Gamera, those barrels were only in the $6 range from Sprue Brothers... you cant be THAT cheap ;-) (have you been possesed by VonHammer?). I figured with all the work inside that I am doing, I can add that bit of external work to help her shine.

Six whole friggin bucks- gee whiz - back in my time we used to carve our own gun barrels out of TOOTHPICKS! And I DIDN'T EVEN HAVE A KNIFE- I USED A SHARP ROCK!!!!

Seriously six bucks sounds pretty reasonable, I wondered if they'd cost more than the kit itself! Heck I gave my waitress a five dollar tip last night since I didn't have any ones...

Didn't have any ones... too funny!

BlackSheepTwoOneFour

Didn't have any ones... too funny!

Oh no she wasn't that bad!!! I meant I was going to leave her a three dollar tip but I didn't have any ones so I l left her a five. A five dollar tip on a fourteen dollar meal is a little excessive but I doubt she's going to complain. 

Minus the tools and final pigment dusting we're calling the Cromwell done. Certainly have learned a lot about weathering - details later. Looking for a tank that's in good shape but has been getting a work out like this Cromwell outside Caen around July 1:

Which I interpret something like this:

Concerning any potential Panther problem I'll spending the remainder of the build creating matting and making the tank look like a bush like this one before Goodwood:

New territory for yours truly. Wish me luck.

Loving the Cromwell tank. Now ya got me eyeing a couple tank kits for future builds.

Really nice there Eric, I wouldn't mind adding a bit of camo to my Panther as well, keep those pesky fly boys off my back, so I willl be looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

Lots of masking there 68, looking forward to seeing it un rapped.

Go on Blacksheep, you know you want to.

Finally got a chance to get the LCVP assembled, minus the .30s which are on their way here from Korea.  

After doing a bit of research, I found a way to busy up the other side of the engine where the battery box and bilge pump were located.  Both parts came of my spares stash, I think the battery box is a part leftover from an Italeri Panzer IV, and the bilge pump is a part of a landing gear off of an X-Wing.

Ed, Bob- those all look great!

Eric: Fantastic work there, the weathering looks just like the real thing.

Nice LVCP!

I always like those OD over NMF Mustangs! That looks good! And now for the stripes!

Eric, Ed and SB>  That is some great work you three have going on.  That Matilda weathering is spot on, and I really like that Mustang with the OD wings.  Pretty!

I like the look of that 68, really nice.

Thanks,

Now the Academy kit comes with invasion stripe decals but I'm not sure if I should use the or paint the stripes.  What do you guys think?

I'm in the same boat with my Mustang, Ed.  I've been staring at it for a couple weeks trying to decide paint or decal...

Don't tempt me Bish... ROFL!!!!! Yeah I do want it.

In the past, I've done tank model kits - my first was being Monogram's Patton Tank. Yes I actually did do a diorama as shown on the box. It was a lot of fun to do. Wish I still had that diorama though...

Others I've done were the Abrahams tank by Tamiya, German Tiger and I believe a Monogram Half Track kit.

I have not yet done invasion stripes. But given the discussion here a number of pages back, I think decals would be to neat and tidy. In general they seem to have been hastily applied to many aircraft.

Blacksheep, try a Dragon kit, you'll love it.

Mike,

I built their A-37 and A10 not too long ago and I remember not really liking the decals for some reason.  I think it was that MicroSol didn't work all that great on them and they were hard to soften.

I think I will give painting them a shot.  This build is intended to be my refresher course back into the hobby, so the more things I try the better.  And, like Bish alluded to, painting them on would look more authentic.

White decals, especially large one can be a bit of a pain as the darker colours often show through, another good reason to paint.

Might be a good idea to just use the decals as a masking guide since they should be designed to fit the kit.

Ed, that's a good idea.  I believe I will do that.

I was considering trying to free-hand them...to try and achieve an authentic look.  But the more I think about it, the more it sounds like a bad idea.  ha-ha

Probably only really good for spacing the stripes.  It would at least give you an idea if you are way off.

From looking at a boatload of D-Day photos to does appear that everybody's stripes were a little untidy. It was all "hush hush" (like everything before D-Day) so everything was done on the fly by groundcrew. When working at model scale, doing it all freehand would be almost impossible. I did find, however, that if you masked the plane and then hand painted the masked stripes that some of the irregular quality showed through:

I don't know how long it took, but it's pretty clear that at least some planes were repainted in following weeks and appear tidier. I doubt there was any hard rule on the transition, so you're fine regardless. I too would mask it. Actually I don't like any big decals - only the very best look okay. I've never worked with either dry transfer or stencils (except those I've made myself) and it would be a good idea to try.

Eric, do you know the scale of the kit in your picture?  I'm debating weather to spray of hand paint in 1/72.

68, that's a 48th kit, its the one on the front page Eric did for the GB.

In my previous post on the Sherman I noticed that the TC's aiming vane was broken, so I had to procure a replacement turret.  This was done last weekend.

the interior is painted in MM primer white (the first turret was in PS dirty white and looked too yellowy. (is that a word?) 

the rear part of the M3 main gun, again in primer white with the breach block painted Humbrol (Metal cote) gun metal 

the turret pistol port puttied (as previously stated, the port was cast in 

if I can find some casting numbers I might add them also, but I'm not sure I want to get all anal on this build.

Got the painting done on the Panther today. I was originally going to do it al with Vallejo Model Air. I got the 4 main Panzer Colours last year but was yet to use them. The DY went on ok, a bit thinner than what I am use to. But I wasn't to keen on the green, it seemed way to thin and didn't cover the zimm on the turret very well. So after a few minutes I switched to my usual Xtracolour enamels and finished the green and then did the brown. This was all done free hand and I'm really pleased with it. I have been getting some practice at airbrush control doing mottling on German aircraft and I think its paid off.

Next up is the decals, there is only the unit and national insignia, no turret numbers. So I am going to give the wet future trick a try. After that, some oil dry brushing. That will mean lots of time leaving it to dry, so this week I will be concentrating on the base and figures. I don't want to add this to the queue of armour waiting for dio's. I haven't finished an armour dio in years so I need to brush up and I have been reading up on painting SS uniform camo, so will see how that works out.

Nice work Greg, was there no way of fixing the aiming vain.