WIP Dragon 1/35 Firefly VC

Gamera

Member since
November 2009
From: SW Virginia

Posted by Gamera on Wednesday, July 17, 2019 10:50 AM

Yeap, guy in our club worked hard on a rather rough resin model of a German Wasserscheppler (sp?) and about the time he finished it Hobbyboss came out with an injection-molded kit... Bang Head

Still what you've got looks good! Yes

"I dream in fire but work in clay." -Arthur Machen

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GreySnake

Member since
February 2011

Posted by GreySnake on Tuesday, July 23, 2019 9:15 PM

Thanks guys.

Finally got around to painting the Firefly and it sort of became a comedy of errors. My first attempt came out more or less okay. Was happy with the color of the green just a few spots needed to be retouched.

Next came the glosscote and somehow something on the model reacted to the Testors glosscote in the can and made a really dark spot on the side of the model. I don’t know what because I made sure not to handle the model after airbrushing the Tamiya acrylic. I primed the model again and went about airbrushing.

The airbrushing was going fine till water started spitting out of the airbrush. I spray in my garage so this is important to solving the mystery. Thinking that was weird as my compressor has a moisture trap. I did a little research and found out that that above 50% humidity the moisture trap doesn’t work as great and water can build up in the hose. I ended up waiting for the humidity to drop and finished painting just fine. Forgot to take pictures but it looked more or less the same as my first painting attempt.

Next up was to do the glosscote again. This time it came out fine and I’m happy with it. You might see I forgot to paint the return rollers fully. This would mean some touch up work but luckily I’m going to mud up the bottom of the tank so I’m just going to brush paint it in.

When taking the pictures I almost had a heart attack. One of the headlight guards was missing and was prepared to exile the model to the closet. By some miracle I found the guard in the box I used to transport the model from the modeling room to the garage.

Next up will be all the detail painting, decals etc. I’m getting close to the part I’m dreading the track links. I’m really hoping this tank is done throwing curve balls my way.

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stikpusher

Member since
July 2004
From: Sonora Desert

Posted by stikpusher on Tuesday, July 23, 2019 10:41 PM

You’ll be okay. Just have patience with those indie link Sherman tracks, if those are what you have.

F is for FIRE, That burns down the whole town!

U is for URANIUM... BOMBS!

N is for NO SURVIVORS...

- Plankton

LSM

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Recon89

Member since
February 2013
From: Wichita, Kansas, USA

Posted by Recon89 on Thursday, July 25, 2019 9:14 AM

On the picture of one of the Asuka Fireflys in the SprueBrothers site there are what appears to be a pair of hinged brackets on the front. Done a lot of Shermans, both US and British, but have not seen these before. Excuse my ignorance, but what were these for? Looks too low to be any kind of a barrell support.

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Gamera

Member since
November 2009
From: SW Virginia

Posted by Gamera on Thursday, July 25, 2019 11:10 AM

Grey Snake: She looks good! I dunno what happened, seems like I paint something the same way 99 times and on the 100th something goes wrong. Same airbrush, same paint, same pressure, same climate, etc, etc, etc but something pops up.

Recon89: I dunno, they look like some sort of extra brush guards for the headlights but I doubt that's right. I'll just say not sure, someone here is bound to know.

"I dream in fire but work in clay." -Arthur Machen

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Rob Gronovius

Member since
December 2002
From: Fort Knox

Posted by Rob Gronovius on Thursday, July 25, 2019 11:29 AM

Recon89

On the picture of one of the Asuka Fireflys in the SprueBrothers site there are what appears to be a pair of hinged brackets on the front. Done a lot of Shermans, both US and British, but have not seen these before. Excuse my ignorance, but what were these for? Looks too low to be any kind of a barrell support.

Those front two brackets are for the "sun shield" which was the code word for the camouflage cover that disguised the tank as a truck (or "lorry" in British English).

The last two paragraphs in the Upper Hull section of this review discusses the mounting brackets briefly.
https://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/reviews/vehicles/tasca/tasca35011.html

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Recon89

Member since
February 2013
From: Wichita, Kansas, USA

Posted by Recon89 on Thursday, July 25, 2019 4:27 PM

Thanks Rob. Learn new things every day around here.

