Blacksheep, looks like you have had a bad day. Well, its nearly the weekend, lock yourself in and hope next week will be better.

Alex, welcome aboard. Start when ever you are able, I won't get to mine until the new year, hopefully.

So your Mortar men are called gunner's, didn't know that.

Ours are just Mortar man. Or drop shorts when we were feeling less than kind.

in the us army they are rounds. and, with mortars, the asst gunner holds the round at the top of the tube (hangs the round) and, when the fire command is given, drops the round down the tube and ducks. that's why you always see one guy bent over next to the tube. on an 81mm you can hang it with one hand, 4.2" 2 hands. my mortar platoon saying in the battalion was

":if you get bored come on out to the mortar point and hang around with the mortars."

Its in 1/48. Hopefully I can start on the interior and get it together within the next few weeks, but I'll probably wait until after Christmas to paint it. Hopefully going to get a new airbrush/compressor, and I want to do this build right. Thanks guys!

Alex

Home bad day is I found out the missus got a flat tire on her car and now wants all 4 tires replaced. They need to be replaced regardless due to low threads according to the mechanic.

A bad day at work and home makes me at a loss for concentration to finish my build. Hopefully this weekend will be better. Damn co-worker snitching to the boss because he found out I called him an ***hole behind his back. Seriously? He needs to pull up his big boys pants and deal with it. Young adults these days are too soft.

I've built that thing AJD, have fun with it !

Cheers

Tony

ajd, nope, not to late at all. What scale is the kit, I will add you to the roster.

Hey guys, I don't suppose its too late to throw my hat in here on this group build? I have an Arii P-47D sitting around and I finally found a set of after market decals with invasion stripes that I just can't live without.

Well it is a British tank so I guess I should go with 'bombs' here.  Anyway it's better than big explodey thingee!

BS214: Personally I'd keep both of them- they're really good for tires/tyres the more wear the lighter the grey. 

The AVRE Churchill is armed with a SPIGOT MORTAR. I believe that "bombs" is the UK/English term for the rounds fired, while us Yanks call them "shells" or "rounds".

Grimy Black I am hanging on to for doing things like heavy exhaust stains on dark aircraft like a black B-26 or Tigercat, or Sea Blue Corsair or Skyraider. I think it will work great for that sort of thing.

I decided to return the Grimy Black I bought and make an even exchange for for the Weathered Black. Didn't like the shade of Grimy Black at all. Looks looks of deep dark gray than black.

Lol!

Yeah, I've heard the term bomb used for a mortar now that you mention it, guess I'll use that term unless someone corrects me!

Gamera, as if I would. . Though I should have told her I had a spare tin of DPM paint I could use.

I know mortar rounds fired from tubes are called mortar bombs. Not sure about those fired from the Churchill. The name SPIGOT rings a bell, but that might be the type of gun.

Bish: I hope you didn't decorate it with Bf-109s and Panther tanks! 

Thanks, the kit came with two shells (is that the correct term for a mortar?) and I wanted to call attention to the odd gun so I originally wanted to have the crew loading it. When SP posted about it being loaded from the bottom I changed over to having them loading the ammo instead.

I had one of our IPMS members look at the pigments last weekend and he gave me a couple of useful tips. Things have been a little busy this week and I keep putting off finishing though... 

Wayne: Looks like she's been slimed! Seriously have used the Silly Putty several times myself and had great luck with the stuff.  

after painting the greenand pulling the masking off, breaking 2 parts in the process i found  2 mounting brackets were backwards and had to be pried off and replaced and 2 handles broke. all are easily fixed but stupid model building 101 mistakes. will brush paint touch up and think i will brush paint some brown. pics by the weekend.

hey bish. may have. it's in DUCK HUNTERS. you can add it here.

base coat dark yellow and silly putty to paint green. may or may not add brown. if so may or may not airbruah it. scheme is what i would do if they gave me the paint and told me to paint a pattern. i considered sitting in an open field with growing crops like wheat. yjos will be in travel mode on the trailer. am searching local clubs for a truck to swap for to tow it.

Looks like I need to catch up a bit. I have been a bit busy in the evening the last week and over the weekend decorating my step daughters bedroom. So haven't had much spare time.

