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mark197205
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England - East Midlands, United Kingdom
Joined: November 10, 2003
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Posted: Tuesday, September 11, 2007 - 02:52 AM UTC

Quoted Text

I chose to go with surfacer, and here's how the seam looks after two applications of it.




That looks much better now Eetu.
Emeritus
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Uusimaa, Finland
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Posted: Tuesday, September 11, 2007 - 09:04 PM UTC
Thanks.
Glad you like it.

I've made start with the stowage holders on the other side the hull.

The etched part is a shovel holder, the part that holds the blade, to be exact (there's another one in the rear as well). Also attached at this point are the two axe racks near the front and the tubular socket for the metal bar (the holding strap will be where the other felt pen marking is. The strips of masking tape help position the retaining straps and the tow cable holders on the fenders.



^There's two close-ups of the axe racks. Made from sheet styrene and scrap PE.


Those are the tow cable holders, still in pieces. Only the major parts are assembled (three parts each). The triangular supports are so tiny I'll surely lose a few while gluing. Fortunately they're easy to make. Just cut pieces from a styrene strip.



Here's the engine intake cover in-progress. Notice the rectangular hole (for the fuel lines from the external tanks, I presume) filled with styrene sheet. Strangely, dragong's kit didn't come with a rear light of any kind, so I used PE parts from a zoom set made for tamiya's kit, the round light cover and the light part itself. To mount the PE light part, I made a part from a piece of sprue to make the bulk of the light.
While dryfitting the PE part to the housing, it of course had to fall and was quickly devoured by the creatures dwelling in the floor.
Now where do I get a replacement?
Of course, the Aber PE engine screen set I used included two types of covers for the rear light, but not the light itself, like the zoom set...
Jamesite
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Posted: Tuesday, September 11, 2007 - 11:39 PM UTC
Great work Eetu,

The carpet monster has been a real ba$tard to me recently too. The tiny hinge parts from an aber PE set 'pinged' off never to be seen again (one actually got deflected off my eyelid directly into the monsters grasp.
On this note has anyone seen the dio in the new IPMS-USA Nationals 2007 Show Report on the frontpage? 3rd pic in will make you laugh!

Why don't PE sets provide spares of the smaller parts to account for this?!

Can't help with the light i'm afraid, but keep up the great work.

James
mark197205
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England - East Midlands, United Kingdom
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Posted: Wednesday, September 12, 2007 - 05:38 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Thanks.
Glad you like it.

I've made start with the stowage holders on the other side the hull.

The etched part is a shovel holder, the part that holds the blade, to be exact (there's another one in the rear as well). Also attached at this point are the two axe racks near the front and the tubular socket for the metal bar (the holding strap will be where the other felt pen marking is. The strips of masking tape help position the retaining straps and the tow cable holders on the fenders.



^There's two close-ups of the axe racks. Made from sheet styrene and scrap PE.


Those are the tow cable holders, still in pieces. Only the major parts are assembled (three parts each). The triangular supports are so tiny I'll surely lose a few while gluing. Fortunately they're easy to make. Just cut pieces from a styrene strip.



Here's the engine intake cover in-progress. Notice the rectangular hole (for the fuel lines from the external tanks, I presume) filled with styrene sheet. Strangely, dragong's kit didn't come with a rear light of any kind, so I used PE parts from a zoom set made for tamiya's kit, the round light cover and the light part itself. To mount the PE light part, I made a part from a piece of sprue to make the bulk of the light.
While dryfitting the PE part to the housing, it of course had to fall and was quickly devoured by the creatures dwelling in the floor.
Now where do I get a replacement?
Of course, the Aber PE engine screen set I used included two types of covers for the rear light, but not the light itself, like the zoom set...



Excellent little details Eetu, those tow cable brackets are microscopic!
mark197205
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England - East Midlands, United Kingdom
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Posted: Wednesday, September 12, 2007 - 05:49 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Great work Eetu,

The carpet monster has been a real ba$tard to me recently too. The tiny hinge parts from an aber PE set 'pinged' off never to be seen again (one actually got deflected off my eyelid directly into the monsters grasp.
On this note has anyone seen the dio in the new IPMS-USA Nationals 2007 Show Report on the frontpage? 3rd pic in will make you laugh!

