Thanks, my friend. I finished this one months ago. I just took more pictures in different lighting. Nothing has changed yet.

As far as the kits defects are concerned, you can see that it still builds up out of the box as a nice model.

Hello Mike!

Nice to see a finished M103! This tank is kinda special to me - I've had a tech drawing of it in the book that I learned to read from (you better don't ask - that's a longer story...)

Anyhow, the model looks good!

I also have one in my stash, but I'm a little afraid to start it - it's a shame Dragon effed it up like this and I'd probably start to correct those errors "a little" and end up cutting the whole model apart to do it throughly... So I better do some easier builds first, like my CEV - dang, that modelling disease!

Anyhow, congratulations on a very nice model and thanks for sharing, have a nice day

Paweł

Usually I do. But all of my stuff is packed up. I did manage to keep the camera from ending up in a box though.

These pictures are still not satisfactory and I know it, guys. I will be taking more later when I can set some stuff up properly for it.

Still, its not too shabby for just being built out of the box. Even with all of the innaccuracies with the kit itself. It still looks like an M-103 lol. I think I need to set it next to one of the other kits just to see the size differences. That should be neat lol. I haven't seen anyone do that yet.  :)

From what I can see it looks really good, Mike. but yuou should really invest in a better lighting system to get better photos. Especially if you're an active commissioned modeler; it would help your business to have better representations of your models in photos.

She looks great to me Mike, I love the dirty and grimy without being overdone look you've got going on there. 

And yeah a Jeep would look cool there, kinda showing off the turret is bigger than the whole friggin' Jeep! 

Thanks Gino. I need to build up a little bit of road and then "plant" some shrubberies lol. The sand on the base is some sort of tectured paint dad added on there while I was away. Its stuck real good so building on top of it should be easy. Just need to get some fine sand and make it an uneven surface.

I'm currently thinking of just having it on a road during manuevers. Nothing special. But more dust is needed for sure.

Perhaps a jeep off to the side with someone "pointing the way" would be more interesting though.

It is looking good.  The large base really accentuates the size of the gun.  To fill the dead space in the foreground, an AFV Club M38A1 or a Tamiya M151A1 would look perfect with it.

Okay. I took some more pictures. Not great pictures because I have different lighting, but I have some that are better than the last ones for sure lol. With this base its going to need a lot more dust. Lots of little plants and things to add to this base as well. Just need to find the time.















And here's the rest of them that need some finishing touches, just sitting in a box. lol

I've got some top loading UNarmored air filter boxes from Shapeways that need to get fitted onto the M-60A1. They are a mm thinner than the AFVC air filters and were made for the Tamiya kits, but they should work... if I can pry off the AFVC boxes without damaging the fenders.  :/

Ye, the stuff on Salisbury Plain, mixed with grass twigs and what ever else, used to set like concrete.

Yes it was... and all the time you spent in line waiting for your turn at the wash rack you were chipping away at the stuff...

stikpusher

M. Brindos

"We did wash them occasionally" Said my father lol.

As soon as you roll out of the field and before they are parked back in the motor pool... 

 

And isn't it a pain in the butt to get that crap off, even with those hoses.

M. Brindos

"We did wash them occasionally" Said my father lol.

As soon as you roll out of the field and before they are parked back in the motor pool... 

M. Brindos

Yeah, I'm thinking of more cold war era tanks for sure. I'd love to try my skills out on a Leo. Someone has inspired me with that one.  lol  :)

Yes! Cold War armor rocks!

once upon a time in Germany...

"We did wash them occasionally" Said my father lol.

Yeah, I'm thinking of more cold war era tanks for sure. I'd love to try my skills out on a Leo. Someone has inspired me with that one.  lol  :)

Well, AFV's are often clean at some point lol. I think you have achieved nicely what you set out to. There's plenty of kits out there to get down and dirty with.

Thanks Bish!  :D

As much as I wanted to add a bunch of fun stowage and dress this up a bit with more faded and dirty weathering it didn't look like that in the photo I was instructed to replicate.

So it turned out exactly as it should have, based on the artist's rendering. The confirmation from Tanker Dad as to its authenticity was definitely a boost for my confidence. But yeah Bish, I'd love to have gone and had some fun with this kit lol.  :)

Nicely finished build Mike, and good to see something different.

LOL.

