Battle For Germany 45 GB Starts Now - 08 May 06

Nice work Marc.  I don't have any pics that show the inside of the LG doors clearly.

Karl, the brass tube option sounds like the way to go.  Unless you have some really good de-bonder, CA is the devil to clean up once it fully hardens.

Regards,  Rick

Marc, from what little I know about 190s I'm sure that the lower portion of the gear door was double skinned, with a row of lightening holes in the inner skin, but don't quote me on that.

What refernces are you working from?

Rick, I'll know by the end of the afternoon if I'll be going with the brass tube option!

Karl

Thanks Rick.. but hang on to that one... I may have to do  a "re-do"

 

Karl-Web pics mostly... even a few of other models but I realize that may just reproduce someone else's inaccuracy.

EDIT___  Found one!!!! A decent pic that is.... back to the drawing board.....

Remember when we were kids...

DO OVER!

Better ref... better door.

Marc, nice job on the gear doors, they look great.

Progress Update

Spent about 6 hours yesterday working on the PE for the Panther. The gun cleaning rod tube is now sorted out. I ended up removing the retaining brackets and sanding the hull side smooth to remove any traces of CA, then did the same with the tube itself. The rest of the time was spent building tool racks, and adding the schurzen brackets etc.

I'll try and post some pics later.

Karl

Since my last post, I've finished the hull.

As promised, pics.



I decided not to replace the last tool rack with the Eduard PE as it just looked all too flimsy for my clumsy mits.



The fenders have a distinctly beaten up look. Mainly because most pictures of the real thing show them that way, that and I think armour ought to look distressed! I added a cable to the headlight out of fuse wire.



The forward tool rack is missing most of it's tools, these'll be added later after the bulk of the painting has been completed.



The exhaust shrouds aren't glued in, hence the gaps between them and their brackets. The brackets themselves were too long, and therefore had to be cut down after I'd bent them to shape! The latches and hinges on the storage bins took a bit of tine as they are no more than 3mm long, and the hinges have multiple folds!

Overall, I'm really pleased with the Eduard PE sets as they add a lot to the basic kit, but they do infer an awful lot of extra work as well.

Now to finish the turret.......

Karl

Marc, nice job on the LG doors.  Course you wont see them with the struts & wheels assembled, but what the hey .

Karl, great progress on the Target.  Looking great so far .

Regards,  Rick

Well little progress for me... I've got an entrapped muscle or something in my right shoulder blade area and it has been a little too annoying to try to model.  Last night, thanks to modern pharmaceuticals, I decided to do a quicky just for fun... or I guess this GB would fit it as well.  I started on my little 1/72 FW190-A8... nice detail for it's size, some gaps and such, but the plastic was forgiving enough that I was able to close them with a little pressure on the seam while the Ambroids bonded.  I put it against the 1/32 FW190 I am also in the middle of and it was amazing the size difference.  The shocking thing though, is that in 1/72 the FW190 was not much smaller than the 1/48 F3F I was doing for the Pearl Harbor GB...  some tiny little things...

I gave up on the TigerII for a bit because I finally came to the conclusion the problems I have been having in spraying with the Iwata was not the brush at all... it is the paint.  It acts like it is dirty in the head area, but 2 days of soaking in lacquer thinner then using micro brushes to get it real clean didn't help.   Finally I was trying the brush again last night with Vallejo Acrylic and it sprayed like a champ!!!  I tried the olivgrun enamel in one of my badgers and the results were similar to what I got with the Iwata, a little less due to a larger diameter nozzle for the paint to make it through but still noticably bad...

I'm ordering me some Vallejo olivgrun today so next week I will be back on the job with it!

Tom, are you building the Revell 1/72 Fw190? I've built a couple of those, and they are great little kits.

I got the Revell 1/72 Fokker Dr.1 as a stocking filler, couldn't resist doing it as Von Richthofen's mount in the full red. It's almost finished already, which is super fast for me.A great break from the Panther.

Hope the shoulder improves soon.

Rick, glad you like the 'target'.

Happy New Year to everyone! I know our Antipodean friends are already in 2006 and therefore slightly the worse for alcohol! I know, who'd have thought!

Karl

Happy New Year Karl & all you other FSMers.

Regards,  Rick

Karl - great work... make me want to start my T-34.

 

Rick - Thanks and you are right... won't see most of it.

 

Tom -  I know what you mean about the size comparsion.

 

Got the final shpe of the "big tail" done... a big improvment over the first one I did, with the help of Bob Stephenson, by taking 4 mm off the back and adding the steeper leading edge.

 

and HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL

Looking good Marc & a Happy New Year back atcha .

Regards,  Rick

Marc-very nice work on your project.  Noticed the engine a few posts back and failed to comment.

Karl-nice work with the PE.  I really like the distressed fenders.  Did the Eduard PE fenders come pre-formed?  Guess I could take time and go to their website and review the instructions, but I'm lazy.....

Tom-sorry to hear about the bum shoulder.  Hope time & medication cure it quickly.

Seeing that I have a committment with my 12 yr. old to stay up till midnight and participate in the family Star Wars video marathon, I might get the interior & gun bay done by Monday......maybe...

