Tojo: Looks good! Nice work on the AFV and the figure- gee those dark tanker uniforms must have been hot as blazes in N. Africa.

Dan: You're moving right along! Not sure if the air cleaner is a big issue- I mean I'm guessing the crews might have put a few on crooked?

Jack: Wow, that's a pile of rivets, I too don't think I'd have the patience to add all of those.

Thanks Gamera, should have it all put together by Wednesday,  I put two coats off Dark Yellow on the air cleaner tube.  Don't remember if I had trouble with my other one I built back in 2009.

Jack.  How many rivets will you be adding?  Even though it sounds like a lot of work, it'll make your project very detailed.

Dan, nice work on the Tiger.

Tojo, that looks really nice, diddy little thing isn't it, how many crew in that. I am guessing 4 at most.

jack, good to see more of your work.

Thanks Gamera,they had to be like ovens,any AFV in the desert at that time had to be brutal

Thanks guys for the interest/comments on my initial progress post.

Not sure how many rivets will be added/replaced, but so far have  about 87 , and a few more to go on the hull.  Likely same amount on the turret, so probably close to 200 in all.    Eight of them will be omitted in the front since it will be covered by resin sandbags.  

Where possible, I'll cheat a bit by not drilling holes, like the corner piece pictured below.  Instead two location holes were made in the PE bracket, rivets glued in placed, and then trimmed flush.  The whole thing is then simply glued in place.

There are fit issues with this Italeri kit.  The rear engine deck is short on the right side, while the back end should have a slight more overhang to it.  I'll see what can be done with some plastic sheet.

At the front end, again another gap.  Most will be hidden under the PE fender, and the remainder will be filled with putty.

Forgot to mention the Friul tracks. They were done first thing upon returning to the bench on this one. Total of 88 links per side, and they also came with the drive sprockets - better fit and more accurate surface detail.

regards,

Jack

Those friuls will look great jack.Must have been fun to assemble.

Hey Jack, looking good! Love the interior. I'm interested in how the Friuls go, I have yet to use any.

Eric and Gamera - thanks guys.

Yes, this was my first go at Friuls.   Probably not the best subject choice as they are quite small.  Below is a comparison to a 1/72 Tiger track!

It took me three bench sessions over three days to assemble them.  More time consuming than anything, as each one had a pour stub and seams to clean up.  All the links need the holes bored out to make sure nothing obstructs the brass pins, all of which are cut from generous supply provided in the form of a  single coil.

Instructions suggest using a drop of super glue after inserting the pin, and then trimming to proper length once dry.   I used another method, choosing to pre-cut the pins about half a millimeter longer than the track width.   Once inserted, used light pliers (actually is a special flat nose plier for bending PE) to gently squeeze the ends, forcing one end of the pin to 'dig' into the closed end of the track link, and flattening the exposed end of the pin at the opposite end.

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The interior includes the partial use of a resin set from Model Victoria.  The  Italeri kit provided the transmission, driver seat, and a portion of the engine visible in the crew section.

regards,

Jack

Wow, I'm not surprised at the size of the tracks there- I find the large ones much, much, much, easier to assemble!

And that's a really nice interior set there! I assume you're leaving all the hatches open, which I'd guess in the hot desert the crew would leave them anywhere outside of combat. I built the Tamiya Carro Armato M15/40 years ago and it didn't have any interior at all best I remember.

Yup, the Tamiya M13/40 has no interior, but the Semovente does. Something of a shame, as they easily could have incuded that sprue into both kits and just told which parts to use and not to use on the instruction sheet.

interior looks fantastic

Nice work there jack. In regards to the Fruils, they are not always like that, they do vary. The set I am using on the Pz III have only needed a little bit of clean up on a small number of links. But on other sets, I have had to drill out a lot of the holes to get the wire through. I am a big fan of them myself, and the only reason I have't replaced my magic tracks and indy link tracks in the price, but I have replaced all my rubber band tracks with them.

Nice looking interior set.

Jack, interior looks good, currently installing and painting Pz IV 'D' interior - photos below. Armor86

Hello guys

Is there any space for me as a late new entry?

