Eetu: That's a bummer, but it's a very fixable one so hang in there and press on!

Guy: Nice bit of info you picked up! I always thought the same thing as Stefan, that the extra ammo in those situations was for the tank crew. Makes a lot more sense that it is for the supporting infantry.

Dear all,
This is my finish model:

Subin - You're the man!

Great job with the painting and weathering.

I just got my barrel in the mail, and now you've given me some inspiration for my E8 build

Awesome Subin! I too will have to get cracking on my Sherman as well

Great job on the tiger face, Subinbuoi! i like the chipping as well, not overdone and in this case certainly realistic I would think. I'm usually not a big fan of chipping but I presume this paint didn't stick too well and so was more prone to chipping than regular paint.

Cheers
Stefan

Subin great work on that Sherman, I'm starting to think that I should have gone with an armor subject for this campaign
Just not feeling the wingy thingy as much as when I started it but here is what Im up to

Ready for the AB I'm gonna shoot it with a coat of Tamiya silver and take it from there

Subin,
Really nice job on the Sherman. I really like your weathering, very realistic.

Obviously this campaign is off to a roaring start,which is tremendous to see. I'll have to break out the camera on my project, the F9F Panther fuselage is together and headed for the paint booth after some small additions.

We have a great start going, Gang, lets keep it rolling ! Semper Fi.......Bruce

Hang in there Sal. You're making good progress, looking forward to how your silver works out. Just barely can handle NMF finishes myself. OTOH, my Banshee is moving forward drop of CA by drop of CA............

Sal - the wingy thing looks like it will be great, no fear


I added the barrel and periscope gaurds and put primer on tonight (not shown).

Sal, how was the fit on your F86? I cannot see any seams from my view, would you recomend this kit?

Bob

Sal, nice work on the Sabre. Keep it up, you'll make it! And then you can do another armor build for the campaign, there's enough time for sure...

Greg, nice clean build. Did the PE come with the kit or what set did you use?

Cheers!
Stefan

Hi Steffan - the pe comes with all of the 1/48 hobby boss kits as well as extra gear too (not used here). Just the right amount of pe for me as I hate the stuff for the most part . The barrel was the only thing purchased separately and I was lucky to get it 50% off from Fighting48th.com

Hi guys thanks for all the positive comments but let's see how it turns out before I start patting my self on the back

@ Bob the fit on this kit is pretty good, slight seam where the wings meet the fuselage, but not the worst. This is my 1st Academy kit it almost like an upscale Tamiya kit, but then I never built a Tamyia airplane

Indeed, that primer of mine was quite fixable. After scribing and poking out the few details that got filled, I sanded the less-than-ideal primer and sprayed on some more decent stuff. That was followed by some more light sanding and buffing, after which I airbrushed the whole thing black. A coat of future brought some gloss to it.

Now that's not even anywhere near those glass-smooth finishes ones sees applied under alclad NMF paintjobs, but it seems Mustangs (and aircraft in general) used in Korea weren't usually in a very pristine condition.

Now it's about time for the initial coat of aluminium paint.

Ok here is my weekly up date. My enthusiasm for this built has twiddled a bit but I am trudging on. Had it on the workbench with the AB but it needs another coat of Tamiya Chrome siliver, can't tell by the photos though

I do have to admit that I am happy about the way the paint is covering and looking

Ill try and get it another light coat in the morning

Eetu and Sal, y'all's wingy things are coming along nicely. I remeber never being satisfied with natural metal finishes back when I still built planes, so looking forward to how yours turn out.

Cheers!
Stefan

Hi guys !

Just enlisted on this one...
3 weeks ago I started a M46 Patton (despite a new year resolution of just finishing unfinished kits...), the Dragon kit is quite fun, but the tracks are a nightmare...
This weekend I advanced slowly on the tracks and the separate guide horns.
It will take about 1 or 2 weeks until I post some pics... but I guess I'll still be working on the tracks

Thanks!
I'm having the exact same thoughts about the NMF myself.
Funny, this is only my second model with (airbrushed, and being finished in what I consider part of my "somewhat more recent & decent" era ) natural metal finish, but can't help feeling that the first, a MiG-21F-13, turned out smoother. Not that big a surprise, as the priming stage went much smoother with that build. This one turned out rough and uneven in places, despite the sanding and buffing.
Well, I'll consider this a lesson learned and choose my primer wiser next time. Though I'm not perfectly happy, I won't try pushing my luck anymore. It'll probably look okay when done, me thinks. And again, those Korean War birds weren't brand new anymore.

