1990-1991 Gulf War 25th Anniversary Group Build

wow, I didn't know we still used them in '91

the AK I can understand, but what's up with the grease gun?

Stowage is complete, flat applied, weathering to be done this weekend.

the wires are thick but i was afraid a thin wire would cut the rubber track. the pics looked washed out but that was deliberate so the wires were easier to see.

that was fun.not unexpectedly the rubber band tracks did not melt together well. i punched holes on both sides of the center guides and pulled the ends tight with heavy wire. since i have side skirts no one will see the fix. first one went well,  looped it around the sprocket, inserted the idler, pulled it tight so the idler was on it's axle.

doing the same thing with the second one and it decides to break almost halfway around. now i have that track with wires at the top, hidden, and the bottom seen. option one is hide it in the sand base it will be sitting on. option two is a thrown track, maybe sliding off the road with the center guides of the broken track inside the road wheels under the hull, something i have some experience with except mine was in mud.

as i get older i find these things merely annoying instead of devastating. looks like i lost the panel door left rear of my SCUD so i have to scratchbuild a new one of them too. hopefully my friend can scan i the part from his so i have a pattern to work with. that worked well with my atomic cannon. 

Looks like the sand primer technique is interesting, enough so i bought some russian green and german gray primer to airbrush ove a black.think i will paint the external drums russian green and overspray with sand so some green shows through to add some color.

what color was the sand and dust over there. i added some orange to my SCUD pastel mix to be different but it isn't as obvious in 1/72.

I've finished the camo on the tails, and it turned out pretty good.

Now that I've got a handle on this technique, I think I can safely move onto the rest of the airframe.  Unfortunately, mother nature intervened, and they're forcasting rain all week, so I might not get to it right away.

I managed to find a LAU-114/A Dual Rail Adaptor, but it's coming from Singapore, so it might be a while.

On a side note, I bought a copy of A-10 Warthogs in Action, that I was planning to use for color reference, unfortunately, it's the 1981 edition, which is mostly printed in black and white.  So much for that plan.  Anyone know of any good sources for color pics of Warthogs in Euro I from odd angles?  Google hasn't been much help, and the newer edition of A-10 Warthogs in Action is really expensive on Amazon.

One particular detail I'm hunting for is the color of the insides of the speed brakes.  I've seen pics of them open on modern hogs, which show them the same color grey as the camo, but the best pic I've seen of them on a Euro I hog was a black and white shot from the book, and all I could tell from that was they were painted a light color.

Some nice work there guys.

Great looking progress everyone!  I finally have some progress to show.  It was incredibly tedious filling and sanding all the ejector pin marks on almost every single piece of the brackets.  Each piece had between 2 and 4 marks.  I took a good look and I don't think I see any more on any of the other pieces.  I also attached the upper and lower hulls together.  I didn't bother filling in any blank areas since they won't be seen once everything is together.  Hopefully next week I'll be able to get some painting done.

That's a great looking Abrams!!!  Keep up the good work!!!

Markings complete...C-66. C co. 3rd plt., 1-64 Armor 24th ID(M) part of Task Force 3-15...

all that is left to do is finish the stowage, seal with flat and weather.

Ok, so I got the last coat of Cammo on the engine pods, I'll post pictures once they're dry and I can pull off the silly putty. I have a small question though. I was thinking of displaying the A-10 with a pair of sidewinders on one of the outboard wing pylons as I've seen in pics, but I just noticed that neither the kit nor the weapons set provide any sidewinder hardpoints, let alone a double hardpoint. Any ideas where I could find one?

Edit: as promised, here's a pic of the painted engine pods, they still need some cleanup, but the silly putty worked ok.  I was kinda surprised how close the euro I green matches the kit plastic, almost unheard of with RM kits, not that I'm going to be leaving any of it visible.

Edit part deux: I found an addon kit for a LAU-115 with 2 LAU-127s on Ebay, would that be an appropriate sidewinder hardpoint for an ODS era Hog?

Edit again: ok, so I guess that's not the right kind of DRA, but now that I know what the correct one looks like I should be able to either find it or scratch build it.

got lost parts for airbrush. 

this should be interesting. when i first used Vallejo i bought a bottle of sand for OTS T-55 mineroller. promed it with gray as usual but the paint coat was real thin. i figured it was me and new paint until i looked and saw i had bought sand primer. anyway kept it, washed it, and gave it some heavy dusting. took a first at a regional.

