Nice start Steve. I think you have the names of most of the main parts sorted.

LOL, the only reason I know, is they're named the same on ships; hull, turret......gun. 

I painted the Challanger, I hope the colours look right, and need to finish the tracks, painting the little thingies on the hull and turret and stick everything together. It should be complete tomorrow.

Done and done, thank you SchattenSpartan for hosting. I'll continue to watch as the others finish.

Oh poo, I just noticed the 31 is backwards on the right turret LOL, SS please use the first pic and I'll fix the marking. Luckly Trumpeter supplied several duplacate decals.

Hi Steve, good job on the gentleman's scale Challenger.

How did you do the camou, any masking or just freehand (brush or airbrush)?

regards,

Jack

Nice job Steve, the colours look good to me, what did you use.

Put the dodgy code down to the guy haveing a few to many beers the night before. I doubt the troop commander would even notice

Cheers guys,

Jack, I used silly putty to mask.

Bish, I used MM enamel med green and Tamiya NATO Black. The Olive Drab and flat black Trumpeter recomended just didn't seem right.

I am not keen on Trumps painting guides. The flat black suggestion is ok but certainly not OD. Yours came out well.

AA & Steve: Those both look fantastic guys!!!

My apologies- I've been on vacation/holiday. I've got a bunch of stuff to finish up by the end of the year and hopefully I'll be able to get back to the Abrams. 

Hi again,
just to be on the safe side and for your consideration:

Not:

But:

Svenne

Guys I'm going to try to catch up here:

Nuckss: Looks good, looking forward to more- the Type 10 is a good looking tank. 

Ben & KC: Looking forward to more progress from you guys! 

Svenne: I haven't seen Clemens/Schattenspartan for about a month now- hope things are well with him. Personally I'd love to see you enter the Terminator- it's a really cool looking fighting vehicle. 

Thank you Gamera,

Sort of share your concern :|

I have actually started on the kit, just waiting for a go-ahead for the thread ;)

I will get some posts up as soon as I am back at the home office.

Hope  that is OK with the rest of the "Roster" as well.

Svenne

Sorry guys but life has been keeping me busy; here are a few updated photos. 

This one shows the basic sub-assembly of the road wheels and sprokets. I noticed some rather large mold ejection pin marks on the back side of the parts but they will not be visible on the assembled model.

The next photo is actually top side down. Here is step three in the instructions and show the hydraulic actuators that are used when adjusting the main-gun elevation. 

This shows the lower half of the kit completed (road wheels, drive sprocket, return rollers, track, etc.) I have already applied some of the light "wear" weathering with dry brushing and pastels. I have not decided how dirty or rusty the end result will be just yet.

I noticed one big difference with the track from the earlier models to the "C" variant is the "C" now has track pads (black squares) and the earlier versions did not. 

My next pictures will be of the assembled upper hull. I have not made a decision on how the hull will be painted; soild green, or the Swedish splinter camoflage. If I do the splinter scheme I am not sure if it will be hand or airbrush painted (?). What do you all think I should do?

Ben

Nice work Ben. From pics it looks like a hard edged camo so you could go either way, but i would always airbrush.

Hi Ben,

Nice start!

I suggest that you pick your reference picture and go from there.

I honestly do not remember from the top of my head but I think you will find that there are 2 things to look out for:

Wading Equipment on/off

Fence on/off (tricky to scratch)

You often see the S in splinter scheme with both of the above and oposite you often see the solid green without them.

Something to do with training vehicles and /or fileded equipment if I remeber correctly.
Will check with some friend from back then.

Svenne

Congratulations on your finnished builds John, Steve.

They have turned out excellent!

I have some serioues catching up work to do :) and can only hope to achive your standard.

Svenne

Right,

So I have actually started a bit...

Some ugly sinkmarks here...

The kit shares some parts with Zvezda's T-90, the lower hull is identical, which also means it has the same issue with the stance of the hull, it is riding to high.
I have tried to correct this by genly bending the swing arms upwards, they are now paralell to the hull. Sorry about the picture quality.

And this is where I am right now:

I have an issue with the optics, adressed in the Armor forum already.
The clear parts are very prominent and I can't decide on the best approach here.
Right now I will use the technique suggested by HeavyArty (Gino) for the smaller periscopes but the large windows I have not decided yet.
As you can see below they are actuallt clear(ish) but that also means you can see what is behind! And there is nothing provided in the kit.

Anyway - all good fun ;)

Svenne

You guys are doing good work. It's going to be a while, maybe Christmas before I can really get going.

I went with my cousin to Europe this spring for several weeks and I'm putting a DVD together of the trip as well as regular work so not a lot of free time.  I loved it all but Rome and London were my favories.

Ben: That looks good! If you want to go with the camo pattern you might look around the internet. I found a set of three view drawings of the camo on my Abrams which I blew up using the work photocopier to 1/35th. I'm not sure if I'm going to try to cut them out and tape them to the model or use Silly Putty to replicate the patterns before airbrushing. It seems the easiest way to me. And if you don't like it you can always just spray solid green over it. 

