I think the photo hosting site I was using USE.COM crashed or something? Oh man all my post photos are gone and the site is unreachable. WTH??

 Hey Gamera didn't I see some tip/process in FSM of how to paint the end of shells or maybe it was aircraft prop cones, something like that. They inserted it into a dremel or something like that and at lowest speed the item spun around and they stuck the brush against the item and it came out really nice. I cant remember where I saw that.

Ernest: Looks like you've got a good bit done. I've got a half dozen or so kits around here I assembled in motel rooms and still haven't gotten around to painting yet. 

Think I'm mostly done with the shells. They turned out pretty horrible, thankfully they won't be clearly seen. In the past with clearly visible ammo racks like the turret of an M10 I've bought the turned brass shells for use. Just don't see the point here where they're almost invisible even with a flashlight/torch. 

Gamera - Yup!  Agree with you on the cost of making resin parts.  My supplies were purchased many years ago.  I think my first starter kit was less than $15.  The cost of a decent comprehensive resin mold kit is now up almost a hundred bucks!!  Yikes! 

Dwayne - visited the Midway GB and left comments!

Assembly of the Zvezda T-26 is moving along...just keep forgetting to take pics.

Update!

Pic of partially completed assembly.  Sorry for the photo quality....hotel towel and desk lamp served as my photo studio!!

Hey DasBeav, that is some pretty impressive scratch building.  Nice job there.  I would not have tried that, so kudos for trying, and double kudos for pulling it off so well.

Still working on my Wildcat, and progress is being made (check out the Midway GB if you have any interest).  Reaching a point where I may have some extra time to work on the KV-1, which I am sure if feeling neglected at this point. 

Griffin: Thanks, I'm slowly chugging along. 

DasBeav: Replacement looks decent to me. Casting is probably simpler but not sure it's worth buying thirty bucks worth of casting supplies for one wheel! 

Gamera - yeah, it will be very interesting seeing the little 1930s tank next to those newer iron beasts!

Griffin - sorry, I misspoke on my earlier post. Only the assembly of the JS-3 is done; it still needs to be painted and weathered.  I plan on completing assembly of all three kits and then painting them at same time.

DasBeav - you're a braver man than I !  Scratchbuilding a large, flat roadwheel from plastic is tough.   In those situations I find it easier to make a resin copy of a kit part, but yours looks pretty darn good and probably will be unnoticeable in the back of the bogies.

Started assembly of the T-26.  Nice, soft plastic but Darn there are a lot of small sink marks.  I'm not going to worry about them though.  Just going to slap it together and try to fix any flaws when I get back home! 

This is what I did this evening. Somewhere in the Ukraine is an inner wheel piece, so I had to make one. Just started to do some "scratch-building"? last year. Here is the final result...Sadly, this may be my greatest modelling achievement. Enjoy.

Ernest you have 3 entries and have one finished? Man I feel like a slacker. Its gonna take me 5 months to finish 1/35 tank. LOL. Love the T-26, That tank saw a lot of action before WW2 in Spain and Finland 

Gamera, hang in there bud! 

Ernest: Cool, built the Hobbyboss (I think) T-26 a few years ago. That will be cool looking seeing the contrast between it and the IS-II. I think the IS-II 122mm gun is longer than the whole T-26. 

DasBeav: Well, it's a boon and a curse. I'll admit getting distracted by it more than once. 

I painted the noses on the five zillion or so shells in the kit this weekend. I'm not sure they'll even be that visible. Which I guess is ok since some of them came out kinda sloppy... 

Gamera, I like the idea about watching TV. It will be the next addition to my work bench.

Thanks Ernest, roster updated.  Seeing the pic of the JS-3 was a head smacking "of course" moment.

Thanks MCF!  Actually my first entry is the Tamiya JS-3.  That one is done, just sitting on the side waiting for me to complete the T-62, my 2nd entry, and now the T-26:

Roster updated.  I must have missed your second entry.  I only have the T-62 and T-26.  What was the third?

Out of town but still checking in!

Griffin - the T-55 is looking great!  Friuls are awesome and the stowage really adds to the overall look!

