Christian,

That big turret in your first pic is from the 76mm-gun version, and was probably only included because you need a few other parts from that sprue. (It's cheaper to re-use a whole sprue than making a new steel mould for just the necessary parts...) The turret in the second pic is the one you want for a 105mm tank.

Tom

Thanks for the quick answer Tom, i really appreciate it.
So that's why i keep getting odd stuff in my Dragon kits. I got Brummbär sprues in my Panzer IV kit.

Guess i'll start building my HVSS now...

After a slow start I was finally able to get the hull mostly completed. This is the first time that I have tried using Mr. Surfacer for texturing the armor so I am hoping that it is subtle enough under the paint. I am hoping to get to the turret this week.

Andrew, looking forward to the M24. As for markings, I scrounged together some from spares. I don't know of any AM sets.

Robert , Nice progress on the M40. Looks like a really well detailed kit.

Christian I agree with what Tom said. Watch out with the mantlet, it's too narrow. Check out this review for more info.

Quinn your M46 is coming along nicely, keep up the progress. The Mr. Surfacer looks great. Any problems so far? I will be building the same kit...

Cheers!
Stefan

Hello -

I am really enjoying this kit. It seems fairly accurate right out of the box and so far no real fit issues. Painting it, on the other hand, looks like a challenge. The kit decals are lacking especially in black stripes. But this is the part I am really looking forward to as I have never painted such a difficult scheme before. Good luck with your build,I am looking forward to seeing it.

Thanks - Quinn

Update time.

While the red fuselage stripe and anti-glare panel borders were provided as decals in the kit. As I was uncertain whether they would conform to the moulded-in tail wheel doors and to the subtle curve in the nose, I chose to mask and paint them on instead.
While I was at it, I also painted on the red wingroot markings.




In addition to avoiding a possible struggle with decals, painting on those markings also allowed the red to be matched with that of the wing, stabilizer and fin tips. I'm not sure if it should, though...

I also masked and painted some panels here and there to add some variety, but it's not that visible in those pics. The panels surrounding the exhaust were darkened with airbrushed black Citadel wash. That got a bit dark I think, but wartime photos show quite a variety in that area, ranging from almost the same colour as the rest of the airframe to dark burnt metal shades.

Eetu, great job on the masking. Must have been difficult to keep a straight line with the same thickness all over?

March 1st, it's time for another history lesson:

1 - 6 March 1951 - Operation Killer is continued. The primary goal of destroying as many Communist forces as possible was not achieved due to slow progress. This was less because of resistance of communist forces, which had mostly withdrawn north of the Han River, but more due to weather conditions, with thaws and sub-zero weather alternating. Nevertheless, the operation achieves its goal of reaching the Han river.

7 March 1951 - UN forces launch Operation Ripper. Its primary goal was again to destroy as many communist forces as possible and also to bring back UN forces to the 38th parallel, thus reestablishing the status quo ante bellum.

14 March 1951 - Thanks to a flanking movement by the US 25th Division which crossed the Han river and occupied the high ground near Seoul, the Communist forces have but two alternatives: Either attack UN forces in superior defensive positions with high losses, or abandon Seoul. They chose the latter course of action and UN forces accupy Seoul on 14/15 March 1951. It is the fourth conquest within a year and the city is now reduced to rubble with only 200'000 of its original 1.5 mio. inhabitants remaining.

22 March 1951 - UN forces capture Chunchon in central Korea.

23 March 1951 - Operations Courageous and Tomahawk, designed to trap communist forces between Kaesong and Seoul are launched. Tomahawk was an airborne assault carried out by the 187th Airborne RCT while Courageous was the armored linkup drive by the US 3rd Infantry Division. Though the operation is successful, it again fails to destroy a substantial number of communist forces, these having retreated north of the 38th parallel.

Chart time!




As you can see, we already have 3 finishers! Congratulations! I like the mix of air and land. Hopefully we'll have some ships and figures here soon too!

Cheers!
Stefan

Thanks Stefan, I won't be making the Tiger face version, I will be trying an Olive Drab version pretty faded and dusted. I still have to check some photos about the terrain and weather .
Next week I'll take some pics of the progress so far, left the camera at my old house,anyway what's done so far:
- hull and turret, fenders and some equipment.

Still missing are the wheels and tracks and of course paint the beast...

The tracks are a real nightmare, I hate those separate guide horns (gravity and a cat won't help...).
stay tuned...

Thanks! Actually, it wasn't that hard. I first measured the decals and cut masking tape to corresponding widths, then laid down the tape to form the stripe patterns. Then it was easy to mask around them and remove the tape from the stripe areas meant to be painted.

Hi Guys, I haven't been in this tread in a while but I can say the work is looking good. This is where I'm at with my Saber, Started putting on the decals but I'm thinking maybe I should have tape and sprayed the stripes the way Eetu did his Mustang
I should get more finished tomorrow

There are a lot of really nice builds going on here guys!

