Jester75

Those badges look great Eric!

I can't take credit for them. Jack (jgeratic) was kind enough to provide them.

Very nice badges!  You won't disqualify me now since my build precedes Monty's arrival ...   Granted the size of the badge would make be difficult to spell out Auchinleck...

And thanks to both Armor86 and Wayne for the weld line tips. 

Don

Those badges look great Eric!

Seconded, mate, those are brilliantly done welds! M/TB379

Really nice work there Wayne- love those weld seams.

Hi everyone. I updated the front page with the badges and taxtp's autoblinda under the wall of fame for completed builds.

i had weld seams on an LCM but i thought they were mold lines until i sanded them off. i taped both sides to the width i wanted, puttied, washed down with acetone and lightly sanded when cured.

Don, you're just flying through that P III. Looks wonderful so far.

Interesting technique, A86 -- why not just use half-round rod? I used flat strip in more or less the same technique for welds on a Tiger for Steel Cats '08.

Cheers, M/TB379

Hey Bish and Don - I use Evergreen Plastic Styrene round rods, use knife to scrape it down half way then cut strips to fix. Use Liquid Tamiya glue to bond and softly plastic styrene then use knife to create weld seams.

Don - I used the kit's barrel, its one piece and seen fine. Reviewing b/w period photos (June - August 1942) crews were using sand bags and spare track for extra protection.

Armor86

i use some fine brass rod i picked up at LHS; about the same gauge i use for antenna. have a piece of evergreen strip styrene that is thick enough and the right width for making most handles.

Um, sorry to say I have no idea what gauge it is. I just grabbed it when I was cleaning up after the electrician. When I pulled the insulation off it looked to be about the right size just by eyeballing it.

Guess I'm a little bit of a pack rat, when I see something that might be useful for modeling, and better yet trash and therefore FREE I tend to grab it and toss it in my spare parts box.

Neat idea. Thanks. What gauge wire do you use for 1:35? The stretched sprue worked ok. It took a bit of time since I haven't done that in awhile and I forgot that there isn't much time between - oh, cool it stretches nice to melt down! The wire sounds like a much better idea.

Jester:  The sand bag armor is a resin kit from a company called Panzer Art, based in Poland. Check Ebay if you are interested.  Nicely detailed set and not all that expensive.  Shipping is a bit much, but if you combine with other products, it becomes reasonable.

Jack:  Aach!!,  too late; I already cut them off.  I think that I can easily replace them with the kits indy tracks and a couple of tow hooks from my spare parts box.  Stay tuned...

MT379:  the kit goes together very well.  But there are errors in the instructions that I have tried to note and that are mentioned in published build blogs.  Check these out before you start.

gamera:  thanks for your comments.  I also think that the sand armor adds a little something unique to the model. 

Don

Yeah, very nice work with the PE there Don, and I love the sand bags.

That looks fantastic! I think I have this one in my stash, too. M/TB379

Don, that is looking really smart.  I think the spare tracks are fine, and don't necessarily have to be the exact type associated with that vehicle.  It's possible the crew cobbled them together from a burned out derelict for the purpose of extra protection - or are they from a variant that never set foot on the desert sands?

Couple nice 8 rad builds going on.  Dan, key eye on those weld seams, I've never noticed them in period photos.  Makes sense though as there is no sign of bolt or rivet construction - so now you've got me looking out for this on any future armour builds - thx!

regards,

Jack

Don, that looks great!! I love the sand bags, what brand are they or did you make them? I have this exact kit at almost the exact same stage right now that I am trying to finish up so I can begin my Bison. Really is a nice kit that goes together really well! Can't wait to see more!!

I have made some additional progress on the PzIIIJ.  Turret construction is pretty much complete, but some of the parts are really small.  To sand and install them was a real chore .  Also, I must have bought the wrong metal L/60 barrel because there was no way that it would fit with the breach.  Just means that the turret will be mostly closed up and showing little interior detail, which is what I had originally planned. 

The spaced armor assembled much easier than I had anticipated.  Perfect fit of the PE parts.

I'm installing some of the parts that mount on the fenders now; but the tools will be painted first and glued after the main body is painted.

Just a few additional shots of the other side...

The next step will be to dry fit the resin sand armor.  It was supplied with some spare tracks;

... that are appropriate for earlier PzIII versions but not for the PzIIIJ.  So they will be removed and I will try to replace them with the indy links supplied with the kit.  Will also start assembling the tank crew figures and dry fitting them.  Hopefully, that will be the next update.

Don

Bish

Great work there guys. Dan, is that putty for the weld seams, they look great.

Another ditto!  Really nice effect.  How did you do it?

Don

Gamera

Alan: I've got a few pieces of fine copper wire I've salvaged from construction done at work- I'm losing or breaking grab handles all the time and have used a lot of this stuff!

Ditto!  Thin brass rod works as well.  I hate sanding the sprue attachment stubs from fragile pieces like this; would regularly ruin the part before even trying to attach it.   In the past, I routinely used brass rod to replace handles and similar parts.

Don

Great work there guys. Dan, is that putty for the weld seams, they look great.

put a towel across your lap. it's amazing how many pieces it catches.

Alan: I've got a few pieces of fine copper wire I've salvaged from construction done at work- I'm losing or breaking grab handles all the time and have used a lot of this stuff!

Nice work Dan and Castelnuovo.

I made some progress on the M3A1 Scout (sorry no pics this round). One step forward, two backward. I spent a lot of time trying to attach small parts, losing said small parts to the carpet monster, not finding some of said small parts and trying to scratch build the few lost ones. They were mostly handles so stretched sprue worked really well.  Whew.  I accidentally cut off some of the rear fender thinking it was part of the sprue. I had to rebuild that. (Note to self - always look at the shape of the part in the instructions before cutting.) I also spent a lot of time filling in what seemed like a zillion injector pin marks.   Nothing really photo worthy.

Wow, those look great guys - love the wield seams Dan and the dirty tires CN!

I sprayed the Crusader khaki for a primer last night and hopefully this weekend after checking to see how things look I'll start building the colour coats up from that.  

Here is my humble Panzerspahwagen

A bit advanced WIP, one wrong click and I lost bunch of early WIP pix

GB off to good start everyone - still working on the Armor Car 232 Rad 8 - Have a Dragon Panzer IV Ausf. D - DAK in the hopper. Enclosed couple of photos of the 232. Armor86

still waiting to prime in the garage so the truck is alomost at the can't do anything else. grabbed the 6ib from the PEERLESS MAX 15cwt chevy 4x4 to put on the BEDFORD. also have a TAMIYA 6ib w/ crew.

pordoi

Wow, this GB has really taken off!  One completed model before the GB is 2 weeks old and "in progress" builds of PzIIIs, a Churchill, Bison, Bishop, L6/40 and several wheeled vehicles.  It will be a challenge to keep current if this pace continues.  Great work all!

Don