Ernest, you now feel the pain of my H-39 tracks. Minute and they didn't connect all that well either.

Tim - Nice detail work on your figure!  I'm looking forward to seeing the completed figure...I've only done one myself and admire good figure painting!  Yours looks like its heading in the right direction!

Theuns - that's a beautiful looking Hurricane!  You did a bang up job on her!

Terry - the Char B1 is looking mighty fine!  Outstanding work on the muffler!  You definitely have a way with rusting up parts, don't know HOW you do it!!  One of these days you'll have to share your secrets and post a blog just on your rusting techniques!

So I've been working on the tracks.  Most reviews I've read about the kit vinyl tracks say that they are just too short and getting them to work properly is a headache so I decided way back when to get the indy link set from Bronco:

You get 4 sprues like this with 124 separate links per sprue. 

There are two type of links, the smaller link with the guide horn and the larger "joiner" link....so there's 62 of each type per sprue, and they are SMALL!!  I assembled a few links and set them next to some common types of indy links to see the size difference.  From left to right: Tiger, Pz. IV, Pz. II, A13

I'm not sure how many links per side I'll need, but I think I'm going to go cross-eyed working on these tiny buggers!!

Ernest, this wonderful. I've never seen one of these oft over-looked tanks. It's great to see it all come together. If I ever get a Crusader or Valentine, a North African GB is on!

Terry: Beautiful job there! Love the rust on the mufflers and the dings on the hull. And it's pretty cool that all of us that did the Char B1 used a different camo scheme. I really starting to love these French paint jobs

Ernest: Again nice work, looking forward to seeing how she comes out in the end.

Slow work on the H38, found some differences between what the instructions show and the painting on the box top. I went with the instructions and now find out the box painting is right...

Guys, its been a busy weekend, but I managed to plug away at the A13:

I sprayed some dark greenonto areas that would be hard to reach with the AB later on.  Tamiya XF-27 Black Green was already on the bench so I just used that.

The muffler assembly took several hours to assemble!  First I had to fill the gaps in the muffler and exhaust pipes, open up the "fishtail" exhaust ends, scratchbuild some flanges for the pipes to sit in (otherwise there's a big gap that's barely covered by a stupid, thin PE disc with bolts??), figure out how to bend the muffler bracket PE without breaking it (which I did of course! ), and position those exhaust pipe brackets!  In the end it wll worked out but I did manage to install one of the PE muffler straps on backwards (or outside in?)

Here's the assembly before adding to the back plate:

and after installation:

I also assembled the air intake covers and the muffler shroud and presprayed the interiors with dark green:

While some of this was drying I managed to assemble the basic parts of the turret.  The front turret plate isn't glued on yet as I need to figure out how to tighten the pivot points on the mantlet.....its a bit loose and the main gun keeps falling down!!

most of the major assembly is done.  A few more items and then I'll move on to the tracks.  All the little bits and doodads hull will be added after I get the tracks fitted and right before painting as I'm notorious for breaking such things off during construction! 

Sorry that I haven't responded to any posts!  I'll check things out tomorrow after work!

Jack, liking that camo.

Ernest., keep plugging away brother.

Tim, the commander is looking great. Wish i could paint figures

Theuns, lovely Hurricane.  Makes me wasn't to watch "The Battle of Britain"

Terry, I thought you were done. LOL Thanks for the update.

Hi, Eric,

its been a life time since \i got to update my progress on the Char  B1. Well I finally shook off all the cobwebs and knuckled down. Here is my progress and I hope to bring it in on time.

.

I hope to get back on line at the weekend when I have more time.

I need to go back quite a few pages to see everybodys work.

Terry.

Tim: Sharp work on the panzer commander- looking forward to seeing some paint splashed on him.

Theuns: Beautiful Hurricane! She looks all ready to gun down some Stukas!

Here it is guys, warts an all

Airfix 1/72 Huricaine of 87 Sqn UK. August 1940 - Pilot is Flt Lt. Ian Gleed (RAF)

Theuns

I think that Bronco kit looks like it was not to well engineered. I alway wonder how that can get through quality control, surely someone build the kit before they are mass producted.

I small update on my Panzer II figure.

The Tamiya figure is really soft on detail, so i been using a #11 blade to etch more detail into this little guy. I undercut the lapels, tunic, hands, belt, etc, trying to give him more releif and a place for the wash to flow into. I also picked out a Verlinden head with the correct side cap of this period. A coat of flat black and now it's time for detail painting.

Hi all. I have managed to beat my Huricaine into submition and will post pix tomorrow, man I am glad this thing is done. It was a real paint to build!

Theuns

Ernest

Great work and nice save on that A13. Looks like your giving this thing a good going over! Can't wait to see more.

Duke

Sorry to hear about the mechanical troubles. I hope you get it sorted out soon (or already!).

That Pz I looks SHARP!  I like it a lot. I've only recently come around to admiring those small early war tanks, so it is nice that there are some good kits of them. Really nice job on yours. Can't wait to see the dio and the jaeger.

Ernest - np about A13 deck photo.  I don't think there should be any other problems with this particular kit unless it only comes with the "elastic" type tracks - they are too short.  The other major problem with these Bronco A13's were the versions with the spaced armour on the turrent.  Apparently the kit was designed from a Bovington display (which was actually a hodge podge mix that probably never existed).

Here is a review of A13 Mk.II Cruiser Tank Mk.IV 

It is a later release based on the kit you have, so it still might be good idea to read if you haven't done so already.

regards,

Jack

wing_nut

That is the funniest looking Pfalz I've ever seen

Now where did that A13 come from???   The Pfalz was just on my desk a few seconds ago!! 

BaBill212

Great job and save Ernest.........    nicely done

Thanks BaBill212!!

