#5 Italeri M24 Chaffee- COMPLETED!

Thanks my friends.  Just a quick update... 3 hours just to highlight the GIs uniforms and gears last night.  Thanks for making my life hell... nah, I am loving it.  Still long way to go... darker wash is next.

Expecting another major storm  tonight so I have a good excuse to keep family in the basement where my work bench is...

all around Andy! Looking real good! Keeping an eye out on this topic.

Figs are starting to come to life Andy, it's an odd situation where you find that you actually WANT more storms in order to get benchtime!

Hey Andy,

Wow! Great work. You truly are knocking out some superb stuff at the minute - this could AT LEAST be on par with the 'Coal Thief' maybe even better!

I am very impressed with your figures. I must try and practice on some as I have loads in the spares box - I never use them as I find them so hard! I've got some good dooks and magazine articles to help me. I just need to learn how to add life to them and to stop them looking so flat and '2D'!

Obviously I need to learn the skills of shading and highlighting on figures!

Top stuff - keep us posted!

ATVB

Ben

Kevin-  Thanks for dropping by.   Hope you will like the results...

Bill- Always good hearing from you.  Bad news... no storm predicted over the weekend.  But I think we have had enough... April was fourth wettest month ever for Indiana topping nine inches of rain.

Ben- A lot of practice and learning experience really helps.  I think they are my 14th & 15th figure since my return to the hobby three years ago.  Many great toots were very helpful especially from Adam (Indy) recently.  Did you see his Russian tankers? 

Guys, I think my GIs are completed.  I am working on the rifles now so hope I can call this done soon. 

Have a great weekend!

Lookin' great, Andy!  Make sure you don't leave any seams on those rifle barrels.  Rick.

Rick- LOL!  Thanks... I will make sure there is no seam!  Thanks for looking... please make the rain go away!

Guys-  For sure I am done with the tank commander.  Painting the eyes were much harder than previous American GIs because its plastic head didn't have much details.  Now I can finish my Chaffee...

Thanks for looking.  Please quit sending the rain over here... we Hoosiers have had enough.

Andy- Outstanding job on the figs...you have really brought them to life.

Rounds Complete!!

Really nice work on the figs Andy, they are going to make a huge difference in the overall finish on this one for sure.

Mike- Thank you!   I noticed more time and patience on the figures helped.  I never spent so much time on the figures I would say at least two weeks.  Now I can get back to my Chaffee and finish it...

Bill- Thanks for stopping by!  Maybe it will lure you into building an Allied armor? Only kidding but you never know!  

Guys- For sure I am calling American GIs done... they are armed and dangerous now.

This is probably my favorite shot...

I applied base coats on all details for last two nights... a coat of Future is next so I can apply decals over the weekend.

Comments are always welcome.  Thanks for looking... have a great weekend!

ANDY- Your figures look GREAT!  The crewman is my favorite.  All of the gear is coming out nice and it really adds to the vehicle, bet it was fun picking all of that stuff out.

Thanks Rob!  It took me forever to paint those... lost nearly three weeks of valuable GB time but I think it will be worth it when everything is completed.  I like the crewman's uniform but I liked the face job of GI holding a cigarette by hand. 

Hi Andy,

Wow, this is looking superb! Simply stunning!

The build is brilliant but your work on them figures is just perfect. I must practice!

Keep us posted, I can't wait to see this Chaffee complete!

ATVB

Ben

Andy

everything's looking really well from here--the figures are particularly nicely-painted.

Your OD looks really brown to me on my monitor, but I"m sure  that that's a camera trick. I would suggest to not use that deep blue background. It's pleasing to the eye but I believe that it monkeys with your color resolution and white balance? Try a few shots in the next post with a light blue or white background?

Ben- Thank you mate!   Am afraid you will not see much update this weekend... Mother's Day... wife dragged me to spend the weekend at her mother's.  Gonna make all mothers happy. 

Doog- I have all three posters... white, light blue and deep blue.  I will try them all next time I take pictures.  I used MM #1711 Olive Drab so its pretty green for sure.  Keep in mind I used my ol' faithful BlackBerry... LOL  Thanks for the comment.   I enjoy figure paintings as much as building models. 

Excellent work Andy, every time I drop by this thread I get a new surprise, the figures look great.

Terry.

Terry, thanks for dropping by!  Am afraid there won't be much update this weekend... Mother's Day... I am at mother-in-law place fixing up her house.  Gonna make her happy and of course my wife...