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GreySnake

Member since
February 2011

Posted by GreySnake on Tuesday, July 30, 2019 10:07 AM

No updates on the Firefly. It’s been a busy few days getting ready for the monsoon season. I did purchase some AK interactive washes that I’ve been meaning to try. Will see how they work out on the Firefly. Might finally get some bench time starting Thursday to sit down and start the detail painting and tracks.

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GreySnake

Member since
February 2011

Posted by GreySnake on Thursday, August 8, 2019 3:22 PM

Time for a update on the Firefly finally. Set down Sunday for around five hours cutting the tracks off the sprue, cleaning up and building some runs. Took a little work to get into the grove of things but all and all they were pretty easy.

The guide horns were the worst part trying to keep aligned and also attached. In the photo above some already got knocked off. Dragon at least gave a lot of extras. The tracks were built in sections so they can still be pulled off and painted easily. In my younger days I painted the tracks already attached to the model!

This Firefly should be pretty easy to finish now with all the hard parts out of the way.

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Rob Gronovius

Member since
December 2002
From: Fort Knox

Posted by Rob Gronovius on Friday, August 9, 2019 12:37 PM

Recon89

Thanks Rob. Learn new things every day around here.

That was just something I had read some time ago and remembered. Not specifically knowledge I had. I just remembered reading about them. It's not something I would have normally known.

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Gamera

Member since
November 2009
From: SW Virginia

Posted by Gamera on Friday, August 9, 2019 2:18 PM

They look good! I remember years ago having several Dragon tank kits finished except for the tracks... Bang Head

"I dream in fire but work in clay." -Arthur Machen

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M. Brindos

Member since
January 2015
From: Tumwater, WA.

Posted by M. Brindos on Friday, August 9, 2019 7:38 PM

Gamera

They look good! I remember years ago having several Dragon tank kits finished except for the tracks...

They do look good.

I've got a Dragon Su-85M on the table today and I made up a run of links last time I had it out. Only one side though so I still have a side to go.

Funny thing was, I had to make a link half out of one type and half out of the other to get the track spacing correct. So I have a frankenlink in the run. It's hard to detect, thank goodness.

But I remember putting it away after finishing that run of tracks. Now, here it is again and I have more track links to assemble lol.

On my Dragon Abrams kit, I simply did all the tracks you can see that weren't covered by the armor skirts. I don't know why those were such a PITA because those were at least L&L tracks. Not even a 10th of the work in assembly.

I still have a two sets of AM indie tracks for M-48's. Found all of my Aber barrels and resin goodies yesterday. Including a resin M-48 turret. I'll have to figure out what I can use that with later.

- Mike Brindos "Lost Boy"

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ogrejohn

Member since
August 2006
From: Cygnus X-1

Posted by ogrejohn on Saturday, August 10, 2019 11:28 AM

Nice work all around!

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T26E4

Member since
November 2005

Posted by T26E4 on Tuesday, August 13, 2019 8:16 AM

Man! You've pushed through a lot with this kit! I wish I could snap my fingers and an Asuka/Tasca Firefly VC would magically appear on your doorstep.

If you like Shermans, can I recommend your treating yourself to one? They are extremely accurate and a joy to build. So much of the headache you've been dealing with in your DML kit is simply unheard of with the Asuka.

Or at least, go get one of the new Tamiya M4A3E8 kits-- very accurate and well engineered. Just a few decades of better engineering and thought than the DML Firefly VC kit.

Roy Chow

Join AMPS!

http://www.amps-armor.org

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GreySnake

Member since
February 2011

Posted by GreySnake on Wednesday, August 14, 2019 5:55 PM

Gamera: I know what you mean on the tracks. I have a bunch of Dragon kits in the stash that I’m not looking forward to.

M. Brindos: Think my Firefly has an extra track link on one run. No idea what happened.

orejohnL thanks.

