@Bigrip74 - Bob, that circle template has been with me since high school. The last time I used it for a scratch built turret was like two decades ago. Took me half an hour to find it and my other drafting stuff. I used a small compass with a needle end on each side to scribe out the hole for the straw. There's got to be a quicker method!

Cheers,
Jan

Jan, re: the screen. Have you tried any nylon hoseriey? I used old panty hose for screens on my a/c in the 80's and found that some screen door mesh would work. I do not know if any of these will be what you need for 1/72, but it is worth a try.

Bob

Jan,
That would be perfect for the reference requirement.
On the screen, here is proof of the rear stack, I've never seen a photo from above of the front stack so I'm not sure but I would assume that if they took the time for the rear...



Since there is no exact proof I'll leave it up to you.
I'll keep looking through my pics for any.
Good luck with those stacks, I'm very impressed with your scratchbuilding,
Bob


Look what I just found;

I can see the screen in the rear but I see no screen in the front, I think they left it off because of the closeness of the stack to the engine doors. This is a photo from Guam by the way.

I posted my finished photos in the gallery. Saipan diorama and I finally added the antenna to the Hellcat. Don't think I will finish anything else for this campaign but I may get the Type 1 done.

Bob C. - Thank you for your approval of the source and the ability for me to remain in this great campaign. Based on your excelant pictures I am presuming that they (the screen) is about the same dimensions as a chain link fence material. I must also rethink the intake cover. My previous dimension of 1/10 " is too high based on your last picture. I'll come up with something (I hope).

@Bigrip - I investigated the pantyhose (much to the SWMBO's displeasure) and the weave is far too tight and the spaces be tween threads doesn't allow paint to show a void. Tried medical gauze this eveving and it had some potential. Thanks for the suggestions.

Cheers,
Jan

Jan, I never thought of the medical guaze sounds interesting for another build of mine. Thanks for sharing the idea.

Bob

Gday mates , I'm a late entry with an Italeri LVT-4 Water Buffalo in 1/35th scale .
I have been following this campaign and recently saw a Buffalo at Bandiana Army Museum in Australia during a trip east

Then I picked up the kit at Melbournes Model Expo .
So I'm away !

Alright Russ! Excellent job on Margaret and the Hellcat. If you have a chance I would like to see how you did the grasses and final painting of the figures, they both turned out excellent and both are my problem areas. And this makes you the Official 4th completer of the Campaign, Congrats!

And Welcome to another enlistee Brian Bullock, callsign: bpunchy. Brian there is still 60 days left, plenty of time for that LVT 4, any specific LVT or battle you are trying to model? A lot of references have been discussed already concerning the LVT 4, Sal has completed one and may be helpful in that area. Thanks for joining in.

So far the completion status
1st. David Carlson CALLSIGN: TheDiggs, USS SAMUEL B. ROBERTS (DE 413)
2nd. Thomas F. Sweeney, CALLSIGN: tsweeney, Diorama Tarawa Marines at the wall
3rd. Sal CALLSIGN: ltb073, LVT 4 Saipan
4th. Russ Callsign: russamotto, Margaret, Diorama Saipan and Hellcat, Pacific Operations
Close to completion;
Grant Voakes, CALLSIGN: GVoakes, to finish just pick one of the models submitted in the gallery and select the reference for it. Should be a piece of cake Grant.

Thanks everyone and am looking forward to more updates, I’ll do mine in just a bit,
Bob

No problem will be glad to help if I can. I liked the LVT- 4 so mush that I was looking for an LVT-4A to use if the All American Campaign goes anywhere.

I have completed a bunch but have a far way to go before I can call it finished.
The overall diorama status almost finished the wires, antennas and poles. Lowered the palm trees below the height of the poles and added some camo to the tops;


The Items still in boxes or sitting around the diorama are things I still have to do.





I also finished the main radio set but still have to make 2 more boxes for equipment and the canvas bags for the poles;



And just a couple of pics of the finished decals;




Still have to add additional small palms, bushes and additional base items;
So much to do,
Bob

@ Bob Card: I am really impressed, that is a great dio. Maybe we can persuade you to do a photo spread of the build process for reference.

Bob Rippy

Bob,
I have to agree that is turning out great. That base must be about 2 1/2 feet across. Where did the radio come from?

Hi All.

As promised, here some pics of Bushmaster as far as I got it done between Italian beer and reading tons of books:




The tarps are Milliput rolled thin in flour and smoothed out with a coupla coats of Mr. Surfacer. The stuff under them is junk i got with me. All a bit improvised but hey...


Tell me what you think. I know its an awfull lot like Bob's beauty but the picture I try to model will be a lot more bleak an muddy than your scenery. So no thunder-stealling here, if possible at all!!

Hi Bob Card , thanks . It is my understanding that I must model a specific vehicle from this campaign , am I correct ?
I will follow the fine work that Sal has done ( thanks Sal for offering with help )in research and see what is appropriate .
On seeing the Buffalo at Bandiana I was impressed with the massive size of these beasts .
Also saw one at Puckapunya tank museum with a tank turret on top I'll upload a photo after work .

Bob, the dio looks great. Tons of detail there that is really impressive. For my grass I used natural fiber twine for the coarse grass which I unwound and combed to separate the strands, and woodland scenics model railroad grass for the fine green grass. I just drilled holes into the base, put in a drop of CA glue and carefully inserted the grass. On the figures, I looked up every figure painting guide I could from this site and Historicus. Faces were painted with Golden artist acrylics, which goes on very smoothly.