I fixed my above post and changed up the pictures a bit. I haven't tried to do a re-shoot yet.

Thank you for the comments guys.  :)

Mike, nice finish to this plastic beast  

stik, this model tank would probably need a chair like this:

http://www.hahabird.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/IMG_4240.jpg

Mike, I use a similar set up for taking photos. Just a suggestion but if you drape a plain solid color bedsheet over the base and chair arms and back, you get a nice non distracting background. A neutral color or plain white sheet works great.

By the way, very nicely done!

Sorry. Using the droid still. I'll fix this when I have a chance. :(

Finally!

It was hard to get this beast to fit in my little shooting area mostly because of the enormous AA cannon they wedged into it.

One last minute change was to correct the "O"12 into the correct "D"12.

I need a bigger area to take photos in lol.

So here it is. One "clean" M-103A2 as it would have looked in Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis era while on base, circa 1962.

In hindsight there are few things I would do differently, but I'm happy enough with the final results.

Thanks for the support and advice during this project. You guys are the best and I'm glad to be counted among you as a respected peer.

Thank You all!

Update incoming.

I'm just learning to navigate this wonderful and insightful forum, when I came across this; Oh My!  WOW!  I can't believe what I'm seeing.  Speechless.

Toshi

Mike your build is looking fantastic. The person your building it for is going to have a model to be proud of!!!

I dunno know how accurate the colour is but I really like the variation and 'depth' to it.

Very nice paint work, Mike. You're starting to get some real depth.

Hey Mike,

I've been busy as of late, but wanted to say that your model here looks pretty good. The finish is appropriately "busy" and I like what you did spattering the wheels. :)

Thanks Stick. I've got a lot of detailing left on the tracks to do still and the vision blocks need to be blacked out as well. Yeah, its all the little things. That's right lol.

Okay that looks better.  :)

You're right. I should darken those more.  :)

Looks great so far. I suggest that the IR headlight lenses should be black.  Those were still in use when I was on active duty, and the IR light projector lenses are black.

I'm learning that now lol. This is the first Historicaly accurate build I've done.

Ye, you can never 100% trust kit markings. I always try and check when I can.

Thanks Bish!  :)

I'm glad I checked my references. Dragon would have me put the serial numbers on the rear toolboxes. They never put them there. Not one single reference shows them placed there. They were either on the air filters as I have done, or on the forward storage bins.

The only other thing that is wrong with them is that there should be one more star in the second row for a total of 7.

Other than the markings I've pretty much nailed this one as far as how it should have actually looked. Well, aside from the early A1 gun tube dust cover. I wasn't left with many options for that anyways.

I'm getting really close to having it match the reference photos and I'm happy about that. :)

That's looking very nice. I have no idea on the correct OD, but that looks good to me and the weathering seems just right. I do like those markings.

Thanks Sprue.  :) its not quite so bright now.

Tracks have their first wash of Tamiya Weathering Master "Oil Stain" on them. I like how versatile this stuff is. Wet or dry.

oh yeah. "… original color more life" I agree

Ah yes, making stuff look good for the dog & pony shows. I always wondered how they got the vehicles on the parade field looking so. Usually the ones we had out there looked like they just came out of the paint shop at the Support Battalion. Although I do remember in one of my units how our supply clerk  was putting brake fluid on the sidewalls of his M35A2 Deuce and Half tires  after the wash rack to give a nice "armor all" look to them. Shiny black tires on a beat to snot MERDC Temperate Spring truck...

[QUOTE=rbrindos]Michael, I probably should have clarified what I said about washing tanks with diesel. It was never done, unless there was a reason. The only time I remember ever doing it was at Ft. Lewis when we officially activated the 2/77th Armor Battalion. We had a ceremony with the tanks driving by the review stand. We washed and dieseled up the side that was seen by the stands. It was considered a safety hazard and, on a personal note, made the front slope very slippery.[/QUOTE]

I just got this over on Genessis. I will tone this paint effect way down now as it is incorrect. Bummer, that was looking cool.

Thanks Garzonh. I'm having fun with it. First I don't like it, then I finish the layer and think, "Okay, that's neat" lol.

I come here every now and then just to find this amazing build.

I like the color and the shadows you achieved, also the "dusty" layer looks very convincing.

I believe that the Cold War era O.D. was definitely darker and leaned more towards the brown side of the color than the previous O.D that leaned more towards the green side of it.

