Excellent job there Gary very nice finish and for once I'm not the 1st one to finish a campaign

Wow, surprising amount of work finished a month and a half into the campaign. Great work all around.

Gary, I was wondering what do you use for flat coat?

Cheers


Jeff

Hi Jeff,

I use Tamiya Flat base mixed with Tamiya gloss thinned with lacquer thinner. The Flat base is not a stand alone matt coat. It is an addative. Its not the simplest method but thats all i ever use and its tough a nails and hold up to all my weather beating. I do shoot all my Tamiya paints on the thin side and i do the Flat mix as well. The ratios are approx 30% flat to 70% gloss to start with and i add abit more flat as needed. I thin Approx 60% thinner to 40% flat mix. maybe even thinner. Hope that helps Jeff. Like i said its not the easiest method.

Gary

Complicated or not, you can't argue with the results.

Cheers

Jeff

Thank you brother Phil! Great to see you have returned from your quest, unharmed by the Dark side,

Gary

The power of the bright side, my master showed me

Phil.

So... super busy week last week, including my trip to the AMPS show in Columbia, SC. The Firefly went from "about done with construction" to completely finished in less than a week. And for what it's worth, I still work 40+ hours a week, and even paid attention to my 2 kids a bit.

I also finally got the use of our 'good' camera back, and I've even assembled a little photo booth, so the pictures are coming out a lot better than before.

Anyway, this one is done. Pictures!











I was lucky enough to grab both the "Best Commonwealth" and the "Theme" award, which for this show was "Stranger in a Strange Land"... the idea being any tank that was manufactured in one country, but served for another.

Hope you guys like it.


Oh, and a big thanks to a number of people who helped me with varying aspects of this build...

Mike Roof
Mike Starmer
Rob Ervin
Stephen Pannell

Stunning work Jesse! Congrats on the prizes.

Phil.

Great work Jesse. I really like the finish of the paint and the placement of stowage. The figures look very nice. And congrats on the awards.

hello, JESSE great job and congratulation for price

Hello Jesse,

Congradulations on a superb build and for your awards. You earned them Jesse. And to me its all the more brilliant of a build considering the home front duties and 40+ hours at work. Ok Jesse, now you can take a deeeep breath and tell us whats next on tha bench. Well done Jesse!

Gary

Thanks Gary.

I've got my Grant build... http://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/194558&ord=&page=1

And then my Bronco Chaffee build as well, which isn't documented here.


I picked up a couple of figures at the show too, one for each of the above projects.

AH yes, the Grant. I forgot Jesse. Ill will be following that. The Chaffee though, thats my favorite allied light tank. I will definately be there for that as well.

Gary

Jesse, great looking Firefly. The painting work on the figures is really outstanding as well.


Best wishes, Ian

@ Gary,

I haven't posted any of the stuff on the Chaffee. Maybe I'll post it up when I'm done.

@ Ian,

Thanks for the comments! It was my first time doing a figure with acrylics.

Jesse, congratulations on your awards the firefly looks great and the figures look outstanding
My Pumas progress has been slow this is what it looked like last night


Since then I touched up some spots and shot it with a coat of Futures this morning

Looks good Sal....you have another eight-wheeler lurking on your work-bench?


Ian

@ Jesse fantastic work on the firefly & it is no wonder that you brought home the bacon with the gongs, throughly deserved!!

@Sal your puma is looking really good can't wait to see more!!

@ Can anyone help with any photos of a Churchchill III Avre i can onlf find either post D+3 or all on the Churcchill IV Avre

Thanks Guys

Thanks guys yes I am on a wheely kick built a 222 a few weeks ago and that Rad8 is for the Blitz 4 Campaign

Jesse,

Congratulations on the awards, they are well deserved for your efforts. Keep up the good work.

Kevin

Jesse, Wonderfull job on the firefly! Many congratulations! I'm working on two now, if they're half as great as yours is, I'll be very glad!

Those figures are amazing. You really should do a step by step for these, I'm sure many - myself included - would learn a lot from this.

Sal, looking forward to see some wheatering on the puma!

Dave

At Mike, Kevin, and Dave...

Thanks for the comments! I was really happy with how the Firefly came out.

The figures aren't all that great. Close-up photos would show that there's really not much to them. In this case, I think the lighting for the photographs helps them more than my ham-fisted painting!! For instance, with the lighting, it looks like the berets have all sorts of shading and highlights of the black. In reality, they're just painted straight black, and all the shadows and highlights come from the lighting.

Plus, you don't have to be a great figure painter if you've got good figures to work with. It's a LOT easier to paint a Hornet or Alpine head than a kit plastic one.

Well no weathering yet but I do have markings and Futures on it


Every time I take a photo of this I find another spot that needs a bit of touch up Thin I still have to decide if I am going to add the figures to the top and then 1 or 2 figures

Hey all,

I had planned on putting off the AVRE til next year, but watching Ian's build inspired me. I have the sponsons attached to the lower hull.

Apparently, miniscule pieces of styrene are a trademark of AFV Club and Bronco kits. The knee pads Jeff referred to have come in handy as I have spend a great deal of time crawling around my carpet looking for E7, L38, E30, half of B4... I also managed to tweezer-launch an entire assembly (E37,E36,G3) into orbit, I still haven't found it. But aside from the rug burn, AWOL parts and a broken drill bit I'm having a blast. A Churchill should be on every modeler's bucket list, a real change of pace compared to most tanks. Kudo's to AFV Club for putting together some nice kits that do these unique vehicles justice.


Ian - Looking at pictures, Cheetah and most of the Churchill AVREs on the beach had extensions for the exhaust pipes that are not included in the kit. Were you thinking of scratch building them? Being a newbie, I assume bending styrene tubing is not too hard, assuming the right diameter can be found?

Nate

Did some more work on the Churchill AVRE. Most of the hull details are done, barring the side storage boxes. I got one set of tracks done and I must say these "workable" tracks really went together well. I wasn't sure how they would go together but I was pleasantly surprised. Great job AFV Club!!

Nathan-----your Churchill looks like it is coming along well. I am glad you brought that up about the exhaust extensions.....I had no idea they had them. I know you posted a picture of "Cheetah" a couple of pages back and I think I see what you are talking about although in that photo it is hard to tell because there is alot going on in the rear deck of the tank. Would you have any other photos of those pipes? I checked my "British Tanks in Normandy" book and can't get a good look of the pipes on those AVRE's involved in the landings. If it just involves tubing it should be easy to fabricate by using plastic rod bent with a hair dryer. Just have to figure what the parts look like and how everything hooks up. Anyway, thanks again for letting me know before I got too far along with this.


Best wishes, Ian