Don't ask me how I came up with the number 85.7%... I just made it up   Decals have been applied after a coat of Future.  Tracks and wheels are on.  It was my first time using resin tracks and I am officially not a big fan of them now.  At least I can say I had the 'experience' dealing with the resin tracks...

A buddy of mine sent me the 'Eagle Claw' decals for my Chaffee as seen often in the pictures during the Korea War... thanks Adam (Indy)!

The tracks were primed with flat black paint from rattle can brought at Walmart I think for $1.25.   Then they were painted with lightly thinned MM Metalizer Gunmetal.  Finally heavily thinned MM Burnt Umber was applied... I still plan to paint some of MM Steel to the edges later.

Chaffee looks so shinnnnnyyyyy.... not for long!

Sprayed couple coats of MM flat clear acyclic to tone down.  Most of detail paintings are completed... it sure took me a while!

I am looking forward to do the weathering stage using thinned Burnt Umber and Raw Umber oil paints.  Then MIG pigments are next... thinking about using new 'Fading Allied Green'. 

Comments and feedbacks are always welcome... thanks for looking!

Sharp work on the details and decals Andy and yes, resin tracks can defintietly be a pain! 85.7% progress speaks to a precision and sounds impressive but then you gave it up by admitting it wasn't "real'!...always better to use round numbers when making things up! Looking forward to the next set of progress pics for sure.

Bill- Always great hearing from you my friend.  In some way I am glad I had the chance to use resin tracks so I understand better now what you guys were talking about doing resin tracks long before the fruil and modelkasten tracks came out.

How's our mascot dog?  Hope she didn't chew one of your kits yet... we can not afford to have another Hinksy incident!!!

Brenda's now 6.5 months old, weighs 42 lbs as of this morning, and has been spayed. She's learning how to be out of her crate for the full day with me without getting into trouble (I work from home) and so far we've had no styrene-chomping incidents I'm happy to say! She did stay with me last Sunday when I got some time in on the bench (only an hour or so) and didn't cause any disruptions, so it's baby steps but progress!

Andy--the Chafffee looks about as nice as I could imagine it. If you were going for a superb "clean" build, you've nailed it.

I'm surprised that you like resin tracks. I couldn't get them to work for me on my Jagdpanzer Kanone, but those were all indy links.

Anyway, a nice job, for sure! Now get an uncluttered background for the "Finished" pics!

And I just can't resist.....
"HEY DOOG!"

wbill76

 

(She's a cutey, Bill!!)

Hey Doog!  Trust me... I am not a fan of resin tracks.  I was just glad that I had the chance to deal with it so I can understand why many modelers don't like them anymore.   Next time I post my Chaffee... it will much dirtier for sure. 

Normally I use blue poster as backdrop but it made my Chaffee look brownish like you noticed last time.  So I need to try lighter blue or even white poster to see if it works better... again, thanks for dropping by!

Bill- WOW!  She is one real good looking dog... no wonder you got Doog all excited!  I am trying to understand why she is wearing a pink collar instead of a German three toned camo collar... hmmm?   Oh, pink collars just like the Panzer crews wearing pink trimmed collars... how clever!!!

Andy - Very nice details and resin tracks....you made a possible PITA look great. The decals also look great.

Now as for Bill's comments, I will agree and disagree......I agree with him, don't give up the number...I will disagree as far as the number...the engineer in me see's 85.725% complete and the artilleryman sees it as right on target 

Rounds Complete!!

You got it Andy, she's a "stealth panzerhund"!.

Bill- Good one!

Mike- Always great hearing from you!  I hope I have your seal of approval for this build when it is done because it is olive drab.   Thanks for the comment.  A coat of Future before and after the application of decals really helped. 

It is now 91.35% completed after a coat of heavily thinned Raw Umber oil paint... will post pictures when I have the chance.

Looking fabulous!  Lot of gear which means a lot of patience to pic all of those details and still leave a beautiful finish on the Chaffee.  Decals also look great.  I love the color you acheived on the tracks after the dry brush of steel believe they will be perfect!  Really looking forward to the weathering.

Very, very nice! Decals and the stowage painting came out excellent! Looking forward to all of this... figures, weathering and being mounted on a base!

deafpanzer

Mike- Always great hearing from you!  I hope I have your seal of approval for this build when it is done because it is olive drab.   Thanks for the comment.  A coat of Future before and after the application of decals really helped. 

Rounds Complete!!