I'll be adding more dirt tones to the paint pretty soon. The dirt from boots did grind into the paint and tone it differently where the crews walked on the tank most often. I'll be taking this into account while I work more on this paint scheme as I did on the little M-48.

Marine Corps Green was more like a medium green when freshly applied. This effect I just got should be pretty close to how it should look, but since I've had it only described to me and have never seen it for myself I'm not going to say with 100% certainty that this is an authentic paint job. I can't back this one up, but it sure does look cool. lol

Wow, I'd read here about Cold War olive drab being darker than the Second World War but didn't know about 'gasoline washes' and being this green. Thanks guys!

Thanks Karl. This effect occurs even without the camera. But yes it's a bit too green in some areas, but I'll be toning that down with the next layers of washes and if that doesn't do it I can add a touch more pale to it later.

I thought it was great that I captured the effect in pictures lol. Usually if you can see it with the cam, you can't see it with your eyes, and vice-versa.

I'm going to keep my clears thinner after talking to you about it. I feel you have the right of it in this case.

M. Brindos

No Karl I don't decant them. :/

But now I'm thinking about it.

I do like my clear cotes to be a good thickness to protect the paint underneath, but I see what you're saying. I'll let you know if I do finally decant the canned clear. I'm curious about how well that works now.

Thanks for that info. I'll get back to you on that.  :)

That coat is looking pretty "green" in the first two pics; the bottom one looks more in-the-ballpark, Don't forget to monkey around with your White Balance too on your camera, if you have one. You can really alter the tone of a photo with that sometimes.

Here's an update. I've just finished the dot filtering and I'm going to give that a day to dry a bit before laying down a satin finish.




I'd say that "greened" it up pretty good. This is how the tank should look after a "gasoline" wash that both the regular Army and the Marines would do the "Liven" up the paint after they washed them (I forget which one of you guys had mentioned that and I had to ask My Dad if they really did that. Confirmation from an ex tanker of that era says yes.). It worked well but faded the paint even faster.

My Dad has lots of pictures of M-60's in his private stash that show how the MERDC camo scheme faded shortly after being applied. The tan would last the longest, but the other three colors almost faded into one shade. I want to try replicating that effect later, and hopefully on something in a smaller scale lol.

Edit: I really like this effect now that its done. The color changes depending on the lighting and source. It goes from a bright green to faded pale green even in the pictures. Pretty neat!  lol

No Karl I don't decant them. :/

But now I'm thinking about it.

I do like my clear cotes to be a good thickness to protect the paint underneath, but I see what you're saying. I'll let you know if I do finally decant the canned clear. I'm curious about how well that works now.

Thanks for that info. I'll get back to you on that.  :)

The model is looking good, Mike.

Do you decant your clear coats and airbrush them? I hope so, because I've found that spraying them out of the can nozzle itself lays it on waaaay thicker than you would want it.

Update time again.  :)






I've been getting the dot filtering done on the turret. You can see what progress I've made on that part. I've also got the faded gray rubber painted onto the road wheels and return rollers. They're needing a bit of touch up to the green as there is some worn paint on some of the edges due to me not clear coating the finish before all of this handling going on right now. I keep having to spot repair the fender edges too. Which is okay because they actually did that a lot in the real world.

I've got a bit too carried away on the one side with the Verridian Green oil I'm using for the filter. No worries though because it'll all work out in the end I'm sure.

Karl - I've been using a Krylon "Matte" clear and it comes out as a semi gloss. I suppose I should be more clear about that. I do have a can of gloss which is excellent for the coverage and was thinking of using it for the next round of filters, but you've just convinced me otherwise.

I'll stick with the Matte.

Garzonh and Gam, thank you guys! Thank you for the support  :D

Mike, I think it looks fine, and I'm a but dubious about filtering over gloss. I filter over a light "satin" which is just shy of flat. Even filtering over flat is going to get you a better impression of what the outcome is going to be than gloss. You know how gloss tends to darken and alter the actual color of the paint? I tried it once, and while the dispersion is easier to control, it's also a lot harder to accurately judge where you are with the depth. I would suggest trying a acrylic wash with the base coat color if you think it's too "green". The more layers you put on it, the more varied the finish will be too, which doesn't hurt. :)

Looks cool to me, from the photos the dot filtering looks really nice.

