(Completed pg. 3) 1/35 Tamiya M-41 Walker Bulldog Build

I've already started making a new cooling jacket for it. Its still a little soft because of all the glue, but I've drilled some pilot holes already.

Its the little bits in front of that, that I'm still re-engineering in my head. Trying to figure out which pieces of plastic will get me the look I'm after.

You, my friend, are aware of what that is like lol.

I just reworked the sledge hammer and its mount on the side of the turret and I'll be adding the grab handles next. Pictures to come later.

Thanks for the compliment, Pawel! :)

Hello!

Nice work with that Ma Deuce trigger, that mantlet cover looks very nice, too. Now how about a cooling jacket for that browning? The Tamiya part could maybe have been saved by drilling out the holes a bit, but now that you sanded it down, what do you plan to do with it?

Good luck with your build and have a nice day

Paweł

I did more detail on the M2. I'm afraid I've gotten a tad bit into overly detailed for what I'm working with. Oh well. When I get into something, I kinda keep going.

I even made the butterfly thumb paddles. That was delicate work with tweezers and a sanding stick.

This morning I decided it was time to start the mantlet cover.

I few carefull measurements and some regular Elmer's white glue mixed 50% with water and I was on a roll.

As this dries it looks better and better.

And that shall be it for now. Hope you are all enjoying this. I am!  :D

Okay, so this thing is in pretty bad shape. However I do like a good challenge once in a while. So off I went. It's about 50% at this moment, but I'm not going to try and super detail it. Just enough detail to pass inpection should do.

And after a couple of hours worth of work, I now have a good M2 shaped chunk of plastic to work with.

I'm still working on the pintle as well. I've got the pin mounted and it feels solid enough when mounted together. But still, I have quite a bit of work to do before this setup will look right.

I've been working on all of the weld beads on the turret since 8:40~ish last night. Spent hours going over those and spent a good hour finishing up the last of them under the turret today. I also cut the one piece MG mount so the pintle is separated from the cradle. I'd like for my M2 to be a little more movable when this is finished.

This modification is pretty standard on my workbench.

Looks pretty gruesome lol. Once the paint goes on this will look much better. As I've said before, I like how "Metal" this makes my armor look. ;)

Back to the garage for more fiddling. Have a great weekend!

LOL yeah this is a bit old school isn't it? Sure is fun to do though, if not time consuming lol.

All I've managed to do tnight was to attach the stowage box after cleaning up the lifting rings around the back of the turret. Hey, its really looking like an M-41 now though. I'm glad I took the time to scratch build these can holders. They look way better than the kit pieces.

Mmm hmm. I like it.

Your old school upgrade methods are right up my alley! Truly a pleasure to see what youre doing here!

Thanks for the compliments, guys!  :)  I couldn't agree more with both of you. Gotta keep them skills sharp, right?

Speaking of which, I started using PE and resin water cans for the stowage box, but even though I found my soldering iron, I couldn't find my solder or flux. I should've packed those together, but I didn't.

So out with the card stock and the old reliable plastic Academy Tank accessories set.

Not much to show for it, but that took hours.

Looking good sir.

A build such as this helps develop skills. Yours are just fine and geting better.

G

Nice work!

Looking at your photos, and mindful of the opinion that the kit is older- it's not bad at all, at least the turret. We get used to stuff now like casting texture, but there's lots of weld beads, bolt heads and such.

Maybe I'm just being nostalgic.

Good Morning, Rob!

I have a lot of AM resin, PE, and turned aluminum Gun tubes, but they're mostly for M-60's. There are a few things I can use for this kit, such as the water cans in their holders that I will use to replace the kit cans. They are a little too oversized for me to reuse.

I know that some people won't even start a project unless all of the best AM stuff is on its way in the mail, but Sometimes you just have a project like this one here. Some simple detailing with scraps will make it look better than average and make for a good display piece. This kit isn't worth the extra expense as far as I'm concerned. Not when some card stock and stretched sprue can make all the difference in the world, detail wise.

