Have Gun Will Travel II: SP Artillery GB 2012

Thunderbolt379

Kevin -- that is some gar-damn peashooter! Reminds me of the PaK-40 version of the old 251 halftrack in a way. I'll be watching with great interest!

Cheers, Mike/TB379

It's a pretty wicked looking machine isn't it?  Very aggressive.  I am hooked on these Stryker kits now.  Well engineered.  No interior or engine but the aftermarket has some resin sets for that if one wishes.

Kevin -- that is some gar-damn peashooter! Reminds me of the PaK-40 version of the old 251 halftrack in a way. I'll be watching with great interest!

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Here is the gun assembly as of now.  It needs to have the seam removed and some more parts glued on. 

Here is a pic of 2 of the 8 tires to show the detail.

It still needs some clean up in places. 

Here are some progress pics.  I was working kinda all over the board with the upper and lower hull and gun assembly.  The upper and lower hulls haven't been glued together yet.

OK.  Here we go with some pics.  First are the box art and contents.

bondoman, here is a link that redleg12 has of his M40 WIP a few years ago.  He gave me the link when I started my M40.  It has a lot of useful info for building this kit.  I am looking forward to seeing your model take shape.

/forums/p/117939/1180092.aspx#1180092

Barrel has been sanded, puttied, sanded, a bit more sanding and primed.  So far so good.

Lower hull is primed.  

Next stop assembling the turret.

I finally got started on the Stryker.   The kit is going together quite well.  No fit issues....yet anyway.  I will get some pics posted ASAP.

Nice work Buffirn!  Definetly looking like it means business.

gunner chris, nice work on the lower hull.  I always liked the look of the M109 series.  Hopefully the seam on that barrel goes away easy for you.

Thunderbolt379

Not yet, GC, but there will be -- I'll make sure of it this time!

Cheers, M/TB379

Thats ok I'm far from needing it :) was just curious.

Thanks

Not yet, GC, but there will be -- I'll make sure of it this time!

Cheers, M/TB379

I may have missed it, but just curious if there's a badge up?

Beautiful work on a decidely odd-looking SPG!

M/TB379

Just a few finishing touches and this puppy is done!

would a german half-track mounted with a pak 40 work? fill me in on this please.

GC -- great looking kit! I recognise that Italeri product from my M110 last year. It should be an impressive beast when it's done!

M/TB379

Work has started on the M109, well it started a few days ago but my earlier post didn't seem to go through.

The box and sprues:

Planning to do the A2 variant, which was used by Canada.  Building it OOB, though I may end up making my own decals later.

Most of the lower hull is complete though I haven't attached the wheels or track.

Especially on the barrel I have a bit of filling and sanding in my near future.

Cheers, Bondo! Many thanks -- it's always fun to host a build, and looking after the team is a pleasure. I've run two back to back before, and this time am thinking of a third!

I hope to keep on running fun builds for many years to come, and knowing the job I do is appreciated makes it all the better!

(bowing) Mike/Thunderbolt379

I want to put in a comment. I have been on probably three dozen GB's o this forum .

As a rule I finish them all. Nuff sed..

What makes a good GB, hands down, is a good host. T-bolt, you look to be an all star. Like Frank and Mike.

For the  rest of us, a pleasure.

Iraqiwildman -- welcome aboard, I'll add you to the roll right away. Great to see you back, and that M7 from last year is looking really good, the weathering especially! The Bishop is a subject I've been interested in for a long time, so I';l be most interested to see your progress.

Cheers, Mike/TB379

I would like to join this GB.

 I am hoping to start on this Bronco Bishop in about a month.

and it might take me all year to complete it. Look at all the sprues that come in it.

I am still not quite done with my Dragon M7 priest I started at the end of this GB last year. Finishing up the stowage and some weathering.

Looking forward to following this GB.

This is looking great, John! It makes me think about a 1:35 at some stage...

M/TB379

Glad to hear your Stryker MGS has arrived Kevin

I made a little more progress today on the BM-24 Katyusha , after glueing the suspension , axle's and drive shafts into position on the chassie frame I decided to give it and the wheels a few coats of flat black , even though those pieces are molded in black plastic the flat black paint finish looks better .

Next I glued the rocket tube frames together and once dry I airbrushed those as seperate pieces

I've glued the rocket shell halves together and I'll putty the join's tonight and sand them first thing in the morning .

John  .

The Stryker MGS arrived today!  WoooHooo!  Upon initial inspection, the kit looks pretty good.  Along with all the plastic parts, it comes with 8 rubber tires, a turned aluminum gun barrel, a small PE fret and a piece of string for a tow cable.  I will get some pics of the kit parts tonight.  Looking forward to getting started on this one.  It seems a bit more on my level as opposed to their M40 kit.

Excellent, John! Something tells me you'll have our second completion as well as our first!

Cheers, Mike/TB379

A little progress made on the 1/72 IDF BM-24 Katyusha

It's a bit of good luck that all the chassie , axle's and wheels are molded in black ; Which will save me time not having to airbrush them

So I started with a mix of equal parts of Tamiya acrylics of XF-57+XF-59+XF-20 for a Sinai Gray color scheme and airbrushed the cab interior and some of the rear body parts .

I decided to also buy the ICM 1/72 BM-13-16 and BM-14-16 Katyusha vehicles to add to my IDF collection .

There are some very small little bits of flash on the rocket tubes , so I'll clean those up next and hopefully over this weekend i can get this nice little vehicle together .

John

I was reading through the Thomas Gannon , Israeli Sherman book and came across a pic of three IDF personal loading a 240mm shell into a BM -24 Katyusha ...

It would be awesome if I could find some 1/72 scale figures to match the photo . Especially seeing the enormous effort required to load a single shell !

I'll start cutting some sprue tonight and clean up the cab interior pieces for airbrushing .

John .

Hi EBergerud,

Good to have you aboard. I have also heard this is a very pleasing kit, so will be watching with interest.

Adding you to p1 right away,

Mike/TB379

OK I'm in.

Glad to see the ground rules here don't allow tank destroyers. They're having a SPA build on Flory and they are so lean on the ground on armor modelers that they let in SP guns. That defeats the point. Some of the SP anti-tank guns have a certain grace to them. There's nothing graceful about artillery. We want something with a face that only a mother could love - or an infantryman in need.

So the next kit in the cycle (its AFV time regardless) will be the Academy M-12. (I've heard it'd a decent kit: hope that's true.) I won't be spending money on extras, but we'll see if we can't scratch build some embellishments. (I'm seriously going to try to make a styrene carton of cigarettes to scale - Lucky Strikes I think - if it's big enough. Also wondering about fashioning something that could pass as a bottle of French wine.)

It's a pity the Army couldn't figure out a way to put the Black Dragon on tracks, so the redoubtable 155mm carried by the M-12 will have to do. The Army wasn't sure whether guns of this size should be on tracks, just as they were unsure about the value of the Black Dragon. War is a stern teacher, and American gunners proved very good with this heavy stuff and it earned it's supper first in Italy and then in NW Europe.

Anyway, it's artillery and it's ugly.

Eric