Bruce: I have the ZVEZDA offering, kit #3519, and it IS a re-pop of the Italeri, formerly Peerless.  The sprues are designated "triange," "square" and "circle." - same as Italeri/Peerless Max. Let me know how it goes together.....so I know what I'm in for.

Thanks guys. No Greg. Wish it was, but it's a ZVEZDA 3581. Even the directions are in Russian. This is my first kit by them and hopefully my last.

Nice start Bruce.

Bruce: I presume, since there's no engine, that's the old Peerless/Italeri issue M3?

Bish, here's my first entry. The M3 Armored Scout Car.

The kit is of average quality, with allot of clean up on almost every part. Here she is in black primer.

Thanks guy's .

I'm looking forward to filling up the cabinet with lot's of D-Day builds .

I forgot to add titles to each poster , the top poster is General Eisenhower with 101st Airborne ;

The middle poster is titled Normandy D-Day invasion June 1944 ;

The bottom poster is Omaha beach reinforcements .

Hopefully more WIP pic's shortly .

John .

John, that display cabinet looks stunning. That's defiantly going to be a show piece.

Really nice posters, John! I like the idea of using them as a background!

John: Cool idea and they look great in there.

Blacksheep: Those all look really good- maybe you should do them all 

I've had a few busy days as well on the home front , so there's been no new progress on the LCT boat .

Although it's not far off from heading to the spraybooth .

In the meantime two more large D-day/Normandy posters arrived at the front door

Here's a pic of al three posters in the D-Day cabinet

John .

BlackSheepTwoOneFour

I've been super busy these last few weeks (Little League, B-day parties, etc...). Going to order these in the coming weeks:

I haven't decided which Spitfire Mk.IXc kit to go with but either way, I'm planning on building it with Invasion stripes markings:

hasegawausa.com/.../hsgs9079.html

OR...

www.1001modelkits.com/.../18855-supermarine-spitfire-with-pilots-ground-crew-airfield-equipment-and-a-dog-1-48-icm-aircraft-model-kit-48801.html

B-26 Marauder kit:

hasegawausa.com/.../hsgs0556.html

Those are great looking kits. I wantto do the B 26, it will have to wait

I've been super busy these last few weeks (Little League, B-day parties, etc...). Going to order these in the coming weeks:

I haven't decided which Spitfire Mk.IXc kit to go with but either way, I'm planning on building it with Invasion stripes markings:

hasegawausa.com/.../hsgs9079.html

OR...

www.1001modelkits.com/.../18855-supermarine-spitfire-with-pilots-ground-crew-airfield-equipment-and-a-dog-1-48-icm-aircraft-model-kit-48801.html

B-26 Marauder kit:

hasegawausa.com/.../hsgs0556.html

Yes Bish, put me down for all three. I was in Support in Nam and might as well run support in Normandy

Nice to see more builds under way. Gary, I have still not been able to come up with anything on those tow ropes. I do have some photo's in the inside of the BBMF's C-47 if you need any for references.

tax, nice looking little kit you got there, and I think that the first time I have seen anyone with one of those Brengun kits. I have been using there PE for a couple of years now but not got any of there kits yet. How does that one look in the box.

Bruce, I just realised I don't have you down for anything. Do you want me to add all 3 of those kits.

I thought I had posted the start of my 1/72 Academy Hawker Typhoon, but maybe I missed it.

Here's what you get, including the CMK cockpit set for it.:

I've also bought this kit, to use the D-Day scheme from it. The rest of it will feature in a later build.

The scheme I want is the one on the left.

And a little bit of progress, in between building and painting my Draken. I've drilled out the spent shell ejection chutes, which were molded as shallow depressions, and flattened the tyres.

GAF

I must admit, even at 1/72nd scale this is a BIG aircraft.  I'm wondering what that 1/48 PBY is going to be like when I get around to assembling it?

 

Gary

Gary this what the 1 48 PBY is like.

http://s734.photobucket.com/user/greentracker98/library/#/user/greentracker98/library/Black%20Cat%20PBY%20Catalina?sort=3&page=1&_suid=1371271441679048343464970845073

They have a wing span of over a hundred feet. Trust me, You'll love it though. I loved mine even with the few hassles it gave me. There aren't many problems with it. One problem i had was getting the nose weighted down with sinkers. I swear I had to use a ton of them.