Besides, I really enjoy adding this stuff to the kit. Just a little window dressing and she'll look fairly good, I think.

Just for the record, I have nothing against AM, resin, or PE and I enjoy working with them as well. Just, not on this build lol. I'll be building an M-60 slick eventually and I'll need a lot of what I've got in the stash for that one, and others.  :)

Okay I had a few minutes during my morning coffee/smoke.

I added the welds to the TC's hatch cover last night along with the Bondo to cover the EP mark. I sanded the Bondo this morning and glued it on after adding the handle. I now remember why they call it "Krazy" glue. That stuff didn't want to come out and after giving it a good hard squeeze it came out like Crazy! Good thing I wasn't trying to use the aplicator on the model itself or this one would be ruined by a giant pool of Krazy glue all over the TC's cupola lol.

Still functional.

And your "beauty" shot for the day.

Its coming along nicely, i think. lol

.

I understand. Figures are not everyone's cup of tea. I was curious though.

Pawel, here are the instructions for making a mantlet cover, by Tamiya. Its pretty inventive for its time.

I'm not going to follow these directions completely, but they do help the imagination.  ;)

Vision blocks "framed".

Vision block guards got their welds too.

And the loader's hatch handle made from one of the staples that kept the sprue bags closed. Tamiya provides so many helpful things in the box lol.

Alrighty, I've got to get ready for work. You guys have a great day. :)

M. Brindos

Thanks, Chris. I don't have an AM budget for PE or resin goodies. Good to hear that my efforts with card stock and stretched sprue are not as rediculous as I think they are.

Your Sheman is really looking great, by the way. Can't wait to see her with her treads on! Figures, or no? It doesn't look like you plan to include any at this point, but I thought I'd ask lol.

 

Well, I'm building it with some flexibility.  My experience with figures is limited, but I have a diorama scene in mind.  I've decided to finish the tank to fit on my shelf, but I'm going to minimize weathering and leave the hatches unglued.  I'm thinking this will facilitate incorporating it into a diorama with figures later.  I have a sceme that's too grand for me, so I'm busting it into smaller chunks.  The Sherman is the first chunk.  

I was going to give you guys an update with pictures, as usual, but Photobucket is down for maintenence this evening.

So to summarize...

I added weld seams to the TC's and Loader's hatches, Framed the vision blocks in fine stretched sprue,  added the vision block covers and the weld beads on those, and added the loader's hatch handle.

I agree with you on that point, my friend. You do have to have picture references. I've been looking at some online, but mostly I have been using the picture references in the actual Tamiya instructions. For once they're actually not too bad. They've got a good picture of the mantlet cover and even suggest how to add it. Which is what I've followed so far and it's not bad. I'm modifying the method to suit my own style, but its not a bad tip at all.

I'll get a picture of the instructions to show you. I found the idea interesting which is why I decided to improve apon it.

Have a great day, my friend. :D

Hello Mike!

Lookin' good! Like I wrote in a different thread, AM isn't mandatory. It just saves you time, sometimes, by speeding up the construction in comparison to scratchbuilding. But what you need to do a lot, IMO, in order to build a good model, is to take a look at the real thing a lot. It isn't easy, sometimes, and many people neglect that, but it can really give your models an edge, that's the way I see it anyway.

Good luck with your build and have a nice day

Paweł

Thanks, Chris. I don't have an AM budget for PE or resin goodies. Good to hear that my efforts with card stock and stretched sprue are not as rediculous as I think they are.

Your Sheman is really looking great, by the way. Can't wait to see her with her treads on! Figures, or no? It doesn't look like you plan to include any at this point, but I thought I'd ask lol.

Amer

M. Brindos

And that is all for this evening. Am I on the right track, or does this look like ameteur hour? I hope I haven't scared everyone off. LOL!

"Ameteur hour?"  No, I'd say the oposite of that.  It's looking great so far.  I like the added details without the use of a PE setor aftermarket kit.  