Wow, what a model!, with the figures you can see the size as you mentioned.

They blend  far better with a gloss. I thought I'd cheat the process and I'm not liking the effect as much. The little M-48 I build looks a whole lot smoother in contrast to this paint job thus far. But after I finish the filtering of the turret I'll gloss it and get better blending over the current finish.

I'm thinking of doing a light dirt wash over all of this after I dull it back down, just to bring some more brown tones into the overall color after I, probably go too far with the green. I need to do some respraying of the shadow colors on the underside as some of that was worn off after it was roughly hand tossed by accident and I broke off those 5 road wheels lol. Plus the paint is getting worn away from handling on all the corners. I should have glossed it much sooner and now I'm paying for it. However this may actually lend the paining more realism as they were always spot painting these things and never left any chipping to rust or weather for very long.

They kept up on regular maintenance and so these beasts never looked very worn at all.

Edit: The cat lives. He's far too cute to gut, even if he's been eating paint chips lol.

M. Brindos

And I even found the headlight lenses that were temporarily missing due to being a cat owner lol.

Probably a tasteless joke.

This is excellent finish work IMO. I like it so much that after my Tiran is finished, I'm going green.

Speaking of which Tiran, I will do a gloss coat and try filters on it. I've tried filters a couple of times, but cheated on the gloss coat.

Thanks Feldgrau! She's getting there. I just need to finish what I started lol. I'm not really happy with the way the dot filtering has turned out so far, but that only because I didn't clear it with a gloss before adding the filter. It doesn't blend as well over the dull surface. But once I get a gloss on her I'll be going over the filters again and blending hem in even further. This tank is going to get a bit green-er lol.

Dang Mike I step away for a couple days and you have turned this into a winner!!. Fantastic looking build  Mike!!

I finally decided on which driver's vision blocks to use. The kit came with solid or clear parts for this area, but not for any of the other vision blocks on the model. Since all of the others are solid and need to be painted I chose to keep with the solid block theme here. The clear ones would look great, no doubt, but they would be the only clear ones on the entire tank.

I finished the green dot filtering on the hull.

And I even found the headlight lenses that were temporarily missing due to being a cat owner lol.

Not much in the way of exciting, but a little progress is better than none I suppose.

The M6, yes that was a dead end because it was already outdated before the war started for us. The Pershing was only in the last couple of weeks of the closing of the war. If it had come sooner however, things would've been different. None of this speculation matters in the end though. Its already history and can't be rewritten lol.

Well we did have a heavy tank in the M6 but it wasn't very good so it never entered combat. 

Then the US Army hit a crash program with the T29, T30, and T34 heavy tanks that missed the war but were updated to the M103 to deal with Soviet Cold War heavy hardware. 

Then you had just weird stuff like the M7 and T20...

Strange stuff you pick up from World of Tanks, stopped playing over a year ago but I'm glad I did just due to the introduction to stuff like this. 

Paper straws?? I'm going to look for those.

Funny thing about us before WWII. We developed the Sherman to compete with the Panzer IV's. Why in the world we didn't contemplate building a complete battlefield dominator is beyond me. We should have been thinking of tanks that would have beat the crap out of the Panzer IV's and thinking further ahead than we were.

If we had M-26's even a few years earlier we would've run over the Germans in a matter of months perhaps. With the Air power available to us at the time of Normandy we would have had the same logistics problems as Romel did in the desert lol. We would have simply run too far, too fast. The war would've been vastly different.

Jump forward to the M-48 and M-60 programs and think of how different it would've been had we been more inclined to get more of that type of thinking sooner than we did.

But that didn't happen.

Just one M-103 would've made an enormous difference in France back then. While we're thinking of it, let''s just imagine one Abrams transported back in time lol. What a heck of a thing that would've been lol!!

Cool Mike, gives a good impression of what a brute the M-103 was.

Nice work on the figures too. Though it does make me think about how many big fat holes the M-103's 120mm would punch in a Royal Tiger if it had been around a decade earlier.

Looking impressive, Mike. I was honestly confused about the figures until I read the post, lol. They look nice though!

I am surprised you can't find a paper straw with that accordion style thing happening? I'm sure they're out there, but finding them might be another issue..

