ARMOR - British/Commonwealth Group Build (9/17/04 to 12/31/04)

Frosty, try here :
http://tanxheaven.com/bobgriffin/cr1mk3/cr1mk3bg.htm
About 50 walkaround pics of Bovington's Operation Granby (The British code name for Desert Storm/Desert Shield) painted Mk 1 like this

; and

http://tanxheaven.com/challenger2/challenger2.htm
50+ walkaround pics of the uparmoured Mk 2 Chally.

Check out the site for the other little gems worth looking over.

Daveash:
i love the pink land rover, can't wait 2 see it completed !
if only they made one in 1/72 !!!
Reb:
good luck with the airbrush problem, hope it works out....

Project update:
the Chally's 12 double roadwheels r painted...
a real workout 4 the eyeballs, even w/ optivisor. one session
4 the surface rubber & backsides of wheels, & a 2nd session
2 do the sides that show... & i still need 2 go back & do some touchup
on the rims of the wheels.
a question:
does anyone have any Chally 1 reference pix ?
i need 2 figure out what colors 2 use on the trax....
thanx in advance,

frosty

Thanks petbat, i'll have to give that a try. I'll let you know haow it goes.

Dave, nice to see the Pinkie coming along.

Rich, glad the engine problem was solved. I don't remember having a prob with my old UC Build.

Digger - looking forward to seeing some pics.....so get in there before your time runs out.

Rebel, make sure there is no dry paint in the fittings - try blowing back through the top connection into the bottle. If you put some water in it you should hear the bubbles in the water. This is a common problem. Failing that, check the siphon tube for a split.

I don't know what brush you have, but my old Badger had an 'O' ring in the part above the compressor tube, and when that was on the way out, it would let air pass through the gun, but not enough to draw paint from the bottle. Hope you get it fixed soon.

Weathering on the Centaur is well underway. Crew is being painted, so I hope to have some more pics soon.

I cant wait till I get my liscense. Then I could drive my self the hobby store.

Woohoo! Got my Humber in the mail last night. Now I can start playing catch up. I can still make it...


M.

well, I think my siphon cup is broken, I have tried several times to use it and it just wont suck up the paint soo, still no paint.

Well I guess I will have to finish the Valentine this week before I go back driving.Digger

John,, Peter,, and buff, Your builds look great.

John your a mad man. That truck is going to look awesome when its done.

As for my Carrier,, I got past the engine being to high. I lucked out in the since that when I pushed on it a little it went the rest of the way down. Not sure how this happened because the initial looks that I gave it showed no signs of it being to high. Oh well its fixed and that all that matters and after dealing with my stug and the problems she threw at me this was an easy fix. Will be posting pics as soon as I get my modem problem fixed.

It has gone together as the kit instructions and is the same as the Land Rover ambulance kit. I am not a mechanic myself so not sure on the accuracy, however my neighbour has just rolled an old Land Rover into his drive for restoration. I will speak to him later and see if I can get some reference pics.

daveash:

I admit to knowing nothing about a Land Rover & I've never built that kit, but I'm a little surprised to see the axles are above the springs & not below ?? It would appear there is little room for "spring" on the front axle & between the rear axle & exhaust ??

Made a start tonight, seems strange working on a pink kit. Lots of mould lines to remove, but generally good fit.



I will start on the paint tomorrow.

QUOTE: Originally posted by t3488g hey jratz, not sure if you have this link, but here are some reference pics of canadian CMPs if you need them. http://www.mapleleafup.org/vehicles/softskin/index.html

Thanks, already got 'em ....

John

QUOTE: buff that kit looks familar, tamiya's churchill right? i built the croc the begining of this year. was yours molded in that color or did you paint it like that?

T-34, yes it is. I haven't painted anything yet. I'm going to do that by sub-assemblies this time around. It's the original colour, slightly faded on the bottom because of the sanding I had to do.

hey jratz, not sure if you have this link, but here are some reference pics of canadian CMPs if you need them. http://www.mapleleafup.org/vehicles/softskin/index.html

Thanks for the tips, Peter. I'll have a proper look-see when I get home. It's filtered here at work.

QUOTE: Originally posted by t3488g jratz; what is it your building again? looks like a scratchbuild of something.

Not quite, but close !! I am hacking a Tamiya FAT, Italerie 15-cwt , & Italerie CGT into a CMP F60L 3-tonner (sort of) used to carry the two-pounder "en portee". The tan stuff is Tamiya, the Green stuff is Italerie, the white stuff is either Plastistruct or primer. The wood stuff is wood, and the P/E comes from Eduard, but is also a hack.

The (sort of) comes about because I am trying to build a "British" portee, but my reference data/photos come from Australian, Canadian, British, & New Zealand sources, in order of volume. There are differences among these vehicles & the method of mounting the 2-pdr, so I am using my "British" version as a guide & using whatever I need from the others to fill in the details.

John

Buff, should be a piece of cake to scratch. The forward mount is just a cylinder with a flate rectangular plate -see:
http://www.kmk-scaleworld.be/walkAround/churchill/image28.html
The rear a cylinder with a securing pin
http://www.kmk-scaleworld.be/walkAround/churchill/image23.html
(sorry pics can't be linked)

Check out the rest of the pics at the site, here is the index link:
http://www.kmk-scaleworld.be/walkAround/churchill/

Glad to see you up and running Erica, and thanks for the nice comment.

