LIGHT ARMOR Group Build

No problem for the tip.  To fix it, maybe you could dry-brush something darker over the pads.  Something like Tamiya Nato Black might do.  It's kind of a dusty, greyish black.  It might be dark enough to cover the red and still look a little weathered.

Yann Solo wrote:

buff wrote: Good looking finish Yann.  It's hard to tell on my monitor, but the tracks look a little reddish.  Those tracks had rubber track pads, so there wouldn't have been any rust on them.  Like I said, it was hard to tell on my monitor. I should have done more research on this! I didn't know they were made of rubber.  Most of the rust I made was on the link pins of the tracks but I did put a little on the track itself.  I don't know if I'm gonna be able to correct this! Thanks for the clarification.

I wouldn't worry about it too much.  If you wanted to do something about it you could probably get away with drybrushing a bluish black (more black than blue) on the rubber pads.

cj95 wrote:

Having a bit of problems with the canvas/rubber cover for the Bulldog's gun mantlet.   The Tamiya instructions are wating me to make it out of clear plastic wrap and I'm a bit leary about painting it afterwards.  Any of you other Bulldog guys know of any good AM covers, or maybe an easier technique for scratch building one?

when I make Mantlet dust covers i usually use white glue soaked tissue or TP then I form it in the right shape while still damp if it does not look right I can just mist some water on it remove and try again once it's dry i usually paint it khaki or grey depending on the origional then drybrush it with a whitish sand to highlight it

I'm looking into the academy sheridan for adding to this build as my academy stuart is coming together nicely I'm not sure wether to use the indie link tracks ( nearly went insane putting the ones together for my DML SdKfz251/222 only to have them DECINTEGRATE LOL) but the interior is coming along nicely i hope to have pics sometime next week TTFN

Okay here is some more progress on my Bulldog.

 

I decided I wanted to go with something other than plain old olive drab, but I am not sure how this winter camo is turning out.

What do you guys think?  Keeping in mind no wash or weathering has been done yet, and I still need to paint roadwheels etc.

 

Looking good all!

The bulldog looks fine with the white, a nice change.

Ach!

Just future'd my Bulldog and my airbrush decide to go spattering on me.

I was able to smooth out most of the drops with a soft brush, but I'll have to wait until it dries to see what the damage is.

Just for the record, you remove Future with Windex right?

cj95 wrote:

Ach! Just future'd my Bulldog and my airbrush decide to go spattering on me. I was able to smooth out most of the drops with a soft brush, but I'll haveot wait until it dries to see what the damage is. Just for the record, you remove Future with Windex right?

Yuppers, Windex does the trick (actually, it's the amonia, so make sure it's the Windex with amonia in it.  Amonia disolves acrylic... great stuff).

CJ95,

For the mantlet cover, I think that I'll be making a cardboard "form" and "fashioning" the mantlet cover from tissue paper.  I'll probably use white glue and water to keep its shape.

I'm almost willing to bet that somebody has an AM one out there though.  I'll look around.

Yann,

Nice Stuart.  I love the kit, and you did a fine job with it.

Grant

Thanks for comments!  I think it's a good one for my first armor.  The second one is coming out and I encountered a problem yesterday.  The protective cage over the headlights are made of two parts jointed in the middle and its a butt joint.  Of course that doeasn't fit quite right.  I glued them in place but it is not aligned.  I don't know how to fix it cause if I try to move on branch, it moves further away and everything is misaligned.  I think I will have to heat it a little bit.

Anyway, that build is fun.  There is a lot of extra detail parts and I might use a lot of them.  Do you guys know a kit for figures to put in?

Yann Solo wrote:

...The second one is coming out and I encountered a problem yesterday.  The protective cage over the headlights are made of two parts jointed in the middle and its a butt joint.  Of course that doeasn't fit quite right.  I glued them in place but it is not aligned.  I don't know how to fix it cause if I try to move on branch, it moves further away and everything is misaligned.  I think I will have to heat it a little bit.

You may want to include a photo, but if what is going on is what I think is going on, I'd glue the joint with CA glue and then delicately file the misalignment off.  Lately, the superglue has been my cure all.  Once the stuff cures, it is really good plastic.

I'll ditto the Super Glue comment.  I've become a recent CA convert and use it for almost everything.  Its excellent for those little fiddly bits that seem to barely hold on by a thread.

 

In other news......Applied the wash to my Bulldog, and have placed the decals (which went on very very nicely for such an old kit.)

I'm letting the Micro-Sol settle things down before I apply my Pastels and Dullcote.

After that I just need to paint and apply the tracks, and I'll be done.

 

One thing I have not done yet is figured out how to do.....or even if I want to do.......the mantlet cover.  I have not foung an aftermarket one, and agree that tissue paper may be te way to go, but anm not sure how it will turn out.  Still pondering this one.

 

Photos soon.

cj95 wrote:

One thing I have not done yet is figured out how to do.....or even if I want to do.......the mantlet cover.  I have not foung an aftermarket one, and agree that tissue paper may be te way to go, but anm not sure how it will turn out.  Still pondering this one.

cj95 A good way to practice the "Glue/Tissue" technique is to make a few tarps to see how it feels,works and handles

Here is the seam I was talking about.  I'll try to fix it tonight.

Also, here are some pictures of my Hellcat.  The interior is almost complete, some little things to repair and I'll put the turret on.  Comments are welcome.

