Okay, final reveal, she's DONE!  Whoever's running this GB now, please use the first picture here as the picture on the front page completion gallery.  Thanks.

Tony: That's cool! What year is it? I don't think I've ever seen the Esci logo in that format.

It's an interesting subject, looking good.

I thought I'd releive this thing of it's position in my garage, and build it. I should comfortably get it done by the end of the year.

Cheers

Tony

Nice work AA, likeing that.

She looks good AA, just needs a little weathering and mud!

Well, after finally getting the tracks finished, I've been able to make a good pace with the rest of the model, to the point it's almost done.

Real G: That looks real good! Love the PE panels- they look waaaay better than the plastic mesh material. 

AA & Robert: Sorry to hear about your woes. Seems sometimes the small simple looking projects turn out to be the biggest pains in the tush... 

Here I'm STILL applying Silly Putty to mask off the earth brown splotches on the Leopard 2. 

Gamera

Robert: The Panther/M10 looks good! And the Wiesel is coming along great!

AA: Sorry missed your post- I'm on vacation/holiday. Did you get the tracks finished?

 

Hey Gamera,

Yeah, FINALLY got the tracks finished, and they were a HUGE pain in the butt!  The fit was horrible.  The individual links wrapped around the rear sprocket okay, but by the time I added the assorted links and lengths and got to the front sprockets, none of the individual links would fit with the adjacent links AND the sprocket teeth.  Had to cut a lot of the teeth off in order to just get the links to lay down and approximately join the adjacent links.  Compared to this model, the ancient ERTL/ESCI BMP-2 I did months ago which also had link and length tracks (and was my first attempt at such) was a veritable masterpiece!  If you really want to engage in self-abuse, go ahead and buy this kit and try these link & length tracks.    

Please forgive me for this mini rant session...I just need to vent on this thing.

I am on the verge of tossing this kit back on the shelf of woe!  If anyone has this original kit in their stash, I strongly recommend offloading it as soon as possible.  Supposedly they resolved the track and PE issue when they rereleased the kit a couple years back though.

The rubber bands have been stretched on, qute literally as they appear to be two to three links short for a smooth fit.  First one went on flawlessly by some miracle.

The other side saw the rear road wheel snap right off, and repeated attempts with my strongest CA was unable to hold it in place once the track was streatched back on.  I ended up pulling the track apart and glueing it to the road wheels to hold it, but this unfortunately leaves that 2-3 track gap smack in the middle.  

I'm trying to brainstorm a way to resolve this.  I'm thinking of just cutting an old gift card to the dimensions and gluing this in that space.  

After that crisis, that brings me to the next sore point, the steel PE.  This stuff barely bends and certainly won't hold a square bend.  Of course if you work it too much, one piece is now two.  This is one of the screens that covers the exhaust system.  It started off as one piece, but is now 3:

For such a small subject, this kit is really kicking my behind.  Doesn't make sense now to pour money into it for AM replacement partes though, because I am so fed up with it, I can't wait to be done!   

Just a quickie update.  I test fit the PE screens to the fold-down side gates and everything looks good.

I now realize the awful mess of parting lines on the gates will be hidden by the screens, so I'll just be giving them a stern swipe with the edge of a knife and calling cleanup done!

Thanks Gamera.

Real G

Nice work guys, I hope to catch up!  I'm still battling ejector pin marks, but I think I'm winning!  

I have made progress since these pics were taken.  Still, they are relatively easy to deal with compared to the M107's.

I got a PE cutter recently and so I wanted to try it out.  The anti-skid floor plates do a nice job of dressing up the featureless cab interior.  I'm not going bananas with the PE, as a lot of it is excessively fiddly and 2-D.  Actually, the only reason I bought the Eduard PE set was to get the metal screens on the fold-down sides of the fighting platform.  I'm keeping the build as simple as possible.

 

You certainly are winning from hat i can see, thats looking very nice.

Bish & G: Those look great guys!!!

A bit more progress on the Tiger. I got the fuel tanks and fans painted as this will be seen though the grills.

The turret was finsihed off with spare track hangers and other small bits.