After some cleanup and some primer my work doesn't look aweful, lol. Average, if I give myself credit. :)

I closed up the rear of the turret and the back of the stowage box. I think this will look better when I reattach them with stand-outs like they should be.

The kits' gun tube doesn't turn out too bad looking with the right tools. Not as good as a turned aluminum and brass one would, but I haven't got anything in aluminum besides 105's. As cool as that would look, I don't plan on going that route with this build lol.

I got a wild hair up my backside and decided to start on the mantlet cover. I hope this turns out as neat as it looks in my head. lol

And that is all for this evening. Am I on the right track, or does this look like ameteur hour? I hope I haven't scared everyone off. LOL!

Not bad so far.  :)  Have a good night mates. I'm off to try and sleep. 

Lots of bondo work today. some of it isn't even dry yet, but the nearly 90 degree weather is helping it along lol.

I glued the hull halves together, added the driver's vision blocks (very basic anyways), added the headlights, tailights, and lifting rings to the rear hull, and then made up some lifting rings for the front of the hull.

Its amazing how much time all of this extra stuff takes up. I even managed to sand down the road wheels and idlers. I'm hoping this all looks a lot better after some primer goes on it. It looks like a mess right now. lol

Tonight's update;

I started to hollow out the headlights. I'll leave the blackout lights alone this time and just paint them later.

I've got a neat trick up my sleeve for later to make them light up and I hope it works.

I even assembed the wheels and tracks. I haven't sanded the wheels yet, but I wanted to see it sitting on its wheels, rather than its axles.

That's all fellas! Look forward to tomorrow night's next exciting episode!

That thread is pretty informative. Makes me wonder if this kit is an M-41 or an M-41A1, or somewhere in-between.

Well, I just got home from work and If I get anything done on this today, you guys will know later.

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Huh. I don't have any pictures that show that. Not that I have a lot of them yet, anyways. Would this also be somewhat dependant, not only of the time period, but also of the model (A1, A2, A3) ?

Now I have to go research this. :) Thanks for the info, Phil.

M. Brindos

I clumbsily dug out this little opening. I don't know what its for, but I know it's not a solid structure. Some kind of cover.

It's a shroud for the APU exhaust pipe. Depending on the period, an exhaust pipe extends from the shroud either back to a small muffler over the right main muffler, or forward to a muffler mounted over the tool rack.

Okay, one last update. I did a careful disection and reconfiguration of the gun travel lock.

Have a good one!

I had the Italeri kit when I was a boy. Dad needed some parts for one of his M-60 builds. I got what was left and it was a pretty well detailed kit. I'll have to get my hands on another one! Thank you, Gino. That's the kit that made me fall in love with that tank.

For tonights updates (for which I have no excuse as I said I wouldn't even start this build anytime soon. Armor... when you got the bug, you got it hard.) I've been doing a little scratch building and some welding beads. Not sure why I love doing my own welds, but I do. I really, really do.  :D

First up, I built some front fender brackets based on the pictures in the instructions. These, and the front lifting rings have been omitted by Tamiya. I'll be scratching up the lifting rings later.

I clumbsily dug out this little opening. I don't know what its for, but I know it's not a solid structure. Some kind of cover.

Welding time! I started with the welds that should go around the headlight mounts.

I then moved on to the hull plate welds. :) fun.

And lastly, I almost forgot the welds around the turret ring base.

I love the way these look when they have paint on them. Inconsistant and rough. Just the way Armor should look (IMHO).

That's it for tonights updates. I'll probably be on it tomorrow after work, so you can probably expect more tomorrow evening.  :)

M. Brindos

I'll have to look up if AFVC makes an M-47. That's also on my wishlist of tanks for my collection.

They do not.  The only 1/35 M47 is the Italeri kit, which is very nice, even though it is over 30 years old.  It is probably one of (if not the) best kit that Italeri has done.  The only bad part to the kit is the tracks, which are thick, stiff vinyl.  There are replacement tracks for it though.

Recently, Academy has reboxed it with some extra parts to build a ROK (S. Korean) Marines M47 as well.

You can see how it looks in these pics from the Academy website.