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

Great looking progress from everybody and we're only a few hours into the build

I had a good bash at the bench last night as well and managed to turn out some decent progress although the Tamiya kit sure does help.  Btw I'm using the Voyager upgrade set on this kit as well.

Sorry for the quality of the photos but they were taken late last night without much prep. 

arki30 wrote:

Wow, so many targets to chose from !

Achtung!!  Jabo!!!!  

espins1 wrote:

Dupes, man you're on a roll!  You're cranking out the builds.

You know it! With all of the snow around here, there isn't much else to do...and god knows when it's nice and sunny out I'm going to be riding. Heh.

Hey, where's HERMES? Your GB is ON!

Dupes, man you're on a roll!  You're cranking out the builds.    And nice to see so much progress from the gang on the first day!

If I remember correctly the Pz II I'm building was the first armor kit I ever built as a kid.  My Dad brought kits home from one of his trips for my brother and me.  I got the Pz II and my brother got a StuG III.  I think I was like 10 or 12.  It is still a pretty nice kit, especially considering its age, although I could do without the molded on tools. 

I'm just about done fixing up the lower hull.  I cut out panels of sheet styrene which I glued inside the hull over the backside of the holes to provide a good base for the putty. I used squadron white putty, gave it about an hour to dry then started sanding away.  I have just a little more sanding to smooth everything out, and a few passes of my polishing still will be in order.  There were also two little sink marks on the lower front hull plate that required fixing.

Hey Guys, looks like some good progress is being made .  I had a little bench time last night & at least got a start on my Tamiya 1/48 Pz.III Ausf.N.  Here's what I've done so far.

Hope to get some more done today, but have some Xmas Shopping to do.  Hope I don't get too frazzled by the Mall Animals.

Regards,  Rick

Hey guys, looks like a great beginning. I got a little done today, too. I did paw thru all the sprues and the instructions last week for an in box review, but I don't count that as starting. Today I did some cutting and glueing and general messing up 

Started with the tranny and lower hull..........

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And on to the lower interior, pretty tight in there

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<sigh> Despite the fact I don't have time to work on two builds at the same time much less have room for two on the bench, I went ahead and started.

All I've done is wash the parts, but it's something.  This is the AMtech P-40K which is basically their P-40E with a Black Box resin replacement tail included in the kit.  Apparently these kits were only offered at Hobby Lobby?  Don't know if that's true but that's where I picked it up on sale.

Considering the last 5, 6 or 10 builds I've completed have had some level of AMS, I'm building this one completely OOB.  No extra nothing.  Nada, zip, zilch, zero.  It'll be kinda nice.

Wow Espins! ....I love that old kit! ...its the 1st Tamiya kit I ever built! ..and I have one in my stash right now !

Looking good Dupes!

Here's what I'm working on...it's a little older kit from Dragon but...I like it. Just pulled it outta the stash and opened the box!

Ha haaa! Espins, that was actually my first armor kit...ever! I want to pick up another one to see if I can do something decent with it after looking at what I did the first time...heh.

Alrighty, got a couple of pics, took several WIP photos over the course of the day, but they were mostly crap. I do have one of the ceremonial box-opening:

And one I took before closing up shop for the day:

No problems so far, the sparse interior is about finished - won't be able to see much anyway, with the screens closed - first order of business tomorrow is to seal up the 2 hull halves. After that, some exterior parts still to be added, and then it's onto the first coat of Panzer Gray! 

The parts have been prepped and I'm working on filling in openings in the hull underside (yes, this is the ancient Tamiya kit  ).  There are a couple of tools molded onto the hull.  My first instinct was to cut them off, however they are molded in with the diamond plate pattern of the upper hull.  Don't think I can do it without causing damage to the delicate diamond plate.

rjkplasticmod wrote:

Hope to get in some bench time today, unless SWMBO comes up with more Holiday related Honey Do's. .

Boy I hear that, between office parties, friends Christmas get togethers as well as preparing our house for the family onslaught on Christmas day there is not a huge amount of free time available at the moment.

However, I did manage to sneak in a couple of hours of bench time last night and finished the lower hull of my 1/48 Pz.III.  As usual with these Tamiya kits the fit of everything is excellent and the link 'n' length tracks look great with their inbuild sag.

Cheers

I finished another build just in time so the bench has some space.  Hope to get in some bench time today, unless SWMBO comes up with more Holiday related Honey Do's. .

Regards,  Rick

And so it begins....

But not for me yet.  I gotta get the Flanker finished first!  Gah, no time!

While some of you guys furthur east around the other side of the world have probably started already, the kickoff for most of us US builders is in just a few hours

I probably won't be back on until tomorrow evening, and I want to see some progress when I get back! Happy building everyone!

Sunday is going to be a busy day on the Espin work bench! 

dupes wrote:

Wow, please tell me someone is going to try that funky paint scheme!

Check out some of Manstein's Revenge's work in the airplane forum, I'd be surprised if he hadn't done this one.  

Well Saturday is looking good to make a start on the Panzer III then .

I don't know if I mentioned this already but I am going to try and scratch a stowage frame on the rear of the engine deck and add lots of jerry cans to give it that real desert flavour.

Cheers

But the deadline comes faster for them, too

You can start 12 am your time.

Hoooo boy, looks like Sunday is going to be a busy modeling day pertaining to Afrika all over the planet... I know I personally plan on banging out a LARGE portion of my Sd.Kfz.222 throughout the day starting right after midnight.

Hmmm...what time zone are we using for the official start? Greenwich mean? Which would give me FIVE extra hours of building on Saturday night? I'd hate to think guys like Luftwoller have an unfair advantage just because they live in "jolly old England"...

Just a few more days of waiting...

Hermesminiatures wrote:

It's almost December - less than ten days to go!

I am reviewing my decals .... and looking at the sprue to set up base paint job

BTW: I just received a book written by one of the pilots Bohdan Arct "Slaski Circus" on CDs. It wil be a nice background "modelling music"  

just few more days ...

I hear you there Hermes! Going to try to bang out my Panzer Aces build...then it's feet first into the Desert!

Sooooo many badges...muuuahahahahah!

dupes wrote:

Wow, please tell me someone is going to try that funky paint scheme!