Wayne thanks, both of you are a wealth of knowledge.

Dragon 6080 but I may pick another, seems I have a habit to overlap others.

jibber, the 116th arrived after the end of June, so were to late for this GB. The 12th SS Pz Regt belong to the 12th SS Pz Div HitlerJugend and did indeed take part. The Pz IV Ausf J I am doing has that units markings, but there's always room for another. Which kit do you have.

At 1000 hours on 7 June, Kurt Meyer's 25th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment, along with 50 Panzer IV tanks of the 2nd Battalion of Max Wünsche's 12th SS Panzer Regiment, arrived and moved into position north west of Caen.[10] Supported by a battalion of artillery (3rd Battalion, 12th SS Panzer Regiment), this battle group was ordered to crush the advancing Canadian infantry and tanks and drive through to the coast, still only a few miles away (wikipedia)

Bish doing more research, I think the 116th was involved in the Normandy defense. I might add the Panzer IV Ausf. J  to the build, I have one on the shelf.

Bish, Panzer IV Ausf. J was assigned to the 12th Regiment, SS Division, were they in Normandy? I know they were assigned to France but were they one of the units "held back" and not in the area?

Thank you, sir!

Greg: that's some impressive work there too!

Bish, Gamera & SS: thanks for your kind words.

Jack: that's the same info I used for my A3 turret - here's a pic

Greg: Looking really good indeed!

Jack: That is simply amazing! You did a great job on modifying and detailling that kit! Kudos to you for all of that!

Greg: Looks good! Lots of detail for a small vehicle.

Jack: Wow, nice work! I wouldn't know where to begin on modifications like that.

Nice work there guys, both of those are looking great.

Thank you, Greg.

Yes, the cast cheek armour was something stumbled upon after noticing there was no sign of the pistol port in my reference photo.  Upon further reading, I learned that this usually  meant the cheek armour was added during the casting process.  It really isn't noticeable, except at the bottom.

I was lucky to fine this diagram, though intended for a 1/35 build, and a decent photo to give a general idea of the look to go for.

I used three separate sheets of styrene so it would be more pliable around the curves of the turret.  Each piece was cut smaller than the previous, though they all share the same bottom edge to form the distinct lip.  Also, each section of sheet was sanded slightly before another was added on top, as .030 inches is the suggested thickness for  1/35 scale.  The third and final layer roughly represents the flat portion.

regards,

Jack

Jack: thanks for the compliment.  The Firefly looks great!

On a related note, it took me almost a month to build up the cheek armor on an -A3 Sherman....kind of burned me out on it too.

Hi Greg, looking good, and nice to see someone else also doing some scratch building...

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... speaking of which, I think I'm done in that department - at least enough to start throwing paint on this thing.

I've raised the rear tool box to make room for the deep wading gear, of which I completely scratched based from what I could make out in period photos.

The turret needed some changes:

1.) removal of the gun port, which was pretty straight forward grinding and then puttied over.

2.) cast turret cheek armour.  Did this with first layering 3 sections of .010" plastic sheet, and then puttied over and smoothed out.

The footman loops are really small.  Found best way to hold them was with a section of rolled Tamiya tape (sticky side out).  Another piece of tape on the turret helped with the placement.

Next up is paint, but will add some more spare track, towing cable and a few fuel cans afterwards.

regards,

Jack

Dang...it's been almost a month since I last posted on the Horch.  Here's what I've done so far.

I mated the body to the floor pan...what a pain.  There where cat gaps where the floor was supposed to meet the spare tire wells - filled those with .010x.020 Evergreen strip.  I closed off the rear cargo area and added the lid to the side window storage bin and added the handle.

I aded the bonnet/front engine cover.

The dashboard is funky- there's only 4 dials on the Horch 1a dash

The interior has been pre-painted in Tamiya German grey.  Since the 711.ID was formed pre-43, my Horch will have a grey interior and Dunkelgelb exterior with some sort of camo.

Now to find one of Tamiya's Panzer 4 OVE sprues....I need a rear NoTek taillight.

solved my problem with figures. the guy holding the shell can be altered to look through the sight on left. second guy standing to the right holding the lanyard and a 3rd guy standing on the left next to wheel observing. no room for ammo (shells, rounds, bombs oh my) unless i make a larger base. may do that and just use this base for a couple of infabntry.

I've looked at this youtube vid several times,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucOhFxHWWQg

but couldn't  make out where the lanyard is attached.   The person standing on the immediate right is definitely the firing position, while the crew member on the immediate left is is in charge of the sights.

As witnessed in the video, the rope does pass through  a ring on the backside of the gun shield and then attached to a second ring located on the firing lever, (diagram only illustrates the hole on the firing mechanism, I believe this is where the other ring should be to attach the lanyard):

regards,

Jack

ok all you lanyard yankers, i need some help. my german 150mm is going to get some figures. looks like 3, a soldier holding the lanyard, one ready with the next round, and a third holding the powder chatge. the breech opens horizontally to the right and the sight is on the left. aimming posts are not deployed so this is in direct fire mode. where would the 3 soldiers stand and where would the lanyard be attached?

Looks very good there Wayne. almost like a German MERDC ;-) Yes, there has been quite a bit of discussion about the IPMS bases rules after the National at both the local IPMS and AMPS chapters.

thanks to all for the complements. the red/brown was hand painted and might be a tad thick in spots. perservered on this one too. which means more shelf queens will be completed in the future. glad the base did what it was suppose too, present the model rather then be a part of the model. as i get more info on the IPMS-USA base discussions i will pass them along. guess i best finish up the LCVP.

I'm not sure what I like best, the camo or how you finished the gun. I think you've done an awesome job on both. Wayne did you hand paint the brown striping?

Wayne: Looks good! Again excellent work on the model and the base works- looks good but not so elaborate it distracts from the model.

wayne, another great addition to the front page.

Jack, a pity about those tracks. But from what I have seen, I am sure you can make something decent out of what you have.

Wayne, nice one!

I'm thinking I like the ground work more than the model piece, my eyes keep going back and forth from one to the other - excellent work!

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Quick update on the Firefly progress:

1.) After corresponding with the 3D printer as well as the individual that owns the design of the Sherman tracks, they informed me that at this time they cannot produce them in 1/48 scale. The medium used to create their products would not be able to hold the smaller detail.  So I will have to work some magic with what I currently have.

2.) About halfway done scratch building some deep wading gear. Mostly from sheet plastic, but will add a brass section as it better holds the dented and beat up look.  Should have some photos posted in a few days.

regards,

Jack

the kit is ok and i have a second one, but i made almost every model building 101 dumbass (pronounced like the french DOO MAHS) mistake. MMA paints, burnt umber pin wash and tamiya metallic gray with blue oil wash on the gun metal toned down with gray oil wash. tires are painted MMA engine gray and light dusting with tamiya powders.

Camo is awesome

thank you. base moulding is drying. should add texture and a bit of splash though this will be a generic base for 2 reasons: 1) so i can use it to photograph various small guns and 2) so it doesn't get pulled out of artillery and into diorama category. camo is what i would go as gun chief if i was going to deploy in crop filled fields.

what to do next? working on DANA and LCVP, looking at FLAK 37, searchlight, FLAK 38, truck for this gun, canadian 6 pounder w/ truck  or modern us M-102 105mm and LVTM truck in merdc desert camo.

or i could start my DO-335

Jack: Looks good! That is odd about the storage bin though.

Wayne: Dang, you're almost done there. Camo looks good, I don't think I'd ever see it!