Here is the picture of the finished 105mm gun, I added a hole on the barrel to make it look more like a gun .

@manicmodeler - A wonderful choice for a build, Richard. No matter what anyone else says, our little group needed more artillery. I have the M7 in my stash but have never built the Matchbox one (did a Fujimi for a friend years ago). Thanks for posting the progress picture as at least for me it seems motivational.

Cheers,
Jan

Finally got more work done on the Challenger. I sprayed it with a dull cote but it didn't take all the shine off from the gloss. I'll hold off on spraying more flat clear until I do a bit more weathering. Still have the blue tint to apply to the periscopes and the base needs more work.







AJ

Well, all three kits are in the painting stage. Too bad I can't have my airbrush here... it really is a pain with brushes.



Had to replace the barrel of the 25 pounder. It really filled me up with pride.



Just the Wespe

It is my pleasure, I enjoyed this build as well as seeing the progress on other people build. Here is my update for today, the body of the M7 with most parts attached.



The M7 needed a bit of fillers to hide the gaps, but the details on the kit are pretty good.

Finished the Predator last week

Greetings fellow campaigners! Glad to see more progress shots. I've been a little side tracked with a build for another campaign and a review that needed to be finished.

@manicmodeler - Richard, I haven't even looked at my M7 so it's nice to see your progress shots. I must agree that for the age the details are quite decent.

@AJB - I really like how your Challenger is turning out. It's got me itching to finish mine after the M40.

@spongya - How did those Airfix models end up in this thread. Glad to see the Wespe taking shape, we need at least four SPG's for our support battery.

@Sabredog - Michael, the Predator while it would be a fine addition to our little army doesn't count as it's not Matchbox.

Cheers,
Jan

Sorry. My bad. (I'm building about 6 1/72 kits at once; easy to get mixed up...)

No problem, Andras. Six Braille kits at one time! I've felt overwhelmed trying to handle two and a half. Please make sure that you post some pictures in the Braille Scale Forum. We need to support our scale of choice.

Cheers,
Jan

Greetings fellow Campaigners. Our membership has now reached 41 and there are 39 Days left in the campaign. Here is the updated Members list. If I've missed someone of something, please let me know.



Cheers,
Jan

Here is my update for the day, here are all the major components ready for painting and assembly.

Well, the reason is easy: I got back to school in England, so I'm living on campus right now, and all my stuff is back in Hungary. Paints, tools, everything. So I keep buying small kits, build them up until I reach the stage I'd need something (paint, whatever), and get the next one. I just got to get my brushes last month -I didn't want to buy new ones...
Oh well. Now I have my stuff at three places: NY, Budapest, and the UK.

Yet another imageless update for me...yeah, I know dust off the camera etc....

Pinwash is done now and detail painting of the tools is next. Joy....
On the upside, I am nearly finished with a Italeri PzI Ausf B , but that is another story for a later time...

OK, I felt guilty...

@manicmodeler - Your priest has really come together well. One thing I've noticed is that the Revell plastic discolours when you sand it.

@Sabredog - That's the spirit, Michael!

Okay people, there are just 35 days left in the campaign. We still have some individuals that haven't even chosen a subject yet (11). I sincerely hope that some of you are just being quiet and working behind the scenes.

NOTE: Armorama seems to be having problems with the galleries so even if someone finishes a build try to post it here. Don't know how long the problem will last but I'll still give credit to those that post there finished work in this thread as opposed to the campaign gallery. If anyone is having problems trying to post pictures here please let me know.

On with the show...and tell.

Just a few more bits added. The 155 mm had a distinct handle as part of the breech opening mechanism. In this shot you can see my attempt at it with brass wire.



In this shot I finally got the fenders on and had to remove some putty that I accidently put in the slots where they attach. In that process I broke the arms on the side of the gun and they had to be repaired.



Looking forward to more progress shots.

Cheers,
Jan

Starting to look the ticket Jan.

It is a big beast for 1:76. a pity a more modern kit has not been released, as a Trumpeter/Dragon modern kit would certainly be on top of the list for purchase by me!

Once again Matchbox is the only game in town for some of these more esoteric type AFV's.

