Self Propelled Artillery/Mortar GB 2006-2007

Plastic_Cross wrote:

redleg12 wrote: As I said it is about 90% complete............Want to hear your comments. Hoo Wa - that is one hunka burnin SPG you have going there.  It looks phenomenal.  Is that the Italeri kit?  How much of a departure from "out of the box" did it require?  I see the 107 kit appear on eBay on occasion, but have not actively pursued one as of yet.  Larry

I have finished and will post some more pics in the next couple of days but it is the Italeri kit. I have added a metal barrel from barrel depot. For this length and size it is a must. I also have some details for the photo etch kit from eduard. It is especially freat for the vents, and some other small details. The barrel and photo etch are still available. The kit is hard to find. The only other minor change from the out of the box is the decal marking. Since my first unit was a 175/8 inch unit, the marking are from my old unit.

In general it is a great kit. It does need some seam work for some parts but in general was a blast and turned out great.

I'll post some pics as soon as I get a chance. 

redleg12 wrote:

Plastic_Cross wrote:  redleg12 wrote: As I said it is about 90% complete............Want to hear your comments. Hoo Wa - that is one hunka burnin SPG you have going there.  It looks phenomenal.  Is that the Italeri kit?  How much of a departure from "out of the box" did it require?  I see the 107 kit appear on eBay on occasion, but have not actively pursued one as of yet.  Larry I have finished and will post some more pics in the next couple of days but it is the Italeri kit. I have added a metal barrel from barrel depot. For this length and size it is a must. I also have some details for the photo etch kit from eduard. It is especially freat for the vents, and some other small details. The barrel and photo etch are still available. The kit is hard to find. The only other minor change from the out of the box is the decal marking. Since my first unit was a 175/8 inch unit, the marking are from my old unit. In general it is a great kit. It does need some seam work for some parts but in general was a blast and turned out great. I'll post some pics as soon as I can

Here are the pics from my finished M107 I promised. Hope you enjoy them!!

Gun Tech wrote:

Very well done. I particulary like the moved earth effect by the spade.

Thanks!!

Currently working on an M270 MLRS, in desert camo in the firing position with an M26 missle coming out of one of the pods. It's a challange. The missle is easy. Playing with the smoke is a blast!!

redleg12 wrote:

on an M270 MLRS, in desert camo in the firing position with an M26 missle coming out of one of the pods. It's a challange. The missle is easy. Playing with the smoke is a blast!!

Wow - this I gotta see.  I'm new to modeling and still trying to figure out how to complete a decent armor build, so dioramas are not something that I'll be attempting any time soon.  But I thought that if I were to do one eventually, I would like to do something that captures the gun at the moment the projectile leaves the muzzle.   Your idea is fantastic and I will be very eager to see it in living color.

Larry

I finished construction of the Wespe this evening. It was less and less OOB as I went but still pretty much so by the end. I filled all the nasty ejector pin marks in the interior, drilled out the barrels and magazine ports on the MP-40's, added an antenna and a headset and wired both into the radio, cut off the silly-looking molded bumps around the top of the armor and replaced them with correct tie downs made from solder, and of course added Voyager tool clasps, 10 total or 30 parts in all (they actually do open and close!)

Tomorrow I plan to paint the model, that is if I can get my air compressor back in the house - it's in the garage and we have 2 feet of snow thanks to last weekend's blizzard, AND on top of that it has to go in the back basement door cause it won't fit down the stairs......wish me luck!

Very good looking Hermes. I like the tool clasps.

Same as Scott said, or did you just assembled the walls separately?

Good luck with your air compressor  

The sides and rear armor are just dry fitted in those pictures, and since the tool clasps work I just remove the various equipment before painting. Unless that makes a difference, I planned to take pictures as I went, since I'll be adding some pretty heavy weathering, and a lot of gear once the basic painting is complete. I spent the morning being angry at Tamiya for not molding sponsoons and once again requiring sheet plastic surgery.

I haven't attempted the air compressor yet - if you don't hear anything by tonight, you can probably assume it won and I'm pouting.

Hermesminiatures wrote:

The sides and rear armor are just dry fitted in those pictures, and since the tool clasps work I just remove the various equipment before painting. Unless that makes a difference, I planned to take pictures as I went, since I'll be adding some pretty heavy weathering, and a lot of gear once the basic painting is complete. I spent the morning being angry at Tamiya for not molding sponsoons and once again requiring sheet plastic surgery. I haven't attempted the air compressor yet - if you don't hear anything by tonight, you can probably assume it won and I'm pouting.

That's the one big annoyance I have with the Tamiya kits (which are generally pretty good)..... those damned open sponsons, what's up with that?  Why don't they close those up?  It makes what would otherwise be a pretty good kit more in line with what you'd expect from a toy.

For the same reason they sold necessary parts for the Leclerc MBT as a seperate set(), and always use vinyl tracks. If they added sponsoons, they'd have to clean up all the ejector pin marks and rough CAD machining on the underside, and do something else about the always-thick fenders. They aren't really very concerned with customer satisfaction, which you would find out in a hurry if you ever try to contact customer support. That's the one reason why I don't like Tamiya.

I can see it coming now - an "I hate Tamiya" GB!

Hermesminiatures wrote:

I can see it coming now - an "I hate Tamiya" GB!

