War in the Desert - African campaign GB - 12/9/07 to 5/13/08

dupes wrote:

Dang. That's a lot of PE!

You're not kidding dupes!! 

Looking good moose!  The only problem I see is with the position of the air intake doors.  You've got them angled from the top and then down and out to the fenders.  Actually these are hinged on the bottom of the air intake louvers and fold up to seal the louvers (when necessary), but during normal operation they were opened and swung down to lay flat on the fenders.  There are actually half wing nuts on the fender to hold them down.  Heres a couple of photos of the real thing:'

On this side all the doors are closed, sealing the louvers from dust and whatnot:

On this side a couple doors are closed and a couple doors are open.  You'll notice that these doors are actually missing, but they would normally lay flat on the fenders.  You can see the hinges back in there. 

Should be an easy fix though.  Hope this helps.

BTW, the antenna should be 2 meters long or about 2.26 inches in 1/35

dupes wrote:

So Bufflehead, when are we starting our Tristar Pz.IV Ausf. D GB?

Sign me up dupes!!  Its sweet how popular the Pz IV series is after so much time!  I've got a C, D, J and am eagerly awaiting Dragon's new F1!! 

Thanks for the heads up on my mistake.  I didn't know how they went, so I took a WAG.  I'll be fixing that mistake.  One question though.  What would be the position of the air intake doors during combat action? 

Thanks for the antenna lenght as well.  As for the PE, know you know wwhy I have not been posting regularly.  Next step is the turret.  I don't like the way the commaders coupla looks.  I ordered one from tigerworks.  It has the open visors that I want to model. 

Thanks for all the compliments.  It's been a blast working on this so far.

Yeah, Tigerworks has a really nice cupola!  I'm looking forward to seeing one build and installed.  As for the position of the intake doors during combat, I don't think opening or closing the doors was something the crews worried about during combat.  The crews would open or close them (or some of them) depending on the conditions they encountered.  Most of the photos I've seen of the Mark IV show them open except for the ones in the desert or in the snow. 

The assembly and basic painting are complete.  I layered coats of XF-60 Dark Yellow incrementally lightened with XF-55 Deck Tan to give it a sun bleached appearance.  Once all the paint has fully cured I'm going to seal it up with a coat of Future.  Then come the decals, another protective coat of Future and then the real fun begins.... paint chipping, dirt, grime, dust... muwahahahaaaaaa 

The tracks and muffler have been painted and are already undergoing their series of oil washes. 

This little kit is far from perfect, but it sure was nice to have an easy build for a change! 

espins1 wrote:

This little kit is far from perfect, but it sure was nice to have an easy build for a change!

I hear you there...mega-builds can get old after a while.

Looking good!

Nice work so far Scott.

Regards,  Rick

Looking good Scott!  Did you pre-shade that at all or do you just plan on post shading?

Cheers

I'm patiently waiting for the Future to cure, decals go on tomorrow.  As I wait I'm doing more oil washes on the tracks and muffler.

Once I get going on the weathering I'm going to replicate the chipped paint and heavy wear and tear on the desert camo.  More to follow.....

  I sat down to put the decals on my little PzKpfw. II Ausf. F, only to see that the decals are terrible!  The black and white is totally out of register with all the white borders around the crosses, for example, being shifted to one side. 

Can anyone suggest some aftermarket decals or perhaps some stencils I could use instead? 

Hey Scott - I poked around all the the places I know that sell decals, doesn't look like anyone has a Pz.II set. You could probably cobble together the right decals from several different sets, but that seems like an awful lot of work for one little tank!

Another option is I could send you the remainder of my decal sheet - I used the markings option with the little skull-and-crossbones shield, everything that wouldn't be used for that would still be left over. Probably short some balkankrueze's, but you can find spares for those in your stash somewhere I'm sure. Not guaranteed that mine were printed any better than yours, btw!

