Greetings, gang. Here's what I've been up to...
Sprue Brothers December sales are great...I stocked up on Shermans and halftracks for the upcoming year. I started off right after Christmas with a DML M4A1 Direct Vision Sherman.
The Sherman seemed lonely, so I gave it a little friend in January, a DML M2A1 Halftrack.
In February, I added some fire support with a DML T19 105mm HMC.
You can never have enough artillery, so I stayed with the 105mm theme with a DML midproduction M7 Priest.
In March, I went back to Shermans with a DML British Sherman Mk.III.
In April, yet another Sherman, a DML M4A3(76)W.
April also saw construction of a basic Tamiya M4 with a Verlinden Crab conversion, replacing the cast resin chain with actual metal links.
In May, I fired up the cloning vats and produced about 30 Canadians, using the DML Commonwealth Infantry 1943 Sicily kit for masters.
The cloning vats stayed active through the summer, producing about three dozen Nepalese Gurkhas, using both the DML British Infantry 1944 Normandy and Monte Cassino kits as masters. You can never have too many Gurkhas.
In August, I returned to this Academy Merkava Mk.IV that I had started about two years ago. I had run out of ball and chain armor for the rear of the turret, and it wasnt until I purchased the Legend turret basket resin set that I had enough to finish.
After a Jeeping vacation in Utah and Colorado in September, I returned to the secret underground weapons laboratory to build the DML 54cm Loki self propelled mortar.
My last finished project was the Trumpeter Fahrgestell ammo loading vehicle. The only problem with this kit is that they only provided 60cm shells and no 54cm shells. Oh well, I guess I gotta build the 60cm version as well...and I may as well make it interesting and get the version with the rail transport.
That's it for 2011. After a very successful buying sprue at Spree Brothers, I have the following in the production queue:
Cyberhobby Maus
DML M4A2 PTO
Panzer MkIV last production
A pair of German gondola rail cars
Trumpeter WR360 locomotive (to pull the 60cm mortar, of course.)