I was thinking of doing a Tunisia Panzer III in 1/72 just to experiment on tanks a little.

Please let me know.

Cheers to all

Yes, you're welcome zvezda1980. Hop aboard.

Dan: Nice interior there! Does it come with the fuzzy dice and the lil' hula dancer for the dash?

Zvezda: Welcome aboard!

Armor86: excellent work on your interior!

Zvezda:  Welcome aboard

Here's my update,

First two are before I airbrushed on Model Master Acrylic Gray Primer,

Hey guys I'm back. First of all im sorry for my long absence. I was just way too busy and didn't get any bench time or time for the forums at all for weeks.

I missed way too much good stuff to mention it all individually, but all of you are doing fantastic work here! I should be able to get back to the Pz IV in 2 weeks or something and finally make some major progress on the interior.

I would like to enter my revell 1.48 bf 109. It will be marked in honor of my relative now (matter how distant he was) lol  Importnant guy come to find out growing up ironically.

Hans-Joachim Marseille that is

SORRY I didint see no crossovers allowed (and just leaned what that even means lol) so i cant even my BF109. However i will have a peacement from my stash once i decide. Sorry again for my Noob first time builds

Apologise for the lack of update's guys, progress has been a bit slow. I got into one of those slumps where it can be hard to get motivated, but I am getting back into it now.

Since the last update, I have added most of the tools road wheels and painted and added the jerry cans. I have done some light chipping and added some AK streaking grime to the vertical surfaces to make it a bit grimy. I have been in 2 minds about using AK's dust effects as I don't want to lose the camo completely. I have decided to add it to the lower hull and a light coat over the top decks. I will be doing that after adding the final tools and some stowage on the rear decks. I managed to find some rope for ship models today which I think will be ideal for tying things down, so I have ordered 2 sizes and should be here at the end of the week. In the meantime I will make a start on the figures and hopefully I can wrap this up once the rope arrives.

So, heres the pics of where I am at now.

That's it for now, i'll try not to leave it so long until the next one. 

Hey Bish, looks good to me man.

i did that dust thing with my canadian GRIZZLY. did the IFOR green and black camo and decided to try misting dust on the lower hull using real deal weathering "paints". hid a lot of the camo which means it doesn't present well in contests but it sure looks like it's been on the tank trails at grafenwohr. i think the mud/dust/ spray that is churned up there is an entirely new state of matter.

always liked PZ-IIIs. have 2 or 3 in the stash if i ever do tracked thingies a lot again.

rope to tie down stuff? you mean they didn't use CYA with a big tanker truck? your III is looking real nice.

Thanks guys.

wayne, that the problem with those dust effects, its very realistic, after a few weeks in the field, it was hard to tell the green from the black on our warriors, but it can be a shame to lose it. I couldn't do competitions, I would be screaming at the judges calling them all sorts of names.

Dan - those resin interior kits look great, a fine job with your's.

DtM85 - Tiger is looking good, nice job with the primer.

Schatten - welcome back!

Matt - welcome to the GB!

Bish - looking really good there, and love the 'Pik As' graphic on the turret.

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Thanks to those I may have missed commenting on the interior of the L6/40.  The exterior of the hull is now complete.  

Plan is to cut masks for the rubber portion of the road wheels, so couldn't do much in the way of sub assemblies in that area.  Stowage and other resin equipment is not glued in place, again to facilitate the painting stage.  

Up next will be the turret construction.

regards,

Jack

I would enter Hans-Joachim Marseille's BF 109 Revell 1:48

Jack, thanks, those markings are what drew me to doing this scheme when I first got the kit. Nice work on the exterior, lots of nice little rivets added there.

matt, this is meant to be an Armour GB. I think there was a specific reason Mike built those two aircraft kits. Tigerman might well give you the ok to go ahead with yours, but he has been a bit busy so you might have to wait a day or two for him to get back to you with an answer on this one. Given that you are distantly related to the great man, he might well say yes, but of course that's for him to decide.

Jack: Now that's a bunch of rivets- looking forward to more assuming you're not blind by now!

Bish: I love the subtle weathering effects. They are just perfect!

Jack: Some very inspiring stuff from you as usual!