Hey, Bob. I have the decals for the wolf logo left over from the M4 composite I built last spring. I'll have to figure out how to fix all the stowage on the rear. I had read that having the T-36e9(?) steel cleat tracks installed made the grousers unnecessary. They added 500 lbs to the weight of the tank so the grousers weren't carried. I sure do wish there were some good crew figures for the PTO in plastic.

For my latest update for the 55 gal drum stacks.
My major concerns were the alignment of the stacks and what was needed to lay the rear stack against the rear plate.

To get the stact to lay against the rear I had to revearse it and cut off the lower tab to angle it towars the plate.



Then to fill all the holes;



Not bad but I will probably have to play with it a bit more.

Almost more trouble then it's worth but it's the only way to make these stacks work.
Bob


I also noticed a couple of more spots that need to be filled. And need to work a bit on my welds

Hi everyone,

Time for another update.

Calvin- the IJN Yukikaze ship is 1/350 scale.

Bob, so far the only pictures I have found for the Yukikaze are from wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_destroyer_Yukikaze). I saved them to my other computer and will post in a bit.

I added some photos to my flickr stream for this campaign (http://www.flickr.com/photos/billycash/sets/72157623051515949/).

This depicts recent progress with the Tamiya 1/48 'Dinah'. I should be posting some reference pics as well as more recent progress soon as well but since I had to process these pics before I could take more.







Not too terribly exciting but I should be able to provide another update soon.

Billy

ps. My PE kit for the IJN boat came today, so it might be back to work on that here as well.

Some pictures I found of the Yukikaze at GlobalSecurity.com (http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/japan/kagero-dd-pics.htm)















also, some interesting work has gone into modeling the Yukikaze- this page looks rad: http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/dd/ijn/yukikaze-350-rm/rm-index.html

btw- my PE didn't come today so will continue with the 'Dinah' bird. I have some scratching to do here as well as sources to collect.

enjoy!

Billy,
Thanks for the photos. Don't you wish you could put those bridge details into the model
Tose should provide some great references when you get to finishing up the model. At 1/350 they should be pretty tiny.
On the Dinah I hope there are some more parts off camera. Both should keep you busy for a while.

Thanks again,
Bob

While I'm waiting for the weather to allow me to paint, I've started on the M5A1 early. I'm impressed with the kit details. Everything is sharply defined. There is some interior detail and everything is set up for an interior kit. They have the M8 coming out at some point, but I sure wish AFV Club would do a full interior for the M5 like they did for the T-34. I'll post photos soon of what I have done.

Hi to all:

I´ve been working in my model and in the last weeks this is what I got so far..

In the turret the right cheek armor was added with milliput in a trial and error basis after the milliput cured it will be sand to give the final shape to the turret.





the final result:





In the lower hull, 8 bolts were addded to each side and the final drive cover s are too small in diameter so, I have to correct with estirene to give the most identical looking. the final result is barely noticeableafter the tracks are fixed.





After the lower and hupper hull were glued, the photoetched rail was fixed and I have to made an estirene frame to each side of the tank in order to support the side protection.



the "wood plank" protection in estirene adde to each side of the tank..



With a small rod of milliput I filled the union to represent the concrete poured in those tanks..





You could see that the the engine deck with separate engine access doors with louver detail were copied from the Sherman Late PTO with the correct number of louvers





That´s all for today I hope you liked the result achieved so far..

comments???...

Cheers.

Well, as promised, a couple of quick pics of my progress so far. Sorry for the quality - a bit blurry but I think they get the point across.

Type 3 Chi Nu



Type 1 Shinhoto Chi Ha



I have also spent some time assembling Fruil track.

Hope to get more assembly and paint onto them on the weekend...

I've been working on my figures while I wait for the M4A2 mid-production and add ons I need to go with it. The Marines are about 95% done, the Japanese are about 80% along. The Ha-Go is almost done as well, painted waiting and for weathering; it might be replaced by a type 94 tankette. Got to see how it shakes out.

Hey, guys I have come across some Japanese propaganda posters, and have saved them in my gallery here. Anybody who needs/wants a copy should be able to access them there.

Wow some great work going on.

Russ, really looking forward to seeing some photos of that M5A1. A topic I've been waiting to do on my own.

Gabriel, that cheek add-on looks great. Tour doing a fantastic job, you also reminded me about that little addition to the front assembly next to those 8 bolt heads on each side, I always forget that detail. Nice planking and concrete filler also.

Grant also has a great start and thanks for the photos.

John, thanks for the posters, any possibility to get them translated? Looking forward to seeing some of your in progress on that Ha-Go.