I'll be merciful and spare you from the sight of the really ugly spots like outlet area of the oil cooler.

The overall aluminium coat is Hawkeye's Talon acrylic. The much-less-than-ideal primer doesn't really do justice to the paint, as it makes quite a convincing finish when applied over a properly smooth surface. It seemed somewhat tricky to airbrush though, wanting to clog in the tip of the airbrush needle and stuff. Some more experimenting with my airbrush and pressure settings will most likely be the key here.
Although the bottle specifically instructs not to thin the paint any further, I think I'll have to try out mixing with a small quantity of Future, as it seems to help the paint flow with other acrylic metallics.

After the overall aluminium coat was dry, I masked and painted the red tips of the rudder and fin, wings and ailerons, and the black anti-glare panel on the nose. The red markings belong to the marking option I chose to make, flown by Captain J.W Rogers.
The panels around the exhaust openings as well as the exhaust fairings received a coat of Citadel chainmail metallic. For added visual variety, I masked and painted the wing machine gun access panels with the same shade.


Adding future to the mix seems to be a nice trick for getting Citadel metallics through the airbrush better. A mixture of 50% paint thinned with 25% water and 25% Future flowed much smoother and clogged the tip much less than the paint thinned with just water.

I'm thinking of painting up some more panels with a different shade of metal to liven it up and hopefully take some emphasis from the rough primer work. Are there be any specific panels in addition to the aforementioned (and treated) MG access panels and exhaust surroundings that would be a better choice than others?
Or should I just make an artistic choice and pick a few that'll look good? I'm thinking around three or four, to keep it to a reasonable level and avoid a patchwork appearance.

Eetu, it's looking good. The panels that the exhaust stacks stick thru was stainless on the real thing, you might want to highlight them.

I did my first NMF in 15 years on a P-51 for P-51 Heaven. Still needs another coat of paint to start looking OK. I can scan Testor's painting diagram for you , they had some suggestions of places to apply magnesium and stainless steel over the basic aluminum.

Hi guys i just joined the campaign late but i am here i will be building the AFV Club M40 looks like a good kit but since i build very few armor models you most likely know more about it than i do i am shore i will need help with this one, first pic of the box cover as you can see second pic of a few parts with the seems filled, any and all comments welcome.

Thanks.
Oh yeah, I painted the exhaust fairings and the panels surrounding the area with the same citadel chainmail as the wing MG panels. The exhaust fairings come out nice and steely over a black primer. The pipes themselves are still to be painted.

But because of the aluminium finish, the fuselage panels on the other hand turned out out much lighter (see those wing panels). I think I'll have to shade them some more...

Peculiarly, the photos of finished models on the box show the exhaust surrounds painted in a different shade of metal, but the painting instructions don't mention it.
If you don't mind scanning the Testors instructions, that would certainly help picking the panels to shade.

Here's the assembled mud moving gear, also known as HVARs.

As the kit ordnance had been used for other projects, I dug these from my spares box. Originally from a Revell P-47. The tails fins were sanded down a bit as they were somewhat thick. Their mounts were spaced a bit differently than on the kit parts, so one mounting hole per rocket had to be moved forward about 1 mm or so. Fortunately all the locator holes for the wing stores weren't opened all the way in the kit, so no filling was required.

John, welcome to the campaign. The M46 is certainly one of the favorites of this campaign. Will you be doing a tiger face? Looking forward to some pics!

Eetu, looking good so far. I like the idea of giving some panels a different shade, it will sure add some variety and interest.

Robert, also a hearty welcome to the campaign. You're not late at all, we have 10 months to go! Be sure to keep the pics coming, looking forward to this build. Artilleryman myself...

Keep the progress pics coming gents!
Stefan

Hello all,

I am working on my M24 for the campaign and I am searching for decals. The ones that are supplied with the kit don't mention if they are for the Korean war.
Does anyone know where I can get some? the kit is a Testors 810.

Andy

A small update on the M40 i added a few more parts to the gun cradle and several parts to the hull also filled the seems and ejection pin marks but some will need a second coat, well back to work. Nice work on your P51 i like the multi tone panels.

Hello everyone!

At last, the M4A3 HVSS 105mm kit from Dragon found it's way to my local hobby store. Ordered it over 1 month ago so it's a sight for sore eyes.

After a quick browsing though the content of the kit i found that i got two different turrent.

One that looks way bigger than the one on the box art....


...and the one in the box art.




Allied armour nor WW2-ish armour are not my strong point, but i guess i can use either one of the turrets to make a 105mm Sherman that was used in the Korean War?
Is that correct?

Cheers
/
Christian