Just a quick update, coming along well, till I lost the friggin' muffler!!!

Decided to put some figures in the hatches so I'm working on them now, hopefully the muffler will show up eventually....

Thanks, I'll be happy just to get something  done and clean the bench!

Sounds like the zsl is going well I can't wait to see it.

Put down a dot filter wash earlier this week on the ZSL-92b which I think I kinda cheated on since I just used earth tones and a little green for the dots instead of the bright primary colours. Still looks ok to me. Then added a dark brown pin wash to the details and just dry-brushed the model with a little tan.

Hopefully I'll be done soon, then to get to work on the figures which I've been modifying from about everything in my spare parts box. I think they look reasonably like PLA tankers and infantry.

Grumble, I can't wait till I get my camera back...

Nice to hear that your feeling better Sickness is not fun.

John:

Thanks, I'm starting to feel somewhat better. And I found a shop and mailed off my camera last night for servicing. Hopefully I'll have some photos up soon.

Cliff

Cliff , I'm sorry to hear your not feeling all that well ;

Get better soon buddy .

John .

John: Those look like some nice kits and glad to see your Blag Dog storage finally showed up.

Modeler1: Afraid not much progress here, I've been under the weather for the last two weeks or so and haven't gotten much of anything done here or on anything else.

The AML-90 build has stalled slightly this past week but I'm aiming to get some more done over the next couple of days .

I was also looking at my stash of Korean War armour kits and saw the Hasegawa Daimler Mk II Armoured Car and the Humber Mk II Armoured Car along with the Italeri M-8 Greyhound and the Trumpeter M1126 Stryker has just arrived with the Blag Dog resin stowage set

Surprisingly there are only about 30 parts to each kit and the Trumpeter Stryker has most of the suspension pieces already molded in place

I don't see any major issue's with any of the kits and I think they would make for fairly quick builds .

If these are suitable , I would like to add them into the mix .

John .

Thanks for understanding. I've been under the weather all week and haven't gotten around to calling Nikon yet, hopefully I'll get it taken care of soon.

It's ok about the lack of photos  everybody has camra trouble

Guys, paint and decals on the ZSL-92b. I put the first filter on over the weekend and now have to take part of it off. For some reason I always seem to get the darn thing too heavy and it comes out like a wash. Am going to try to scrub off the worse places, since the filter is oil based and everything else is acrylic hopefully things will be ok.

Sorry for the lack of photos, as I stated elsewhere in the forum my camera is now down, won't recognize the card when plugged into it.

I much prefer the sand or grass mat now too Cliff ,

Every time I look at the pic of the gravel mat , it does look like carpet . Although like the sand mat it does have a corse feel to it , unfortunatly it doesn't appear like gravel when photographed  .

I really should look at trying to make a display base with dirt from the hobby store . Anyone have any suggestions as to the best way to simulate a dirt display base .

John .

John:

Lol, my mistake - it does look like gravel now that you mention it. All of them look fine though I lean a little toward the sand.

Which pic do you guy's think looks better

#1 Gravel ;

#2 Grass;

#3 Sand ;

Originally I did try using some dirt from the vegi garden on a old picture frame but the dirt looked to corse and out of scale to the stryker , so I used the Noch display mats instead .

John .

Thank's for the kind words on the Academy Stryker build Cliff .

I have four of those large Noch display mats , Summer and winter grass , sand and gravel .

I went with the gravel mat as i thought it might make a better contrast against the all geen vehicle but looking at it now it does seem like its sitting on blue / gray carpet .

I'll post another pic or two using the other display mats and see which looks better .

John .

John: Hey she turned out great! Looking forward to seeing how the storage comes out on the second kit.

BTW: You need to get some tan carpet so she looks like she's sitting in the sand. Or maybe green for grass instead of the grey-blue stuff

Sprayed the camo and put the decals on the ZSL-92 over the weekend. Need to touch up a few little places but hopefully will have some photos soon.

Here's some finished pic's of Academy's 1/72 Stryker ;

The stowage gear I ordered hasn'y arrived as yet , so I ordered the 1/72 Trumpeter M1126 Stryker this morning and I'll build another Stryker for the Tanks on Wheels GB .

John .

I could show you some Ace kits where you'd be hard pressed to determine where the sprue ends and the part begins. Rough fit, vague detail, thick flash and misaligned molds were common. The plus side was that they offered kits of Soviet vehicles not available in plastic in any scale.