Sorry guys, just getting over a bad cold, hopefully the last of 3 days worth of fun, I hate being sick. And now onto the what happened in February WWII;

February 1, 1942 - First U.S. aircraft carrier offensive of the war as YORKTOWN and ENTERPRISE conduct air raids on Japanese bases in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands.
February 1, 1943 - Japanese begin evacuation of Guadalcanal.
February 2, 1942 - Japanese invade Java in the Dutch East Indies.
February 3, 1945 - U.S. Sixth Army attacks Japanese in Manila.
February 1-7, 1944 - U.S. Troops capture Kwajalein and Majura Atolls in the Marshall Islands.
February 8/9 1942- Japanese invade Singapore.
February 8, 1943 - British-Indian forces begin guerrilla operations against Japanese in Burma.
February 9, 1943 - Japanese resistance on Guadalcanal ends.
February 14, 1942 - Japanese invade Sumatra in the Dutch East Indies.
February 15, 1942 - British surrender at Singapore.
February 16, 1945 - U.S. Troops recapture Bataan in the Philippines.
February 17/18 1944- U.S. Carrier-based planes destroy the Japanese naval base at Truk in the Caroline Islands.
February 19, 1942 - Largest Japanese air raid since Pearl Harbor occurs against Darwin, Australia; Japanese invade Bali.
February 19, 1945 - U.S. Marines invade Iwo Jima.
February 20, 1942 - First U.S. fighter ace of the war, Lt. Edward O'Hare from the LEXINGTON in action off Rabaul.
February 20, 1944 - U.S. Carrier-based and land-based planes destroy the Japanese base at Rabaul.
February 22, 1942 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders General MacArthur out of the Philippines.
February 23, 1942 - First Japanese attack on the U.S. mainland as a submarine shell an oil refinery near Santa Barbara, California.
February 23, 1944 - U.S. Carrier-based planes attack the Mariana Islands.
February 24, 1942 - ENTERPRISE attacks Japanese on Wake Island.
February 24, 1944 - Merrill's Marauders begin a ground campaign in northern Burma.
February 26, 1942 - First U.S. carrier, the LANGLEY, is sunk by Japanese bombers.
February 27- March 1 - Japanese naval victory in the Battle of the Java Sea as the largest U.S. warship in the Far East, the HOUSTON, is sunk.
For a more detailed listing go to;

1942
1943
1944
1945

Thanks everyone, Looking forward to some more photos, Like to see how everyone is doing,
Bob

http://skibuilds4u.weebly.com/

I've just uploaded some useful reference material to my site, the site is truly a work in progress so forgive the paucity of content. The reference material includesJapanese Army Handbooktext here, Japanese Infantry Weapons, Japanese Defense Against Landings. I've also included the Japanese Propaganda Posters there as well for whomever needs/wants copies of those files. All the Japanese Handbooks were intel handbooks published during the war. Enjoy

Thanks John,
Some great info, I have seen some of the defense against landings in a couple of other places but this is the first all together. Still waiting for those translations for the posters
Thanks again John,
Bob

Not entirely sure that I can get them translated since I don't speak or read the language. If it was German I would have a better chance having been stationed there and learned to speak it fairly well. Any chance that you know any Japanese speakers?

Not a chance.....
They are interesting in them selves, I copied them and hopefully I can get some printed to stick in a dio somewhere.
Thanks Again,
Bob

My Ha-Go is now a Ha-Gone|:( , thanks to the family cat (this is why I am a dog person, he never chewed up any of my hobby stuff). She apparently mistook my workshop (note to self, put a door on the workshop!!) for a place where she is allowed and the turret for a chew toy. Needless to say it was wrecked, and trying to fix it made things worse. My 1/6 Gi.I. Joes might soon have real fur for the Arctic explorer's parka, LOL. So, I am going to replace the Ha-Go with a Type 97 Ryuko motorcycle as according to Tarawa by Robert Sherrod there were several motorcycles found on the island after the battle ended, surprisingly they were still in operating condition, as were what can be presumed to be a Kurogane car from the author's description of the vehicle.

Hi guys! I hope you all are having better luck than I am. I have a couple of other projects on the go and none are going smoothly. I sat down the other day to work on the Sherman and guess what! I can't find the instructions for the life of me. I've been working on cleaning up the suspension components and wanted a change. That's when I realized the instructions had disappeared. I fairly sure that I will be doing Destroyer and was lucky enough to find some 55 gallon drums in one of the spare parts boxes.

I did take some pictures of the turret and hull and I am totally amazed at the detail. Welding seems on the hull and even the turret shows a texture from the casting process. It also gave me an excuse to try out my macro filters and "Softbox" flash attachment. Here's the hull and I'm going to work on the grill cover that holds a part of a drum.



The turret with the nice texture.



Now back to the instruction hunt.

Cheers,
Jan

A rough translation from Babelfish says this one saying something like "The shooting xx does the stopping xx xx" (the xx is for a character that Bebelfish did not recognize) on the right (Japanese when printed vertically is read top to bottom, right to left). On the left it says "30th Entrance time" in black with "Army Commemoration Day" in red. At the bottom, I think it says "HQ Department of the Army". At least that is what it says when read right to left but I believe when Japanese is written horizontally, it's read left to right.

On the left, the lines read:
"Young people, ladies and gentlemen!!"
"Hurry!"
"To decision xx place of sky of sea"
On the right, it reads "Naval volunteer recruit".

