Thanks Bish,

From what seen on their website, it's not bad. not real shiny just a little bit shiny.which seems like a NMF airplane looks. I can't get it untill next month, so that will give me time to think on it

I have only used their Aluminium and shades there of. Not sure what look the Steel would leave.

I seen some Alclad 2 Stainless Steel at my LHS last week. I'm thinking of using it on my P 47 as a Natural Metal Finish.

What does everyone here think about this?

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.

That's really building up into a nice looking vessel, John.  Good work on getting her ship-shape!

John: She's coming right along!

Naw, the Sherman is a 1/35th of a UK Mark V that fought in Burma. Oddly, I have a bunch of Shermans and other American/UK/Commonwealth hardware but all but the Churchill AVRE are post-D-Day! I thought I'd have some sort of choice for sure but that was it.

I really like those trucks Bruce and thanks again for the link to those Micro-Mark pliers set . I went ahead and ordered a set today along with a miter box , I look forward to those arriving at the front door in a couple of weeks .

Nice looking Sherman cliff Is it 1/72 scale ? I have two Dragon M4A1's in the D-day stash with Normandy markings which will go on my LCT and today another Dragon M4 showed up at the front door and this one has the Wading exhausts included also with Normandy markings

I got lot's done today

The structure's are glued in place along with the rear and mid walls . I've also started gluing lots of the smaller components that fit on top of the structure , lot's of tiny little pieces that require care and patience

As I say , despite the smaller pieces being a little difficult to handle and fit together , I'm enjoying the build .

Bruce: Those look cool! I need more trucks/lorries in my collection. Btw: Hope you're not going to load them up with zombies!!! 

John: Nice selection of landing craft! And funny I came home last night and saw I had one of those blue clamps slapped on a Dragon Sherman trying to glue the outside of one of those annoying four part drive sprockets on so I grabbed a photo, sorry the lighting kinda blows: 

There's some great looking kits here. Plan to with the vehicles, that come in late in the Day.

I really like those blue clamps Cliff . There much better than the metal with red plastic caps I had been using for quite a few years

Those metal ones would always slip and it was really frustrating , they would hold at first but the slightest bump and they would come loose . I wonder if there is any way of improving them so they don't come undone.

I went and checked my other D-Day landing Craft kits to see what the other kit manufactures were offering

There's nothing provided in Mach 2's LCA craft or the Pegasus LCVP but Trumpeters LCM have several nicer looking ladder rungs for their kit

I'll have to invest in a pair of those bending pliers sets , the ones I tried to make were too rounded across the front and I may need some slightly smaller diameter wire . I can come back and add the rungs latter on I guess , today I would like to get the structure buildings glued to the deck and start adding the other walls and machine gun positions . More pic's this afternoon .

I got started on my build  finally - the M7 Priest

hi all

been working in 4 other GBs so haven't been here. the pliers look great for bending. i have a basswood strip the correct width for most 1/35 tanks handles. it's 100mm long so it's easier to handle or clamp to something to keep both hands free. i just finished the huill seams on a pair of DML SSNs. thin putty line for most but needed a wider area for more feathering at one spot. have you tried 3M BONDO red putty from the auto parts store? i use it all the time.

That might not be a bad suggestion. I was building an Me 262 alongside the 0/400. Even though the 262 wasn't an easy build, it certainly did help to be able to put the 0/400 to one side and work on that. So maybe having an easy kit as the same time will be the way to go. I normally prefer to do one at a time, but theres always room for exceptions.

Yeah I forgot, after rigging a biplane like that you should be able to handle any level of modeling-related frustration! Limited run kits are fun though and it's cool to have something that no one else makes. Sometimes I'll build one alongside an easy kit like a Tamiya so I can pull the easy kit out when I get too annoyed with the limited run one.

To be honest, I am not sure. I have a few kits which I think are limited runs, mainly Special Hobby kits, but I have not built any yet. After building and rigging that 0/400, the ability to put a kit to one side and leave it for a bit has become familiar. But I think I have been modelling long enough now that's its time to be able to move away from the nice and easy builds and challenge myself a bit.

John: Nice work! Funny, I've got a set of those blue Testor's clamps too, I've never seen anyone else with them till now, funny it should be on the other side of the world! Good luck with the ladder rungs, not so hard but so friggin' tedious!

Bish: Is this your first limited run kit? I've only built the relatively high grade ones like Classic Airframes but they're an entirely different experience. Just be ready to put the thing back in the box and walk away a few times.

WOW , thanks for the link Bruce .

Those pliers would be an excellent addition to my tool set . I'm seriously thinking about getting that set .

Thanks again buddy .

John .

http://www.micromark.com/metal-forming-pliers-set-of-4,7068.html

John, I know this won't help you right now, but Micro Mark sells a set witch would help speed things up a bit. Your Landing Craft is looking excellent! Never thought about all the logistics for such a large model.

