AFV Club M42A1 Duster WIP - Done with pictures!!

Hello again!

Still fighting with the crew, here's how they fit the turret right now:

The right arm of the man sitting right to the guns (extreme left in the picture) is giving me most trouble right now.

Here's another picture for you - I'm happy how I made the inscription on the grenade boxes:

I also finished scratchbuilding the MG ammo trays - finally did the holders and the flashlights today:

How do you like it? Thanks a lot for reading, have a nice day

Paweł

looking good so far really cramped in there

Outstanding work on the details continues! I bet there were certain size/height restrictions on the crews for these vehicles...looks awfully tight!

John - I mean Clint - thanks a lot for your kind words!

Bill - thanks a lot! I don't know about such restrictions - but fitting the figs sure is a challenge. Theoretically there should be two more guys (the loaders) there - but I think about showing them outside of the mount. We shall see...

Thanks again for your comments, have a nice day

Paweł

Having a pair of loaders makes sense given the rate of fire on the twin 40mm guns...a crew of 4 was common with the ship mounts of these same guns.

Pawel

 have you seen these vidios?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keFzBeJkFCI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fhy5akosok&feature=related

while not of good quailty  you do get an idea of the operation of the duster in the late 50's or early 60's

Thanks for the comments, friends!

Bill - I heard it's a lot of ammo to shuffle, plus in Vietnam you had to look around all the time and fire small arms ocassionally, so extra people sure came handy.

Steve - thanks for the links, very interesting footage, pity there's not more of it!

Thanks again, have a nice day

Paweł

Pawel--In the old days, I was a loader on one of these in the Cal NG in the late 1950's.  If you want to show this as battle ready, you need the loaders at their stations with clips of ammo in their hands.  If you are in a stand-by situation, you might want to have guys out of their seats.  Maybe they can be helping stacking clips of ammo at the sides of the tub to get ready for later.

Witha max of 240 rounds per minute, and a 1/4 pound of tnt in each round, these Dusters could really tear up patches of ground fast.

fificat - thanks a lot for your comment! What I have in mind is a setup showing the duster on a move, but a local one - like changing firing positions after dark to confuse the eventual attackers as to the exact location of the guns, something like that. I already have one of the loaders standing up in the gun mount, now I would like to find a cool place for the other one.

I'd also have another question for you - can you tell me what personal weapons did you have back then and where were the racks for them in the gun mount?

Thanks again, have a nice day

Paweł

Hello!

Not much of an update, but I have the MG ammo trays with the ammo itself and flashlight holders ready (the flashlights are scratchbuilt):

In the picture you can also see the fire extinguisher on the left, and the asimuth indicator cover with chain (bottom left) Now I'm putting them in the mount, let's see how it will look like. Thanks for reading, have a nice day

Paweł

The little details are where the real fun is at Pawel, the flashlights are a neat touch including the red lenses!

Pawel--We did our two week  summer camps at Hunter Liggett.  We carried M1 carbines, and the Sgts. had grease guns.  We left our personal weapons in our barracks and went by truck to the firing lines.  We had driven our M42's and M16's out there during the first part of the two weeks we were there.  Sorry for the lack of info on how they were stored in the tub.

Arthur

Thanks for the comments, friends!

Bill - so nice of you to notice! It's really fun, I don't think any company does those flashlights in 1:35.

Arthur - No problem, I'm going to keep on digging! I believe it's possible the stateside Dusters didn't even have any rifle racks - the TM doesn't mention them. But in Vietnam the soldiers needed those personal weapons badly, so I'm still curious how they were stored and I want to show that in my model.

Thanks again, have a nice day!

Paweł

Hello again!

I'm still working on the crew - I just made a (poor) photo of the crew mock up and it looks like this:

OK, so there are some parts missing - the driver's head, the passenger's and gunner's arm, and the loader standing on the rear deck is just half-there . I put him there to give you an idea, where he's going to be, he'll be leaning on the gun mount's rear armor. I would like to get your opinions on this one - thanks in advance, have a nice day

Paweł

Hey, sorry to come in late Pawel, but just had to say this one's looking great so far! Love all the details. The figure placement looks perfect to me, really shows how tight the quarters were. I never would have guessed.

Hey Chris, it's been a long time! Good to see you again! How are your studies? And thanks for your kind words. I also started admiring those guys after I've seen where this is heading, probably needed a lot of training to operate everything smoothly in such a squeeze. Thanks again for your comment, please stay tuned and have a nice day

Paweł

If the crew fits, go for it!

Comming along nicely !

Bill, Carl - thanks a lot for your comments! Well I'm going for it. First I've got the pose for the second loader ready. Look how I tackled the bandoleers:

So now with all figs posed, I'm starting to paint them. I need to have at least one of the gunners completely painted and sitting down, before I can put the upper mount armor in place. So I'm going to paint them all to keep it uniform. Here's the lineup:

From the left we've got driver's head (the rest is already in place, then there's the officer riding along as passenger (from Bravo 6), and the squad leader with left leg and right arm from Dragon, the other leg from MasterBox, torso and left arm from Legend, and head from Alpine.