The discoloration came from putty residue after sanding the model, also I amde some mistake when placing the seats and small ammo boxes, so I have to remove them, then putty and sand again.
Today's update in the base, it is all painted and weathered, I use Mr, Surfacer 500 as a primer for the base then painted it with Tamiya Flat earth, gave it a dark brown oil wash, lighty airbrushed it with Tamiya desert yellow, buff,; painted the detail on the surface of the base like lamppost, shells, and logs. finally added a bit of static grass to give it some life.

Today's update: the M7 crew, one thing i like about the Matchbox kit are the figures which are injection plastic, which make it easy to clean and paint. Nicely detailed for their age.

Hi all,

Am finally lurching into life - sort of. Much delayed as we came very close to selling our place and moving last month (to the extent we were packing boxes) only to have our buyer pull-out at the last minute. So, after unpacking enough to make the place presentable for viewings again I thought it was high time I just got on with life - and by life I mean modelling.

I'll not bore you with pics of the sprue and box etc as I am yet another Chaffee builder - and those pics are there for all to see here already.

My plan is to do this in two phases; Phase 1 -a fairly straightforward build as per the rules - with a bit of detailing and improvement.

Phase 2 - sculpt some additional figures to go on the base - this will take much longer so I thought it best to get the kit built in time for the campaign and then add the figures later.

Are wire grab handles allowed? If so does anyone have any advice on the best way to fix them to the kit - the diameter of the wire would be much smaller than the tiniest drill bit I have...

All the best

A

Hi all! Just enlisted, haven't done any military modeling for 10 years.
Had being thinking of getting back into it again when i came across this campaign, inspired me to dust of the old pile of Matchbox and Revell kits and get started!
Going to start off with something pretty easy and build yet another - Chaffee! Thought it'd be best considering short amount of time left!
Looking forward to learning some new skills and refreshing the old ones!
Tim

@manicmodeler - Nice progress on that base and thanks for the explanation of your method. While not the best figures the Matchbox sculptor was for the era quite good.

@Andronicus




Well it's about time you got started. Glad to have you participating and yes, the grab handles fall within the "minor improvement" qualifications. When I did the grab handles on my 1/72 BTR-80 I bought amongst the smallest drill bits I could find a a Model railroad shop. They were still a tad too large but I used gap filing CA glue to fix them. Drilled the holes, filled the holes from the unseen side with the CA glue and inserted the grab handles. Check out the beginning of the BTR Thread for pictures of the process.

@Firefly74 -




Welcome to the campaign, Tim. Looks like our Chaffee contingent might form an actual platoon in strength. I'll add your callsign and choice to the participants chart.

It's very nice to see action picking up as today marks the start of the last quarter of the campaign (30 days left). Yours truly will need to get his glue and hobby knife a'whirling also.

Cheers,
Jan

Same here Jan. I am trying to finish a club GB entry at the same time. On the plus side I posted pics of my BTR-80, KV-1 and Matilda up onto the forum which took a while to do. I take heaps of pics and picking the best 5-6 takes time.

Some nice progress pictures here. I am particularly impressed with some of the bases. I am still trying to get my base right but the colours just aren't ending up the way I would like. There's not much progress so no pictures this time. The Challenger needs one more coating of flat base and a touch more weathering but I'm pretty happy with it other than that. Might be able to have it done this week.

Regards,
AJ

Done, M16 half track, hope you like it.

Thanks for posting all the updates on your progress, people. The Campaign Chart on page 12 of this thread has been updated. That now makes eight builds complete with photos in the campaign gallery.

@sabredog - Make sure that you share those recent builds with those of us that are denizens of the Braille scale Forum.

@AJB - You've done an outstanding job of sharing your build with us so far so no regrets about not having any new pictures.

@eMan - You appear to have done a positively marvellous job on the half-track. As I state earlier in this thread, if there are enough completed builds I'll turn them into a campaign photo feature. That being the case, could you post a couple of more pictures of your M16. A 3/4 front and 3/4 back view would be nice. Just post them in this thread and I'll add them to the others for the feature article. Thanks,

Keep up the building!

Cheers,
Jan