Welcome to the Mach 2 club Bish  

I mentioned earlier on that most of the ladder rungs are broken on the sprue and I would probably break even more trying to removing them from the 'tree-trunk' like sprue frame . So I'll attempt to make some from strips of wire

I stripped some wire from an old extension lead and I then needed to straighten each length of wire by sandwiching it between two blocks of wood

I rolled the top piece of block from side to side a few times and it straightens the wire nicely

Next I cut a piece of 3.2mm plastic strip about 4mm in length and squeezing the wire against the plastic strip I bent the wire around the top and then the side

I then cut the wire to size

I'm hoping it will look okay once I add all of the rungs

There's about 35 to make , so it will be a little tedious but I can't think of any other way of making them

Nice going on the LCT, John.  It's a neat looking vessel.

Glad to hear that fixed up nice. That's looking really nice. I have never heard of using Bi-card to do that. Neat trick.

Just going off topic for a second. I took possession of my first Mach 2 kit today, the B-45 Tornado. I had read about this kit and its flaws. But it fits a nice slot in a long term personal project of mine, even if its not what I would usually build. And yep, it looks as bad as the reviews say, lumps and bumps along the top of the wings and a few sink marks. But I think I have been building models long enough now to set myself some challengers to get the builds I want. So should be fun.

Great idea Bish , I added a little styrene to the front lip of the lower hull and that fixed the gap nicely .

Here's the deck glued and clamped to the hull .

The very front section of the hull is a little wider the lower portion of the front deck section , so I had to use some more super glue and then I sprinkled Bi-carbonated soda to set the super glue rock hard and build up the join to make both sections flush . I'll probably still need to use some Tamiya putty to smooth things out .

It was the same for both sides at the front ,

I still needed a small strip of styrene along the rear deck , a piece 2mm X 2mm

She is starting to look a bit like a boat

More WIP pic's tomorrow

Gary, your very right there. The para's get all the glory, but you do hear some much about the glider troops. I guess its because the para's jumped out of a plane, not that I imagine glider landings were much safer.

I did build that WACO years ago, I had a nice dio even if I do say so myself. Unfortunately its one of mine that didn't survive, I just wish I had taken pics back then.

Its a nice kit from what I remember. Are you doing a scene with the C-47 towing the glider, or will they be displayed separately.

Ken, that sound typical of a lot of the guys from that war, you often hear that many didn't like to talk about it. Which is very understandable.

Joun, could you not put some styrene under the gap at the font and then fill it.

Bish

Ken, did your dads mate get evacuated or did he carry on.

 

I'm told he went back to his unit, which was like the man i knew. he would never talk about it when i was around.

Looks like some nice builds going on.  Guess I had better at least post some previews. 

This is the Italeri C-47 and Waco glider I will be putting together.

Plus, some research material.

I'm hoping to do both in take-off position.  Since I'm probably going to be one of the last to finish this GB, I intend to have them represent the last glider assault of Operation Neptune, "Mission Hackensack".  Hackensack took place on the morning of June 7th and consisted of 70 Waco and 30 Horsa gliders.

You hear a lot about the paratroopers of the various airborne forces on D-Day, but more airborne troops arrived by glider than parachute.  This is a build for them.

Gary

That's some really nice stuff here, guys!

I'm still looking for a nice subject, but I'll tell ya as soon as I find one...

Cheers, Clemens

I was dry fitting the deck to the lower hull and I'm not sure if the deck is 3mm too short in length .

If I keep everything flush at the stern

I'm left with a bit of a gap at the front

It's not noticeable if the ramp is positioned up but I intend having the ramp lowered with my tanks and vehicles disembarking

I may need to keep the deck front edge flush with the hull and add a 3mm plastic strip along the rear deck section . I've been staring at this for a while and I can't think of any reason why the deck is a little short , so I guess I'll glue some plastic strip to the rear and hit the sack . It's 22.45 and day 3 of the build and I'm making good progress and having fun . Thanks for all the compliments on the build so far everyone .

Bish:  I've built a couple of Academy's B-24's years ago.  They are (or were at the time) pretty inexpensive, at least compared to Hasegawa's when they came out.

I seem to remember that many of the interior pieces were too wide, and had to be filed/sanded down in order to close the fuselage.

Anyway, looking forward to getting started on this--but I'm kind of overloaded with GB's at the moment.

Ken, did your dads mate get evacuated or did he carry on.

Check, from what I can see there, that kit looks very similar to the hase kit. And its an H as well, which Hase don't have. Looks like I could have saved myself a bit of cash there. I'll been keen to see how that builds up.

John, off to a good start there.

Finally some gluing ,

The end pieces on each upper hull structure building were a little too wide , almost as if there wasn't any allowance for the thickness of the side pieces . Anyway it was easy enough to file a little from the sides of those end pieces .

There's a few gaps but nothing too scary , more pic's soon .