Hi all

Here is "The Father" a Panzer IV J, will load some more pictures, but have to shrink down the file size.

Kevin, please, post some pics of the WIP... I like to see how other people scratchbuild or deal with tricky issues! You know... being a greenhorn and all!

Andrew... looks good! More, man, more!

Okay... here are the pics I promised. First, the turret.

I know, the smoke dischargers aren't the straightest, but dangit, there's not much room to work, there, and I couldn't really figure out a better way of doing it. The main problems here are at the back, and I should have taken a picture before adding the stowage to illustrate what I mean. There are a couple of gaps that need puttying and filing, or at the very least, and this was my solution, a couple of small pieces of styrene glued in and filed down. (I haven't been able to find any putty. This will be corrected!) Aside from that, it went together reasonably well. Oh, the main gun... with this model, you either need to do some filling where the main gun meets the turret, or, and I just thought of this, possibly a hairdryer/heatgun to make it mate a little better. But, such is life.

The upper hull:

After much consideration on how best to go about it, I broke down and conceded to using the stickers for the screens. I know it's not the best solution, but I couldn't figure out any other way with my limited skills. Any suggestions for the future, please?

Finally, the commander, fuel drums, machine gun, part of the searchlight, and the rear tow-cable:
All of these assembled really easily, although the MG took a little bit of figuring, since the instructions were a little bit vague and the pictures a smidgen misleading. The TC is only five parts, and the only tricky parts are for the night vision goggles, and that's in terms of getting them to set how you want them to. So, no big deal, really. The rear towcable is simply a piece of string supplied with the kit that you cut to length assemble to the eyes, place it and paint it. Simple, eh? (Yes, I AM a Canuck! )

More updates to come... just put the roadwheels on last night, and later today I'll assemble the tracks and finish assembling the hull. More on that later, folks!

I have some Soviet markings left from a T-72 tank kit. I cannot remember what version it was. I think the decals are for a guards regiment. I do not know if that would be apllicable for your T-72M, but at least it could look right and might also be accurate. I can send them for you if you are interested?

Hey Lewis, the best putty to use is standard automotive red spot putty, costs about $2 for a mega tube, is easy to work with, doesn't crack, and dries fast. If the gap is supposed to be a weld bead, you can also get some easy effects with masking tape and putty. Sometimes its super simple to use, I had an inside corner on a Jagdpanzer that should be welded and it had a signifigant gap, and simply taped up the edges of the gaps, spread some in, swiped my finger down the gap, and was done-no sanding-no nothing.

Typically if the kit fits well with a relatively small gap, I will use a bit of CA so it oozes out and let it dry, then 'cut' it and sand it flat when dry. CA makes an excellent filler for small gaps. A good quick fix to tidy up is to smear a bit of medium CA in the gap, and immediately sand it with a 400 grit sanding stick so the dust plugs the gap as well and turns into plastic filler as another alternative way to do it that takes seconds to dry. You can do this multiple times if needed, works great for outside corner joints and extremely well for split barrels. The barrel of the merk in the pic has a seam across the top, and all filler used was simply medium CA. As always you just have to be careful sanding and let the grit do the work and not you pushing hard on the sticks. I should take a few photos of doing this sometime, the entire gap around the back of the Merk's turret was like this, and the barrel was no cakewalk, and I got the seams completely invisible without a drop of filler, just CA and a 400 stick. Same with the hull, no filler anywhere in the tank and no gaps.

As for your build, what do the stickers do? do they look like grilles? The smoke launchers look ok to me, they are not always in perfect allignment by design or by getting bonked or stepped on. I think it looks good so far. When the kits are a little 'engineering-challenged', just do your best to build clean and get the gaps filled and put a good paint job on it. Usually that makes for more visual appeal then anything else. Even in contests, its more important to build it clean and paint it well then it is for tiny details or correcting shortcomings in the kit's design.