Yann that interior looks Great! BTW how are the AFV club kits I have yet to build one most of my kits are DML or Academy with some Tamiya and Italeri thrown into the mix if you guys want to see some of my smaller scale builds i have a few in the 1/72 scale german armor GB TTFN

Hey guys.  I have a question for you.  What is an AFV (for me it sounds like American Funniest Video) and what is the difference between light, medium, heavy tanks and tank destroyer.  My M18 Hellcat is depicted as a tank destroyer.  How is it different than a battle tank?

Hey Yann AFV stands for Armored Fighting Vehicle basically any vehicle that has armor to protect the crew is an AFV. the difference between tanks in weight catagory is sometimes a bit tricky,as there have been many differences in tank catagories.During WWII a light tank or scout/cavalry tanks were usually small 3 or 4 man tanks with 3/4 ti 1&1/2 inches of armor usually mounting a light gun in the 20mm-40mm range. Medium tanks were the main battle tanks of WWII including the Sherman,Panzers III&IV,T34/76 and the british cruiser tanks (crusader cromwell etc) usually mounting a75mm range gun even the panther could be considered a medium tank in this regard.they also usually had armor of between 2 to3 inches of armor and a 5 man crew. Heavy tanks were the kings of the armored vehicles of WWII boasting heavy high velocity guns and impressive armor such as the german Tiger & King Tiger the russian KV-1&2 and JS-1 tanks. Tank destroyers or Motor gun carrages as the english and commonwealth units were called,were similar to tanks in design but were built for the special purpose of knocking out tanks without directly engageing them in combat.Tank destroyers mounted heavy high velocity guns on a tracked or wheeled chassis with relativly thin armor usually 1 to 2 inches at most,a more open topped turret and usually a higher speed than a tank of similar size.In fact your M18 hellcat was actually the fastest "Tank" of WWII with a speed well over 35 mph.Tank destroyers usually used the"Shoot & Scoot" tactic of setting up taking a couple shots at enemy tanks then disengaging,using their higher speed to move to another firing position. Sort of like armored snipers. I hope i have been able to clarify things a bit TTFN

You can't be clearer than that.  Thanks a lot.  So now I know what AFV CLUB means.  I knew my M18 was the fastest and I like the idea of hit & run fast.  Those thank destroyers are wonderfull, I like the M36 Jackson, M10 Duckbill and if I understand this correctly, German Marder III would be a tank destroyer as well, right?

I've posted some pictures of the Hellcat in the armor forum but I still have some work to do on it.  I'll post other pictures here real soon.

Hey guys, where are you at right now with your build?

cj95, your camouflage is nicely done, what about your mantlet?  I'll try that soak tissue technique and make some tarp to put on my hellcat.  Good luck with your mantlet.

Yann Solo wrote:

Hey guys, where are you at right now with your build? cj95, your camouflage is nicely done, what about your mantlet?  I'll try that soak tissue technique and make some tarp to put on my hellcat.  Good luck with your mantlet.

 

I need three things to go only.   Pastels.....Treads.....and the mantlet.    Things have been a bit on hold due to work this week so I'm not anticipating too much progress for a few days.  (I also admit I've been working on my KV-2 for the KV group build as well)  oops.

Overall I'm pleased with the results so far, as my wash has left the Bulldog as kind of a beat up old warrior. 

Since this has been going so quickly, I may add another kit to the mix once I'm done here.

Yann Solo wrote:

Hey guys, where are you at right now with your build?

Haven't even started I got to finish my Panther first...

Yann Solo wrote:

Hey guys, where are you at right now with your build?

Yann,

Been a long few weeks with work, and I went to a model show 250 miles away in Belleville, Ont.

I did make progress this week on my M41, but I'm still fiddling with the suspension.  One of the torsion bars came broken in the package (no stub to mount the wheel), so I'll fix that today and wrap up construction of the lower hull.  The rainy weekend will allow me to get a lot done.

Nice work on the Hellcat...I see you hiding it from us in the regular armor page.

Grant

315rooster wrote:

Yann Solo wrote: Hey guys, where are you at right now with your build? Nice work on the Hellcat...I see you hiding it from us in the regular armor page.

NO NO NO NO !  It is not totally completed yet, thrust me, I'll post the final results right here!  There is still extra detailing I want to do on it and I want to show you these add-on.  I just found an old toy that has about 15 tiny chains of approx. 10" each on it.  Guess where these chains will end up!  Also, if I can found decent figures to put on, I'll do it.

Hope to see some pictures of your progress soon.

Well I finally have some pics of the interior of my stuart here ya go ENJOY

I hope to have more pics soon after resizing and cropping TTFN

Looks pretty cool Panzerwulff!  The floor looks really nice.  Good job.

Yann and Wulff,

You guys build great stuff.  Good work.

Grant

Thanks for comments 315rooster.

Here are some pics of my Hellcat, I made some slight adjustments such as extra chain in front and added rolled maps inside, its not that clear on the picture but its there:

Is it too late to get in on this? I've got a 1971 (vintage!) Tamiya PzKpfw II..all of 6 tonnes that I can build.

Looks great! Bit glossy, but that might just be the pic...

Anthony14 wrote:

Looks great! Bit glossy, but that might just be the pic...

I think its the pics cause it doesn't look glossy on my shelf.  Maybe I should try to improve my studio lightening.

Yann Solo wrote:

I think its the pics cause it doesn't look glossy on my shelf.  Maybe I should try to improve my studio lightening.

Yann Try using a sheet of cardboard painted white to reflect some of the light onto the model it is called diffusing, the white board softens the light and cuts down the highlights a bit making it look less glossy. The hellcat looks great to me good job esp on the muddy roadwheels