Well, isn't that interesting!  Thanks for the pic Jack, it shows that someone made a dimensional error at Bronco.  Off the sprues both doors are the same length, but the door to the rear seems a bit too long compared to your resin example.  Still, the error isn't enough to warrant such a horrible fit......I won't pass judgment on the kit until its complete.   If this is the only major issue I'll be happy, but I'll admit to a little disappointment at this point

Ernest - looks pretty good what you had to do with the engine deck doors.  Here's a photo of the AM resin I had mentioned earlier.  The door closest to the turret is roughly 1mm longer than it's opposite.

regards,

Jack

bufflehead

That is the funniest looking Pfalz I've ever seen

Great job and save Ernest.........    nicely done

Ernest:

Thanks for the pointers. I've just looked over the parts in the box and it seems like a very nice kit. Hard to believe they could have screwed the pooch so bad on so much stuff. Thankfully the Bronco Hotchkiss H38 is going together pretty well, only found one issue where the instructions and the painting on the box top don't agree. Will have to do a little more research to determine which is right.

Found a camera shop and sent off mine to be repaired yesterday so hopefully I'll have her back to get some photos before too much longer.

Cliff 

Gamera - Thanks for your kind words!  Since you've got this kit and are interested in its problems I'll include more detail in my posts.

OK, I got the front of the hull done.  I managed to get those back vertical plates lined up and glued down.  I was a little too careless with sanding down a horizontal plate on the front hull assembly and didn't like the way it fit so I just cut it off, sanded down the remaining stub and cut a new plate from styrene to fit!  More my mistake than a kit problem, but if the opening was sized correctly by Bronco I wouldn't have had to sand that plate to fit in the first place!

I moved to the rear upper hull and tried to install parts C27 & C28, the engine doors.  I was blown away by how WAY OFF the dimensions were:

Part C27 is on the right with the molded on parts and holes for the grab handle, part C28 is on the left.  Misfitting parts is one thing, but this is a bit much!  You'd think such a new kit wouldn't have such problems.

Fortunately its an easy fix since part C28 is flat has no molded parts.  I simply cut off approx. 1.3 mm from the end!

I don't know if the door dimensions are now correct; one door is smaller than the other,  but I'll live with it!!

Finished up the rear except for the muffler/exhaust assembly.  Detail is pretty nice and the kit includes some PE for added detail.  The PE is a bit thin, but I didn't have any problems as long as I handled the parts carefully.  There are a couple of gaps, but nothing major.

I used a couple of build reviews to help with determining problems beforehand.  One is Steve Zaloga's build on another website:  http://www.missing-lynx.com/gallery/britain/a13cruisersz_1.html

The other is Terry Ashley's build review on his website: http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/reviews/vehicles/bronco/cb35025.html

Duke: Glad to hear the base was off, such a nice model I hated to see the treads warped like they looked like they were.

Ernest: Nice work! Thanks for the heads up, I've got the same model in my stash and will be following your build to point out the problems involved.

Better late then never Ernest. 

I concur about Bronco's instructions. Quite confusing and don't rely on the box top for complete help.

FINALLY!!!

That buffleheaded builder has got some progress photos for the 1:35 Bronco A13 MK.I/Cruiser Tank MK.III (what a mouthful.....can I just call this an A13??)

First off, if ANYONE is planning on building this kit do yourself a favor and review/read/study the instructions VERY CAREFULLY before assembling!  These have got to be the worst instructions I've ever dealt with!  I thought Dragon was bad....

The lower hull wasn't too much of a problem.  The outer hull plates over the suspension didn't have any positive locater marks so it was kind of a guess If I lined them up correctly.  I just figured the rear and bottom should line up with the inner hull.  The Christie suspension is very nice and detailed but almost completely hidden once the outer plates are installed

The inner hull was bowed inwards lengthwise so I glued a sheet of styrened to keep the sides square.  This made it easier to install the upper hull later.

The inside of the fenders have a lot of prominent pin marks so I punched discs of styrene, then glued, filled and sanded smooth.

The upper hull mated with the lower hull with very little problems and just a couple of gaps.

The instructions have you build the front of the hull as a complete assembly from seven parts, then install the assembly onto the opening in the front hull.

This is a problem because the opening for the bottom the the assembly is too small and each side need to be widened by approx 1 mm

Even with this modification the front panels want to angle downwards at the corners.  I'll see if I can glue those first, let dry, and then line up the rest.

More updates to come!

Hi guys. After seeing that an airfix Hurricaine can actually be built I took out my "re-boxed" Hurricaine I tried to rescribe and needless to say made an absolute mess of :-(

Sanded the model (lost some detail) and scribed for a 4th time! The sky has been sprayed on and I am hoping to get the dark earth /green on this week.

It is in the BoB colours and I might get a 1/72 Airfix Spit Mk2 new tool to join it.

Theuns

Glad to hear that it was just the poster board.

Go to the first page where the badge is kept, copy and paste into the signature of your profile. You may have to size accordingly if you need to. You can always load it to photobucket or wherever you store your photos and copy and paste from there as well.

ok guys  the lift on the rt hand side was cause of the poster board i had it on.  so she sits flat.  ill get some more pics as soon as i get back to a computer.  hey tigerman can i get the group build badge? as well how do i do it?  thanks again for the good words fellas.  im really trying not to over do the weathering but looking at the pics i got these guys took alot of abuse in france.  so i let her rip.  soon ill do one just leaving the depot, or maybe not it sure is fun beatin these things up...

Duke:

I was wondering too if it was the camera angle or something that made the right hand tread seem off the ground. As you said if you put her in the vignette with some ground work it shouldn't be too hard to camoflage the tread there. Other than that nice work, she looks nicely bruised and battered but still in the fight.

Duke,,   I like it!        Always like those lil pz's...    great job!