I gave up on the legend basket and just use the floor PE and starting the lovely process of the chain armor I am pretty good with etch and that basket is an absolute nightmare to build. The pieces do not fit right in some areas anyway, some are too long and the base of the basket is not perfectly symetrical. In theory you are to put all the vertical supports in place, wire up the side supports, and hope the top rail fits, good luck. I checked and the wire they are using for the supports is also way to thin anyway. It was only $3 more to get the whole kit instead of just the chain armor, so I still got some scrap etch, wire, and lead foil in the deal for the spares bin. I also started replacing the stringers with rod stock on the basket sides, but gave up for the rear as it looks almost identical, the one detail gained though is the proper 3D look on the inside of the basket, but oh well. Its not a superkit with tons of detail so there's no need to make a superdetailed basket on an average detail kit.

The MKIII and MK I kits have much more aftermarket etch available so I will do another one later to go nuts with more detail and anti-slip, ect, but there are way too many projects on my to-do list to spend forever with this one. I have three builds coming up with full Voyager etch fenders and clamps, so I need to move on Will get some pics up though when the chains are done. I really like the Merk and will have to go back to do an uberbuild with fruils, tons of etch, anti-slip, and resin goodies someday. I try to keep the projects 'light' when the weather is still nice or I get bored too quickly.

damn I type too fast for my own good, another novel...

Jesper, that would be fantastic! But wouldn't postage from the EU to Canada be kind of a killer? (I honestly have no idea.) If you're sure, I'll PM you my addy.

Kevin, IMHO, don't worry about the novel! The devil is in the details, and we can take what we need for tips and hints out of it. I never thought about using the CA glue and sanding... guess that's why it's called ZapAGap, eh? And I guess I'll have to take a trip over to Canadian Tire or WalMart to see about the putty. (Looking over at modeling table and thinking to myself, "It's a damn good thing the MIL is moving out soon... need that space! ") You raise some good points about how to approach a build, too. Why go uberdetail on an average model, unless you really enjoy it? And is it appropriate? I guess we all need to ask ourselves that on a model-by-model basis. BTW: the stickers look like they're supposed to be some kind of grill... I'll post pics of them after I remove the masking.

Back later w/ pics of the tank ready for camo and weathering, folks!

Heh, Canadian tire. I just sold a new GT500 Shelby to someone in Canada and was doing some research, apparently they are the ones who do all the conversions to CDN spec vehicles....This puppy is going to Canada:

Sure, no problem. I do not know how much it is, but it cannot be much. PM your address and I will get them in the mail for you asap




Yes, I agree on this. Most of us are doing this entirely as a hobby. Therefore by definition we should only do the things we enjoy - otherwise it will become a sour duty.
Some people like to make a tank that consists of more PE than plastic. Another guy I know only brush paints his models with 3-4 colours and no weathering at all because he likes to put them together more than painting them. Both approaches and everything in between are great as long as we all have fun.

Just my two Centimes (Latvian cents)

Jesper, PM sent. Thank you.

Well, I've got the tracks on and the hull assembled. And what a switch from the kits I've done before! I've become sort of accustomed to Italeri kits where the tracks are so tight you almost have to break your model to get them on, and on this one, the tracks are actually a little bit loose!

I'll post some pics later tonight, especially if I get a chance to put my new compressor to work. (I love birthdays!) The model is sitting here, waiting for a touchup airbrush and then camouflage. Following that, I'll do the final touchups on the T-34, and then I'm down to weathering. Kewl!

Hey... how come we don't have an emoticon for coffee??
Later, guys!

Whoa, love that puppy. Pity American cars are überexpensive over here, with too much shipping costs and crazy taxes as the engines are too large by our standards. I would love to own a Viper myself, but just the yearly motor vehicle tax for that baby over here in Turkey is about USD 15.000, so I'm not even talking price.

Cool I will send the decals today. Just so you know what is coming there are some pictures of the dacals below. The decals are crisp and seems to be of good quality. However, I have not tested them all in water
The pictures are a little blurry as it was difficult to show white numbers on a white background.

