Let me start by saying that there are some extremely impressive Braille Scale builds in this forum. My kudos to the modellers here.

As the title mentions, this is my 1/72 entry in the Stryker-Chariots of Fire campaign. It is only the second campaign that I have been involved with and also only my second build this year. The kit was interesting to build but while the detail is great, it did have it's flaws. Not all the parts fit perfectly and putty and sanding were required in areas. The build is pretty much out of the box but with minor (or for some not so minor) enhancements such as creating brass grab/hatch handles and boring out the lifting eyes. (see below)



Bored out lifting eye.



I'm still new at using our DSLR camera so the pictures of the completed build could obviously be better. I took over 100 shots experimenting with various camera settings and lighting conditions.













I'd like to thank my SWMBO for both her encouragement and help with weathering and photography.

Thanks for looking!

Cross-eyed tread_geek

Nice looking Stryker Tread Geek! I like the weathering, not too overdone. You got a winner!
Can you elaborate on the areas you had trouble with?

Interesting that you had some of the trouble that you did. Mine only got about 1/2 way done and stalled out. Too much going on in November. I need to recheck mine and would like to know more about the parts fit issues that you had.

Kerry and Kent (Panther64 & MacTrucks),

I must have gotten a latter (more recent kit) as mine had a noticeable amount of flash on several parts (mold was more worn?). What comes to mind are the headlights, .50 Cal MG, remote weapon pedestal, and the ring above the commanders hatch. The latter most part required the addition of strips of Evergreen plastic to allow the ring to sit at a proper height above the periscopes. The side storage racks and the Jerry can mounts needed to have their mounting pins trimmed to fit their respective installation holes/slots. Also in my case, the openings for the drivers periscopes were 3/4 obscured by flash. I had to trim them out with a very sharp X-Cel (super sharp XACTO) type blade. The really major filling/sanding area was the rear sponsoons, behind the rear most wheels. These parts just didn't mate as well as I would have hoped and required putty and sanding.

The vinyl tires are nice but mine had these threads of material on the inside where the hub meets. It wasn't a big deal to trim them but I didn't catch them until my first base coat of paint. The last issue that I can recall is that the headlight guards were deformed as they were the wrong shape to fit into their locating holes. I ran them under hot water and carefully teased them into their proper contour. Any more questions, please feel free to ask. It's not a bad kit but might need a bit of coaxing in areas.

Hope this helps!

Jan

Thanks Jan for the heads-up. Sounds like an old mold problem, don't know if anyone else had the same problem? I don't have that particular kit yet so I can't cast a vote on it. Anyway, great looking Stryker.

Thanks again for the compliment, Kerry. I found a picture from my build of the parts and marked it up with potential problem areas. The original was over 10 Megapixel so I was able to see where the flash on mine was pretty well. I forgot to mention in my last posting the headlight guards. They and a couple of similar pieces had extra bits on them also. Don't know if you can see much but here's the pict.




Hope this helps!

Jan

Lovely model! The mud, like others have said, is great...not too over done. Sometime I don't know when to stop.

Jack,

Thanks for the comments, I appreciate them. Only two builds so far this year and I hope that I can keep up the standard. There is so much to relearn.

Thanks,
Jan