Happy New Year to all.

inde tracks are makin me CRAZY hmm those 1/72 tanks are lookin good to me at the moment maybe time for a break EH

btw HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

seeya all next year

KJ200 wrote:

Tom, are you building the Revell 1/72 Fw190? I've built a couple of those, and they are great little kits. I got the Revell 1/72 Fokker Dr.1 as a stocking filler, couldn't resist doing it as Von Richthofen's mount in the full red. It's almost finished already, which is super fast for me.A great break from the Panther. Hope the shoulder improves soon.

Karl - it's the Academy kit... and I agree... I started last night and am 75% done tonight.  All I have left is to paint the RLM 75 camo, attach the small bits and a few other things... I actually am almost finished with the little Kubelwagen that came with it and it looks pretty good for only having maybe 16 parts... I guess at that small of size and scale lack of detail makes no diff... If I can find where I dropped the left head lamp on the floor I will include it in pictures...

Nice work on the Panther!  I hope to get back into swing with the Tiger II soon as soon as my Vallejo gets here.

Marc - definitely.. I will include a pic of the semi finished 1/32 next to the finished 1/72 when I am done... I might also include the 1/48 F3F just so everyone can see what we were using just prior to Dec 7th... good thing some people got on the ball and came out with the Wildcat! 

I found a shot of the gear doors for you but you had found the same obviously by time I came back online... looking good!  and I am of the mind that *I* know what something looks like even if it is hidden... so I respect your thinking on correcting them right...

Bob - believe me... even though it hurts a little still even while on the muscle relaxers... it is night and day above what it was like yesterday.  Sadly I think I have found what is inflaming it... (it's an old injury from about 27 yrs ago believe it or not, last time it flared up was probably 20 yrs ago...)  it's working with all the small bits on this tank... I am even more determined to build a bench more at eye level for me.. something I can adjust the height of if need be... even at its lowest setting, when I am beinding over with the magnifiers on it is pulling at that muscle.. this morning I was fine... as soon as I started modeling today it progressively got worse...  ::sigh::  I hate getting old...

Happy New Year to all... I have really enjoyed the time spent here and in other GB's with yall... I could ask for no better company to ring in the New Year! 

tho9900 wrote:

Happy New Year to all... I have really enjoyed the time spent here and in other GB's with yall... I could ask for no better company to ring in the New Year!

I couldn't agree with those sentiments more Tom and I'm real sorry to hear about your shoulder, I hope it heals up quickly so you can get back your normal routine.  By the way, exactly what did you do to yourself 27 years ago?
Also, when you were having the problems with the enamels and your Iwata, did you try playing around with the air pressure as well as the thinning ratio of the paint?

To all FSMers, Happy New Year

Well I don't know what you boys all did for new years eve but for us it was 42 degrees Celsius (107.6 degrees Fahrenheit) here yesterday so we spent a most of the day and night in my in-laws pool relaxing and having a few quiet ones.  The pool water was still 30 Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) at 11:30 last night.

Oh yeah and my news years resolution (which I plan on keeping) is to move away from the enamel paints and their thinners that I normally use and start using acrylics instead.  I'm just plain sick and tired of breathing in toxic fumes from the paint and thinners and so on.

Marc great looking progress on the 190 so far, it looks like a real gem.  As you seem to have a great handle on large scale aircraft I have a question for you please.  What color should I paint the 4 x 20mm cannons in my 1/32 262?  I am worried that normal gunmetal with some dry brushing is going to look a bit fake in this scale, so any help you could give would be appreciated.

Karl that's a lovely looking Panther you've got yourself there, it may have been a lot of work with the PE but it certainly seems to have paid off.

Cheers

Bob, Darren - thanks...

 

 

Darren -  I like the look of Humbrol satin coal black, #85, with a silver dry brush.

wing_nut wrote:

Bob, Darren - thanks...     Darren -  I like the look of Humbrol satin coal black, #85, with a silver dry brush.

Thanks Marc, that's exactly the look I'm after.

Cheers

bobbaily wrote:

Karl-Did the Eduard PE fenders come pre-formed?  Guess I could take time and go to their website and review the instructions, but I'm lazy.....

Bob, no such luck. The fenders come flat, you have to roll them and bend them. Each fender is composed of 4 parts, 2 of which need to be rolled and folded, but I left off the small forward portions of the fenders and just added the tiny brackets and hinges.

Tom, I built the Academy Kubel a few years back, it's a stunning little kit. I'm starting to think that the odd 1/72 kit might be an antidote to complex and protracted large scale builds.

Panzerwulf, my son picked up the Revell 1/72 Challenger the other week. Amazing little kit, link and length tracks, and loads of detail.

Darren, people like you make me sick! Glad you like the Panther.

Progress Update

The turret is almost complete now. I'm just adding the brackets to hold spare track links that many Gs had welded to the turret sides. All the PE is on now, but I need to add a weld seam either side of the section that covers the gun pivot.

After that, I'll carefully wash everything and leave it too dry overnight. With a bit of luck I'll get the primer on tomorrow.