T34 - yep, stowage and weathering being added now. Will take a few days to get it to a state worth posting pics of again.

buff that kit looks familar, tamiya's churchill right? i built the croc the begining of this year. was yours molded in that color or did you paint it like that?

petbat; looks good, are you going to weather it?
jratz; what is it your building again? looks like a scratchbuild of something.

Peter:
the Centaur looks great, sorry i didn't mention it before !!!

Jeff:
thanx again, 4 the info & the kind words !

as 4 me, i've made a little progress on this one,
the turret pieces r off the sprues & cleaned up...
the main gun is very nicely detailed, but there is a seam
along the whole length of it that is going 2 b difficult 2 clean up,
this is probably the weakest point of this revell germany kit...
the details molded onto the upper hull look great, even before
applying washes/pastels...

frosty

I've finally gotten around to taking some pics. Basic stuff, really, but it shows some progress!
The 1st one shows the bottom hull and running gear sub-assemblies. The road wheels, idlers and drive sprockets all move. I figured out the hard way that gluing anything with teeth can make putting on the tracks a real chore.

The 2nd one show the bottom of the hull, with the sub-assemblies glued on. You can see where I had to fill the hole in the bottom, and where I had to putty a poorly fitted joint.

I have started working on the upper hull. It's going together well. I am planning on ditching the kit tow cables. I have a pair of WW2 British tow cables from Accurate Armour that I'd like to use, and I broke one of the kit cables anyway. If I use the AM cables, I will have to scratch-build the mounting brackets. The kit cables are mounted with locator pins on the backs of the hooks. I hope they're easy to make. I've never scratch-built anything.

Having seen your Stug Frosty, I can understand your attention to detail...The baskets are worth it, they make a real difference to the kit.

Jeff Gunn:
thanx 4 the reply !
i'm actually doing the revell 1/72 Chally 1, so the baskets would b
rite... hmmm, got 2 decide now...

frosty

Frosty: the chally 1 baskets came from Extratech PE Kit EXV72005. The really finish off the revell 1:72...of course your Chally 2 wont have any baskets.

Rebel, works for German tanks as well. You can use kit supplied ends, or if you make a simple jig you can do the whole shebang. I tension the wire, heat (anneal) the ends over a candle flame and then glue a thin strip of metal foil about 10 mm long and twice the cable diameter about 5 mm from the cable ends with epoxy glue. When dry bend the end around a nail driven into a board so the foil ends touch. The metal strip should be the inside of the bend and forms the 'heart' shaped inner loop. Using the end of a paint brush, burnish the edge of the foil so that it curves around the cable. Then just cyano the 5mm eposed end to the centre length of cable. A bit more foil wrapped around the two joined cables represents the collar used to hold the cables in place. Sounds a bit complicated, but look at a German cable end and then compare it to this guide, and you will work it out. I posted progress pics on how to do this some time last year, but I've deleted the pics since.

thanks for the tips guys. Would it work for German Armor too?

jratz, Man you are putting a lot of work into that thing. Its gonna look great.

Petbat, OMG that is fantastic. Its so perfect. great job! and I really mean that!

As fo me I am sorry I havent got pics yet. I finished puttying and got My whippet primed, I paint it tonight or tommorrow. Well good luck all!

I like what I see,John can't wait to see it done with all the work you have done on it.Peter great job so far,I might have to get me one to do.Digger
As far as my Valentine XI I am allmost done.

Rebel / John:

Another good source for cable is wire fishing leader -- especially the salt-water variety.

John

Zokissma, beware the lure of scratchbuilding..... once you get the bug you never want to build OOB again.

Okay here is the Centaur. It is painted in Revell enamel paint. Base coat is Revell 84. Misted over coat is 16 parts 84 and 5 parts 86, as per a mix recipe I found on the net. This is apparently accurate to SCC2, the colour these vehicles were painted. I have then further mist coated with another 3 parts 86 to give a more to scale lighter colour. This is the first time I have used Revell paints, but I like them; Even more than Humbrol since they changed their formula of recent years.

The 'Seawolf' name and the no. on the MG cover plate are made from decals from the scrap box, as are the last 3 no.s in the Vehicle No.
It has been flat coated, now I'm waiting for a day or so for it to get really hard so I can wash and weather it. Will start on the figures and stowage today. PS the shine on the front vehicle No. is just a reflection, it is not really there, although I did get a couple of haze spots on the turret decals. I think that is Mr Marksoftener reacting with the decals, as someone else in my club commented on that at our last meeting.

Comments welcome.

Update on the ModelCraft Centurion:
It took the better part of the weekend to get anything substantial done on the turret, and that's all that I've been working on. First, the top portion of the turret would not allign properly with the bottom two halves, so that needed to be sanded all the way around. Done. I ended up fiddling around with the barell to get some decent result, as it's impractical to replace the thing.
Two fairly big inaccuracies with the turret mounted storage bins. The left side of the turret has two of them, spaced on either side of the escape hatch. However, the forward most one was too large by about 3mm, as it was halfway over the hatch. Some cutting, sheet styrene, and white putty fixed that. Similar problem was found on the right side turret bin, the large one. It was too large again, and the clearance between bin and smoke discharger mount was inadequate. Again, cutting, styrene, putty, and the problem was, after a long while, fixed. Then it was on to replacing all the grab-handles on the turret, and this being the first time I had to make so many, it was quite a lengthy task.
All in all, the turret is still not finished, as I still have to mount the smoke dischargers and some small details.
So far I'm loving this. It's the first time I've ever tried to scratchbuild/improve on a kit, and I'm loving it. It definitely prolongs the construction by a fairly large amount, but the construction is what I love the best.