Sal: Looking great! Those stripes are a real pain to work with...

Eetu: That is one nice looking Mustang! I was looking at that at my lhs and have been torn about whether or not to buy it...

Thanks!
If you want a nice and easy Mustang build, get it!
Good detail and fit all round. About the only thing I haven't liked about the kit so is the slightly awkward way the sliding portion of the canopy is made up of a separate frame and clear part.

Some more progress. Decals applied and sealed.


While decaling, a few slight bumps in the road came up. First I chipped off a piece of paint (circled in pic) with a needle when burnishing down the decals over panel lines. That might be best puttied, sanded and then touched up...
Then made the mistake of using Micro Sol, resulting in a few decals ending up wrinkled.

Fortunately the wrinkling wasn't serious (that's the worst case in the pic) and some more Micro Sol as well as careful burnishing with a cocktail stick helped. So in the end it's not that visible unless you know where to look and hold the model against a light in an angle (as done for that last pic). That rough primer work is also quite painfully apparent in close-ups...

Bizarrely, the only decals to wrinkle where the national insignias, of which three out of the four reacted that way. The rest worked flawlessly.
I have no idea why the insignias chose to get tricky. All the decals where applied the same way (Micro Set - decal - Micro Sol), on a same kind of surface glossed with future.

I once had a much worse wrinkling with these slightly thicker older Tamiya/Dragon/Hasegawa-style decals when using Micro Sol and I think I've learned my lesson the hard way now - No Micro Sol for this type of decals unless it's really needed for making them conform. They can be burnished into recessed panel lines if needed.

Sal, looking good from where I stand (or rather, sit...). Wash on the way for the panel lines?

Eetu, I can see your problems, but I'm sure they can't be seen without a magnifier... The decals look great so far, keep it up!

Cheers!
Stefan

Stefan, What type of wash would I use on a silver plane, Black This is my 1st aircraft build in about 28 years and we didn't use washes back then
I finally got all the decals on it took about 3 days

Gotta agree with Stefan - those planes are looking great. The decals I wouldn't know how to fix since I'm used to throwing mud to cover flaws on armor. In the sky? the only weathering is bird poop I guess. Maybe the constructive feedback or aeroscale site has someone with a fix if needed.

Thanks for the complements guys which are greatly appreciated considering all the first I had here, but I think I'm gonna call this 1 finished. Took over 3 days to get all the decals on I was able to touch up some spots on the yellow with some paint, then I sprayed it with some clear and forgot to mask the canopy First Academy Kit, 1st Airplane in 28 years and 1st non-WWII item. Comments are more then welcome before I start my next wingy thingy build over at the Search and Rescue Campaign. Thanks for looking

Nice work Sal, you can almost hear the engine spool down on a COLD Korean day...

OK, my main challenge here is figuring out how to post my pictures! I'm building the old Dragon kit, and plan on using some of the aftermarket goodies you see in the picture. I've also bought their Orange Box version of this kit and may use the HVSS suspension system out of it. In progress pictures to follow.

OK! Sal now what is so hard about a wingy thingy.
1. building
2. painting
3. decaling


Bob

Never said it was hard just lost the passion Made a few mistakes and I could use some improvement. But I am eyeballing a Academy 1/48 P-40C for your Allied Workhorse Campaign

Well Sal,
You have made me want to try an F86 ( have never had much luck with NMF)
now. The Academy P-40 is a nice kit the only advice that I can give regarding said kit is to beware if you use a resin aftermarket cockpit make sure to use a mototool to take away the area on the bottom of the resin cockpit so as to allow the wing to mate with the fuselage. I am having that problem right now with my Academy P-40B but, otherwise I like the kit. Damian, Hermon, and I would love to have you onboard.

Bob

Sal, nice one! Looking good for so many firsts. Shame about the canopy, anything you can do?

guy, your picture posting looks fine to me. Looking forward to your progress. Nice Formations goodies!

Bob, I'm thinking of joining your P-40 campaign as well, the P-40 has always been one of my favorites...

Cheers!
Stefan

Stefan,
We will be glad to have you over on The P-40 Work Horse campaign. I need to spend a little time on my M41 for this campaign. All I need to do is paint and weather it.

Bob

OK Crew,
I haven't posted in a while due to different reasons, but I thought it was time to catch everyone up with my Old Monogram F9F Panther build. Regardless if it comes out as show competition or not, this has really been an interesting build. I haven't built a 1/48 in about 6-7 years. I normally build in 1/144, or once in a while 1/72. So this is a real throw-back for me.

Even with that it is most interesting because I'm just highlighting what Monogram/Revell gave me. In other words using paint and pastels to do the work for me. It has turned out to be a real treat.

You'll see a few pics below, it still has a way to go, but it is getting there. Any comments or recommendations are happily accepted. (Trust me, I do not have thin skin !) Take it easy, Gang..................Bruce