The downside was that all kits required a whole lot of extra work to even be completed.

Rob Gronovius

You are sorely mistaken, Ace and fun can never be used in the same sentence. Their kits got beyond limited run quality, but they are always challenging.

Ouch! Thanks for the head's up Rob. Still you're making good progress there John.

Been a bit distracted trying to finish up a Char B1 for Tigerman's Blitz build. Hopefully I'll get more done to post on the IFV soonish.

I made a start on the IDF AML-90 ;

There was lots of dry fitting , filing and sanding on most parts to get things to fit correctly and  the best option was to leave a small gap at the front , which will be easy to fill ;

I left of the wheel lugs from step one in the instructions until after I glued the front and rear wheel guards in place as I didn't want the tyres to hit the wheel arches ;

I've misplaced part 45 , the mantlet for the cannon , it just suddenly disappeared from the bench .

There's an alternate mantlet part 32 which I think looks a little like what the IDF used

I think it looks similar ?

Oh well , I'll start on the PE next and use some of the techniques Rob suggested for cutting and bending the little metal pieces .

John .

You are sorely mistaken, Ace and fun can never be used in the same sentence. Their kits got beyond limited run quality, but they are always challenging.

M#1 , I kindly ask if you could add the 1/72 ACE AML-90 IDF to the roster .

John

Sure you can enter the AML-60 told you like me to put you down for it?

John: She's coming along great!

And the AML-90 is pretty darn cool looking!

I airbrushed a few coats of H-340 and let it dry for a couple of hours and then gave the stryker a few coats of H-30 gloss clear ;

Later tonight I'll add a little black enamel wash to the recesses and mask the wheel hubs so I can paint the tyres .

I was thinking of a second build and I spied this 1/72 Wheeled 4x4 Reconnaissance Vehicle in my Israeli IDF Armor stash ;

The Israeli's used these french designed Panhard AML-90 light wheeled armoured car supporting paratrooper operations in the Jordan valley in the Six Days War 1967 ;

It looks like a fun kit to build and there's not too many parts to the kit ;

It even comes with rubber tyres , OOOOOOH and a small PE fret , so I can join Rob and go cross-eyed as well .

I hope my choice for a second build is okay it also has a nice 90mm cannon on the front as well .

John .

Looking good helo I can't imagine the difficulty of assembling those small parts!

Helo H-34

Great work so far guy's

Its a great little kit and goes together really well so far , I'm not sure what Rob is using to help him add all that tiny PE but the work is quite impressive .

John .

Thanks, your kit is looking good as well.

I use a flat chisel blade on my X-Acto knife to cut off the tiny parts as close to the piece as possible like a miniature Guillotine. I place the piece in my cross action flat tweezers to keep it from bending with just the tiny fret stub peeking out from jaws. I gently use my needle file to remove excess and smooth it out.

The hardest part is attaching tiny PE. If you use too much, the part gets totally engulfed in CA. If you use too little, it dries before you can get the piece glued to the kit.

You generally only get one chance to set the part correctly. They are too small and fragile to attempt to pop off if the part is in the wrong spot. For instance, the tool rack was placed just a fraction too far forward. It should be in line with the muffler overhead. The rack is too fragile to try to remove; it would be destroyed so I'll live with it slightly out of place.

To apply glue I use a couple of methods. I place a small pool of CA in a plastic lid. I use a sewing needle that I cut the top of the eye off of and leaving the end to form a "Y". The sewing needle pointed end is placed in the end of a drilled out piece of sprue and it forms my CA glue tool. I dip the Y end into the pool of CA and it grabs a drop of CA that I use to apply. The length of sprue is the handle.

When the Y clogs up I burn out the CA with a quick flick of a Bic lighter. Sometimes I have to take a blade to clear out the Y too.

I also use the tip of the X-Acto knife blade to apply CA to the seams.

I had to take a short break because of the playoffs and the PE .50 cal ammo can has me a little crosseyed. That dang thing consists of about 6 parts; the main box, lid, top handle, side handle and latch.

I glued the top and bottom hull pieces together along with some of the smaller parts such hand holds , mirrors , guard rails and recovery shackles .

So the Stryker is now ready for the paint booth .

Paint Instructions call out for Gunze H-340 Field Green , so I'll go with that .

John .