Why don't PE sets provide spares of the smaller parts to account for this?!

Can't help with the light i'm afraid, but keep up the great work.

James



Hey James, that dio is fantastic, a very clever build.
Jamesite
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Posted: Wednesday, September 12, 2007 - 08:50 PM UTC
It is inspired isn't it!

On that note I won a battle over the carpet monster last night when after dropping a part (that turned out to have actually fallen on my table, not the floor), my eagle eyes found two of the three peices of PE I thought i'd lost!

Carpet Monster: 1
James: 2



(Of course this is the score just for my current build - the carpet monsters score on aggregate would be in the thousands!)

James
mark197205
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Posted: Wednesday, September 12, 2007 - 10:48 PM UTC

Quoted Text

It is inspired isn't it!

On that note I won a battle over the carpet monster last night when after dropping a part (that turned out to have actually fallen on my table, not the floor), my eagle eyes found two of the three peices of PE I thought i'd lost!

Carpet Monster: 1
James: 2



(Of course this is the score just for my current build - the carpet monsters score on aggregate would be in the thousands!)

James



Its always good to get one over on the monster, I did last week two when taking pics for the Ferdi I'm building over on Mil Mod, it comes with turned metal tow hook bolts and I spent an hour scouring the floor before I found it!
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Uusimaa, Finland
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Posted: Friday, September 14, 2007 - 05:02 AM UTC
Strange, my build's almost done. Just a few more parts to the hull and it's prime time! (pun intended)


Quoted Text

Excellent little details Eetu, those tow cable brackets are microscopic!


Here they are again, this time assembled and on a 5 cent coin to give a better idea of their size.

I was right, I indeed lost many of the trianglular supports while attaching them. I would say about half-a-dozen launched into oblivion from my tweezers (6 were needed for the brackets)


The headlights now have something to hold them up. I still need to come up with the corresponding parts for the hull to that would keep them up.


Some toolclips added to the hull side.


Cable brackets are on the fenders and a small box has beed added as well.


Some more toolclips, for the shovels.
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Posted: Sunday, September 16, 2007 - 03:41 AM UTC
Here's some more progress.

I managed to find a suitable replacement for the tail light. Not perfect, but better than a blank part under the cover.


Just to be sure my previously assembled track lengths still fit, I dryfitted them to the model. The other side fit just fine, but this one in the pic didn't for some reason.

Why do these things always happen to me...
And I remember setting them so they'd fit without gaps. And of course I had to glue those idler mounts without thinking about their usefulness while fitting the tracks...
Well, fortunately, I made them quite saggy (making them tight resulted in huge gaps instead), so I can clamp them and squeeze them flatter to gain some more length. Aren't these tracks with two types of link a pain in the rear?

This could have been avoided altogether by not going cheap in this area (ie. buying friuls), but the kit-tracks looked too good to pass.
What do you think, should I try dipping them in hot water to speed up the process, or would that be playing with the chance of getting my tracks ruined?

Oh, I think I've come to a conclusion about what paint to use. After recieving no answers to my question on two Finnish forums, I assumed the legend just doesn't tell about the immediate post-war colors and decided to get blunt and proceed with xtracrylics' British interior green, applied over black primer.
Black will both ease priming the track pieces that have the idlers and drive wheels attached (just one color, no masking with primer involded), and funcion as a preshade and help making the color a little darker (as my color samples applied with a toothpick are fine, it will look lighter when airbrushed).
Emeritus
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Posted: Sunday, September 16, 2007 - 07:10 AM UTC
The clamping indeed helped straigthen the sagging, allowing the ends of the track to meet.
Prime time!
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Posted: Monday, September 17, 2007 - 07:10 AM UTC
Primer's on:

The spray went on nicely, no runs, pooling or obscured details. Now I'll do some touching-up with a brush and start the painting by first airbrushing interior green darkened with some black.