Roy: I’m looking at picking up one of the Asuka kits eventually. I can already tell once the Dragon one is done I’m not going to be happy with it. I do have the Tamiya E8 in the stash it’s being saved for the Korean War GB on here next year.

Been working on the Firefly on and off for the few days and need a drink. Got the tracks painted and attached and knocked of a bunch of guide horns and had sections of the track break into various pieces. Managed to finally get everything together and moved onto the decals.

The decals are not great and were very thick. Almost everyone took a lot of Micro Sol to finally get down. The “Do NOT DRAIN ANTI-FREEZE” warnings towards the rear were the worst of the bunch. Even with a glosscote they still somehow silvered on me. After much poking with a sharp #11 blade and more Micro Sol they are well “okay”. One of the fours on the turret took a lot of Micro Sol to settle in place but the one on the opposite went done fine. Oddly enough the one decal I was worried about the star on the engine deck went down without an issue. Oh and I broke off more guide horns and a couple tracks sections while decaling.

So here’s where I’m at right now. A few guide horns need reattached along with a section of track. Hopefully with another glosscote and dullcote the remaining silvering will disappear.

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Gamera

Member since
November 2009
From: SW Virginia

Posted by Gamera on Thursday, August 15, 2019 9:28 AM

Wow, tank looks good but I see what you mean about the tracks... Bang Head

And frankly if there's an issue with the decals silvering there's always some mud or grime to smear over them if lower or some camo netting or storage to put over them if they're higher. Yeah, I'm a slob when it comes to armour... Embarrassed

"I dream in fire but work in clay." -Arthur Machen

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GreySnake

Member since
February 2011

Posted by GreySnake on Monday, August 26, 2019 3:04 PM

Well, I was going to post a lot of pictures but my phone managed to have a hiccup. So I’ll make do with what there is.

I tried out AK’s washes on the model and was sort of happy. Used the dark brown wash and light rust and found the excess was a pain to remove. I used Ammo by Mig’s wash on another build and found I prefer it to the AK. Added some mud it’s somewhat hard to see in photos as the tank is already pretty dark. I did have more photos but they are gone sorry.

And here is the Firefly completed. Still need to finish the figure which will be added later.

Dragon had one last surprise in store for me at the end. On the rear deck there were two location holes that weren’t used for any of the tools. I stole some K ration boxes from a Tamiya Pershing and covered the two holes with them. All told I’m pretty sure I spent over fifty hours on this kit. I’m happier than I thought I would be at how it turned out other than a couple of the decals silvering no matter what was done. Can’t say I’m eager to pick up another Dragon at the moment. Think the next couple of builds will be Tamiya.

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M1GarandFan

Member since
July 2014
From: Rifle, CO. USA

Posted by M1GarandFan on Monday, August 26, 2019 5:12 PM

I think you've done a great job on a not-so-easy build. It looks real good. I'm with you on the Dragon kits. I'm in the middle of one now, about 80 percent complete, and I won't be looking to do another soon. All the details built up fine and I believe I was as careful as I can be, but the warped parts are killing me. The chassis is warped a little, the cab is warped a lot. Nothing sits flat. I've got the cab glued to the chassis right now being held down with a cast iron block, an aluminum block, and a full .45 auto magazine as weight to keep it in place as it drys.

Detail on the kit is excellent if a little overdone. I'll stay with Tamiya, Meng and Rye from now on. If only they would do a few more U.S. Army WW2 vehicles

Love the Firefly!

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GreySnake

Member since
February 2011

Posted by GreySnake on Monday, August 26, 2019 6:29 PM

Thank you!

I know what you mean with warped parts on Dragon kits. I only had a little warping on the Firefly but it could have been worse as it common with the hulls on Dragon Sherman kits from reading. A couple months back I started a Tiger I by Dragon and the upper deck is badly warped. When I get the motivation to work on it again I’ll have to do the same as you. It’s disappointing to have these issues when new Dragon kits are so expensive.

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M. Brindos

Member since
January 2015
From: Tumwater, WA.

Posted by M. Brindos on Monday, August 26, 2019 11:34 PM

I've been working on a Dragon Su-85M and haven't had any major issues. The details are good and there have been no warped parts.

