Mad Allied Day -- build a Braille-scale Allied tank in 24 hours

Looks Great Larry! that kit is really detailed. Didnt they just do a review of it in FSM?

Everybody's doing so well! We got more actual participants than I thought we would -- usually around 3/4 of the people who say they are in don't wind up participating. I'm impressed guys! Maybe it's because this one is so doable.

Having said that, I just put the second coat of paint on my Grant:



I put the OD undecoat on with a rattlecan. I finally found a paint bottle for an earlier airbrush, and fortunately it worked with my current brush, an Iwata. I shot the British sand (slightly pinkish) on the tank and now have to let it dry for a whiles, so I can put the wash of brown on. I'll paint the tires as I wait, or at least indications of black, as the last coat will be a heavy dust coat -- these tanks got very sandy and dusty, which just about blotted out the darker colors on the vehicles after a short while.

I wonder if I can finish by midnight ....

Progress report............ I finished the build part except for the suspensionbut that goes on after paint. I will be paintint in about 5 minutes. I have decided Tamiya, with some drybrushing. Id like to apologize for the crappy pics, they are bugging me.
well lets see whats left for me, Paint, detail painting, road wheels, decals. No problem. Got lots of time here on the west coast.

dang, ur builing 2!!!

here is my verification pic:

here is my completed sherman, it is from the 1st canadian armoured divison, calgary regiment (calgary tanks):



me churhcill is almost done, i'm waiting for the glue to dry, nad my eys hurt i felt that if i continue to build that i would need to learn brail i will continues soon and try to complete it

the only problems have been the tracks and the tiny churchill wheels[:0]. the tracks don't connect, you need to heat them and melt them together and they are too small

8 hours to finish my churchill

Nice Djmodels, Really top notch.

Here is mine in the spray booth after a coat of Flat, still drying. I have 7 1/2 hours to finish up. We shall see.

Ted

Very nice DJ! Including the base!
Tediam, the m3 looks great!
I got to get back to building!!!
BTW which OD??? Help

Well, here in the UK, dust is beginning to settle. It's just past 9pm and I'm done! I must have worked about 7 hours at tops on this one. Enjoyed every minute of it..!

For a 'Kit of the Year' kind of thing, I'm still surprised that the bolt heads were missing and all... It's a lot of tedious work to add them all (well, some!)...

This time I used Tamiya acrylics, without primer to speed things up (see first pic). I then painted on the marlings (enamels) and this was rather quickly followed by a very dark wash. I do not like to force-drying washes so I let things go 'natural' and took a nap. By the time I got up, it was time to get supper ready and give this little one some weathering, achieved with oils, and graphite, then a light airbrushing of Tamiya 'Dark earth', itself followed by pastels.

As you can see I also did a little base for this small machine. Expanded polystyrene, plaser, static grass and little pebbles, wash and drybrushing. Over and done with it.







The flash makes things look a bit too bright, I'll post pics in natural light tomorrow.


Larry, your Grant looks great so far! Those Mirage kits are pretty good!

Ted, Larry's right, you're right in! Can't see anything wrong with that M3..!

Well I still have to asemble the upper and lower halves and then put together the road wheels and stuff. Which OD is more realistic, Tamiya or MM??? I have used both on previous models and they are 100% different colors.

Well, i finally got the decals to snuggle down. I am afraid to do much weathering, The paint and stuff just isn't dry enough. I will add a dull coat and may have to say it's complete. Pretty cool model Larry. Much more ambitious than me. Great work. Hope you find your paint bottle!!!

Ted

I knew things were going far too smoothly. I can't find the paint bottle for my airbrush.

Tediam, out of your league? No way! Your track looks awesome!

I just finished building the Grant. Here's a pic:



Off to paint the OD on, which is the undercoat. Then it gets a heavy sand overspray, which the Brits put on when the tanks got to NA. Then decals and finally weathering! Good gravy!

Well, here's the detail painted and decaled little beast. This is definately out of my league. Those decals will require about 200 coats of MicroSol. You can see in the pics they are still wet. I will have to wait now for all this to dry before my flat coat and any weathering. I think I will work on a base for it now. Gots to keep my fingers off of it!!!

Balta1, you are a good guy. Nothing like a pregnant wife. Take care of her.

Ted

Okay.... I am sooo behind! Just when I woke up and was about to start , my wife who is pregnant had the craving for "carne en su jugo" It's a mexican dish but it's only available in the city! I had to drive 80 miles round trip to get for her!!