So, these two seem to be recruiting posters. Something you would see in Japan and maybe Okinawa.

Thanks for the translation, Gary -- You sir are indeed the man! I never even thought of Babelfish, I've heard of it but never used it.

Bob, now we know it's not saying "kick me" or "beef and broccoli" LOL when we use them in a diorama.

Babelfish makes it possible for anyone to get a rough translation. Another hard part is entering the text. There is a program called JWPce that runs under Windows that allows one to enter Japanese (though I wish Katakana support were better). Looking up Kanji is probably the most difficult part. After I have entered a sentence in JWPce, I copy and paste it into Babelfish to see what I get. Usually if the English comes back with a Kanji character in it, it means you got the wrong Kanji or Babelfish just doesn't know what to do with it. The English you get back is sometimes reminiscent of what one sees in translated instruction sheets and can lead to much head scratching.

Thanks Gary for the translations. It still leaves a couple to put on a palm tree.

John, sorry to hear about your cat, GI Joes get cold too, I'm sure they would appreaciate the thoughtfulness.

Jan let us know the exact instructions your looking for, maybe someone can help.

I finally finished the 55 gal wading stacks, came out pretty good, I also added the waterproofing tape around the bottoms.




Should be able to finish it up by the end of the month,
Hope everyone else is moving along,
Bob

Jan Etal- Tread_Geek m4a2 Tarawa- working on turret
Gabriel Aleman- Gabe M4a2 Saipan- working on upper hull
Robert Rippy- Bigrip74-
m3a1 stuart- started
Bob Card- BobCard- m4a2 Adamzapple- working on upper hull
Calvin ng- Calvin_ng M5a1 stuart kwajelein atoll- started lower hull
Billy Cash Guille- IJN Yukikaze 1/350 - unknown 1/48 scale KI-46 Dinah- progressing steadily
Russ Amott- Russamotto- Hellcat (aircraft)-Interior work
P-40? - decaling stage

I promise that photos of my progress will come soon

Bob, I wrote the review of the M4 Tarawa so I have the instruction scans on my home server. It's just a PITA to have to walk over to look at them on the screen.

Progress has been slow due to the size and handling of some parts. The gunners periscope took a half hour to trim and set in place. I had it shoot out of tweezers onto the floor three times while trying to clean it up with a micro-file. It was a bit too large for the opening and wouldn't behave when trying to get it in. The mantlet itself was made up of six pieces and as luck would have it the internal piece that everything builds on also had to be trimmed.







Now the real fun begins with the periscope covers and guards. The guards are small but have flash spots on their ends. I might try the PE ones for a change.

Cheers,
Jan

Made some more progress with the multiple builds. The P-40 is mostly done. All the decals (minus the one I lost) are one. I painted the stripe around the fuselage as that decal broke apart.



Still needs some work but I can set it aside for a while and work on the others.
I started putting the decals on the Hellcat. There are only about 397 of them. I have one side nearly complete. I have an Aeroscale decal sheet with white 9, flown by Charles Stimson. The stenciling data on this decal sheet are slightly larger and printing is neater than the Eduard sheet.





AFV Club M5A1 Stuart, early. It takes two kits to get a full set of road wheels that match. There are some interior details, the hull hatches are workable, suspension is fully workable, and the new sprues are excellent. The older M3A3 sprue that has the turret and gun parts is older and had a lot of flash. A lot of dry fitting is required to get things to line up well, but it is very nicely detailed.








The mesh screens are very fine and delicate. Mine were slightly bent in shipping and the rear screen warped when the CA glue didn't set evenly. I tried to gently push it back level and the screen bent in. The front screen is straight but the edge was broken, also in shipping. The idlers both have the sink mark so some filling will be needed for that and the seam. The MG barrels are notched on the end, which is a nice touch, and the other details are very nice. The 37mm gun is hollowed out on the end and rifled. I'm going to build this one buttoned up the the late M5A1 will have the hatches open. It's a very nice kit but it deserves a full interior like AFV Club did for the T-34.

Looks like most everyone else is progressing very nicely. John, sorry to hear about your tank. Cats are evil. Too much like politicians.

I finally retired from Govt service (civillian) - no weapons but lots of battles - and might have some time for fun. Have some friends that were Marine tankers and thus my interest in USMC armor. Thinking about doing a M7 105mm HMC used by Marine SPC on Okinawa in 1/35. From what photos I have seen, the Marines had intermediate production vehicles, either bolted trans cover with straight-arm bogie or cat trans cover with the initial M3 no arm bogie. Lower hulls were likely bolted M3 types. Wheels were usually pressed, but also at least one spoked. All had the early shallow pulpit but had added hinged armor flaps on the upper hull. I am guessing the interior was also upgraded for additional shell storage and removed crew seats? My plans, having an old Italaeri Preist M7 and a brand new "super special deal" Dragon M4A1 DV is to use the Dragon lower hull and modify the Italaeri upper hull to the best guess configuration for Okinawa. The Dragon M4A1 turret is destined for a model of an Army M4A1 used by the Marines for Cape Gloucester.

Bill