Hope they will reach you in time

Here's a little update on my progress. I am working tooo sloow because I have 8 simultaneous projects and currently I have health problems which take up too much of my time (tests, doctor visits, ultrasound scans, etc., diagnostics is even more exhausting than being sick).

The father (Elefant / Italeri) and the stepson (Panzerhaubitze 2000 / Revell) :



The Elefant, although a kit from 1965, went together without much hassle, only the parts required a lot of cleaning, the fit was surprisingly good. If you can still find one, you can give it a try. However, historically it is VERY inaccurate(the whole story can be found in the armor forums).

The Revell Panzerhaubitze 2000, on the other hand, proved all of my expectations wrong and I nearly threw it out of the window a couple of times. Its plastic is a little elastic and soft, when you try to force the parts together, it takes its shape back. Also, parts are slightly warped so they don't fit perfectly. It turns into a nightmare when you try to assemble the gun, for example, as every part has a different fit. Given its price and given the quality of their Marder1A3 of the same scale, I was very surprised by the kit, I used to hear such high praise. Ah, I should not forget to mention, the level of detail is also seems a little crude, as if this kit is from 1965 instead of the Italeri Elefant.

Last night I was banging my head on the walls, but finally the assembly is nearly complete....

Wow, this thread has been quiet, I guess its because we're all building two. Anyhow, baby boy Merkava is taking shape. Color as usual is slightly off, it looks exactly like wet concrete in person, with (not-so) dullcote darkening the standing pigment that as it is right out of the airbrush. Theres about 9 mixes in shading that don't show in the photo, all the facets on the front are shaded as well. Need to go back with a blend of the base paint which will lighten it slightly, blend decals fully, and get it truly dull again. Chain armor was a pita. May stick to fairly simple weathering with minor chips and scuffs, good ol' fashioned pin washes and a final dust effect with the airbrush. Trying not to beat it up very much. Still need to pick up a verlinden storage set, but I just want to get the two tanks done first....I'll line up this and the 90% done M51 and go back and do all the detail work on both.




EDIT-heh, this color flip-flops like crazy. Retouched the model with a light mist coat and re-shaded to restore the color to where I wanted it and killed down the decals. Dullcote can tick you off sometimes. Still amazes me what about 3 drops of paint in an Iwata can do...

Kevin, it looks great. Maybe for the color shifts, you can try touching up your photos with Photoshop, it can work wonders and show the "real" colors.

Can I ask a question? What is the main body color of that Merk? I will build two in the near future (Mark 3 in 1/72 scale and 1/35 scale - Revell and Academy), I was planning to use the Israeli Armor Sand from Testors Modelmaster, would it work?

Also, watch out for the marking decal in the middle of the sideskirt that looks like a VWVF, the panel line crosses right in the middle, maybe you can cut the decal and accentuate the panel line. Just a thought...

The decal does go into the groove, it will show when its washed. I will use sol more then 10 different times to all but disolve the decals(to the thin line of all but disolving the paint as well in some cases). The carrier on the kit decals was a bit heavy though versus cartograph stuff. There seems to be an infinite number of variations of armor sand grey over the history of the IDF. They go from orange yellow to grey to almost blackish green and in no particular order. They were particularly grey during and just after the Lebanon war. IDF modelling calls for 50/50 buff and medium grey, for that period, but I still thought it was too yellow(it doesn't match the paint chips either). So I mixed various batches with buff and a much darker IJN grey at first, and worked up to about 60/40 med gr/buff for some blending, so its about 8-10 different colors. It changes from stark grey under florecents to a sand color under incadecents. The mantlet canvas is just off-color of the main tank, as in the photos I have seen its usually the color of the turret. In some photos around 82, the bad quality of the photos has it looking literally like a US Navy grey.

