Jeremy: Thanks, I noticed that too. I am going to try to fix that. For some reason I had a time getting the tires to stay tight when I glued them. I did at least half of them over. It looks like that those two, outer right and inner left, spread apart a little.

I will post further progress pictures tomorrow or Saturday. The camo is much toned down now.

Ralph

Hi Fellow Modellers,

I have decided to do something totally outside my comfort zone, mainly because I like the look of it and it is a superb model that I have wanted to build for a while now. I was fortunate to get this recently for a bargain price on Ebay and MR Models do a superb upgrade set for it. I will be doing the 21cm Morser 18, probably deployed or possibly with a Famo towing vehicle. More than likely deployed.





http://www.tracks-n-troops.eu/shop/index.php?main_page=popup_image&pID=5517&zenid=ekg1ukg580t4rk1g49h14v4fk1

I hope to get started in the next week, after I have finished a few other bits and bobs.

All the best,

Paul

Ralph: No biggie, just wondered if you noticed or not

Paul: Nice choice! It'll be great to see some braille in here

Paul; The 1/72 scale 21cn Morser 18 should be interesting, I have trouble enough with 1/35 scale parts, I can't imagine 1/72!

Ralph

Gents;

Further progress photos on the Blitz. Mostly done except for adding the width guides, mirror amd spotlight. I'm waiting for the AM load items and then the base and a figure or two. I corrected the gap in the tire seams, decals/dry transfers redone, highlighted and fading with dry brushing and then MIG pigments (Beach Sand/Light Dust) to blend the camo and additional fading. Let me know what you think.






Ralph

Hi Ralph,

I think it will be an interesting build, I will post regular progress updates. Might even tempt some of you 1/35 chaps to have a go at something smaller.

All the best,

Paul

Here are additional photos. I need to learn how to change photos when editing. Well here they are.







Ralph

Paul: After following the link, I'm already tempted to build one of those...

Ralph: Very nice, I can't even tell there was a problem with the tires to begin with

Ola Guys

Some nice entries so far. Pretty diverse subjects as well. And some people are really off to a lightning start. I myself am glad I have till december to create something and I'm going to need it as well.

Slowly stuff starts arriving here at my house.
got the basekit


And the figure set which I bought pretty much only for the driver figure Which will be converted


And some other doodads from RB models. Got two MG 34 barrels



Still waiting on:
ET models PE set for Dingo
Hornet heads
All the dio stuff.

The idea is to create a scene from the escape from kasserine pass where a convoy of vehicles is moving up a mountain road. Where things take a turn for the worst. I will focus mainly on the vehicle to finish it before the deadline and hopefully within that timeframe I will also be able to create the dio. Which will not only consist of this vehicle but also some old leftovers from the scrapbox to create the idea of a column of vehicles moving up the road.

great work Ralph,I love that cab,well weathered interior.

Wonderful work, Ralph. It looks great.

I was doing a little reference work a few days ago and we should take care as we weather. The early part of the African war was fought primarily in the "Western Desert" between Libya and Egypt. There it was sand, sand, and more sand with just a tiny hint of a fertile coastline. The later part of the war in Tunisia looked a lot more rocky and reddish. My reason for mentioning this is I think the MIG pigment "African Mud" looks more appropriate for weathering vehicles in Tunisia.

A subject a little bit away from our campaign: I was on my way back home this morning from a model swap meet and headed into a Burger King for a morning cheeseburger. Sitting right there was an 86 year old M5 Stuart tank driver wearing his 3rd Armored veteran hat and, boy, did he like to talk. He came across Omaha Beach on D plus 10 and fought with the 1st Army through Normandy, Falaise, the Liberation of Paris, the Battle of the Bulge, Aachen, across the Rhine, and linked up with the Red Army south of Berlin just shy of VE Day. I got his contact information and I guess the next time I'm wondering just what kind of weathering I should do on a Sherman chassis, I've got a source.

Robert: That is a nice collection of kits and AM you have there, sounds like you have a really nice dio planned. Looking forward to it!

Steve: Good info and thanks for the reminder! I won't hold it against anybody if they weather their build(s) inaccurately, but it's awesome to see things as close as they can be to the real thing

Awesome chance encounter with an veteran M5 driver

Steve; Thanks for the reminder. When I was doing research on what the Western Desert looked like (color and terrain type), I came across Al-Hamada al-Hamra (Red Plateau) which is in North Western Lybia, immeadiately below the western mountains and down to the Awbar Sand Sea. The area is a mixture of red sand seas and red rocky plains.

What I havn't found is any references that the African Campaign was fought in the area. Pictures of the area online indiate various shades of red, with a good likeness being MIG African Earth. I would like to weather a vehicle in African Earth someday, probably would have to be in mid to late 1943 during the push back into Tunisia by the British 8th Army, or maybe a LRDG vehicle?

Most of the campaign was fought is what is called the Western Desert (eastern Lybia and western Egypt) with golden sands.

Happy modeling.