Leo, Bushmaster looks great. The decal is very fragile so good luck with it. Mine fell apart when I tried to put it on.

I am trying to get this done by the deadline . Hwere are pic's of the progress





I am hopeing that all is completed and will post again soon.

Thomo, nice work on the tank. I like the camo.

Bob

Just uploaded photos of my completed model to the gallery (Tarawa-Colorado). I used primarily the following reference photos of Colorado as well as those provided by Bob C. earlier in the thread. This has been a great campaign! Thanks, Bob!

Michael,
Very nice job, well done, not all caked up with muck I like it.

Wow, Michael..!! That one looks good! Nice even finish, not too dirty. Perfect.

What galery are you talking about if i might ask that bluntly? The in progress pics here and the finished Dio where? I shouldn't bother Bob again...

Also: What filter to use with OD? Is there a ready made appliable SIN-Industries filter?
I got some painting done and need to smoothe in the water-tighting stuff on Bushmaster. Still looks too painted on.

Sal and Leo - thanks!

Leo, the gallery is where we upload our completed photos. Pacific Campaign Gallery When you're finished with your model, go to this page, log in, then click Upload in the top right.

As far as filters go, I've been using two sets of SIN Industries filters - Allied set and Afrika Korps set. If you keep them mixed well, you can actually use the Afrika Korps set as a wash for dust/dirt.

WOW, decide to take Father’s Day off and see a bunch of new posts.

First thanks guys for the comments on my dio, I’ll update my news at the end.

Leo,
Outstanding job looks to be about as perfect as you can get. If you plan on coping the photo I would love to know how you plan on doing the mud. There sure is plenty of it there. Really like the added stowage, I just paper towel for my tarps, cheaper. Since Michael answered your question on the gallery I can only add on the “mud” for as much as you might need for the diorama if you plan on one, I use just about anything I can for the main filler and body and just use powders and pastels for the covering color and blending them in on the tank, haven’t done a mud bath as yet but it might work out.

Brian,
Yep need the reference, but they are easy to come by. You really know how they are until you stand right next to them. I was surprised at how small some of the tanks could get. I would like to see that LVT 4 photo. First thought was LVT 4 with a turret, and then I remembered the LVT 4 (A), felt a bit DA there for a second.

Russ,
Thanks for the grass tip; I have some of that grass so I’ll give it a try to see how it comes out. I haven’t heard of the Golden artist acrylics, I’ll have to try and find them.

Thomo,
Nice job on the tank, nice smooth paint job, mines a bit messy. Excellent work on the tracks also.

Michael,
WOW, excellent work on Colorado! And a nice little base to go with it, great work on the Marines, overall looks great. I looked at your photos in the gallery and this make you the 5th Completer of the Campaign, congrats!

So far the completion status
1st. David Carlson CALLSIGN: TheDiggs, USS SAMUEL B. ROBERTS (DE 413)
2nd. Thomas F. Sweeney, CALLSIGN: tsweeney, Diorama Tarawa Marines at the wall
3rd. Sal CALLSIGN: ltb073, LVT 4 Saipan
4th. Russ Callsign: russamotto, Margaret, Diorama Saipan and Hellcat, Pacific Operations
5th, Michael Armbrister: Callsign; mopnglo, Colorado Diorama, Tarawa

Close to completion;
Grant Voakes, CALLSIGN: GVoakes, to finish just pick one of the models submitted in the gallery and select the reference for it.

For my status;
Bob for photos just go here; Guam
I take photos of as many steps as I can

Sal, I haven’t measured it but I think your real close, about 2+ feet.

I had enough time to finally construct my people and gather the stowage all around the dio;





Hopefully this week I can paint them all. Still have to try out Russ’s grass idea, and add a few more bushes. Not to mention getting the stowage painted and located.

Thanks guys for the updates,
Bob

Evenin' bros.

Got some paintin done, those tarps are killin me, as they're quite bright and I use valejo pale sand as a base. I'm tryin' not to get impatient, but boy oh boy is it tedious.

Michael: thanks so much for the tip, will go shoppin right away. Awesome botanics btw!

Bob: Well, then you're as smart as I am. Remember, this is my first dio, my third sherm and my seventh tank ever (who's counting...). But I got a pretty good idea where to start. Lots of it will be plaster, grass roots dried up in the oven (might work, never tried) and ground up cat litter. For colour and saturation mig-pigments. Well, thats the plan anyways. Still got to do the tank first.
And, oh no: I noticed you're using the marine and cameraman, right? was the only figure I found resembling a little bit my tanker. This is bordering on vicious copying. Well, I'll dig up somebody else.

How on earth did you two do so gorgeous palmtree-stems? Huh? How? I just need the lying broken one in the left corner anyways...

Got to get some chow in me, long day. Send some pics afterwards.

Alright, better. Now - pics:





The hatch...well. First I was going for a replacement. But I wanted to have the tank ready to spray when I was gonna get home from Italy. So...I tried to pimp it a little. Slapped in a carved curvy-angle-thingy where it's hinged at the hull and tried to beef up the cast structure. Plus wire grip and woalah. Has to make do. Clock's ticking badly!!

Oh btw:

what do you think of the waterproofing-stuff? I'm really uncomfortable with it. Looks like some six-year-old painted it on even though i tried to smooth it in by sponging on some of the paint. What do you think?