I've been on a one-color tank kick by coincidence for a bit but I try to mix up all the variations on the shelf, as you can see the little stuart getting 8th Irish Hussars blue/british sand in the one photo, and on-deck is the Ferdinand in red-oxide primer, an ambush camo Hetzer, and a Leclerc in UNIFIL white(dirty white is gonna be tough). I'm actually getting sick of one-color stuff as I think its harder to pull off well then camo jobs. The M51 is the 'pure' MM IDF sand-grey with various shading versions of the color. The MM s-g looks like baby-poop brown though until you do some shading with lightened layers and it starts to look much better. My camera stinks, but here's the pair together:



If you see the Merk in person under natural lighting its a 'greyish-beige-kinda tan and maybe a bit green even' kind of color...So a little whacky, but look at 10 photos of one at that period and its impossible to nail it down to one color just to describe it.

And this one is off-the wall, I may actually decal it up today while tracks are training and paint is drying

Gentlemen, it has been quiet!

Kevin, they look great! And while the chain armor looks like a pita, it sure adds something to the model. Good stuff, man.

Jesper, the decals have arrived, and they look just like what the doctor ordered... they fit perfectly with what I have in mind. Again, thank you!

In the meantime, I've been working on an M1 with an eye toward the weathering and washing. It's looking okay, and it's also preventing me from ruining my T-72 and T-34 with a first attempt! It's one thing to read about it, and another to do it. It's a separate art form unto itself. And actually, what I'm learning on the M1 is going to help on another build I've got coming up which will be logged on Aeroscale. I'm a little nervous about it, but I know I can do it.

It's a 1:24 Airfix P51 Mustang for the 747 Squadron Air Cadets located here in town. It will be painted and marked in WWII RCAF livery. The CO asked if I would be interested in doing it, and I jumped at it! I'll have to ask him exactly how he wants it displayed, and show him the different armament options, but I'll have a certain degree of latitude in the doing, too. I'll be starting that in about a week or so.

Anyway... back to my tanks for now!

ugh, a big aluminum aircraft! Everytime I do any raw metal, as soon as i finish, I immediately think I could of gone back and done it better. I actually like the russian WWII stuff as you can beat the tar out of it with washes and filters, the paint part is easy on them.

And is the scale 100% correct on this thing?, The Merk looks absolutely massive on the shelf

Just finished here are a couple of pictures.

Greetings all. Been kind of a lurker on Armorama for a long time (love looking at everyone's work on here), but decided to join this campaign to push myself to do more building.

Short on time now, but I'm gonna try to finish my Academy Tiger I(early) and just today picked up the Tamiya Leopard A26 (both in 1/35). I think I should be able to wrap them up by the end of January!

Thanks,
Eric

Eric,

Glad you decided to jump in and can't wait to see how your Leo 2A6 comes out, I built the same kit.

Great, glad they found their way to your desk in time for the build.

Re-hi!

Kevin... love your T-34. The bedspring armor looks great! It almost tempts me to scratch some up for mine... but it won't quite fit how I'm going to display it. You'll see soon. I'll be finishing up mine and the T-72 while I'm working on the P-51. (It's massive... I'm glad it will be displayed at the Cadet hall... prop to tail it's about sixteen inches, and the wingspan is about eighteen!)

Andrew, well done! They look great side by side, but I have to ask, is there a figure for the Leo?

Eric, welcome aboard! Glad to have you, and looking forwards to seeing your builds!

Jesper, they look really good on the T-72... I'll be posting pics fairly soon. Just have to finish moving the workbench and get it set back up. (Long story......)

Anyway, gents... later for now!
Lewis

Lewis,

Yeah I kind of bagged out, on the Leo Crew.

Could not for the life of me get the modern German camoflauge pattern to come out.. I still have not cracked the code on figures. This winter I am planning to spend more time trying to get better at painting my crewmembers.

Thanks guys! I actually got a little time to do some work last night. It feels really good to be back at the workbench again. I'll post a few pictures when I get further along...

Thanks,
E

Andrew, great little German family you have there. It seems like the son has grown much bigger than the father Interesting to see how tanks have evolved over time to grow big and mean.

Thanks for sharing