To make the preshade effect work properly with a solid black primer, I presume I should start with darker shades, then move up to lighter ones and while doing so, drift further away from recessses etc?
SGTJKJ
#041
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Kobenhavn, Denmark
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Posted: Wednesday, September 19, 2007 - 01:42 AM UTC
Looks good, Eetu. It is a real masterpiece you have made so far. I hope the painting part will go just as well as the construction.

Thanks for sharing
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Posted: Wednesday, September 19, 2007 - 04:47 AM UTC
Thanks.
I hoping I don't mess up with painting too.
Talking about it, here's the turret after the first coat of paint.

The photo is a little dark but gives a quite good impression of the shade.
4 parts British interior green, 1 part black, both from xtracrylics.
JeepLC
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Virginia, United States
Joined: June 20, 2007
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Posted: Wednesday, September 19, 2007 - 05:01 AM UTC
Looking great so far. Painting is always an annoyance for me. You spend hours building it; then it just takes one screw-up to set you over the edge! Good luck!

-Mike
Jamesite
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Posted: Wednesday, September 19, 2007 - 08:58 PM UTC
Great work Eetu, you're well on your way here.

Keep it up,

James
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Posted: Wednesday, September 19, 2007 - 09:37 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Painting is always an annoyance for me. You spend hours building it; then it just takes one screw-up to set you over the edge!


Well, guess what happened. I was painting the stowage box. It slipped through my fingers, heading for the floor. Now what's the dumbest thing to do if this happens with delicate parts?
Yes, you guessed it. I did bring my legs together to catch it in mid-air...

Fortunately it wasn't hard to fix. The side snapped off at two points, and only the single top beam was bent in any way. Some superglue, cursing and fiddling with the parts and it was back together.

Now the whole thing has one coat of green on:

And a word of warning. Don't use this as a color refenrece of any kind.
I posted on two Finnish forums asking for advice on the paint used on post-war tanks. As usual, experts show up after you've already started painting.
Apparently all museum vehicles (that should be) sporting a post-war paintjob, are more or less wrong. But what the legend doesn't tell, is how the exterior paint used right after ww2 should look. No documentation about it has been discovered so far. So be it. This vehicle is then being based on an inaccurately-painted museum vehicle, painted with paints of questionable accuracy.
mark197205
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Posted: Thursday, September 20, 2007 - 08:45 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Thanks.
I hoping I don't mess up with painting too.
Talking about it, here's the turret after the first coat of paint.

The photo is a little dark but gives a quite good impression of the shade.
4 parts British interior green, 1 part black, both from xtracrylics.



The first coat looks good to me Eetu.
mark197205
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Posted: Thursday, September 20, 2007 - 08:51 AM UTC

Quoted Text


Quoted Text

Painting is always an annoyance for me. You spend hours building it; then it just takes one screw-up to set you over the edge!


Well, guess what happened. I was painting the stowage box. It slipped through my fingers, heading for the floor. Now what's the dumbest thing to do if this happens with delicate parts?
Yes, you guessed it. I did bring my legs together to catch it in mid-air...

Fortunately it wasn't hard to fix. The side snapped off at two points, and only the single top beam was bent in any way. Some superglue, cursing and fiddling with the parts and it was back together.

Now the whole thing has one coat of green on:

And a word of warning. Don't use this as a color refenrece of any kind.
I posted on two Finnish forums asking for advice on the paint used on post-war tanks. As usual, experts show up after you've already started painting.
Apparently all museum vehicles (that should be) sporting a post-war paintjob, are more or less wrong. But what the legend doesn't tell, is how the exterior paint used right after ww2 should look. No documentation about it has been discovered so far. So be it. This vehicle is then being based on an inaccurately-painted museum vehicle, painted with paints of questionable accuracy.



Ooops!!
It could have been a lot worse though, you could have had a completely crushed rack.
As long as your happy with the finish dont worry about it being absolutely an exact match.
emroglan
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Posted: Thursday, September 20, 2007 - 08:12 PM UTC

Quoted Text


Quoted Text

Painting is always an annoyance for me. You spend hours building it; then it just takes one screw-up to set you over the edge!


Well, guess what happened. I was painting the stowage box. It slipped through my fingers, heading for the floor. Now what's the dumbest thing to do if this happens with delicate parts?
Yes, you guessed it. I did bring my legs together to catch it in mid-air...