With their line of Panzer IV based kits.    

I am not buying any from Tamiya anymore because of the lack of underside details, and the ugly fit of the rear panel to the hull where the idler wheel is mounted.......      Not sure if it has been corrected on the 3.7cm Mobelwagen or the Wirbelwind.......  that why I passed.

Well, I managed to wrestle the compressor back downstairs, and had quite an eventful afternoon (attempting) to paint the Wespe.

I gave everything a final cleaning and used the airbrush to dust the parts off one last time.

Then I painted the entire vehicle with a custom-mixed Dark Yellow, 90% XF-60 Dark Yellow and 10% XF-7 Red. The red corrects the overly green tone of the Tamiya color.

I began painting a wide, random camouflage pattern with Tamiya NATO green, and managed to commit the biggest airbrush mistake possible - spill the paint in the color cup onto the nearly finished model! Fortunately it was only a small area and was pretty easy to fix.

The finished camo, ready for detail painting tomorrow. I deliberately add a visible 'squiggle' to the green to give it an uneven, field-applied look without being lumpy.

At this rate of mistakes, I ought to be done by Christmas

I finished detail painting on the Wespe and added some gear from a Gen2 figure set, with more to come after weathering. I used Archer dry transfers for the markings.

Looking real fine there Hermes!

Does anybody know Will's whereabout?     I emailed him, but no answer so far......

Your Wespe is coming along nicely Hermisminiatures!   

You're a bit further along than I am on my JagdTiger

Alright.....  I made some progress, so here's some pics

I drilled and installed the idler wheels. Care had to be taken as the retaining arm is a separate part and you can adjust the idler's position with it. I also added styrene for more details.

I finally made those "U-Joint".   and they are workeable     I'll wait for the "Scratchbuilt" forum to be operationnal to explain how I did them.

I also started the gun's construction. Eduard's PE helped in hidding a few seams (like in the craddle) and adding details.

 There is a lot of steps that will be confusing after that. A lot of planning will be needed for the gun shield, barrel, muzzle brake and forward assembly of the craddle.  MTF

Gun Tech wrote:

I finally made those "U-Joint".   and they are workeable     I'll wait for the "Scratchbuilt" forum to be operationnal to explain how I did them.

Bravo on the U-Joint GT! You must have used an electron microscope to put that assembly together.  You must also have some pair of steady hands.  And I see by your photo that you have some great looking fingers.  .  

Larry

Plastic_Cross wrote:

Gun Tech wrote: I finally made those "U-Joint".   and they are workeable     I'll wait for the "Scratchbuilt" forum to be operationnal to explain how I did them. Bravo on the U-Joint GT! You must have used an electron microscope to put that assembly together.  You must also have some pair of steady hands.  And I see by your photo that you have some great looking fingers.  .   Larry

Well thanks Larry   I wasn't expecting that. Let's say it took a while to get them together, and a few prototypes......    I saw your Hotchkiss, and you have a way better interior with Bronco than Trumpeter. Too bad I already got the Marder I and the Beobachtungswagen from Trumpeter       Oh well..... C'est la vie

Thanks Hermes! That howitzer is a bit trickier than the one from Tamiya's Wespe. But it has such a unusuall look   

I finished the gun assembly. The inner shield is left out for ease of painting. The muzzle brake is held by blue tack, as it will be impossible to remove the barrel after installing it. Same with the sight for ease of painting. Here's are some pics.

The craddle wasn't centered in the carriage, which might have resulted in alignment problems in the future. So I fixed it with a hairdryer. But I wasn't carefull enough........

It has been fixed though, by replacing the recoil guard by one from a Tamiya's Wespe in my scrap pile (pic 2 and 3)

Just checking in, seeing what's up. The PzH is about done, picked up 'model of the month' at the club meeting a couple of weeks ago.

That M107 is well done. I have the same kit, it's a real eye-catcher on display on the shelf. They just don't make them like they used to.

As for those U-joints... You're certifiable. And very impressive.

NTM

Right, so.

It's in the main armour forum as well, but pics here.

NTM

Manic Moran wrote:

Just checking in, seeing what's up. The PzH is about done, picked up 'model of the month' at the club meeting a couple of weeks ago. That M107 is well done. I have the same kit, it's a real eye-catcher on display on the shelf. They just don't make them like they used to. As for those U-joints... You're certifiable. And very impressive. NTM

Thanks on the M107.

Working on the M240 MLRS firing with missle leaving the launcher. Should have some pics soon.

Thanks NTM

You did very good on that beast. Your camo scheme is top-notch! And the subtle weathering really brings it to life. I have seen real vehicles with paint scheme that looked only half decent as yours.

Congrats  

NTM,

Great results on your behemoth AFV.  The camo is spellbindingly perfect.  I'm not exaggerating....it's really well done.  I particularly like what you did with the rear of the vehicle, an eye-catching finish.  Your photography is excellent, does justice to your fine build.

I have that kit in the stash.  Every so often I open the box and take a look, wondering if I should take the plunge.  I got the kit pretty cheap on eBay, but the low price was because someone had started the kit and then abandoned it.  The turret and mantle were assembled were very poorly assembled. Everything else appears intact.  I'm working on the tiny Soviet ASU-57, which should not take long.  Maybe I'll start the PzH2000 next.

Thanks for sharing your results.

 Larry