Stik,

I'm going to take my chances with the Tamiya tracks even if they're not the greatest. I've agreed with myself to try Friumodel some day, but for $50 I'd like to see them on something with pronounced sag - something lacking on the Cromwell. Hobby Boss and an Ukrainian company called SKP make plastic individual link sets for the Cromwell (not sure SKP are available anywhere) but both were roundly trashed on some very good sites as being a nightmare build. Zaloga described a Hobby Boss set as "unbuildable." In the SKP set for the Cromwell, you have to drill out every hole (they provide the drill) and connect things with resin pegs. And then you pray for an adequate fit. Yikes. More modern Tamiya kits (I think Cromwell is late 90s) have link and length tracks that have gotten good marks. Personally I like DML DS tracks a lot.

My models don't go to shows. The only people who see them are the good folk here and a couple of other sites. I actually like my models, but for my purposes if they pass the five foot away test, they've passed. That probably explains why, except for ships, I build OOB and spend much more thought on painting and weathering than on detail. I know some fine AFV builders assume that they'll spend 75% of the model's cost of after market stuff and create the splendid models that you see from photos taken at  AMPS get-togethers. They set the standard for the hobby but  I'll never make it into that club.

Eric

Gamera

BTW: Any chance of a 1946 GB - I have a few theoretical subjects that would fit!  

stikpusher

Pacific 1946.... Bearcats... Tigercats... P-80s... Shindens.... Europe 1946... T-44, Panther II, Super Pershing, Centurion Mk.I... Vampire... Do-335... Meteor F3...

EB, I hate to say this, but Mr Zaloga is wrong here. I ended up using the Hobbyboss tracks on my Centaur. They are not overly difficult as far as indy link tracks go. My poor Cromwell sits in the display case with broken tracks... Oh well, she already won her prize. Those resin pin tracks from Poland sound like a nightmare.

68, I forgot all about the Able Dog's debut. That would look good in late WWII colors, not too different from Korea, just minus the red bars on the insignia.

Pick away Bish :)

So can we say what if to a 'What If GB'?  

Eric: I built the same Cromwell kit a couple of years back and didn't have any problems with the kit tracks. Maybe you got a bad set Stikpusher? I painted them, put them on the model and then cemented the saggy parts to the tops of the road wheels and everything went fine. Maybe I should dig the model out and check them, but last I looked they were still in one piece. 

Gamera, if the tracks had snapped on eiher my Cromwell or Centaur, I would say yes, probably a bad set. But since it happened to  both of those builds, just taking a bit longer on the Cromwell, I put it down to the tracks themselves. The kits themselves are nearly identical parts wise. I have also had it happen with AFV Club gluable soft tracks. Maybe it is just the local climate? Moderate to low humidity and sea salt air most of the year. Give me the older heat joined tracks any day. Tamiya of course. Italeri's and Academy's are just too dang stiff.

I dunno, I've only built the one kit. Maybe a different paint we used??? I hit mine with two coats of rubber bumper paint in a spray can from the local auto parts store and then I think Model Master Acrylic.

I have no idea about the weather, currently the model is in a box in the basement which bounces back from cool and humid in the summer to warn and dry with the wood stove heating in the winter. I'd think the span of weather around here would make them more likely to break instead of less.

I've never had a problem with AFV Club rubber band tracks either. I did have a tire on an Italeri halftrack split after a year or so but so far it's the extent of rubber type plastic going bad (so far). 

Bish: can you substitute the Horch with a Tamiya M4 (Mid-production) Sherman(1/35)?  The Horch was involved in a lil fender-bender and the insurance adjuster has deemed it a total loss.

O, that's not good, so off to the scrap yard is it. Roster has been adjusted.

Yesterday I primed my Schnellboot with Tamiya Liquid Surface Primer. Today I airbrushed on the base colors of Schiffsbodenfarbe on the lower hull and Schnellboot Weiss on the upper hull using Testors Acryl Marine Colors. I took photos but did not have time to get them on here before work today.

My progress to today so far...

Primer coat with Tamiya

Testors Acryl Schnellboot Weiss on upper hull (big change right?)

compared to the primered lower hull

Testor Acryl Shiffsbodenfarbe (for those who do not sprechen, that translates out literally to ship's bottom color)

and the two next to one another. To my eye, the white uppers with the red lower is a throwback to turn of the 20th Century ship paint schemes...

More to follow in the next few days....

Looking really nice Stik,  

Nice work, so far, Stik!

Thanks guys. I started the deck painting just a bit ago. I will get some photos up tomorrow I think.

I got started on my mid-production M4 Sherman this past Friday.  Here's what I managed to get done....

the turret in progress

the pistol port, it's cast in so I had to putty it a bit

the 3-piece transmission cover

and the rear panel (minus the trailer hitch)

Good to see this stared Greg, looking good.

I got started on the Panther on Thurs, I managed to finish the turret last gun and am just adding the suspension, so will get some pics up tonight.

Nice start, Greg!