Helo- that LCT is looking good. Nice job on the rails. So you going to take all our others builds for a ride when done? Looks big enough to fit us all

found this about the tow cables.Hope it helps.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=46124&start=30

Sounds like its going to be a great project. I just had a look for how the tow cable is attached but I can't find anything. And the photo's don't help. I often woundered this on the Ju 52, but again photo's don't help much. I wounder if the cable went into the aircraft.

Not much to report on the "Hackensack" project.  I've actually started cleaning up the parts, and tonight I got the pieces for the cockpit and assembled some bulkheads using plain old Testors model cement.

The cockpit is only placed in the fuselage half for positioning.  Next I'll give it and the fuselage interior a coating of "dark green", then touch up the walls and seats.  Colors are a bit confusing for the C-47, but since the aircraft is 1/72nd scale and will be closed up, you won't be able to see much inside anyway.

This will be an OOB build for both C-47 and Waco, so I'm not going to spend much time on interiors.

I must admit, even at 1/72nd scale this is a BIG aircraft.  I'm wondering what that 1/48 PBY is going to be like when I get around to assembling it?

Bish:  Sorry for being so long in answering.  I'm going to do the C-47 and Waco glider in take-off position (that is, on the tarmac).  I will have to find something to use as a tow rope, but it will be folded up and lying on the runway.  I've got some nice stuff from Hobby Lobby that they use for bead stringing that I think will work.  I went by Lowe's Home Center to scope out some possible long bases for a runway that the aircraft can sit on.

One thing I still need to find out is how the tow ropes were attached to the back of the C-47.  I don't have a good picture or detail of that yet.

Thanks for looking!

Gary

Was just thinking, our poor Corpman will need an Ambulance later in the day

Bish

What, no Sherman's in them.

 

I was afraid they'd sink.

What, no Sherman's in them.

John, those railing looks spot on. I don't think PE ones would look right as they would be to flat.

I guess when I was thinking of the size, I had an image of the type you see on SPR, loaded with troops, not sure which type that is.

Bish

That's looking really nice John. And it looks big for that scale as well. I was expecting something a lot smaller. But looking at the tools you have around it, you can judge how big it is.

You can find LCT's a little smaller, Bish:

But I painted these for the Pacific, not Normandy.

That's a slick way of making railings, John.  And they look good on the LCT.

Yeah John, I'd planned on slapping her on a 'quick, cheap, dirty' base by gluing some sand to a base. The suspension is so cool that now I'm thinking I have to have her driving over something, maybe a big hunk of driftwood or a busted up tank trap obstacle. Maybe I'll go whole hog and have her driving over a burnt-out German pillbox or bunker!

The railings look great! I wonder if there are PE parts out there for them but you're almost done now and your scratchbuilt ones look as good or better.  

That's a lot of suspension parts Cliff and the parts move up and down as well ....AWESOME !

I didn't have much luck trying to scratch build those ladder rungs but I'm hoping to do better with making some hand rails .

I'm using Evergreen's 1mm styrene rod

After cutting strips at 11mm long for the vertical uprights , it's easy to bend the rod for right angle corners by squeezing the rod around to almost 180 degrees

It springs back to make a 90 degree corner

With a little drop of glue to the tops of the upright pieces , I then sit the top rail in place

I'll let the glue dry for a bit and then cut some smaller strips to fit between the vertical uprights as the center rail . So far I think it looks okay and it shouldn't take too long to do the rest .

John: Wow, for some reason I was thinking she was like 1/144 or smaller not 1/72- gee that is big!

I think I said I'd gotten some work on the crazy complex suspension system on the Churchill done. Here's a one side together and the other still in parts:

Here hopefully you can see as I press up on the strut with my thumb the spring causes the leg to articulate like the real thing. So far it's not been nearly as big a hassle as I thought thankfully! 

Bish

That's looking really nice John. And it looks big for that scale as well. I was expecting something a lot smaller. But looking at the tools you have around it, you can judge how big it is.

Until you mentioned how big the LCT looks Bish , I had not even thought about measuring the length and I suddenly got curious about how many Sherman's and other vehicles I can fit on her deck

The 1/72 LCT measures in at 520mm or just under 21 inches with the ramp lowered and 140mm wide .

The Sherman's are the most important and I have a huge selection of other 1/72 trucks , jeeps and the like to decide on later as to what will fit and what won't .