Great job there Bish! A little storage and figures would be nice but she looks fine as is. Love the camo and the dirt and grime on the skirts.

Thanks Jack. Its an arc marker for the live firing phase of the excersise. If any vehicle came with the the arc of those strips, the vehicle could not fire. Live firing at BATUS was somthing else.

Hello Bish, Happy New Year to you and everyone...

Very fine looking Chieftain

What was the purpose of the huge inverted v-stripe on the turret front?

tia

regards,

Jack

Thanks Robert.

Magnificent work there!

Been ploughing through with the Chieftain to get it done. I did some oil dot filters followed by AK Streaking grimes.

After a flat coat, wet pigments were applied and the excess dusted off. Once everything was together, it then got a light dusting of dry pigments. I managed to solve my track problem when i remembered i have the Takom marksman in the stash. I raided the tracks from then and took one to fill the gap and 2 more for spares on the rear. I had bought the Master metal tracks to use on this kit but decided to try out the kit ones. I'll just use the metal ones on the Marksman.

So here is my BATUS (British Army Training Unit Suffield) based Chieftain Mk 11.

I do plan to come back to this and add some stowage, but i am not sure what would be right for it given the time. There are a few ex Chieftain crewman on Britmodller, so i plan on checking with them.

Thanks for looking.

Thanks G, i'll get that updated. That is the same kit i have my sights on.

Well, the parts are numbered- I was just stupid. Not being a Dragon kit I didn't even check, I just grabbed the part that was the right shape.

Yeap, Amusing Conqueror Mk II in 1/35th- it's the upper kit in the picture below:

No worries, i'll hang on until you can get better pics at the weekend. I am just wrapping up the Chieftain and should have my pics of that done over the weekend as well.

I have noticed with quite a few of the companies who's kits i have been building recently, including Airfix and takom, that they don't list un-used parts. I find this really annoying, i spend ages going through the instructions trying to make sure i have not missed the left over parts or if they really not were for thatone i was building.

I have just noiticed i don't have that kit on the roster, it is the Amusing Hobby kit isn't it.

Thanks guys!

Bish: It's up to you. It's dark here when I get off work so I had to use room light- I would like to take some more photos with natural lighting this weekend though. Not sure I'll have the figures done but I'm going to work on them.

Biggest issues I had with the kit if you get one are those:  They put parts for the Mk I and Mk II in the box. If it were a Dragon kit I'd have known to look for them but I wasn't expecting it so I did use one wrong part- I don't think it really sticks out though. And I had to rig up a cover from facial tissue for the mantlet. If you don't put a cover on it you can see though cracks in it into the turret.

Very nice Cliff, good caftsmanship all around. Stay safe my friend.

Harold

That is very nice G, great looking build. The more i see, the more i want one of those.

Do you want me to use one of those pics or wait for your final touches.

Still need to finish the standing officers and fiddle with the crew a little more but basically she's done...

Lewbud: Best of luck!!! You're still making great progress even with the holdups- crossing my fingers you'll make it under the finish line. 

The Conqueror is finally done! Hoping no issues with the crew- just finished applying a matte coat to them and need to get them attached to the tank.  I fitted them before I painted them but somehow they always seem to need more modifications. The two officers on the ground will be done later... 

Will take photos tonight. 

Unfortunately got slowed down a bit.  The good news is the frame is painted. The bed is painted and installed.  The powerplant has been installed (took three times to get it right so pay attention to the instructions. Because the powerplant had to be taken out three times, the bed was dismounted three times.)  Here's where she is right now with the machine gun cage and the firewall mocked up.

I have a self imposed deadline of 1415 and I have to make a run to the local shop.  I can save some time if I don't deal with the weapons or the boatload of ammo cans, but I don't know if it will be enough.  The construction of the front end concerns me.

Thats moving along at some pace.

Engine and transmission are finally finished.

Engine mocked up on the chassis.

Fuel tank installed.

Engine and bed mocked up on chassis.

Time to start slinging some paint.

The resin chassis for the Snatch was the same, its actually sold as an AM part for the kit your doing. Though it did have real metal springs which were a nightmare.

It is interesting that the chassis on car kit come in one piece, i didn't know that.

Bish,

The car guy in me just doesn't understand some things about armor kits sometimes.  In just about every car kit I've built, the chassis/frame is one piece. On this and the last kit I built (Bronco's 1/35 Fiat Topolino), you have to build the frame as it was most likely built at the factory, piece by piece and hope that you've got everything square (on this kit, you have to glue the main frame rails together before you can start assembly).  The same with the bed.  Most truck kits would have the bed be one piece with a separate tailgate, no this kit.  I almost broke out the putty because there is a small seam where the rear wings meet the tailgate, but when I looked at pics of the real thing it's supposed to be there so I left it.  I've learned more about how cars and trucks go to together with my last two armor kits than I have building cars (unless it's a race car).  Fortunately the fit has been good on this kit and I haven't had to break out the putty yet.

I like the lok of that, some nice detail.

Got the basic bed finished.

The bed mocked up on the chassis.

I still have one part to paint and then the engine/transmission will be done.

The chassis looks good. Can't be any more of a pain than the resin one i did for the Snatch.

Lewbud: Ohhhhhhh cool! Cheering you from here to make the finish line in time. 

Can't see your pics for now lewbud, but will make sure to check them out tonight. I am interested to see how this goes together, i have the boxing with the MILAN system.

The chassis is now ready for paint.  Honestly, it was kind of a PITA, but it's done.

More soon.

Started the WMIK as part of the Weekend GB.

About an hour in.

I did get further along before I needed to take a break and do some research. More soon.

I've used Simple Green a few times with good results- not sure it's available outside the US. 

Thanks guys, I am definitely going to give this method a try.

Harold

Sergeant, the higher the concentration, the quicker it works.  Don't use denatured alcohol though because it has all kinds of random additives (sometimes even Acetone or MEK) to make it taste bad so people don't drink it.  Just stick with isopropyl alcohol and you'll be safe.  I get my 99% aviation grade isopropyl alcohol from a local supplier we use where I work.

Jon-a-its, I do the same thing with coffee filters.  Works great with the alcohol...not so much with my MEK jars.  I guess MEK reduces the particle size so much that they all go right through the coffee filter.

Sergeant

Eaglecash867 I have used 70% isopropyl alcohol we get from the Veterans Administration this past year for cleaning plastic before painting and photo-etched brass parts before glueing without a problem.  I see on the Internet we can purchase 91% or even 99% isopropyl alcohol from many different sources. We can also purchase 95% denatured ethyl alcohol. Does it make any difference which type or what percentage you use to strip paint?

 Harold 

I use 66% IPA, because I still have a bucket load, just takes a little longer.

I tend to soak items in a big enough container, then wash off in another with dish soap.

Use paper coffee filter to err filter out the paint particles from the used IPA & it's good to go for another use.