Hi Mike,

There is a mixture of stuff going on. For the rails and ties I initially use Humber matt 70. Then when that had dried I used some Mig pigment, P230 Old Rust just mixed as a paint, to paint the rails and ties which is the point they are at now. On the ties thay have havd a further wash of watery flat black. No doubr things will develop. I've also added a small dranage ditch at the side of the track.

Cheers

Al

Nice work Alan, thought you were going to save that for the military railroad campaign
I finally made some progress on my beast This is what its looking like

Hopefully I will get the 2nd color on tomorrow

The wheel keeps falling off. Since I don't know how long it will take for me to get it right, I will be switching my attention to the "Total Tamiya" and "Vac Attack" campaigns since the deadline on both are close. I'll come back to this in January.

Alan: nice looking dio you've got there. Also, thanks for the tips on painting the RR tracks.

Sal: How many gallons of paint does that take? Looking really good.

Gary: did you scrape the paint off the wheel contact points? From one of your earlier shots it looked like you might have painted where the glue goes. Otherwise, maybe super glue?

Happy Modelling, -zon

I scraped the paint off but I think the contact area between the broken axle and the pin (now glued in the wheel) is not enough to make a strong joint. I will probably drill a hole in the axle end and drill out the pin from the wheel and fashion a new longer pin (maybe plastic, maybe metal) and see if that makes for a stronger connection. But that will wait until next year.

In a holding pattern until a reference book arrives in the mail, (hopefully Thursday- thank you Amazon!). The instructions for this kit are kind of vague in some areas. I read somewhere that each track run should have about 102-105 links when complete, so I have completed 95 per side and will fit them once I get the road wheels, idlers and sprockets built and mounted. I am waiting on the book to get some detailed shots of the howitzer. I plan on doing the base coat, then attaching the sides and rear doors. I am waiting until I get all the sub assemblies finished before shooting the base coat. Here are a couple of in-progress pics.

@ Art some nice progress there bud I think I saw some pictures of that thing @ this site
http://flickriver.com/photos/deckarudo/sets/

I got the 1st coat of the 2nd camo color on the beast today

I was suppose to be off tomorrow but now I have to go to work so now my week is all screwed up

Sal, thanks for the link to the pics! What kit are you building? It's looking good.

It's Trumpeter's Morser Karl-Great Kit # 215. it give you the option to build either the early or late version, 60 or 54 cm barrel and markings for all 7 beasts

Finaly made a start, finaly added pic. Doing M2 105mm .

Hi Sal,

Weapon's looking excellent. I thought the rail road campaign had started, but i'll be there in spirit.

This isn't a very good picture but I fixed the mattiing with PVA, just waiting for things to dry. made a small ditch by the side of the track and the gun pit needs finished with banked soil, but you'll get the idea. Some random weeds and flowers added and the tracks have had a wash of Vallejo Dark Yellow Ocre.

Hopefully there will be a bit of decent light tomorrow. I have some telegraph poles from a past life and some German signage I could use.



Art - nice looking kit.

Al

Art: nice build. I would almost want to keep the gun shields off, as the gun looks really cool exposed.

Sal: nice progress.

Al: the dio base looks great. You mentioned matting - is that for the grass? If so, could you be a bit more specific? I think it looks good and I'd like to try some.

Happy Modelling, -zon

Hi Zon,

Yes, from Model Scene. The mats are approximately 7 1/2 in by 11 1/4 inches.

I got mine form Historex and theyhave various styles.

They are a new item listed on their first page.

http://www.historexagents.co.uk/

Hope that helps.

Al

Al: That's some cool stuff. Thanks for the info! Now I just need santa to fill my wallet.

Happy Modelling, -zon

Hi
Some progress on my L33
Some more of the resin bits

Lower hull built from a dragon m50 chassis and some plastic card just to create the illusion of something inside the hull

The resin upper added to the lower hull , not yet fixed but gives the idea.


Now need the make up the gun , the resin barrel etc is ok but it needs a new mount and some details as apart from the barrel there wasnt much provided in the way of detail.
Peter

I was waiting for things to set/dry on my "Total Tamiya" build so I decided to try gluing the wheel back onto the leIG 18. Success!!

It's done!

Peter: Interesting vehicle. Looking forward to seeing the gun sticking out of it.

Gary: Congrats on your finish! Looks good and glad the wheels worked out.

Happy Modelling, -zon

Hi Guys,

Sorry I hadn't updated the campaign thread as I ran this in a blog too. Things are pretty much done, I need to move the loader and ready ammo closer to the L or R tail section and fix folks in place.

















I had thought of adding some a RE mine clearing team on the top LHS of the track?

Gary,

That was the first kit I bought when I started modelling in the 80s.

Al

Hi guys, yeah I to was working on other campaigns and all I got done on my beast was a 2nd coat of the 2nd camo color done but it's nice to see the progress here
@ Gary congratulations on your finish
@Alan looking real got there, for some reason I was thinking the piece was going to face the other direction, don't know what gave me that idea
Keep up the good work guys

@ Alan your dio looks awesome. the gun is well sited behind a high feature (the tracks) for natural cover! my only suggestion would be to fill in the spade pits behind the spades so she doesn't move (much) when fired. again great dio.

I hope it didn't give you as much trouble as it gave me. I swear it was fighting me at every step.

Hi Gary,

My effort went in the bin as it didn't turn out very well at all

Hi Ian,

Many thanks, yes take the point on the soil by the spades. I have some more drying out at the moment. Glad you enjoyed it. Not sure yet about the RE figs, have to buidl em first.

Cheers

Al

Alan: Very nice dio. Everything looks good. I need the skinny on how you got the rails to look so good? Congrats on a great finish.

Happy Modelling, -zon

Hi Sal,

Thanks, there was a picture of one in Korea in the blog in a reversed position.

Hi Zon,

For the rails I used Humber Matt 70 as a base, then a coat of Mig pigments Old Rust mixed as a paint, then some Vallejo Dark Yellow Orch and finally some burnt umber to brown them down. Trial and error - just kept working at them until I got what I though look real. Fittings had a similar base coat, then watery black, then rust, more watery black , some yellow and burnt umber and finally some Life Colour oil. That's as best I can remember.

The Humber will give you a good basic colour to build on.

Hope that helps.

Al

Alan: thanks!! I've written that down and will give it a try with the Railroad Campaign starting pretty soon.

Happy Modelling, -zon