Bish: Would you mind changing my entry from Kepner's kinda what-if Jug to one flown by Gabreski? I think that camo pattern looks really nice combined with invasion stripes:

The model is going to be the exact same one as before (Tamiya 1/48), but with a different paint scheme.

Greg; I've always liked Shermans, so I'm looking forward to that.  

And Ed; I'm interested to see what you do with the same kit I'm building.  Hopefully you don't show me up too much!

Nice progress, both of you.

I wouldn't worry if I were you.  This is my first Mustang in over 20 years and I'm going straight out of the box.  Plus I don't think I'm as good as others may think.

Maybe when I get to the last plane on the decal sheet though.

PM, nice progress on your M4 so far. I always enjoy watching those take shape.

SS, Gabby's Jug is an excellent choice. I has such a unique look with its one of a kind camo pattern and invasion stripes. And fortunately it was fairly well photographed as well.

68, you're making great progress as well on your Mustang. Almost ready for paint!

Looking good, Ed!

Stik: That's why I chose it over Kepner's Aircraft. I actually like Kokomo a bit more, but There is no photo of it with full stripes and I don't really want to build a what-if aircraft for a GB tied to a historical event. Do you know of any good company that makes decals for this bird? I just had a (brief) look at Hannants and I wasn't able to find a set...

I used the decals off of the Testors 1/48 P-47 kit for mine. I gave that kit to my kids to build, I just wanted Gabby's decals. I used them on the Monogram "hi Tec" P-47D release. IIRC, Academy also does a kit of that Jug with some top quality Cartograf decals, not their standard mediocre ones. That P-47 kit has a good reputation from what I have read. I am pretty sure at one point that both Aeromaster and Superscale did decals for his mount, but I do not know of any current sheets out now.

Looks like some good things coming down the road. I've really got to finish my tank soon enough that I can build a US DD to shoot at Stik's Eboat. (Kind of looking forward to it. I build a plane-tank-ship cycle when possible and in three years of modelling I've never built a modern ship kit that could be described as "state of the art."  The DML USN and KM DDs are supposed to fit the bill. But there will be heart attacks - always are with ships.)

Speaking of the Cromwell, the thing has built itself. There's a Comet "Walk Around" online and it's pretty clear that the Brit armor was pretty clean but still textured. Tamiya did a good job emulating it, but it's so fine that it won't survive painting and weathering - so I overemphasized it with glue/putty. Had time to let it cure so I used Vallejo's primer which I like a lot (or maybe I should say that I really dislike using lacquer paints like Tamiya Surface Primer.) 

I look at modelling as a work in progress which means I look for different things to try as often as possible. (Probably means I'll never get good at anything.) A fine modeller I know says that addicts are made up of people that when kids liked either erector sets or finger painting. I'm a finger painter. (Not alone - Mig Jimenez has written he doesn't really like to build kits - probably not seriously. Mike Rinaldi gives a mega weather to a Firefly beautifully constructed by someone else in Vol 2 of Tank Art.) This build I'm looking at webbing and foliage, two embellishments I've never tried. I've got a good recipie for "Hessian Tape" and it calls for aftermarket webbing instead of bandage, so I got some from Verlinden. I've been looking at various artificial trees etc used by railroaders but they all look artificial. So I blew $30 on dried arctic sage. It looks real because it is. It will take some serious futzing to fill it out and make it look like something a crew would have stuck on a tank. I'm hoping this will work okay because I've got a lot of late war armor and foliage was widely used by everybody, especially the Germans. We'll see.

I'm going with the Tamiya tracks. (It's either that or halt the project for at least two weeks while a Hobby Boss flew in from Hong Kong.) The first three tanks I built were ancient Tamiyas and the rubber bands were perfectly sturdy if not very detailed. But I'd guess they were made out of different material. The set with the Cromwell have adequate detail, are very flexibile, can be glued with plastic cement (instead of melted) and the holes fit. The fenders and mud flaps pictured above are on with white glue and I'll take them off if the tracks work out okay. If not, we'll put them on and hide as many sins as possible. I'm going to leave the Normandy cowling on the rear - many Brits believed it helped the exhaust somehow and left them on throughout the war and it looks neat. Now how I'm going to get a decal star to fit on top of the turret, I'm not sure.

Looking good Eric.

Wow, great work all around guys!!!

Eric: Looks great, the Cromwell is a gem of a kit. Frankly if you go with the Tamiya tracks and they do snap in the future shouldn't be too hard to replace them.

On my turret star I applied copious amounts of decal solvent, sliced and diced where it could help, then went back and touched up with white paint before weathering. There is just too much contouring and very prominent raised detail where that decal goes.

If your looking for a destroyer to fight off my Scnellboot, one of Dragons Benson/Gleaves class will fit the bill nicely, although they were on the opposite flank near Cherbourg. For a RN destroyer I think Trumpter recently issued some Tribal class kits. Or you could go big and get HMS Warspite, which engaged Hoffman's attack. Another David & Goliath encounter at sea.

Oh btw I did the same as SP on the turret star, soaked that sucka in decal setting solution and cut it where it wanted to wrinkle- seemed to work ok.

Looks awesome, Gamera.