Let me know! 

espins ive got most of the decals you need on various tamiya sheets.unfortunately i dont have the R  or the roman #2. pm me with your addy and ill put them in the mail today or tomorrow.

                                              clint

Scott - there's a ton of markings on the decal sheet from the new Dragon Panzer II. I forgot if you said you had that kit or not, but if you don't, I can send you the markings for the Tunisia option, which I won't be needing.

It's a vehicle from the same company as the one in the Tamyia kit, with a stenciled 'R' on the turret, small '01' below and forward of the 'R', and the 10th Panzer 'Yiii' symbol on the front and rear. Balkenkreuz included as well, there are 18 on the sheet, 3 for each marking option.

They're cartograph, too...

Thanks guys.  I looked over my decal sheet again.  It looks like the only decals in this set that aren't useable are the Balkenkreuzes.  I'm going to check my stash and see if I can scrounge up a few of them. 

If I can't find any extras, I'm going to order a sheed of Balkenkreuzes from Archer Fine Transfers (I've always wanted to try those out anyways  )

Yupper, you need a better camera. Looks good from what I can see though.  looking forward to seeing the warpaint.

Regards,  Rick

Dupes - thanks for the answer, makes sense of course...some day I will stop asking newbie questions ;)

espins - nice job so far, good luck with the decals! Look forward to your weathering

Hum... idea

If the flak 38 was painted dark yellow, would it still work?

Tamiya 1/48 scale Universal Carrier  

Gents,  

I first want to give thanks to Hermesminiatures for his great idea and it is a very nice coincidence to find this group build right now because I am into one desert subject at this moment so I do not want to miss the chance to share it with you all and I also hope to repeat the good experience I had when I joined to another Group Builds here at FSM past year.  

Here you have my current victim. That is the 1/48 scale Tamiya Universal Carrier I am making in one unusual configuration I took from several pictures. As you can see the model is from the box basically with the only exception of some small bits I added here and there by my own. The Vickers MG comes from detailing one russian Maxim which is basically the same weapon. The replacement track set is made by Firghting 48th (one small British AM company) and the whole runnning gear comes in one only part made with amazing 3D printing technology, so no extra assembly required on that area.  

My plan is to make one small desert scene and for that I am also making that 1/48 scale scratchbuilt dummy 40mm Bofors gun based on some wartime images. The gun itself is very simple and the sandbag were made with epoxy putty.  

If everything goes well I am painting both kits in the following weeks so I guess everything will go changing almost day by day form now on.  

I hope you like it.

Lu

Excellent work Lu.  Looking forward to more progress pics.

Regards,  Rick

mokei wrote:

Tamiya 1/48 scale Universal Carrier   Gents,   I first want to give thanks to Hermesminiatures for his great idea and it is a very nice coincidence to find this group build right now because I am into one desert subject at this moment so I do not want to miss the chance to share it with you all and I also hope to repeat the good experience I had when I joined to another Group Builds here at FSM past year.   Here you have my current victim. That is the 1/48 scale Tamiya Universal Carrier I am making in one unusual configuration I took from several pictures. As you can see the model is from the box basically with the only exception of some small bits I added here and there by my own. The Vickers MG comes from detailing one russian Maxim which is basically the same weapon. The replacement track set is made by Firghting 48th (one small British AM company) and the whole runnning gear comes in one only part made with amazing 3D printing technology, so no extra assembly required on that area.       My plan is to make one small desert scene and for that I am also making that 1/48 scale scratchbuilt dummy 40mm Bofors gun based on some wartime images. The gun itself is very simple and the sandbag were made with epoxy putty.     If everything goes well I am painting both kits in the following weeks so I guess everything will go changing almost day by day form now on.   I hope you like it. Lu

Finished the cockpit for the Hurricane using the Ultracast seat and armor.  Also tried the Promodeller light wash just to see the effects.  Meh.  Common sense says the dark wash works better on light surfaces and the light wash works better on dark surfaces.  That seems to hold true.