Dutch - nice work on counterbalancing the metal gun barrel.  I would not have thought of adding weight in the shell basket let alone molding a lead weight to fit!

ManCityFan - can I enter a third kit to my roster?  I'd like to add this to the GB:

The goal is to assemble as much of this in my hotel until I get back home.

Dutch, brilliant solution to the counter weight issue!  That kit is looking fantastic!

Griffin, closing in on completion.  The kit looks excellent!

Dutch that is looking really good. What a cool kit! 

Dutchman: That looks great! And sharp thinking on the counterbalance.

Griffin: Gee, you're almost done! The storage looks good to me. 

I finally finished the gun:

It was probably the hardest part of the build so far. I had some fit issues with the metal barrel as it was made for another kit, so I had to do some cutting and filling. After I had that done, while I was gluing the barrel to the mantlet with CA, I accidently squeezed too hard and put way too much on. Luckily it was on the inside, but I still had to grind quite a bit out with my Dremal since no other tool could reach it. After all that I put it together only to find that the balance was off due to the weight of the barrel, so I had to make a weight:

I pulled the bullet out of a .22 round for the lead. It had the right mass, but needed some reshaping:

First I made a wax cast of the shot-basket and put a peice of wood to hold on to:

Next I mixed up some plaster and put the wax in it:

When it had set I pulled the wax out, melted the bullet with a torch, and poured the lead into the plaster. After it had cooled I got this:

It fit perfectly in the shot-basket:

Looks like it needs something:

Much better. The weight fixed the balance issues, and I can finally move on.

Worked on attaching stowage last night. Still have to dust it up a bit and add tie downs of some sort. Just winging it with the stowage so far. 

 

Well, if you have the money, adding cool stuff is definitely one of the joys of the hobby.

On a related note, this hobby can get expensive, but when you think of how many hours it takes to build a kit, the cost per hour of "fun" is actually pretty low.  Well......as long as you don't build a stash many times larger than you could ever actually build. 

In the 1980's, when I first started thinking about building kits, there really wasn't much of an aftermarket that I was aware of, so I guess we should just be very pleased that such improvements are an option.  Although....I think PE was invented solely with the intent of torturing perfectionists. 

Oh, sounds cool Griffin. Looking forward to seeing all that together. 

And yeah, I've had to force myself at times to just build the friggin' kit and stop adding cool stuff to it...

Thanks guys, I'm happy I'm close to finishing. I'm going to put it on a vignette base before I call it done. I got an acacia tree and need to add stowage and little details. The Friul tracks, Crew figures and Acacia tree cost $70 more than the kit. I'm not a good cost analyst. 

Rudy: Looks like a good kit. I've built one of the Dragon T-34s and it went together quite well. 

DasBeav: Nice work. I tend to just clean and sand road wheels while watching TV or YouTube or whatever. Seems to make repeatative stuff go easier. 

Griffin: Those Friuls do look great! They look fantastic on there. 

Sorry, not much done here. I've got about three-four kits I've been concentrating on trying to get them done. Hopefully when I get them out of the way I can get back to the T-44. 

That is looking really good Griffin.  The Friuls look fantatsic!

I really made some progress this weekend. Put in some hours. I LOVE the Friuls! First time using them. Worth the money imo. I'm getting excited!! LOL. Ya a

 

bufflehead

Welcome to the GB Rudy!  Looking forward to that beutepanzer T-34!

I feel your pain Dasbeav, cleaning up and painting roadwheels are my least favorite part of building armor models!  Looks like you've powered through the worst of it though! BTW, is that a kleine Panzerbefehlswagen I see in the back? 

Definitely agree, Bufflehead. Still have nightmares doing a Panzer IV and a Stug IV back to back. And yes that is a Kommandor. 

I'm getting back into the swing again. Weathering the wheels.and tracks. I need to do something with the end of the sprockets, they're painted. I forgot. Doh! 

 

Welcome to the GB Rudy!  Looking forward to that beutepanzer T-34!

I feel your pain Dasbeav, cleaning up and painting roadwheels are my least favorite part of building armor models!  Looks like you've powered through the worst of it though! BTW, is that a kleine Panzerbefehlswagen I see in the back?