And I've managed to build a run of the Friul tracks. They weigh a ton, but look great. Very easy to build, if not afford!

Once again...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Karl

Marc, I meant to say earlier, great progress on the 190. You've done an excellent job on the tail extension.

Further Progress Update

Well the putty tat is ready for a bath now.

I added the last of the track brackets to the turret side, which was where I intended to stop. However, there are a couple of areas around the mantlet which are somewhat light on detail, so I ended up punching out some discs from styrene and adding them to the pivot behind the mantlet, along with the weld seam mentioned earlier.



The pivot area is way too smooth on the Tamiya kit, so a ladled on some Plasticweld, which caused the surface to 'pucker' making it look more like a cast surface. I also added the little 'Shrek ear' lifting horns to the side of the mantlet from wire and sprue.



I also finally got round to cleaning up the muzzle brake, though I still haven't glued it on yet.

The top of the turret....



The guard around the commander's hatch was a pain to bend and instal, and I almost binned it in favour of the kit part. You can see some of the Friul track links hanging on both the turret and the rear of th hull.

Now I'm off to wash the beast..........

......very carefully!

Karl

darson wrote:

I couldn't agree with those sentiments more Tom and I'm real sorry to hear about your shoulder, I hope it heals up quickly so you can get back your normal routine.  By the way, exactly what did you do to yourself 27 years ago? Also, when you were having the problems with the enamels and your Iwata, did you try playing around with the air pressure as well as the thinning ratio of the paint?

Darren - I was in Boy Scouts and one of the guys at camp was goofing around and came running at me from behind and jumped on my back... it was like a hot dagger into my shoulder blade...  it hasn't acted up much until the last month or so...

I played with everything with the enamels.  I think it was a bad batch because I never had trouble before (much) with enamels.  In fact it's when I tried another color from my pre-existing enamel stash is when I became convinced finally it was the jar itself.  Like you I have grown tired of enamels and after my success with the Vallejo and MM Acryl I don't think I will go back.  I just got these enamels because beyond disliking enamels, I am lazy... and they were all that were available at the shop I went to.

 

Karl - looking great!  I want so bad to complete mine or even just work on it but as you read I am stalled at present...

Tom, have you tried an osteopath?

My wife was in agony after the birth of our second child, suffering from sciatica, so bad she could barely lift her left leg 5 degrees from the horizontal when lying down. The doc said there was nothing that he could do but advised a visit to an osteo. 3 visits later and she was back to normal

Worked for me after I put my back out reaching for a carton of milk from the bottom of the fridge one morning! I now do my back excersises every other day, I sound like a man of 84 not 34!

Hopefully your shoulder will start to improve, allowing you to get back to that big bad kitty!

Karl

Looks like very nice work so far Karl.  I've never built much Armor, but am fooling around with some of the new Tamiya 1/48 kits.  May actually finish one some day.

Regards,  Rick 

Rick, glad you like it.

I was sorely tempted to wait for Tamiya's 1/48 Panther, but couldn't resist the shere size of their 1/35 offering.

Having said that, I may well be tempted by the 1/48 Hetzer.

How have you found the 1/48 kits so far?

Karl

Great progress on the tank.   All that PE must be a PITA but is sure looks good.  Thanks for the comment on the tail.  When my head stops hurting I may try some rescribing

i got the 1/48 one yesterday. last year. It's awesome. can't wait to start it.

Karl, I haven't done much on the 1/48 Tamiya Armor kits, other than study the assembly diagrams & paint a couple of sets of road wheels plus a bit of dry fitting.  They look great to me, although I know many of the hard core AFV modelers kinda turn their collective noses up at them.  I have the Hetzer in the stash & may build it later on for this GB, time & energy willing.

Regards,  Rick

Well a little more progress on the FW-190... got the dunkelgrun on and waiting for it to dry to attempt mottle on a 1/72 A/C... not sure how I am going to approach it..   The HP-CR I have does nice detail in 1/48 but I am not sure it is up for it in 1/72 especially with acrylics..  I did it in acrylic on my 1/32 FW but that's a different story! 

 Landing gear and such are already assembled and will be put on right before futuring etc.. Fun kit!  And like Karl said, I can see me buying a few more of these for those rainy days I don't feel like finishing a model I am working on... I did notice I missed some sanding on one of the wing leading edges but so far it look ok to me!

 

Sorry for the grainy pics but I didn't feel like dragging everything out to take good ones... I'll get to them after decaling and such...

Tom, great progress, especially in such a short space of time!

Marc, the volume of PE was more scary tham anything. It was just that there was just so much of it, and after I'd done one bit there was more! Still, I got stuck in over the holidays and managed a couple of marathon PE sessions.

Tanky, is that the Panther you picked up in 1/48?

Would anyone object if I included my Hasa 109 G10 in this GB? I actually started it back in August, but it has languished as no more than a pit in a fuselage since then. I dragged it out of the cupboard this afternoon , and now it has wings etc.

The finished build will be White 44 which surrendered Allied forces at Fassburg in May 1945, in an all over RLM 76 scheme.

Karl

yup. it is indeed the panther. i like the size of 1/48 armor.