My last blog post was sort of cluttered and would have taken forever to get to the actual build. So I will start tonight or tomorrow morning

As you can see I am building a Leopard 2A4 as well at the same time but this blog is for the Challenger 2 from Operation Telic and doing my best to recreate this image or an interpretation of it.

So here is what I am working with so far so there's no time like the present. I only have 7 days of work before I head back to school so I will try to get as much done in this time. Hope I get some followers and all the comments are very welcomed as I will need the assistance. Updates soon to follow!

Here is some progress so far with a couple more hours of work to go tonight. I took my time masking off the areas that wont receive the anti slip coating. However my Rusto Textured Can will not work as seen on my trusty spare turret . The effect is too heavy to say the least so I will be air brushing the good ol' 500 through the spare air brush, which makes me nervous. In the pictures below you can see what I mean







More work tonight so hopefully the turret will be completed tonight

If you can find the Rust Oleum Tera Cota paint, have a look see at that. It has a much finer texture to it and goes on very well. Like your mask work by the way, looks good.

Alright, so this is it for me tonight and masking off the turret was a much harder ordeal. Before I started that I filled in the holes that are seen on the turret roof which I assume are for stowage. Anywho I believe I will be adding those circular sections as well but when I find some way to make circular discs without a punch set




And using 0.4mm masking tape I was able to get these sharp crisp lines which I feel make things much easier from an already difficult task.





Tomorrow, final masking and then the anti-slip

All comments are welcomed! Thanks for looking

Masking everything is tedious, I know. I think you missed a few spots on the turret. (unless you will do this later ) think you should use the tape around the holes also, as well as on the main lines. Also, on the circular panels on the chassis body that are not fuel ports, the inner circles should also be nonslip. I also made a mistake with that since I don't have a punch'n'die set so circular masking is pretty hard to do with consistency.
Great work! My chally still awaits the PE and resin tarps, and some paint ,)

Yes I planned on masking the rest of the turret tonight but that was so tedious it took alot out of me. I also have to mask the other turret parts as well. Also I will do the center by hand because like you said I don't have a punch. I may pick up a compass blade today but we shall see. Other than that on well on my way. I also plan on getting some transparency film or some sequins to replicate the effect you have on yours. Could you share how you got your effect? Also can you tell me what markings you plan on using, ours could be from the same unit

Looks like U are good to go!
Masking everything off is a tedious business, when U use Mr. Surface it is easily possible to remove excess spray with a X-acto blade or such. Seeing your turret, especially the gabs between the storage lids, U really don‘t need to tape these off just use a blade afterwards. The weld seams are covered with non-slip for most part except the broader ones where the turret front ends / sloped armour begins, looks like U got those correct. Nevertheless excess non-skid here can easily be remove by carefully scrapping it off.
Don‘t get to close, it‘s no problem going over some areas again after the first layer has dried.
Mario is right, U better mask or cover the antenna areas on the turret.

U can work your way through this link:
http://plain-military.tripod.com/index.html

and this one:

http://www.rommelkiste.de
click on "Specials" to your left
scroll down to Panzergefechtschießen Challenger 2der 2. Royal Tank Regiment (2.RTR)

Looking forward to your progress!
Cheers
Christopher

Chris,

Thank you for your words, having support means alot to me. Especially when I look around on here and see everyone else with tons of comments, it feels like I am a little discouraged. However, the only way to get better is to get out there and build!

Here are some updates:

I couldn't work on tuesday because I was cleaning my second airbrush from when I was a young modeler. It froze on me, i.e. had tons of paint lodged in it, so working with Airbrush Restorer without a mask really got to me so I was pretty much for the rest of the evening nor feeling good so the remaining masking would be pointless.

Yesterday was a different story. SO with a clean airbrush and a drive to get the anti-slip on I finished masking and prepared to spray.





So locking myself in the bathroom I began to spray, with my respirator ON. Starting with my trusty king tiger hull.


HOWEVER, when I sprayed I got a strange cob web effect.

I forgot to thin the Mr. Surfacer! So I thinned it with 91% Rubbing Alcohol and after removing most of the masking voila!








So with that taken care of I can do some minor touch ups in which some small portions were missed or over sprayed.

Also I had a small fit error however I was able to rectify it as the Tamiya kit is just that good.


Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate and until tonight. Hopefully I will not be too stuffed for the remainder of the detail work tonight.

There U go !!!!!!!
Wasn't that difficult after all?
Looks just like the real thing!

Well done
Christopher

I agree with Christopher, excellent work and fantastic attention to detail!

The Mr Surfacer worked a treat!

Now you just have to make yourself that Sadam monument!

It's great to see your progress. It feels like I'm looking at my own workspace, with the same results lol It's fun when you pull up all that masking and it's good, right? I have one nitpick though, it seems like you forgot to make a rectangular patch of noslip on the doghouse. Should be easy enough to fix. I always wear a respirator when I'm painting or cleaning my AB. I used to do it without but a few headaches certainly helped my decision. good to see you progress. Don't worry about the fit of the turret assembly, as far as I saw on some pics, the welds are quite prominent and not too neat on top, and you cover everything with non slip so it's really ok. I'm still having trouble figuring out the colour for my build, and i think I'll go with the kit decals, probably 11B option. Echelon decals are not much $-friendly, and I think I've spent enough on this one already.

As far as the lenses,. I've cut out pieces of a DVD that gives great reflection but it took a while to get it straigth, as the dvd surface is very hard to cut, and snaps like a twig when you look at it. Glue it using PVA glue to the back of the transparent kit pieces and off you go!

I noticed the tank is slightly yellow so from reading Modeling the Challenger 1 and 2.

The mixture is as follows and is what I will be using.

3 Parts XF-60 Dark Yellow and 1 part XF-3 Flat Yellow.

I will also undercoat it in Nato Green to show the typical paint chipping.

For a highlight color I think i'll add some buff to the mix.

Here is what I was able to do yesterday:

Essentially I tried my hand at trying to create grab handles for the first time and it didn't turn out so bad. I also began rough fitting everything to get a handle on the diorama. I also tried a little something to make the clear sections stand out by using sequins and white glue. I also assembled the Lionmarc Barrel and rough fitted it to the turret and just sat it on its base. Also, the spool of wire was just something to use as it represented the Saadam monument.

I leave back for school in the morning because at home for break I was not able to get any work done, just building models so I have to go back a day early to get some things accomplished. However, finals are around the corner so I will be back in a little over 2 and a half weeks. This time I will be home for a month and should be able to complete this build. Here are some photos:






So see you guys in about 19 days!