I've worked on two Abrams as well with no such issues. Guess I'm getting lucky.

Your Firefly looks great! I absolutely admire the work you put into it. Well done!

- Mike Brindos "Lost Boy"

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M. Brindos

Member since
January 2015
From: Tumwater, WA.

Posted by M. Brindos on Monday, August 26, 2019 11:37 PM

GreySnake

A couple months back I started a Tiger I by Dragon and the upper deck is badly warped. When I get the motivation to work on it again I’ll have to do the same as you.

You might be able to flatten that warped deck with a pot of hot water. I've had good results with most of the fixes I've had to do in this manner.

- Mike Brindos "Lost Boy"

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M1GarandFan

Member since
July 2014
From: Rifle, CO. USA

Posted by M1GarandFan on Tuesday, August 27, 2019 1:01 AM

Well, just tonight I tried to add the grill to my Dragon M3A1 halftrack. The armored slats on the grill broke off and the cab is still warped beyond straight. The glue job didn't hold and I gave it up as a bad job. I made sure it looked like it got hit with an 88mm, or a 550 lb bomb, and threw it in the trash. It is history and so is my involvement with Dragon kits. Can't remember ever having done that with a kit before, but this one was beyond saving. Oh well, live and learn.

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M. Brindos

Member since
January 2015
From: Tumwater, WA.

Posted by M. Brindos on Tuesday, August 27, 2019 1:36 AM

M1GarandFan

Well, just tonight I tried to add the grill to my Dragon M3A1 halftrack. The armored slats on the grill broke off and the cab is still warped beyond straight. The glue job didn't hold and I gave it up as a bad job. I made sure it looked like it got hit with an 88mm, or a 550 lb bomb, and threw it in the trash. It is history and so is my involvement with Dragon kits. Can't remember ever having done that with a kit before, but this one was beyond saving. Oh well, live and learn.

YIKES!

I do have an old yak kit that is so badly warped it my be useful as parts. One of those old kit in a bag styled kits from some old company that's long gone.

But I don't plan on tossing it out completely lol.

That must be infuriating!

- Mike Brindos "Lost Boy"

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M1GarandFan

Member since
July 2014
From: Rifle, CO. USA

Posted by M1GarandFan on Tuesday, August 27, 2019 8:40 AM

Infuriating is a good word for it. I saved a few accessory pieces for other projects, but rest is history. I always have a vision of what I want a finished model to look like. Sometimes it works out, sometimes not. Maybe I just don't have the skills necessary for my vision. I DO hate that I wasted a month of my time on that POS though. I'm sure done with DML.

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GreySnake

Member since
February 2011

Posted by GreySnake on Tuesday, August 27, 2019 3:19 PM

Thanks M. Birindos! Up till this point I never had warping issues with the thirty odd Dragon kits I built throughout the years. I was thinking the same thing with the hot water trick on the Tiger. But I may not have to before relegating it back to the box I forgot I clamped the deck to the hull and checking it now it’s more or less straight.

M1, sorry to hear the M3 gave you so much trouble.

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Gamera

Member since
November 2009
From: SW Virginia

Posted by Gamera on Thursday, August 29, 2019 11:31 AM

Greysnake: She looks good! Nice work!

M1GarandFan: Ack!!! That sucks, sorry to hear about the warped kit. I know what you mean, bad enough to waste the money even worse is the wasted time.

"I dream in fire but work in clay." -Arthur Machen

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GreySnake

Member since
February 2011

Posted by GreySnake on Sunday, September 1, 2019 1:43 PM

Thanks Gamera! Against my better judgment I’m giving the Dragon Tiger another go. Something I’ve noticed is the plastic seems a lot harder in the newer kits compared to the older kits. Also doesn’t seem to cut off the sprue as nicely.

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ogrejohn

Member since
August 2006
From: Cygnus X-1

Posted by ogrejohn on Wednesday, September 4, 2019 4:34 PM

Turned out very nice Greysnake!

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GreySnake

Member since
February 2011

Posted by GreySnake on Wednesday, September 4, 2019 6:56 PM

Thank you.

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