Now that I've got the 109 in primer and sitting on the sidelines I've taken some pictures of the M-103 all together with my German crew for scale. This is a really huge tank my friends. Enormous! Just scroll and see for yourself. This photo shoot was also really good for bringing back my mo jo for this project... and the figures. They look like mannequins lol.

She's a big'un! Now, to get this project restarted.  :)

Yeah, that is too bad. If I could find a glue that would stick to it I could have dealt with the paint chipping off because it wouldn't be touched. But I couldn't even get that much to cooperate with me.

Fortunately I have references that show the type I made was used on some of the A2's.

Looking good, Mike.

I've thought about using an accordion straw myself, sorry to hear it 's a dead end.

Thank you all.  :D

Yes this is a commissioned build. I found out last week that the guy I'm building this for knows the guy who used to command this exact tank.

I won't have too much of a problem giving it up after knowing who will be displaying it.  :)

I had to double check with my Dad about that searchlight cover. He's always modeled them that way and I asked him if they were really like that. Indeed, there was a piece of plywood in there to keep it flat so the material wouldn't rub against the glass.

And that IS the biggest turret I've ever seen as well. lol

Thanks for the comments guys. :)

Looking forward to seeing this one finished Mike. Excellent work on the Spotlight.

Mike that is looking impressive in the detailing! I'm kinda bummed now that I didn't get the A2 version with the spotlight. It adds some cool interest to it, and your cover is killer. Loving the mantlet cover too.

Is this a commission build? I don't know how you could give something like this up after putting so much hear and work into it!

That is one awesome beast,loving that detail on the spot light.I can't believe that massive turret.

Thanks Gamera.  :D

Matching these things up to all of the pictures isn't easy. I'd like to think I'm pretty close lol.

Too bad the straw didn't work out but the mantlet and searchlight cover look pretty darn good.

That's would make sense, to avoid glare off the glass.

Thanks Bish  :)  I found out that the only time those covers were off of the searchlights is when the lead tank was on night patrol. Otherwise they were always covered, and so I had to cover it. Too bad for all that detail on the inside lol.

Oh, no I have not actually used any actual cloth yet, but I have considered it yes. I work with all types of paper and most of them work really well. I've recently started using news print and the texture is amazing for 1/48th scale.

I'm always saving a scrap of something lol.

That's a nice looking build you have there Mike, nice work on detailing that searchlight. I am not familiar with the type, but it looks a bit of a beast.

Thank you very much guys. You've just made my day lol.

I've sorted out the searchlight cover now.


^ I cut out some thin sheet styrene for the cover's underlying structure.

I then added the tie -down straps as they were described to me by Dad. They're only missing the brass buckles.




A little paint, this fine morning.  :)







I think it all looks pretty good together so far.



Thanks for looking fellas. I really do appreciate it.  :)

While the turret does have a sort of (deflated) football shape to it, you guys weren't suppose to toss it around  like that.   Good save though. I can't see where any damage occurred. 

The straw not working…. I don't have any better suggestions either. It looks fine as is now 

What a great looking build Mike!!!! May have to get me one of these beast. I have been on a Post WWII armor building kick lately and this would fit in nicely!!!

Hey Mr Brindo, it starts to look awesome, yep, no clue where the damaged occured.

As for the mantlet have you consider using actual cloth, like from old t-shirt or so??

I have never used it, but I would experiment with it if I had the chance.

Maybe you can also try "paper mache" with tissue paper ...

A badly needed update:



I finished up the mantlet cover. I tried every glue I have to get the straw I was using as an accordion gun tube recoil cover. Nothing would stick to it. So even if I had found a paint that would stick to the stupid thing, it would not have worked anyways.

Also, the damage done due to clumbsy fingers has been repaired and you can't even tell. I'm happy about that lol. (Dad and I fumbled it and broke off 5 wheels and some of the rails.)



I had to reattach the no. 2, 4, 5, 6, and 7 road wheels on this side.

If you look close you can see some of the spot filtering has taken place. I need to finish that part and then I will be adding more spot filtering after a gloss to seal up what I have.

Sorry for not getting this updated in so long. I've had it on the side in que till I figured out how to get the straw to work in the way that I wanted it to (screw that dumb thing lol).

Thanks for looking in mates.  :)

Update time. Not much done but one more step towards the end goal. I've started sorting out some of the minor details such as headlights and tail lights. I've got the black-green filter wash over the lower half of the tank now and it's really starting to look better than real as it sits on my bench. "Pictures, or it never happened!", right?

