Hey gang! slow but fairly steady progress on the Pershing. I have more or less finished all the adding of parts to the front upper hull and the turret (minus the commanders hatch). Prior to the parts, I filled and sanded some of the more prominent seams on the turret. They are the areas with the Tamiya OD green on them.





I have also turned a bit of attention to the suspension. For the scale the drive sprockets were quite an intricate little build. In this case, sprue gates were very fine so their removal occurred without any loss of teeth. Fit of parts and their alignment was just about perfect.







Finally, a few images of the sprockets mounted.







If anyone is wondering why all the pictures, they are for a build review that I'll be posting later. Perhaps I should have noted that this build might be a "spoiler." Oh, and I almost forgot, I drilled out the main sight aperture and also for the coaxial MG which were not evident on the kit.

Cheers,
Jan

Thanks for the vote of confidence!

Jan: You're a little farther ahead in your build than I am, I hope to be hot on your heals

Hi folks,

I'm finally finished my MiG-15! Here it is:










D'oh! Unfortunately due to the server's being switched last weekend and a small technical hitch with the Gallery right now, I can't show you the pics just yet.

While I feel a tad outnumbered I assure you that the MiG was not jumped by a pair of Hasegawa Sabre's on the way to the photo gallery. Rumours that the Sabre's turned it into a burning heap of plastic on my kitchen floor is patently untrue, although the pilot (as with all my aircraft builds) is missing.

That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. I'll get those photo's up hopefully over the weekend.

Keep building,

Eoin

Anywho, folks,

Here's my MiG15:









Keep building folks!

Eoin

Real Nice Mig Eoin. I like the paint chipping.

Jan, nice progress! Keep it up!

Eoin, your MiG looks great, I especially like the camouflage! It's gonna give those Sabres a big MiG-raine...

Cheers!
Stefan

So close, just 4 more painting steps.....Who ever thought that overall GSB was a simple scheme ought to be shot... Oh, that was me, never mind.

Great looking MiG, Eoin. What kit is this? It looks great. The cockpit is very well detailed and the chipping effect subtle, but realistic.

Thanks for participating.

Thanks for the encouragement guys. I am committed to this build but also have another and some reviews that I'm alternating between.




Waiting to see some pictures, Jeremy. But I'll take it that you are also doing a Pershing? I try to follow this thread but sometimes too much time goes by and I just can't catch up on all the happenings.

@ Eoin - Beautiful Mig there, Eoin. I just love the camo. What scale and manufacturer is it?

--------------------------------------------------------

More progress but I don't have pictures of every stage. I've been applying some of the techniques described in Alex Clarks " Small=Scale Armour Modelling" during this and another build. At the top of this page you could see the preliminary start of his pre-shading methods. I've applied something similar in the past but not to the extent he describes. In the following pictures I hope that it can be seen as well as it appears in iPhoto on my screen. The top and bottom hull are just dry fit, as is the turret.







Now for the really "fun" part, tackling that darned link and length track. There are only two real "lengths" and all the other pieces are single or double links.

Cheers,
Jan

@tread_geek – Jan,

You’re doing a terrific job on this build. I’ve read through your build progress here and through some of the other participant’s postings in the campaign too. I think that your build is turning out to be one of your best efforts to date. Great job on the base coat and your corrections on the turret seams turned out flawless behind the paint job, as I can’t see any! I do see a seam line up front between the upper and lower hull and in back were the radiator resides, is this because you just placed the hulls together for the photo shoot? Sure is a nifty kit with lots of detail for its small size.

Did you mention link and length tracks? Precisely the reason I’ve stalled on my Russian Kingtiger build!

~ Eddy

@Braille - Eddy,

Thanks for the comments. I used your super glue method to get rid of the turret seams. ;-). The hull was only dry fit as the tracks wouldn't be easy to fit if it was glued. As I mention in my earlier post, there are only two real "length" pieces. All the rest are single and double link pieces. I am not impressed with the engineering of the Trumpeter suspension. :/ I have some roadwheels on but am still at a loss how to tackle the tracks. More images in a day or so.


Cheers,
Jan

Jan: Actually I am building an M4A3E8. I would love to build up a Pershing in 1/35 sometime though, complete with tiger decor. I'm having some fit issues with the HobbyBoss kit so you'll have to wait a little longer for photos, but I'm working away on it.

Jan, nice Progress! Keep it up!

Jeremy, you have 12 days to go plus a possible extension of a week or so... And just for reference: Tiger faces were only on M46, M24 and Shermans. The M26 was mechanically unreliable and mostly (if not all) replaced by the time the tiger faces appeared (Operation Ripper in March 1951 IIRC).

Soo... I finally finished my M46:






Pretty happy how it turned out. Any comments more than welcome!

Cheers!
Stefan

Awesome finish Stefan. Love the mud color and the gear on there that goes well with your tiger camo. A+

Good work Stefan,very well done indeed.

regards

Finally got around to starting this campaign. Going to be BGen Rockingham's Tactical CP.

quick update, added some cam net and replaced the turret tie downs with brass. Wish I had some of those PE tie downs, as these ones are about twice the size. Nothing a little turret stowage can't hide..

Graeme, nice choice, never heard of that vehicle before so I'll be watching.

You have any background info? Was the turret welded on or still tunable? How did one get into the turret? Why didn't they use an M20? What unit was it?

Cheers!
Stefan

EDIT: Oh... and what scale is it? 1/48 or 1/35? I suppose Tamiya?

Thanks, I keep getting mixed up with the designations for the early Cold War US tanks

I'll try to get some good photos up this week, work has been killing me so I'm doing well just to address the poor fit issues as they come up

Hi Stefan,

Info is a bit hard to come by. I believe it was a one-off modification of the M8. It was used by the Commander of 25th Canadian Infantry Brigade in Korea. There will be 2 hatches added to the turret, along with some supporting bars for when they are in the open position. I think the turret was welded in place. The radio antennas were relocated to spots behind the driver / signaller hatches. A Bren gun on a welded tri-pod will also be added along with some stowage for the rear deck. I have some of the new Bison LdSH(RC) in Korea decals on the way which I hope will be here on time BGen Rockingham used it. Base kit is 1/35 Tamiya.

I'll post a pic of the real vehicle shortly.

Here it is. I have another showing the rear of the vehicle.

Did some work on the turret; hatches, weld beads, grab handles. Going to re-work the fixed tri-pod for the Bren.

Graeme: Great choice and great build , I was hoping that someone would tackle one of these


Stefan: I'm working some poor fit issues with my kit, I really am not concerned with accuracy at this point. Work and family issues seem to continue to demand my attention, but I'll see what I can get done for you by the end date.

Greetings all!

@Stefan - Your M46 is looking fantastic! It (the Trumpeter 1/72 version) was my first build choice but they were all out at the LHS when I went there.

Slow and painful progress on the M26. The suspension is one of the worst fitting tracked suspensions that I've ever dealt with. The fit of the road-wheels is either too tight or too loose. For too tight I've had to drill them out, for too loose I've used gal gap filling CA glue.

Two afternoons to get to the point bellow.



A few hours the next day and it was finally more or less done. Broke a couple of axles in the process and had to reattach them.



The darn tracks were next and I assure you there is nothing "magic" or great about the fit. Each link needed filing.



Took all afternoon to get the one side done to the point below.



With any luck I can finish the rest of that side and then I'll have to suspend things due to holiday necessities. If I'd had any idea that this kit had so many problems I wouldn't have left it so late to start. Some time in the new year I'll have to do a build review of this monster. People need to be forewarned.

Cheers,
Jan

Graeme - very nice work going there

Jan - sorry for your track pain