And the top deck has been added and then most of the PE has been fitted. The track guards took quite some time to do. The kit ones are nice but i need this movable so it been worth it. I still have to do the rear ones. Thats tonights main effort.

And i have started on the Fruil tracks. One is done just a few more links to add to the other.

I can feel the paint stage coming on son and then i can start puting the figures together.

Nice work guys, I hope to catch up!  I'm still battling ejector pin marks, but I think I'm winning!  

I have made progress since these pics were taken.  Still, they are relatively easy to deal with compared to the M107's.

I got a PE cutter recently and so I wanted to try it out.  The anti-skid floor plates do a nice job of dressing up the featureless cab interior.  I'm not going bananas with the PE, as a lot of it is excessively fiddly and 2-D.  Actually, the only reason I bought the Eduard PE set was to get the metal screens on the fold-down sides of the fighting platform.  I'm keeping the build as simple as possible.

Well, here are two photos of my Leopard 2. I finished up the black camo pattern before I left on vacation/holiday. Now I need to get the earth brown blotches added. 

BTW: The left PE engine cooling fan screen came off so that's why you see a big white circle where the primer is showing underneath it. 

I have done a pre zimmed kit, and while it does look nice, its just to pristine and i think it would be hard to create damage. I wil be interested to see how the decals work and if i can create a worn look with them.

Good idea on the practice. I used to do it that way back in the '80-'90s before they made photoetch and resin zimmerit. Still think the putty generally looks better. Last subject I built with zimmerit I did cheat and use the resin stuff. 

Thanks G. I should do t more often really, keep my hand in.

Bravo Bish!!! Love the zimmerit! I used to do this all the time! 

Thanks Robert. It is a pain, took me 4 or 5 days to get it done working in stages.

Very nice on that Zim!  I have never successfully completed a model doing it by hand myself.  Closest I ever came was using some resin pieces on an Elefant.

Made a start on the Tiger 2 weeks ago, only my second Tiger I and my first in 11 years. Been a bit slower than i expected, largely due to the zimm taking longer than i thought. But its progressing well now.

I am adding a Voyager PE set, Aber metal barrel and Fruil metal transport tracks.

Started with the lower hull and the working suspension.

Then got started on the zimmerit useing Miliput white. Been a few years since i did this. Its messy and tedious but it still gives the best results that i have seen IMHO.

Once that was done, i got the turret together, including metal barrel.

And started fitting out the rear.

Got a bit of patching up to do on the zimm once the rest of the PE is fitted. main thing to do now is the PE track guards. I need to keep than workable for the dio. Once there done, i can crack on with the rest.

Robert: The Panther/M10 looks good! And the Wiesel is coming along great!

AA: Sorry missed your post- I'm on vacation/holiday. Did you get the tracks finished?

I finally have some shots of the Wiesel:

Interior, that will be mostly unseen once glued together:

Mocked up profile:

Profile with the TOW added:

To add a sense of scale, here it is next to a 1/72 Leopard 2A6:

Finally, here's the Dragon 1/35 Ersatz M10, with R Models' Early Panther metal tracks:

These tracks were great, they came with turned brass pins that just slipped right into the holes in the links.  There were some warped links that were unusable, but they had about 20 extra in the baggie so it wnded well in the end!  Tracks were soaked in Mig's Burnishing Fluid for 20 minutes.  Highly recommend them, but they are only sold on Ebay out of Hong Kong and China as far as I know, but even so arrived 1.5 weeks after the order was placed. 

This was shown at the MMSI show in October, the Larry Peters Classic Show in Milwaukee, and the Butch O'Hare IPMS Show in November.  Took a Merit, a Silver and Bronze respectively.  Nobody was shocked more than me, since these were my first "real" shows!  

Nice work there AA.

Latest progress on the 35(t):

Starting on the Link-and-length tracks:

Tony: Oooooooohhhhhhhhhhh, that's some nice work!!! I'd swear she was 1/35th if you didn't say so! 

Robert: Those sound cool, would love to see some photos of the Wiesel and Panther/M10!

G: She's coming along great- gee friggin' whiz I hate friggin' injection pin marks...