I'm going to clear it after this and then I need to sort out the wheels. Dad also sourced out some "Milk Shake" straws so I now have the accordion part of the gun tube shroud. Progress is in motion. :)

Oh, and the Krylon stuck to the DS tracks so now I have something for my acrylics to stick to.

Thanks for looking guys!

Thanks guys. I'm thinking of that plastic bonding Krylon at the moment. I've used it in the past on things like PVC without issues and I'm probably going to save some change for a can later. I'll stick to what I remember works and I should have thought of it sooner lol.

Bu that rubber paint is definitely worth experimenting with later.

Mike: A friend pointed me toward using 'rubber bumper' paint from the auto parts store as a primer on rubber type tracks. It usually works though I sometimes still get a little paint flaking off.

Mike, thanks for the comments on the M10. That was a few years ago. Interestingly, Finescale bought the article, but it has yet to be published. It's here online at M10

I am sorry to hear about your troubles with the tracks. I hate DS track because of the inability to sag them, but haven't had trouble with paint sticking. I ope your set is an anomaly. Hope you find something that works, too!

lol thanks Sprue! This tank never saw combat, but was deployed to Guantanamo Bay in the 50's-60's. So this is going to be a fairly clean looking tank without a lot of wear to it.

So yeah... those DS tracks...  they ARE supposed to accept paint, right? I thought my primer was good, but it's not sticking very well. It rubs off. Then I tried acrylic and that rubs off too. WTF are these things made out of? I heard they worked well enough, but I'm really doubtful they're all that good. Does anyone know of any methods that do work? Should I scrub them with IPA or something?

Also have a future M60A1 build on commission coming up in the next month or two. Time to finish this one up.  :)

If this tank never saw combat or any active deployment then you're on the right track (and the left one, both look fine)  

Mike: Ah, I was wondering if you'd already finished and somehow I missed it a few weeks ago! I really like the results you've gotten there- looking forward to seeing everything come together.

Karl: Nice work there too, I tend to always underdo pre-shading- I like your results.

That;s looking really good, Mike. Did you add a little soap to that acrylic wash to help it spread? I found that that really helps to get an even dispersion.

I would tell you not to worry too much about "too much white" or whatever lightening color you use when highlighting or modulating. I sometimes go REALLY  radical in the color variation and then bring that back to tone in the weathering.  Check out the variation in the M10 Panther here. In my experience, the biggest factor that contributes to a boring, monotone finish is to paint a vehicle in one tone, or to not be a little courageous in your shading. Washes of the same base color can bring a finish back to tone even if you go "too light".

I think what you've got going is pretty good though. Get going on those pinwashes now.

This next part brings the effect to its apex. 

I left the paint unvarnished so I could get a "dirt stained" like effect with another black/green acrylic wash. I brushed it on really ugly and then let it dry to the touch. Somewhere around 15 minutes, and then gave it a scrub with water and an old toothbrush to loosen up the acrylic. After that I wiped up the excess wash with a blue mechanics paper towel (very useful because of the low lint they leave behind)

Minor spots were cleaned up with a few q-tips and this is what I got when that was done.

Alright. So here it is after the modulation is complete. Not really much of a drastic difference is there? The effect is natural and deceptively understated. Doesn't look like I did anything at all.

Light just falls on it as it should and that lays the groundwork for the next step.

I'm not really sure of the amount of white I added to the original color, but I was sure it was too light. I decided to push forward and spray lightly at first and see how it would go. Turns out it was good after all.

So I started into highlighting the entire tank. 

I did not preshade or post shade as I went as the idea in my head didn't need it for the results I want. Remember, this particular tank is pretty clean on a firing range so it won't need a lot of muck built up as it would in the combat field.

I apologize for the plethora of posting I'm about to do. I'm doing my best with a phone here.

Okay. Next I sprayed the main color (MM Marine Corps Green FS34052) over all of the upper surfaces and made that all uniform. Looks pretty good. Seems my AB loves enamel.

Time for an update.

Okay, I got back on it today and made some good progress with the painting.

There was nothing much to note of the rest of the assembly. Pretty standard and nothing gave me any issues.

