Have Gun Will Travel II: SP Artillery GB 2012

GC -- hi, sorry I didn't get back to you sooner. Droop in the tracks -- Tony Greenland had a technique in which he drilled and drove pins in to the body at the sag points and threaded the pins into the tracks to hold them down -- it sounds a bit dicey, especially with the tension the vinyls can develop. Also, that was for Panzers -- if I understand correctly, most US postwar armour, all the way up to the present day, uses "live track," in which each link is tensioned against its neighbour, exploiting that tension to reduce the energy lost in driving the tracks. The net result, if I understand correctly, is that the tracks on US armour characteristically don't sag the way WWII German or most Russian tracks do (they use "dead track," i.e., without inter-link tensioning.)

My airbrush is in the shop for servicing, so I'll be on "other duties" for a while, and that gives me a chance to tackle the photoetch for the AS-90. This'll be interesting!

Cheers, Mike/TB379

There is something satisfying getting the tracks on.

Any suggestions on getting a bit more droop in the tracks?  Looks a little high and tight.

Still need to touch up the paint, and some more detail stuff but progress is looking promising.

Sure thing, taxtp -- welcome aboard, M/TB379

I've come up with an Italeri 1/72 Bishop. Couldn't find a 1/48 anything and I don't want to do a 1/35 one.

Could you register my entry please ?

I note that this was the most expensive 1/72 tank in the hobby shop, but it's just a re-release of an old Esci mold. Interesting.

Cheers

Tony

It's looking good.

I just finsh the Cyber-Hobby copy of this SIG 33. That seam on the barrell was a bugger to get rid of along with the attachment marks on the superstructure.

No, good ol' magic track.

Great to see it happening, CN! That's a sweet piece of work -- Friuls?

M/TB379

Gentlemen, I am finally back to this GB with some modeling time put into it. It has been crazy for the past 2 months or so...

Anyway, here is a bit of WIP on this bad boy:

Second shoe coming soon

Cheers...

And I've not had a chance to get back to mine, either -- good job this thing runs a year!

M/TB379

well i haven't started yet. have a few GBs ahead of this one.

I may be the last one still struggling to finish, but I will get there one day.

I eventually finished the 1/48 Sturmtiger that I had committed to the original 'Have Gun Will Travel GB'. It was a bit late though :)

I've been looking for a 1/48 kit that I could build for this one, there doesn't seem to be many 1/48 SP guns available. Does anyone have any suggestions ?

Cheers

Tony

Hi Chris -- if the surface of the paint has been impregnated with something bleeding over from the silly putty, I'm afraid so... I would also use fine sandpaper on the discoloured areas to lift as much of it as possible to keep it from bleeding up through a fresh coat...

Mike/TB379

I'm back, and after a stop in play I've hit a snag.

I used silly putty to mask, hit it with a few coats of brown for the camo and then the kit sat.  Now I've pulled the silly putty up and it looks like its left a discoloration.

Am I repainting? Have I messed the kit up?

Waynec -- that's quite a stash, in fact it sounds like fodder for Achtraden II, and this is probably a great place to moot that idea. Anybody interested???

Castelnuova -- great selection, page 1 updated!

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Hi Thunderbolt379,  I am finally here . Just received my stash of these

1. Semovent da 75/18 M40, Italeri, 1:35

2.Panzerjager I 4.7cm Pak(1), Dragon, 1:35

3.Panzer III 15cm sturm-infanteriegeshutz 33, Dragon, 1:35

Don't know which one will I build first, so put me down for all but I doubt I can finish all of them by the deadline, esspecially as I am going back to school in September. Oh, and I have yet to set up my new modeling cave in our new house. Yes, I have my own modeling room now in the far corner of the basement

Cheers...

Waynec -- page 1 updated, feel free to rip into that beast!

Mike/TB379

Hi waynec -- the basic brief for the subject matter was self-propelled tube artillery and rocket artillery, so the DANA, the PLA Type 83 and the MLRS are all clear for inclusion; the SCUD anf the DF-21 would be stretching things as they are not technicaly artillery except in the German WWII sense of ballistic missiles being an adjunct to artillery. I was thinking of tackling the Type 83 later in the year myself...

Looking forward to whatever you decide to field!

Cheers, Mike/TB379

I made significant progress on the Atomic Cannon this weekend.  I'll post some pictures later.  That thing is huge!

Jim

Hi Jim -- definitely, I'm teaching at the U at this time, and trying to have a social life (hahaha!), and the hobby is the relief valve from the rest... Ten or more kits underway at once, and finally the PE sets for the AS-90 have come in! I've ben inspecting them closely and am looking forward to bending steel!

Cheers, Mike/TB379

It's mighty quiet around here!  Is everybody consumed with real life like me?

Jim

PS  Starting  the Atomic Cannon on Saturday.  One of the local IPMS groups has a build day at a LHS.  Should be fun!

They're all ugly. Self propelled guns are all ugly. (Helps you win wars though.) Anyone you want: you can't miss really cause it will be ugly.

In my yearly spring/summer in St. Paul trip I forgot to bring a Wespe: was thinking of building it so it could glower at the M-12.

Eric

Eric -- fantastic work! Evocative, realistic, you can just about feel the cold and the misery of the crews working this monster under appalling conditions.

Do you have a favourite shot among these to appear on Page 1, or are you happy for me to pick??

Cheers, and well done!

Mike/TB379

M-12 is done. I gave it a pretty heavy weather but as I was thinking of a AFV fighting in NW Europe in late 1944-45 I think it was appropriate. Earlier stages of the build were posted on this thread. (I'm going to make a seperate post of the reveal in Armor: anyone interested in meandering thoughts about WWII artillery is welcome to torture themselves.) I think the kit worked out okay although time constraints prevented some frills like scratch built cigarette cartons. If you look at the open hatches you can see what the base olive drab looked at before three progressively lighter coats, washes, mud and pigment dusting. It's ugly, but so were real ones. Those things were probably most valuable in direct fire duty - I would not have wanted to have been some poor German inside a bunker when King Kong (German nickname I read) came to town and started throwing 100 pound rounds in my direction. Pics below:

Eric