Gamera, that Churchill looks awesome, I love the dio you have done, is that the ammunition those two guys are putting into the tank.

wayne, have you entered the Flak into this GB as well, if so I think I missed it.

Jack some more great detailing there. That's coming along really nicely. Personally, I use winsor and newton oils for washes. I haven't tried any others, but have been happy with the W&N ones so far.

Some great info on the invasion stripes guys, that's what GB's are all about.

Hmmm... I do have Testors airbrush thinner on hand though.

Yes, Floquil has multiple shades of black to pick from. And their current enamels work just fine with generic hardware store thinner, or (my preferred choice) Testors airbrush thinner. Dont be a scardy sheep, enamels will not harm your airbrush anymore than acrylics.

I managed to find the paint I was looking for. Went to my LHS and he happened to have Tarnished Black (Floquil) on hand. Didn't like the shade - looks too much of a dark greyish color. I did see he had Weathered Black but it was enamel. Would have bought it if he had Floquil thinner but went against it. I don't like to use enamels with airbrush. Instead, I got Grimey Black (Floquil) Acrylic. A bit darker than Tarnished Black but if I throw a fine mist of flat black on top, it should be fine.

Update on the P-47 'Bolt:

Started painting the fuselage Bare Metal silver (love that Tamiya color!) Will paint the underside and flaps later this afternoon. Then it's onto the D-Day stripes. Still haven't bought a slim USB Media reader for my photos yet. :(

Thanks guys, I'll set up the tripod and camera for the finished photos and they should turn out a little better.

Jack: Nice work on the Sherman there, I thought the rear toolbox was just welded on- never thought to add brackets. The British figures are a mix- mostly from Masterbox's tank crew set with little help from their armoured car crew set. The squatting fellow is an extra from the new Tamiya Churchill (guy built the tank and didn't want the figures so I got them) and several have arms from my spare arms box.

BS214: Looks fine to me, black should work too. I understand it was temporary paint so I'd think the quality wasn't too high.  

jgeratic - Yeah it does look like I'm getting ahead of myself don't it? LOL! If I can't find it locally, I'll do flat black with a tiny bit of dark grey overetone mist.

Wayne - thanks for the tip, which type of paint do you utilize for washes?  Windsor Newton brand has colours in oil, acrylic and water colour - the latter of which is tricky to use since it can be rejuvenated after having dried.

Gamara - you got me wanting to see more of that Churchill dio - everything is looking rather good.   Are all the figures from a boxed set?

BlackSheep - you might be doubling your workload on those stripes.  If it were me, I'd just paint with flat black  since I would follow up with weathering anyways.  If you are looking to expand your paint stash, then yes, that black you linked looks fine.

-----------------------------------------------------

Update, suspension and road wheels are on.  Rear hull detail also complete.  Using period photos as reference, scratchbuilt some details (1. and 2.) to hold rear storage bin in place. Detail # 3.  are just some brackets which, I believe, were used to hold in position the deep wading gear.

Next bench session will deal with the tools and brackets on the hull.

regards,

Jack

Hmmm...I've been scouring various hobby websites for different paints - particularly in black for the

D-Day Invasion stripes I planned on painting. Anyways, I came across this one - Vallejo Tarnished Black.

www.micromark.com/vallejo-acrylic-paint-tarnished-black-1and2-ounce,11288.html

It looks like it would be a decent shade of black on the stripes instead of using flat black and tone it down with a dark gray mist. Thoughts?

Awesome!

Well, it was overcast most of the day I ended up with bad lighting but here's what I've got so far. I still need to replace the machine gunner's hatch and keep tinkering with the sand on the side till I get it more like I want it:

Good Lord, who knew making a mask for the insignia would be a headache. Researching the pics placement of Invasion stripes, I see there is a gap of silver (fuselage) around the insignia before the stripes are laid on. I went ahead and tried to make a mask slightly bigger than what the decal would be. Hopefully it'll all work out okay.

check the wekly sales at hobbylobby and michaels. i got into pin washing last month and the next week michaels had a 30% off all paints. i use windor newton artist paints; better than student and less expensive than professional.