Great job Jack!  Excellent work on the commander.  Figures are where I'm having the most problems at present

Awesome, Jack. The grass looks very nice too.

How did you do the background on the one scenic shot?

modelcrazy, Gamera and Eagle - thanks very much guys!

regards,

Jack

Jack!  That Stuart is amazing!  Awesome work!  Got you posted on front page.

Eagle90

Jack: That's just beautiful man! Love how the Stuart came out but I really love the figure and the whole story behind it. Very dramatic!

Really looks great Jack. Very nice work sir.

RBaer - very  fine attention to detail there.  No kidding about the barrel size, in that photo it looks King Kong could use it for a drinking straw.

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Alright, the Stuart V is now done.  I guess the shot with the realistic background can be used for the front page of completed builds.

regards,

Jack

More late-night progress.....

Outer bow armor on, turnbuckles on, headlights mounted on front fenders instead of bow armor as HB directs, and divots for same on bow armor filled. I also built the mantlet and added the mount for the dust cover, missing on both the HB and Tamiya kits.

Regarding the turnbuckles, Eduard includes them in the etch set, and I have to say the idea of something that's made from round stock and 3D pieces looks silly in etch. More "useless PE" rant, sorry.

Anyway, pics:

Barrel is test fitted, and boy is it long.... ^

Bow armor ^

Turnbuckles, nicely done by HB. Loops on hull are thin wire, I used the kit loops on the front but wanted more strength on the back. ^

Off to the wilds of Oklahoma now, back later!

Again just superb work guys! Need to get back to mine...

Tool box handles done, some Eduard parts (base) and some Academy and Esci (handles). The Eduard handles were very unrealistic, so I popped them off and dug into the spares. Generally speaking, there's a lot on the Eduard set for this model that makes no sense, no better than the plastic parts, or even worse. Also visible is the horn and guard, another good example of the plastic part, with some thinning, being more realistic than the etch part. Hmmm.....

Still working on the gun tube, trying to get the imperfections out and straightened.....   RB Models part ordered, but on Inter-Galactic Back Order from everyone that sells RB....

Blitzwing

Thanks for all the feedback everyone, it was a very enjoyable build.

Please use the first picture for the first page please.

Got you up there BW!  Great looking Cromwell sir! 

Eagle90

Thanks for all the feedback everyone, it was a very enjoyable build.

Please use the first picture for the first page please.

Jack, thanks for posting those pics.  I think that carpet grass rocks!  I want to get some and try it out!  I like the way it looks!

Eagle90

modelcrazy

Eagle,

Put this pic up on the front page please.

Got it!  Again...great work!  The sandbags are awesome!

Eagle90

RBaer: She's coming along nicely!

Jack: I really like those grass mats and a'm very interested in how you are going to use them!

Shiv: I like to use strip styrene for my weld seams. After glueing them in place I usually apply some strong lacquer thinner to them and then use a scalpel to sculpt the soft plastic.

Eagle,

Put this pic up on the front page please.

Blitzwing - excellent work on the Cromwell.

I like the fine dust you have going on the lowers.  Regarding figures, I'd suggest on your next one to try a brown instead of black on the flesh areas - it might work better for you.  

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RBaer - good progress there

Shiv - interesting experiments with the weld seams.  In the past I've done something similar with Tamiy's surfacer which is almost as thin as paint.  I did mask the areas off first before application to arrive at straight edges.

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Thanks  Modelcrazy, Blitzwing, Gamera, RBaer and Schatt.

Tracks are complete and painted, just requiring some final detail.  Last bits arrived today, some carpet grass from a railroad shop and the larger antenna.  I decided to go with the AM brass since I don't think I could get that tapered look with stretched sprue.

regards,

Jack

good looking work there RBaer.

Here is my attempt at weld seams. First time I ever tried it and I used Mr. Surfacer.

not really liking how they turned out. Going to sand them off and try again.

So I guess chick-flicks are good for something! Nice work!

My wife watched a chick-flick last night so I went to the cave, yay!

I got to the point of installiing the front hull periscopes, and like most models, this kit suffers from "closed periscopeitis", so I dug around in my Sherman bits until I found a couple of old Verlinden open periscopes, probably from the loader's position, since I had extras and they were larger than the hole. A little sanding to get two of them in the driver's and co-driver's hatches, kit brush guards fitted and done.

I also wanted to see what the turret fit was going to be like, so I glued the upper and lower together and surprisingly enough, the fit was near-perfect. I then added the appropriate counterweight, knowing that the fit here was off, and made welds from Vallejo putty. At this time I added the rear-most fender braces, then thinned the rear fender pieces and added them.

Not being able to leave well enough alone, I cut and sanded the "experimental" rear sprocket off it's hub, sanded the same off the one Tamiya sprocket assembly, and mated the necessary parts to get another "prototype" drive sprocket assembly.

It doesn't look like a lot in the pics, but it was all about four hour's worth.....    Feeling lucky after getting another "correct" sprocket assembly made up, I decided to tackle the kit gun tube. Yach! Mine was warped, and it trying to straighten the worst half, I broke it. Pressing on, I assembled the three (!) parts, flowed cryo glue down the indide of it and began puttying and sanding. I may get a usable part yet, but I'm going to shop for an AM part, since HB neglected to mold the prominent groove on the top-rear of the part.

Pics:

Just for fun (not) I also filled the back-side of the external layer of bow armor and made torch marks in the edges and bow MG cut-out, as seen in the few pics I have. I'll have pics of that exercise later......

modelcrazy

Let me fix the sandbags so the driver could see out of the periscope and upload a new pic for you. Otherwise I would choose pic #1.

No problem MC.  Let me know when you get the pic! 

Eagle90

Let me fix the sandbags so the driver could see out of the periscope and upload a new pic for you. Otherwise I would choose pic #1.

modelcrazy

I finally finished my M4A1, and here it is. I decided not to put the side armor on, it distracted from the subject and besides, there wasn't a lot of photo evidence to support them.

It depicts a Sherman slugging thru a muddy field in Germany, April 1945.

Please tell me what you think.

Steve

Steve, my apologies for not getting this on the front page sooner.  Things have been crazy around here, but please let me know which pic you would like to see posted.

Awesome job! Super detailing!

Eagle90

Blitzwing!  Awesome looking Cromwell!  The weathering is great! 

Which pic would you like to see on the front page?

Eagle90

BW- that Cromwell looks great. The shading turned out really nice.

I posted this in the FSM GB by accident so figured I should post here where it belongs. An update on my Chaffee. The seam at the front of the turret is where a weld seam is suppose to be.

so I am trying a technique to make welds seams using enamel paint.

going to try a couple more times to refine the technique.

Jack: The Leutenant looks terrific! Another great figure paint job from you! You really make me want to work on my figure painting skills... Those fiddly tracks sure were worth the effort!

Blitz: The weathering on your Cromwell is fantastic! The fading, mud, chipping and dust all blend in perfectly!

Jack: I like it a lot, and admire the effort you've put into the tracks. Superb!

BW: Very nice Cromwell, weathering is spot-on.

Jack: Lt. Smith looks fantastic and gee when you finish painting those tracks you should be almost done.

BW: Super job there on the Cromwell! The fading and the mud/grime looks perfect.

Jack: I really like that figure in the turret. You did a great job on it and the Stuart is great as well. I hope to do figures as well as yours one day. 

I finally got to finishing off my Cromwell and here it is. I hope you like it and comments and feedback welcome. 

Your Lt looks fantastic Woody, and oh, the Stuart looks pretty good too.

Steve