Ralph

Hi guys great stuff keep it going
@ Ralph, The Opel looks great are you gonna put it in a dio setting

@ Robert, I will be following your Dingo progress I am building 1 myself right now over @ the British Armor Campaign and I'm not to happy with the kit overall good luck trying to get that driver figure to fit

Here is what my Tiger is looking like all primed up

I thinned out the side fenders a bit with a knife and cut some slits in them to give them a more natural look


gonna shoot it with some Tamiya XF-60 dark yellow today then I will be able to start gluing it all together and yes Jeremy, The commander figure will be painted as well

Hi all,

I get shocked about the speed you are working on.
I am slow with my M13/40 project, so I have to go on

According your discussion about the campaign landscape, I dont want to be arrogant or booring with my pictures, but I take part on this campaign, even because I was in Lybia and Tunisia several times over the last 20 years and maybe some of you are interested

So that you get an impression some pictures.
Thats how the Hamada al Hamra is looking like:



My truck after around 300 kilometers in February 1999. And the sand is not red, because “red” always indicates “iron oxide”, which is very seldom in the Sahara. The "red colour"in the Hamada is created by millions of red stones covering the top of the sand surface, creating this red shade. If you move away this small stones, you get the typical sand colour Tan, beige or however you call it.
In fact Mig-pigments “African earth” is perfect for Black-Africa or Australia, where the hole earth is red.

Thats the south end of the Hamada, with a sand blast and around 45° C.



the “dune area of the “Idhnan Uwbari”



and the “mandara seas” in the dunes of the “Idhnan Uwbari”



But in this area the DAK has not fought there.
In fact, this area shown on the above pictures is around 300-500 Kilometeres south of the real fighting area. Heavy sand, or better something like dunes, are at least 200 Kilometers south of the fighting areas in Lybia.

The landscape you need for interpretation in the “Desert Fox campaign” looks more like this for Lybia:











or like this for Tunisia:

@ Sal: what color/manufacture are you using for the oxide primer?

@ Erich: thanks for the photos they give me some sort of perspective of the wide open killing feild.

Bob

Bob, it's rattle can Rustoleum Rusty Metal Primer and from the looks of it the Tamyia xf-60 took to it great. Should be able to get a second coat on this afternoon and hopefully some more pictures tonight or tomorrow

@ Jeremy
Thanks for the reply. yeah I like to spice up my builts with after market stuff. Certainly because there is so much nice stuff around. Hornet heads will be ordered this week as will the PE set. And then I can start building.

I will make a little sketch of what I'm planning to get as endresult of this campaign.

@ Sal
Could you share some points that need attention with the Dingo kit? I think it is always good to know certain things ahead. Certainly with a PE set as extensive as ET models offering for this kit. As for the driver. Two figures will inhabit the Dingo so I think I can do some modifications to the figure and it won't be much visible in the end I think. I have to convert it anyway to get a figure more suited for afrika anyway.

Nice progress Sal

Sal: I was actually wondering if you had glued the commander in place and was curious as to how you would approach painting him in that circumstance. Great progress photos, can't wait to see how the paint comes out

Erich: Reference photos are always welcome, if you have more please feel free to share!

Robert: Looking forward to it

Robert, No problem more then happy to help. I attempted to use the PE that came with the kit. It was very soft. Some things that I found were make sure the hatch and door hinges are facing the right direction when you glue them on I also found that if you leave the strut nuts on the spruce and glue the PE bracket to the nut while it is still on the spruce its easier to work with, lost 1 of those strut nuts in my glue tube

Jeremy, I use soft wax on the bottom of the figures to pose then and to temporally hold parts together prior to final assembly. Put a second coat of paint on the tiger this afternoon and started painting the road wheel. I'll try and get some progress shots up tomorrow

Sal; I am going to put the "loaded" Blitz on a base, with figures and maybe another vehicle. Thanks for the comments. Nice start on the Tiger. I use Red auto primer.

Robert: I had the time and I held off building anythibg for about a month and half, jumped on it because it is now going to be hard to come up with the time now. My Plus Model load items came today, hurray! I like to add stuff too, can't wait to see what you do with the Dingo.

Erich; Nice photos showing the different types of terrain and plants, the openess. Hard to hide. The information I was discussing was obtained from the following site on the Lybian Desert. Excellent photos, it shows beauty in the desert that one would not expect to see in such a harsh environment.

http://www.temehu.com/Cities_sites/sahara.htm

Ralph

Hi,

I will look which additional adequate pictures I have in my pockets.
I even recommend to look here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8270787@N07/sets/72157605269786717/

where are included some real treasues, showing details for our campaign, because the costal area of northeast Lybia looks like some of this photos shows as example:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8270787@N07/3825779007/in/set-72157618945341484/
or this
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8270787@N07/4550173601/in/set-72157605269786717/

Please take into account that on every photo of the Sahara (and probably every desert worldwide) it is essential to take care about the daytime, and season. Because the porsition of the sun changes colour and/or brightness extremly. So even this 70 years old colour pictures shows the desert(surface) in a very white/grey colour which is even the reality. I have even lot of pictures made within 2 weeks of travelling, where you can see the same effect especially on vehicle colour like my RAL8000
Thats in my opinion even one of the reasons why b/w photos are so problematic for interpretation.

Ralph; your website is even a good reference.

hi there!
may i still join?
i was planning to do a dio based in the desert and involving a destroyed Italian Semovente and a PkwIII.
the semovente is,alas, already finshed, so it will not qualify for the gb, but i have still to start on the panzer III...
thank you
ciao
edo

Ok a quickie here, not the best photos but it show how the xf-60 is looking, still need to touch up some spots


and thanks to Erich great photos I'm thinking about a dio having the Tiger roll up on the damaged Dingo from the British Armor Campaign