Nice photo there jack.

Greg, that's coming on great. Nice work on the drivers panel.

Work on the Stummel continues...at a snails pace, of course. I installed the firewall, mated the upper and lower hull together, added the upper front plate, as well as the side bins and front tow hooks.

I wish I had taken a pic prior to putting the upper hull on

the hand-painted tachometer just didn't look right, so I used a dry tranafer from Archer Fine Transfer - much better looking.  The driver's vision block was painted Tamiya cleaer green and overcoated with "Pledge with Future shine"

Yeah nice work there Bruce, I like the rope on the front fender and the bent lovers over the grille.

And great photo there Jack, looks reddish on the lower hull to me too.  

Time Life has restored some colour photos recently, France 1944 - this one in particular might help with the landing craft hull colour:

regards,

Jack

Great detail, Bruce.  Looks good!

That's coming along nicely Bruce.

Great pics of the LCT! A few more updates on the M21.

John, the LCT is looking great. I had a lok for some images showing the hull, and I found pics which seem to show red and black hulls, though of course its hard to tell in B&W. This one, which I think is from Normandy, seems to be red.

And this one, which the caption on the site said was also at Normandy, looks black.

Bruce, that is looking great. I couldn't find any Free French decals that might suit on my usual source, hopefully you can get hold of what you need. 

Yeah, I don't have anything French either.  I have plenty of time though!  I have a few 109s and 190s that could build as long as I get markings that fit.  I also have a few Jugs and Mustangs but the markings for those are late 44 into 45 also.

This will give me time to finish up some others I'm in the middle of though.

68GT: Lemme scrounge around, I probably have some Free French decals somewhere if you want them.

I just looked though my decal collection and absolutely nothing.  I guess it's off to the LHS to see what I can find.

Great building on the LCT, John.  About the black bottom, for lack of better information, maybe the instructions are correct.  When I built my 1/700 LCT's, I researched the question and didn't come up with a definitive answer, so I painted the bottoms of the hulls in anti-fouling red.  Snyder & Short are usually the end-all and be-all for naval information, but they didn't have anything useful for landing craft.  Most of the research posted there relates to the Pacific Theater, but here's the link anyway: www.shipcamouflage.com/5_1.htm

And that's a sweet-looking half-track, Bruce.  It looks perfect.

Bruce: Wow, that's a nice looking model too! Are you doing the one for this GB similar?

The M21 in the background comes with 2nd Division decals, but I started it before the Group Build start date. I'm using it anyway. We need all the vehicles we can get to get these guys on the beach heads.

John: the LCT's coming along nicely....look forward to seing post-paint shop.

Thanks Greg. The French decals come with the kit and in the movie, the British were driving them too. John, the LCT is looking great! After seeing yours, had to buy one. So all your detail work is really helping me. Also bought the tools from Micro Mark and the Edward PE sheets along with a crew. Maybe I'll have time to build mine and we can come in on the landing together:)

Greg and Bruce , excellent WIP's on both vehicles

My LCT boat is finally ready for the spray booth . Things got a little frustrating with the handrails as I kept bumping different sections with the side of my hand while fitting other pieces in place , so there was quite a few broken pieces which I had to keep replacing . Anyway it's all complete now . One other minor issue was the top edge of the lower hull and the deck edge which over hung the hull slightly on both sides of the boat

I fixed this by adding styrene strips to the lower hull section to bring everything flush

At this stage I finally figured out what these four little pieces were for

I also ordered some fine cable from Hannants to wind around the winch , which will hold the large anchor in place at the rear of the boat

So here's all the pieces on little clips ready for painting

The instructions suggest the colour black for the lower hull , I was thinking about using a red/brown , like you see on a lot of other ships and boats but I think I'll go with what the instructions say ?

Bruce: I have good news and bad news about the M3 Scout Car.

• Bad news: During 1943 most US Army units replaced the M3A1 with the M8 Armoured car and similar M20 utility car.  This included 2nd Armored Div, which the 66th Armored Regt was apart of.
• Good news: The M3A1 was also supplied via Lend-Lease channels to Britian and used to equip Free French Forces.  In British and French service M3A1s were used as observation vehicles for field artillery observers, as ambulances, and as scout vehicles.

You would be better off marking it as a FFI (Free French) vehicle. Markings from Archer Fine Tranfers can be found here: http://www.archertransfers.com/AR35256.html

Greg, how would I get my hands on markings or decals for either one of these Divisions? The kit doesn't come with them.

Bruce: looking good!  Are you going to mark it as 2nd Armored Div?  I read "Armored Knights" about a year ago and there's a pic of an M3 Scout car marked as M Company 66th Armored Regt.

Made a little more progress on the Scout yesterday.

Hey everyone, slow progress for me, I'll try to take pics tonight before bed.

I'm wondering though, I came across Model Masters enamel stains.

www.testors.com/.../Rust_%231_Detail_Stain

I picked up Rust #1 thinking I could somehow use it on either of my models to try out. Has anyone ever used these? whats the best way to apply them?

"Keep in mind that the GB does cover the period upto the end of June"

I'll keep that in mind and see what kinds of decals I have.

68GT,

These links might help a little.  You will have to copy and paste the first as it seems to fail when I make it a link.  Probably forum protection.  But the link below contains links to the above and one other.

http://www.feldgrau.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=26632

and

http://www.armchairgeneral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=107538

Gary

68GT, I could find any info on which German units actually attacked the invasion forces on the day. Keep in mind that the GB does cover the period upto the end of June, so that would probably widen it a little. I will see what else I can dig up, I might need to look through some of my books.

That's good to know Greg. Yes this kit comes with the canvas cover. Plan on robbing the large radio and ditch roller from the M21 kit from Dragon. They weren't used in my version. Ed, the movie showed, that they only had 2 aircraft and enough ammunition and bombs for one run, which devistated the beach on D Day and flew back empty. It was a miracle many more thousands of Allied lives weren't lost that day, because Hitler took sleeping pills that night.

Bruce: Nice job there! I built the old Peerless Max ambulance kit years ago, it was lacking in some detail compared with newer kits but personally I didn't think it was a half bad kit.

Greg: Looks good! Fun thing about open tops of course is you get to detail the inside too.  

Anybody know what Luftwaffe units might have been involved that day?  I read that Luftflotte 3  flew 139 “strike” sorties in the landing area on June 6th.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luftflotte_3  Has a list of all of Air Fleet 3 but needs to be narrowed down I think.

Well, I managed to throw a few more parts together and slap a bit of paint on, too.  Here's what got so far...

I still have more to add and paint, but here's the partialy completed firewall/instrument panel

I've installed the floor, ammo box and stowage bins

this is the rear wall - fire extinguisher needs a lil more detail painting.  I'm waiting on putty to cure in 4 ejector pin marks on the rear doors  

Bruce, I wouldn't let this put you off Zveda all together. many of their newer kits, which I think are there own, have some good reviews.

Stick with it, the more of a challenge it is, the better you will feel when its done. At least that's what I always tell myself with faced with a difficult kit.