Here's my verification pic

hers my verification pics. The kit is italeries M4 sherman, 1/72 of course. This was my very first model i ever built. When i built it it took me 2 days, so i thought i could pull it off in a day.

wow, I just woke up over here in CAli. it 9:30!!!!! I am really behinde, tediam, You even got you whole thing a base coat!!!

Great work so far guys! Just quickly checked in -- have to get back to the photoetched headlight guards (UGH!). Close to being done with the construction, though, and will then jump straight into the painting.

Well guess I'm out of this one fella's just got back from a camping trip with my family (rained out on the 2nd day) and I completely forgot this one (dont even have a kit yet). Everyone's stuff is looking great though and I can't wait to see the finished models.

I too am sorry about you loss Josh, I missed your post earlier.

Here is the little buzzard after a base coat of Tamiya OD and Desert Yellow. I also have the tiny 50 cal finished. No on to painting the tires.

Ted

First, let me offer my condolences to Josh, sorry to hear of your loss.

I wish I could have been in this build, these 24-hour builds are a blast. I have family in town from all over the country for an early Thanksgiving.

I will be sneaking peaks the rest of the day at the progress being made.

Well here is what I got done before bed last night. So far this morning, I have washed and dried the parts and am now cleaning my airbrush. I should do that after I finish instead of before I start. Oh, well.

BTW, my kit isn't really all that great. Bunches of gaps and flash out the ying yang!!!!

Ted

Well it 8:00 A.M. here and I'm about to start. I would take a pic but I was at the Butch O'Hare show yesterday and left my camera in my car. I'm too lazy this early to go get it.

I am working on the Hasegawa M3 Stuart Mk. I
I did not do any work after midnight as I planned but I still think I can pull it off.

Good luck to everyone! I'll post some pics when I'm done with assembly since last time I did a mad build I spent way too much time trying to post progress pics.

Awesome work djmodels1999!! What did you use for the rivets?

if I didn't have a stack of leaves in my back yeard (ah the joy of living in the woods) I would have tried to jump in late..... but maybe next time.

Here we go, first update from the UK..! I've worked 4 hours on the kit now, and I'm pleased to report that all is well and that after a little break, I'll start airbrushing. Could not pass up the opportunity to add a few details, and about 250 rivet heads!


But first of all, here's the 'proof', with the kit still unstarted at just past 8am here in GMT time... (cool find by the way, Larry!)


Here's a view of the kit. Pretty simple but quite good! Apparently voted amongst the best kits of 1999 by FSM.... Notice the tracks/wheel units in one piece..


Here's the kit after 1hour and a half of work... Some Milliput is needed at some joints as they are not always were they are supposed to be: see the joint at the corner of the hull roof and hull side..!!!


And here after spending a rather considerable amount of time adding little blobs of dimensional fabric paint..! Only one thing wrong (apart from the missing rivets!) about the kit: the turret sits too low on the hull, and I had to add a ring of plastic card to remedy this...


Over to you, fellow MAD'ers...

well i just gor started, and I am off to a slow start. There are a lot of pin marks on this kit which is taking some time. One of the pin marks is righ on the barrel! I dont know how im going to fix this one! I just spent about 20 minutes putting together the engine, and now I have decided not to use it. errr, Im tired, I'll be better later this morning.

Okay, 2 hours at it and I'm ready for bed but first a progress pic. That is one wierd turret!!!



A little bit of clean up and its ready for paint in the morning. Good night all!

I hadn't planned to be up til 3am building this thing, but I just love it! What a beautiful kit, and though it's got lots of pieces, as you expect from an Eastern European kit, the plastic and the fit is generally excellent.

Except of course for one horrible imperfection that is probably not on all the kits -- the hull 75 is in two halves, and one gun battel half is a lot shorter than the other gun barrel half! [:0] I spent quite a while trying to fix this, and then realized there might be an easier solution. More on this later -- I'm tired!

So far the hull is essentially done. I'm going to glue the treads together to give them the night to dry and then hit the hay. See ya tomorrow -- I mean later today!

Above all, Josh, sorry to hearabour your losses. We are thinking of you.


OK, I overslept so I've already lost quite a bit of time, but I'm ready to go now. My kit is really simple so I'm still hoping to achieve it anyway! I'll post pics soon!

hey, larry, I just tried the eamil thing and it worked. Thanks for the idea. I'll be able to post my pic in 36 minutes, if i have not yet gone to bed.

10 minutes!!! time to get ready!