Further from the left there's the gunner with right leg from Dragon, left leg from MasterBox, torso and both arms from Legend and head from Alpine. In the middle there's the first loader with Dragon parts from different sets and helmet from Tank Models. The second loader also has parts from at least two Dragon sets (3305 and 3309) and arms from MasterBox and helmet also from Tank Models.

Now I'm going to prime them some dark colour, inspect for any flaws and then paint the flesh. Let's see how long this will take. Thanks for reading and have a nice day!

Paweł

Nice to see you're still building away with your favorite Vietnam subjects. My studies went well, I have a bachelors degree in Criminal Justice. Currently I'm in the Army Infantry out in Afghanistan, thats whats kept me away from modeling and the forums for over a year. Should be home for the holidays, I'm looking forward to it! Also looking forward to seeing these figures too! Love the way you've customized them to fit your needs, the bandoleers look great.

Nice job on the bandolier detail, but then we've come to expect that from you by this stage!

Chris - nice to know! You've sure got a good excuse for not modelling Please, watch your back out there!

Bill - thanks a lot, you know I'm doing my best!

And for the first time since I joined the forums, my thread appears in the newsletter, I feel good! Thanks for reading everybody, don't forget to leave your comments! Have a nice day

Pawel

Congrats on making the newsletter Pawel, well deserved!

FINE work on positioning and shaping the figures and very nice adding the details.  Looking real good

Bill, Rob - thanks for your kind words! I've been away in the Carribean, to load up my battery, but now I'm back and I'm working on the crew again. I started painting - first I primed 'em in black and painted the faces and hands Humbrol 63, or darker depending on the man:

After the base colours were really well dried (at least 24 hours in case of the Humbrols), I proceeded with painting the flesh. I used dark brown wash on those areas, and then dry-brushed them with custom mixed pink. Here's what I got:

Now I'll try to paint the eyes on - that's always sporty! Thanks for reading, have a nice day

Paweł

Hey Pawel, I'm not an Armor guy but I was browsing around and stumbled upon this Topic. All that I can say is WOW !!! I'm really impressed with your work, particularly the scratch building and the weathering. I am getting involved in Aircraft ( mostly WWII and earlier ) since that's where most of my knowledge base and interest resides, but I know that I'll have to get up to speed on te Armor stuff because I do have some 1/48 kits to compliment future Aircraft projects. Thanks for taking the time to post this project because it is a good learning tool for me. KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK !!!!                  Bob Henry

Hey, Bob! Thanks a lot for your comment and for your kind words. I'm so glad to hear I could help you some with your modelling, that means a lot to me. Good thing is, once you learn something new in one modelling genre, it usually improves your models in other genres too!

And I have the faces painted now, let me show you the "ID photos" of the crew now:

The driver, done years ago:

The officer riding along by chance:

The squad leader (have problems with macro!):

The gunner:

The ammo bearers:

Hope you like 'em, now I'm movin' on to the uniforms. Thanks for reading, have a nice day

Paweł

Figures are coming along nicely Pawel, sounds like the trip to the Caribbean did the trick!

Yeah, Bill, that's what it is! Thanks a lot for your comment!

And I'm movin on with painting the uniforms. Here's what I have so far:

I'm still not satisfied with the color transitions, I would like to make them more smooth, but didn't fint the way to do it yet. I think about adding goggles for all people, and then I'll probably start installing the gunners and finishing the turret. I'd like to know what you are thinking about the figures so far. Thanks for reading and have a nice day

Paweł

Hello again!

I'm still working on the crew - I added goggles and painted the helmets. I took the goggles from the Dragon Madern Tank Crew set, and from the Academy Mutt kit for the infantry helmets. The men with the CVC helmets look something like this:

I also wanted to add some matt cote to the figs, so I sprayed the Humbrol 49 on them, but it did a really nasty trick and turned completely white, that wasn't good! Really angry I let it dry overnight, in the morning I was able to save it brushing a highly diluted Humbrol 135 (Satin cote) over several times, so now they look decent again, but I still have to find some way to matt them, but first they have to dry really well.

In the meantime, I'm preparing to move on with the gun mount, so I prepared the gun tools storage on the mount's rear wall, it's scratchbuilt, there's no trace of it in the kit:

The tools have those nice, "correct" descriptions like "shell pusher", "cartridge extractor" and the like. I also wanted to show that the crew of the Duster always had to be on the lookout for the enemy, and so I decided to build the rifle rack - this is how it looks now:

I'd especially like to hear what you think about it, as I don't have much reference on this one. Thanks in advance, and have a nice day

Paweł