Fortunately it wasn't hard to fix. The side snapped off at two points, and only the single top beam was bent in any way. Some superglue, cursing and fiddling with the parts and it was back together.

Now the whole thing has one coat of green on:

And a word of warning. Don't use this as a color refenrece of any kind.
I posted on two Finnish forums asking for advice on the paint used on post-war tanks. As usual, experts show up after you've already started painting.
Apparently all museum vehicles (that should be) sporting a post-war paintjob, are more or less wrong. But what the legend doesn't tell, is how the exterior paint used right after ww2 should look. No documentation about it has been discovered so far. So be it. This vehicle is then being based on an inaccurately-painted museum vehicle, painted with paints of questionable accuracy.



Wow Eetu, this build is really something...

As for the paint accuracy, you have a "super weapon". You can easily claim this is the "right" color. If someone contradicts you, you can easily say, "Oh yeah? What is the right color then, can you show me your references?". I'd say anything reasonable goes as long as the information is complete and there are definite facts backing it up.
Jamesite
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Posted: Thursday, September 20, 2007 - 08:24 PM UTC
Great work so far Eetu, and unlucky with the rack (I always seem to break something during the painting stage too!). Just a quick point, is it me, or the camera, but your base coat looks more grey than green to me?

Keep up the good work,

Cheers,

James
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Posted: Thursday, September 20, 2007 - 10:19 PM UTC
Thanks for the compliments.

Quoted Text


As long as your happy with the finish dont worry about it being absolutely an exact match.


Now that's the funny issue. There's no documents on the original immediate post-war paint. Just the info that museum vehicles got it wrong. (I wonder where people got that from?)


Quoted Text

Just a quick point, is it me, or the camera, but your base coat looks more grey than green to me?


It's a bit of both, actually.
I've taken these painting photos at my airbrushing spot, and the light there distorts the colors a little, making it look a little more grey than in reality.
This one I took at my desk, the green showing more realistically (where I managed to spray it before the incident with my legs):

The darkened paint indeed is leaning a little towards grey, but that'll be fixed.

Here's some more progress.
To further accent recesses and details, I applied a black wash with a brush.


...And sprayed over the washed areas with a more darkened paint mix (could have been even darker, IMO)



Next I'll spray straight interior green to flat areas and to universally break up the monotony.
But I got to be going now, AZ models' new Finnish MS.406 has arrived to my favorite LHS. Impulse buying time!
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Posted: Saturday, September 22, 2007 - 06:36 AM UTC
Now I got the basic color on. British interior green more or less misted over the darker mix. This time I took the picture on my modeling desk.

That goes a little too sepia-toned, but gives a better idea of the color. The light at my airbrushing spot greyed out the color.
I think decals should go on next.
HARV
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Posted: Sunday, September 23, 2007 - 03:22 AM UTC
I finally had a chance to do some work on my M8. I finished up the construction of the interior and did some of the detail painting.



I hope to get the main construction finished today and start on some weathering. I still haven't decided on what to do for German markings yet but I have a couple of ideas. My goal is to be finished with this kit by next weekend.

Thanks for looking,

HARV
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Posted: Sunday, September 23, 2007 - 05:42 AM UTC
Today I discovered something. There was a strange smudge on the side. Like an uncontrolled burst of paint had hit the model, or a varnished spot. I hadn't done either. Puzzled, I tried to fix the spot by overspraying it with first straight interior green, after that looking quite awful, I went over again with a darker mix. Better, but itäs still there. I hope I can blend it in later stages of finishing.


Thinking about it, the only thing I had done near the model after painting was cleaning my airbrush with vallejo's airbrush cleaner fluid. I applied a drop to the belly of the tank. And bingo, I think I know what caused the spot on the side:
SGTJKJ
#041
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Kobenhavn, Denmark
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Posted: Sunday, September 23, 2007 - 07:43 AM UTC
Looks great Eetu! Too bad about the thinner on the side. Maybe you should just let it dry out for a day or two and then try to paint it over again? Anyway, I hope you solve it. Your project is stunning in the level of detail.

Looking forward to see more