After I made a complete mess of the first time I tried to do a blog on this , I'm back for another go.
First up is the .50cal . Almost lost patience with this,but was determined to use the Voyager parts,had to drill out the gun to get it all to line up,got there in the end.




After alot of fiddling,with my big hands



And in place,and yes it moves up and down



The rest of the half-track.....





Doors and stowage bins also operate,this is only for ease of painting for me



Back end,all using the Voyager etch again



A few last shots





Its all just tacked in place for the moment,will be pulled apart again for the painting process,and final details still to be added.Got this much done quite quick for me because I want to do some painting....need to finish the stowage for my M1.
Last few of the track area...





So,untill next time when hopefully I will be happily air-brushing and weathering away,thanks for looking,
John.

Good pe work John, I don't know hiow you have the patience for it but the results look great.

She looks good, John. You've used a really nice mix of plastic and PE, and I see a few additions of you own doing. Well done.....It should really look the deal with the paint on.

take care,
Rick

Nice job on the gun. Your perseverence paid off.

How do ,
have been spraying base coats and camo , for this model I thought I would not put a primer coat on it as I never used to , which turned out to be a mistake. The paint did not take to well and it took alot of coats and several spraying sessions to get here,








Here is the chassis , with a little preliminary weathering......



The .30 cal



And painted, used auto-motive black , straight from the can, will weather it up later



Wheels and tracks.....



Will stick every thing together , give it a coat of Johnsons for the dashboard decals and start getting it a bit dirtier, untill next time,

John.

Looking good. I like the camo, where was the scheme used.

thats the smart kit isnt it?
if it is that camo is possibly the one on front of the box
based in italy?

Hello again,
might need some help here, I'm fully in two minds as to what to do,take a look at this......



now I made the marking by cutting it out of artist film and then spraying,I think the bonnet one looks ok,but not too sure of the side marking , which I used Eduard masks left over from a Sherman project





Its got a single coat of johnsons on it aswell, just not sure of it at the moment.

Thanks for looking , John.

looks good to me John.

Hi,

Fine progress
I wait for final effect

Adam

hello john
i made this kit when it first of all came out and found it the most difficult injection kit that i have ever attempted to put together i used no pe and went for a straight olive drab finish only because once i'd started i just couldn't wait to get the bloody thing finished .but it looks to me that your doing a great job(the .50 cal is great to).
what was the problem with the primer ? & what paint are you useing ? & when do we get to see the m1 with the stowage

all the best
neil

keep it up, the ringlet around the star on the side is a bit large, but if you did it yourself who am i to complain! nie job so far. looking through this thread again makes me want to post pictures of mine again, but cus of family squabbles(lol) i woult be able to. and theres not much fun in textualo updateS!

Once again keep it up you have a nice kit going on there

Nah, that's quite nice actually, there are several photos of Half tracks in books about North Africa/Italy that show not only very thick rings, ( some much thicker than portrayed here ) but random sized rings as well as 'crooked' placement of such. Other than the way the ring is thicker along the top right section as opposed to the rest, I think the markings look fine.

The star on the hood seems a bit large and the ring a bit thin but I think it will be fine.

Looking good.

i suppose its cus im used to perfect ones from decals, in reality they were stencilled wherent they

Hey , thanks for all the replies.
The bonnet markings are copied off the dragon decal sheet for sizing. And it would seem that most of the M2's that I am basing this one on have that marking in that size.
Going to leave it as is , working on the dash-board at the moment , will post later.
And will post pics of the finished M1 in the modern forum when done......



There's the commander for you , awaiting some turret gear.

Got it all stuck together and lined up and done a little weathering , will get more dust on it soon and I've yet to finish the driver figure for it , thats why the steering wheel is not yet fitted......













Thanks for looking , will hopefully get more done soon , but I have also been busy building another bike , all the best see you soon.

John.

how you do the dusT?

Hello John,

I observe this project from start and I think, that you do good job!
Execution of markings is excellent!

Adam

Hello again , made the driver , tried sculpting the arms myself , not entirely happy with them but it was the only way to get the pose I wanted.
Painted with humbrol,tamiya and oils




there he is.......great

In his chair......





The rest of it , with a bit more air-brushed dust and pigments





30 cal on the rear end.....



Thats all for now , will do some weathering , but its essentially finished as I want to do some-thing else now for the rest of the year . Har Har.

See you soon , and all the best,

John.

The machine guns look just fantastic ! This is a horrible job, been there and lost the battle because of a tiny bit of glue on my tooth pick (had to clean up and of course...ruined the shape of the PE). Congrats ! G.

Great work John, amazing what you've done wrt the PE. Like your scheme and weathering/dust effects as well, you've made it look easy!

Thanks for sharing your work! Fantastic!

Cheers -
Tim

Thanks for the replies and comments , Guy and Tim , the one thing you worry about when posting is that no-one replies or looks at your work , so thanks again.

I am now working on a panther , which I have some nice pictures of , will post in the constructive comments forum when I think it's ready , or good enough to show.

Pictures of the actual tank that is , not my model.

Thanks again for all that took time to look and post.

John.