mike asked me to post these 2 badges. some of us older yanks might remember the business card of Will Paladin, San Francisco.

Funny Garzonh I was just thinking about this GB. I am very close to finishing my entries for the Monty Vs. Rommel and Hunters II GBs and hope to get back to my M40 then. Cross your fingers I can get 'er done by the closing date- not sure about the figures but hoping on the SPG though at least.

i'll have one in a couple of days. just reviewing what all is being built. and i guess i best get over my aversion to indy tracks (which is why i do a lot of wheels) and prime my JGSDF TYPE 87 spaa. oops guess i best silly putty and camo my DANA for this one too.

Hi Garzon -- it's in its closing months, and I still intend to finish my AS-90, it'll be coming up for attention as soon as possible -- it's close to done, there are some tidy-ups to do on the camo, then start the weathering process.

I had intended to get badges done but like so many things they ended up on the back burner -- I might give it a shot all the same, I believe I had the images picked out so I might as well!

Cheers,

M/TB379

Looks like this GB is almost dying...too bad...

Was there ever a participant ribbon produced??

Thanks, Tony, just taking a break to regroup after a great deal of NATO Green on this and an Abrams. I'll need a gas cylinder next week for the AB, and we're in a heatwave too, so I might let it go by before fighting the AB through tip drying tendancies...

M/TB379

That will be a nice collection Deatilio, I like it.

Good looking work too Mike, keep it coming.

Cheers

Tony

Deattilio: Looks great! Love the weathering and the chipped beach markers. Your other landing craft don't look too bad either!

Mike: Looking good!

As promised, here's the AS-90 with the turret sprayed. The mudflaps are also painted...

M/TB379

I made some progress today, I mixed up a batch of NATO Green and blew the turret in, it looks good! I have some masking to go on the lower hull, axle stubs, mud flaps and such, then I can get the rest of the green laid on. Pics forthcoming...

M/TB379

Very nice build, and very precise in so small a scale! Great work! I'll update p1 right away!

Cheers, and thanks for being part of the GB,

Mike/TB379

nice looking build. i have a 2/35 on the shelf and will do a 3color camo. i really like the way you did the red beach stripes. your painted ones liik like one od my decal attempts. not my strongest building skill.

The LVT4A looks great. Love the pre-shading!

good question. i need to get in a silly putty paint mood to finish DANA

Did I miss it along the way or is there a badge?

Mike: She does look good, a very formidable looking SPG! Yeah I wouldn't worry about the fenders too much, as Wayne I can imagine they ended up rammed into all sorts of stuff.

That's nice really N I C E Mike.

Been too cold around here to open my window and vent paint fumes so i've been gluing a Stug IV together for the past few days.

We'll get a few warmer days now and then and the washes will fly.

Tony lee

looking good. i really hate trying to get rid of seams in the springy looking parts like truck coil springs, fire hose ends or whatever thst is on the bsrrel. as for the front fenders, even modern vehicle will run into something as beat them up. sometimes the paint isn't even chipped off. we had lots of new A2 tanks that had dinged up rear fenders after our first exercise.. sand as smooth as you can and see if you can slightly modify the camo pattern so they are covered with a dark color. add some dirt and dust and they will look fine. i have been known to modify a pattern to avoid masking half a handle or some hatch hinges.

Hi guys, I'm calling the AS-90 structurally complete to the point just prior to painting. There are a few small parts and subassemblies left to go on, and I've plumbed the depths of the etched frets as far as I can go, including a variety of parts I had not expected to be able to use but which turned out to be surprisingly cooperative. I'm still not sold on PE, but it's growing on me a tiny bit.

Here she is:

Note the notched front flaps -- Trumpeter put the sprue gates precisely on the thin edge and the damage just won't repair perfectly...

I'm going to put it aside for a while and finish building my M1 for the Abrams II GB, then hopefully paint them as part of the same round of work, as they share the same NATO paints.

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Very good to see some updates!!

All of them look fantastic, keep them coming...

I think I'm calling mine done, well good enough.

I sprayed it with future, added an india ink wash, followed by a poor attempt as a rust wash finally some brown pastels.

Seems to have created a white wash from the india ink wash but as I found with my 88 I was working on the more I fiddle the worse it got so I'm leaving it as is.

Thanks, Gamera! I've used a bit more PE today, the bases for the smoke grenade dischargers are folded etch and came out okay, there are a couple of tiny handles to add to them too.

I just noticed on the colour four-view diagrams that the tools are all painted over in the Bosnia scheme. I checked my sources and they agree that on some vehicles the tools certainly seem to be painted over (the desert scheme does not seem to show this, just the Euro camo...) For the sake of simplicity and getting the project done, I've decided to go this route for the first time ever, and am adding the tools before main painting. They can get extra attention with drybrushing to look used...

I'm sure this model would have been done long ago if not for the fragility of small parts -- the number that have fallen off and been reattached is tedious, and what's worst is when you break off one and while reattaching it break off another... Trumpeter's tooling of 2002 was not yet up to speed, I'll be interested to see their newer stuff (it's a few years since I did their S-102 and M1126, I don't recall exactly how they compared...)

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Looks great Mike! I don't always use all the PE either, the smaller bits I'll just make a mess with so I figure the plastic parts will end up looking better in the end.

Looking good, Mike! Very sharp PE work!

Nice progress and presentation Mike

Tony lee

Update as promised! It's just after midnight and I've been working on the turret all day. I'm not quite as far along as I hoped to be, but only by a few small parts, the cargo frame (which is well underway, two parts left to make up) and the masking. Here's the turret as she stands right now:

As you can see, I'm not using all the etch sets by any means, there are details it was simply not worth removing and replacing, and etched parts which were frankly ridiculously small and fragile which were not worth even attempting. That said, I've used more PE on this project than any other.

I'll finish the turret to the painting stage tomorrow. There are a few details left to go on bow and stern, plus the flank details, mounting the swing arms and masking the axles. There are two small structures left to work up, a sighting unit atop the mantlet and the topside MG, then this animal is ready for the paintshop...

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Thunderbolt379

...but a couple of C clamps sure did the job!

Cheers, Mike/TB379

I remember that part.  I did something along the same lines.  More and better clamps is always a good option!

Jim