Svenne: Cool! Gino's way probably looks best but I still hate painting over clear parts. I just paint the backs of them chrome. The candy bar wrappers you have would probably work just as well glued to the backs of the clear parts. 

Hi I’m just stopping by, so please don’t mind me!  But I have two Strv-103B questions:

1.  Trumpy’s color callout for the hull is RLM-02, which I think is wrong. What were the early S Tanks painted in?  Some variation of OD?  I have access to a few period color photos in books, but they all have heavy color shift, and poor quality and lighting.

2.  The B version had different tracks than the C.  I read an article in Model Graphix where the builder used aftermarket Leopard II tracks for his C build.  The Trumpy B kit has crummy belt tracks, and although they sell plastic workable indy tracks, they depict the same type in the kit.  The design of the tread pattern seems kind of wimpy to me.  I seem to recall reading somewhere that the B used two different tracks, and the other style resembled modified Centurion tracks.  Is there any credence to this?  Inquiring minds want to know.

BTW, I too was intrigued by the “fence” on the snout of the C versions.  I had initially thought it was some absurd camouflage to blend in with picket fences around houses or pastures!  Bar-type slat armor was not commpnplace when I first saw photos of S Tanks fitted with the anti-HEAT/RPG fence.

Hey Schatten, when you gonna update the front page of this GB?  I’ve already finished my first subject and have a second one in work...

Armor_Aficionado

Hey Schatten, when you gonna update the front page of this GB?  I’ve already finished my first subject and have a second one in work...

 

I haven't even seen Clemens/Schattensparten in over a month. Hope things he's just busy and nothing bad is going on.

I am still moving forward in this corner if slowly.

'There was a boy who hated painting road wheels...

He was stuck with them up the gills...

He painted them all day...

He painted them all night...

Till he committed sepukku with an X-Acto knife...'

I have not been able to get on until just now. I'll be having some work done next week then after Christmas I'll start really getting the work.

Gamera

I am still moving forward in this corner if slowly.

 

'There was a boy who hated painting road wheels...

He was stuck with them up the gills...

He painted them all day...

He painted them all night...

Till he committed sepukku with an X-Acto knife...'

 

O, lots of wheels on sticks, just in time for the holidays.

Bish

 

 

Gamera

I am still moving forward in this corner if slowly.

 

'There was a boy who hated painting road wheels...

He was stuck with them up the gills...

He painted them all day...

He painted them all night...

Till he committed sepukku with an X-Acto knife...'

 

 

 

 

O, lots of wheels on sticks, just in time for the holidays.

 

Yeah if I could only find some peppermint flavoured paint... 

KC: Good to have you back. I was locked out for about half a week and only got back on last weekend. 

Hi everyone, it has been a week since I was locked out of the forum; I am happy to be back! Bish, you and Gamera are killing me with the model humor (smile).

While I was gone, I also got some work done on the STRV 103C, check it out...

I got the upper hull and all of the misc. parts assembled. The coaxial machine gun and the water foraging kit were left off until I could paint the splinter scheme. Model Master and Vallego Acrylic paints were used.

My technique was rather simple, look at the camo scheme I sourced from the web (the instructions camo pattern were in black and white??) and then free hand brush paint it. Thanks Gamera for the tip on findinig the scheme on the web.

I did that versus the airbrush and masks because I wanted to see if it could be done. The challenge was to not destroy any fine detail and not leave any brush strokes. I used red sable flat brushes 1/2 and 1/4 inch wide as well as a fine point detail brush to ensure the angles remained sharp. The painting took roughly 11 hours, over three days.

Since the photos below I've also added the other parts and completed the camoflauge. Overall I am satisfied with the results. 

Next will be the detail painting for the vents, exhaust, periscopes, rubber caps, lights, etc. When I'm done with that I will begin the weathering process. More photos to come later.

As always, your comments are encouraged...

Ben

Good to see they let you back in Ben. As for humour, well, i am English, its what we do best (you try living on a foggy island next to the French )

Nice paint job, thats a very interesting scheme, liking it a lot.

Bish,

While in the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment (ElPaso, Texas) I was a special project officer coordinating a month long exchange between members of our 3rd Squadron with troops from your 4th Royal Tank Regiment and the 16/5th Queens Royal Lancers. It was called exercise "Gobi Dust", I believe it was in 1984 (?).  I still have some good memories that occurred during that exchange. The Chieftain MBT and Scorpion CVRT were some neat combat vehicles of that time. The English Soldiers also admired our M60A3 MBT and IFV's. Sometime in the future I would like to vist your country again as a civilian and take time to enjoy the sites.

Prior to that I was stationed in Germany and assisted in training some of the French infantry on some American small arms and crew serve weapons. I know EXACTLY what you mean..... 

Ben

Ben: That's outstanding!!! I tried masking a 1/48th Viggen with splinter camo  for airbrushing a few years ago and couldn't push myself to finish it. Maybe I should have handbrushed it! Just love this, beautiful work!