SOOOOOO since the sand primer gave it a panel line type look i thought let's try it big scale. here is the result. i will give the turret one more coat as there are definite areas that need more coverage. this has potential, given Vallejo has many different color primers.

stikpusher

Abrams ain't airborne  

 

But yes, I do know that 24th was way out there on the left past VII with XVIII Airborne....

 

and the French 6th DLB and elements of the Foreign Legion. i have a meng AMX-30B2 in the stash for that.

T-72M is primed and i will start on it Sunday. if snow closes school on Monday will get a lot done. i also stripped down the 1/72 SCUD missile and repainted it Vallejo aged white with a dash of hemp. light wash of medium gray and some dusting and i think it will look much better.

Stik, 

Need to make a midcourse adjustment.  Turns out the A-7 turned out to be an A model.  Will be doing a divine scale Revell Germany F/A-18.  Will be wearing VFA-83's markings off the SARATOGA.

Bish

A-10 is looking good Ghost, be nice to see some paint on it.

 

Started painting the engines first, just to make sure I get the camo technique right.  I'm using silly putty to mask off each blob of color.  Not much to see right now though, I got the grey and medium green on, but then it started raining, so I didn't have a chance to do the dark green yet.

A-10 is looking good Ghost, be nice to see some paint on it.

We have been inundated with ships on the forum lately, really nice to see another one.

I've got started on the SARATOGA (CV-60).  All of the sponsons are on the hull and the island is together.  She's ready for a little putty and some paint.  Hopefully that'll happen today.  Here's the pics.

I thought he was a Persian...

I love the point in the build where the model actually starts to resemble a servicable version of the subject.

I finished the tail surfaces and assembled the engine nacelles tonight.  Also, I filled an annoying gap between the fuselage halves in the nose.  The pilot I borrowed from an old RM F-14 that didn't survive the last move, he's the same sculpt as this kit's pilot though, so I might use him anyway.  I hope none of you Air Force zoomies take offense to a Navy man flying one of your birds.

Look forward to seeing those Stik.

I resumed work on my BMP this afternoon. I did some scratch work in the drivers compartment area. I'll get some photos posted tomorrow.

Abrams ain't airborne  

But yes, I do know that 24th was way out there on the left past VII with XVIII Airborne....

stikpusher

Looks like our VII Corps left hook is shaping up nicely with a couple of Abrams and an A-10 for air support! Outstanding work so far fellas 

 

My Abrams is XVIII Airborne Corp ... 

Looks like our VII Corps left hook is shaping up nicely with a couple of Abrams and an A-10 for air support! Outstanding work so far fellas 

silentbob33

Looking really good 11B!  Progress on my end has been a little slow.  It seems like every little part has some kind of ejector pin mark on it.  It's a long processs getting them all filled in and sanded.  I have the turret just about done, all I really have to do is the basket along the sides and back.

These are the styrene blanks I put in for the optics.

 

 

 

It's hard to tell, but it looks like your Abraams might have the anti-slip coating already molded on the turret.  I've done anti-slip before on two Abraams, it sounds daunting, but it's really an easy detail to add.

Abraams can be fun to build,  that's why I did two of them, the dirty little secret though is that just about all of the 1:35 Abraams tanks on the market are based off the same Tamiya tooling.  Some use more of it then others, but side by side you'd probably notice similarities that go beyond the fact that they're replicating the same subject.  For example, the top hull piece is the same for both yours and 11Bs kits, complete with all the nitpicky flaws like the missing anti-slip and the misplaced grab handle.

If it's not too late, I'd like to throw my hat in the ring.  I've been sitting around the house lately, itching for something to do, so I dug an old RM 1:48 scale A-10 out of my stash.  This thing's been sitting in a box for probably 20 years, but I figured I have nothing better to do.  Also, this gives me an excuse to break out the two Hasegawa Aircraft Weapons: C kits that have been sitting in my stash since the last time I did a modern jet fighter, which is probably close to 10 years.

I forgot how easily RM kits come together, in a couple of hours I got the wings and fuselage assembed: