait to see this come together):

Not to shabby, still have a few issues to deal with, but I like it so far. The way it is set up is for direct fire missions, since the extension is up on the shield th indirect fire sight is blocked. I may lower the extension so that I can set it up for an indirect fire mission.

-Stephen

Very good work, NMC! Makes me want to add one of these to my stash! Can't wait to see this one come together!

Cheers, Mike/TB379