So I started by spraying a shadow color of black/green acrylic to all of the bottom surfaces. no need for anything fancy here. Just deep dark shadow.

It doesn't look like much yet, but just wait. It gets better.

Funny thing is Karl, I do the same thing half the time. I'm lazy enough to not click on more than one or two. Then I move on. So I fully understand.

I did not heat form the material at all. It's just trimmed very carefully to fit and then super glued in place. What I used is some saved scraps of an old vinyl shower curtain. A cheap one we bought at Wal-Mart some years ago. It had some mildew growing on it and the Mrs. decided we had to chuck it. I noticed the texture and cut a square of it out for later use.

I didn't even think of using it for this application till I was brain storming what materials I had at hand that would be flexible. When I pulled this out I thought "That should be perfect". And it has worked perfectly. It takes paint and doesn't crack after it has dried. It has reamained flexible even after a few cotes of Rustoleum Camo.

I had to be very careful when attaching it because the super glue grabs almost instantly and if you get it attached wrong there is no going back. That's why there are a few spots I need to adjust. They are a little off and not to my liking. But this is a trick I'm sure you are very familiar with.

I cut the pieces out after a lot of fore thought and template making (and template adjusting or remaking). Making sure I had plenty of over lapping material so I could get the material to fold like it should. It was my intention that it would be moving after all. So I had to have extra material for that purpose. Just like the real thing. The Mantlet and then the area surrounding the mantlet where it should attach are the only places where the glue mounts it in place.

So the material you are wanting to look for is easily and readily available in almost every home bathroom supply section of any retail store. All you need is a vinyl bathroom shower curtain. It should last you for decades before you ever run out of it. :)

If you need any clarification or if I've not been clear enough just let me know. Words do not serve me very well sometimes.

Edit: CORRECTION!! It was not a shower curtain. It was a plastic protective mattress cover. I am extremely sorry for this mistake and if it were not for my wife I would not have caught this error.

M. Brindos

Sorry doog, I'm still trying to get that to work right. I'll put more effort into posting in the future. This site isn't as user friendly as the one I'm more accustomed to.

So tell you how I did that mantlet cover? But I didn't do anything new. This is the old tissue paper trick. Only the material is different.

That material used looks almost heat-formed? Especially how it clings so nicely to the "ears" on tip of the mantlet. What is it, exactly? I've never seen anything like it.

Mike, tell us how you did the mantlet cover, please.  That's why we're all here!

Looks great, but don't get into the habit of lazy photo-posting with those bare links. I guarantee it will cut down your responses. Take the extra 2 seconds to post each picture. :)

Yeah? Do you think I did it justice? I know its not perfect, but its fully functional and that would've been a bonus if the gun tube still moved up and down.

There were no references I could find as to how they were put together so I went with what would make sense if I had to make one for the real tank based on the pictures I have in Kenneth Estes book.

I hope it stands up to criticism. I know where the flaws are, and I was really careful when I glued it together in very small sections at a time. The super glue just instantly grabs this stuff so I had to go slow or I'd have to do it all over again and I'm low on the material.

After a few minor adjustments it will probably look fine.  :)

That Mantlet cover !   

Well aside from Dragon taking some obvious cost saving short cuts, the kit is pretty good.

Current progress minus the fenders I began to put on last night.

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So I have a few minor corrections to make with the mantlet cover, but aside from the recoil part of the gun tube shroud. I need a really big bendy straw to make that part. Otherwise I'll end up with the A1 recoil shroud which looks like a saggy diaper, but was present on the very early A2's. The shower curtain materiel has worked superbly to all of my expectations. It has taken the paint fabulously and is still very flexible. If I had made the gun tube moveable somehow I could still depress and elevate the gun tube with it on and it would be fully functional. As it is, its still soft and movable and it lends the model a nice realistic feel even though the gun tube doesn't move.

Now I'll have to make a removable search light cover.  :)

Yeah, lots of flubs. It still looks the part OOB, but I expect that a lot of potential buyers are passing, which means I should be able to pick one up at a very fair price in the near future.

Very interesting WIP, I didnt realize how big this tank is, seems the turret is bigger than the body...just weird.

So much details and the casting is looking real good.

Way to go.

I read the entire thing. Thank you! I won't be doing anything like that with this build. I was only commissioned to build the kit. But wow, Dragon really didn't get this kit right in a lot of ways.

Try this:

www.armorama.com/modules.php

Link please. Google didn't find it for me. lol

If I were building this thing for myself I would be adding a lot more to it for sure. There are some small things I'd like to make happen. One of them being that loader's hatch being molded closed.

It really needs some crew with it too. But the dio I'm building has them all closed up on a firing range.

The next big armor project I build has to have crew and all the attention I'm giving this build.  ;)

Nice work on the beastie, Mike.

There's a guy over on the Big A doing a serious re-build of this same kit, thread's called "Polishing a [rhymes with word]" and it's pretty good. I keep thinking I'd like to have one of these things on the shelf, but every time I poke into somebody's blog, I think maybe not.

Yeah it balances the turret nicely. The thing turns like it on ball bearings now. Solid turned aluminum with the brass bore evacuator and lug. Its 20mm longer and 3mm larger in diameter

Wow, I can imagine it would be heavy! I'm tempted now to order one for my kit.

Very impressive. Who makes the barrel, Aber?

We were throwing out an old cheap plastic shower curtain and for some reason I thought, "That's actually a good texture. Maybe I can use that for something" and then I cut a big piece of it off and stuck it in my junk drawer lol.

When my Dad insisted that I put the Mantlet cover on the model I was not wanting to use paper/tissue as it would be too stiff to keep the function of the gun tube, and aluminum foil would eventually crack or fold up weird. I had to think of something that would simulate the rubberized canvas of the real thing while still being flexible and able to take paint without chipping.

Then I remembered that shower curtain. And so far this stuff is brilliant. It will curl if you use liquid cement, but it loves Super Glue. All I need to do is shoot it with some of the Rustoleum Primer that "bonds with plastic" and see how it reacts to being bent and moved around. I'll let you guys know how that works out.

A little more progress;

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Pretty neat idea- I'd never have thought of shower curtain plastic!

Starting on the Mantlet cover. In an effort to make this functional as well as looking like it actually is like the real cover I'm using a material that most of us would probably NEVER think to use. It's plastic, elastic, and adheres to super glue with reckless abandon. Are you ready for this?  Plastic SHOWER CURTAIN. Yep. Who would have thunk it?

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So far this material is working up to my expectations. It has the right texture and it complies with what I need it to do. Once I have this part ironed out I'm then going to work on getting the rest of it attached to the turret. But before I can do that, apparently there is a new Gun tube in the mail I have to wait for lol.

Too bad, as I just glued in the plastic one last week lol.

Updated first post.

Wow, that IS impressive to see that built up, Mike! It looks like you have it well-in-hand. Coming along very nicely!

One small suggestion (literally)... since you are putting all that weld seam work in place, why not detail up the rear sight on the .50 to match the rest of the stuff you are putting on...

Those things were such big beasts!!! That turret is massive when seen in person. Nice progress there MB.

First Post updated. Bump  :)

Straight through the back of the turret?!? Wise TC !

Update Inserted into the first post.  :)  Bump.  ;)

Thanks Sprue! I used to very carefully design diagrams in Ps when I documented the mods I made on my Airsoft guns years ago. Its a habit I'm getting back into.

Yep. I have that MM color. It came with the build along with the Slotted drive sprockets. :)

It's a dark color, but after modulation it will lighten up a bit. Since this is a relatively clean build I will be relying more on the color modulation then on the weathering this time to bring out the details. My dry brushing skills will be truly tested again, to be sure lol.

Very nice work so far. If you have access to the Model Master line of colors, they have Marine Corps Green, FS# 34052 in their line up.

I like your detailed SBS style of WIP BLog. Very informative. As DM mentioned, "You Got This"

Yeah I am scratching my head over the attachment points for the bogies and idler wheels. They don't seem very substantial at all. As far as the instructions go I've found the J26/27 problem but I'm hoping that's it.

Thank you guys, but there is a long way to go still. :)

Great work and a nice WIP, Mike. I'm going to update my own WIP soon when I get a few minutes regarding my experiences with this "Black Label" series soon. Hope you're having a better experience in certain regards than I am, particularly involving the attachment points for the sprockets and idlers, which are woefully inadequate. I am also finding the directions to be less than clearly-illustrated as far as positioning of certain elements.

That light looks killer. Great ob on the texturing too. :)

Lookin' good.

Looks like you've got this big boyunder control.