Jesse: This is a really cool build to be working on. I've always like the M8, but have been hesitant to add one for the "to do" list as I'm not sure if I have the skill sets to build one correctly. I think your build here will really help me out in regards to this particular vehicle. Lookin' forward to the next update.

Thanks Jeremy. Seeing all your other posts, seems like your "to do" list is about a mile long. The "easy button" is to just wait for the AFVClub kit to come out... eventually. Like I said, typically I would have looked past this old 70's kit, but with all the other bits and pieces for a great price, I couldn't pass it up. It's been a lot of fun. This blog is helping me stay motivated.

You have no idea But seriously, Armorama is doing a lot to help motivate me. I started my collection about two years ago and haven't touched anything until I joined the Kitmaker Network a couple months back, and I'm looking forward to getting back to my build logs. Regardless of whether or not AFV Club, or any manufacturer, is motivated enough to make a new tooling of this vehicle, I know that I'm going to build one someday.

So.... Been thinking about how to paint this guy, and after doing my last 3 allied subjects in... you guessed it, straight OD, I'm thinking about doing the two tone scheme from the Italian campaign. What can people tell me about it? What was the sand/yellow/tan color? Approx 50/50 coverage? 70/30?

Any help, suggestions, etc would be helpful.

Any help on the colors?

Looks great!!

I have the stuff from TMD before he changed and hopefully start it up this winter.I'll be watching yours for some good hints!!!

Andy

I'll be out of town till next friday, so no progress for a little bit. Since the last installment, I've just attached some hull details, grab handles, lifting eyes, etc. Also installed the driver controls.

And we're back... Had a nice week off doing my other hobby, but now we're back home, and was able to get some time to work on the M8.

Have been working on assembly and some detail painting of the interior. Also got the turret together.

And let's get to the pictures...

Here's a few shots of the mostly complete turret. Well, complete enough for the first paint coat.






Hull, not put together, but fitted for painting



Here's the front. My attempt at the PE brush guards from the Eduard set went astray, so I attempted to thin out the kit's thick plastic pieces. Not great, but a lot better than before thinning.


Interior shots. Very rough painting, as I didn't want to spend a lot of time here. Some quick washes of brown and dark green, and a little gunmetal chipping try to give it a used look. I'll do some more weathering in there once the exterior is painted.





And finally.... got a base coat on her.


I also managed to assemble 1 of the 6 sprues of indy link track. Very nice pieces by AFV... very little cleanup, and about 80% of the pieces are a solid friction fit. The others are loose enough that you'll want to use an adhesive. So far, I've just used Tamiya extra thin, but I'm actually pondering the idea of using MicroScale liquid tape, which is sorta a white glue on steroids to do the rest, guessing that it might give me a little more flexibility to get the track to lay right. I'll probably experiment a little in the next few days.

Thanks for looking, and hoping to have another installment in the next couple days. As always, comments are welcome. This project continues to be fun, and it's nice to see it get that first coat of paint on. Next will be to do the tan/yellow camo pattern, decals, and then start the weathering process. The end is at least in sight now, which is a nice feeling. The postman has been delivering new projects, so I'm looking forward to getting this little guy on the shelf and moving on.

Sounds great Jesse, looking forward to seeing this guy come together

Oh, in case anyone is wondering.... basecoat is a mixture of D.O.A. Olive Drab and Field Drab to lighten it up a bit. The paint went on well, but next time I'll prime the resin so it I can use fewer coats. All the interior details were painted with Tamiya paints.

I've decided that rather than use Tamiya's simplified grouser racks, I'm going to scratch the racks, and use the grousers that come on the AFVClub suspension spures. Looking at some pictures, looks really straight forward.

However, I won't likely be back at the bench till sometime next week, as we've got my son's birthday party coming up this weekend, and lots of family coming in, which means I'm helping out the Mrs. with housekeeping activities and last minute home improvement.

I would expect as much when mixing different colored castings (dark green styrene and whiteish resin). It came out really solid looking regardless. Looking forward to seeing those scratch grouser racks.

Wish you guys and your son the best for his birthday

I finally had the chance to look at the dried version, and the paint job came out pretty bad. I think I thinned the DOA paint too much with water, combined with relatively high humidity, so surface tension was causing issues.

Nothing a second coat of better prepped paint won't fix.

Good to hear. Thinners do effectively reduce the opacity of paint, which is why I just started priming everything I'm going to paint.

So finally able to get back to the bench. Didn't like the 1st coat of OD, so went about mixing my own version out of DOA Field Drab, Olive Drab, Forest Green, and Track Brown. Ended up getting something close enough, so moved onto the earth yellow color. I ended up using Vallejo GoldBrown as a substitute. First time trying to spray Vallejo, and went through a few iterations on ratios of water, iso alcohol, and paint. Ended up getting something passable. I went back to touch up some issues with the OD. However, decided that it was too dark, so ended up giving the whole thing a filter of thinned GoldBrown. That brought it to where I wanted it.

Also got some more detail painting in on the interior, as well as installing a few more pieces inside.












Next up is finishing up the interior bits, and getting the rubber portions of the road wheels painted up. I didn't glue them, so they can still rotate, which should ease the painting task ahead. That said, it's still never a favorite part of mine. But one step closer, and it's getting closer and closer to looking like a real SPG.

Thanks for looking!

If anyone has an input on spraying the Vallejo paints, feel free to chime in.

Not that anyone's paying attention....

Was able to put some good time into the workbench yesterday. First thing I did was paint the road wheels, idler, and return rollers with Tamiya Nato Black.

After that, I finally glued the 2 hull halves together. This left a pretty sizeable gap, but a very liberal coat of Mr. Surfacer 500 filled that in. The tracks and drive sprockets will hide of most of this area, so I didn't worry too much about clean up. Got the Mr. Surfacer covered in a quick brush coat of the base colors, and then airbrushed the whole thing with Future. Then let it set up while I continued...

Next was building the grousers from the AFVClub suspension sprues. Kinda difficult to get a good cut off the sprue, and without a "rack" to hang them on, I had to be careful and basically glued a number together that matches references. I decided not to build the racks after trying for a few mins with one and realizing that its just too small for me to do with my level of patience.

I then tackled the tracks. The AFV Club indi tracks are really nice. Very little clean up, and look the part nicely. The instructions call for them to be workable without use of any cement. After assembling a small run, some links end up falling apart, even with gentle handling. That said, I didn't really want to use cement so I could get the tracks to sit naturally. So I decided to experiment, and used MicroScale's Liquid Tape, which is a white glue that stays tacky after it "dries". I applied this to the posts on each link, and when I assembled the runs, it gave it enough grip to hold together well, while still allowing the runs to be workable. Very good results.

After getting the tracks all built and test fitted, I painted all the little pieces that needed to be sprayed steel. Tools, the .50 cal, the tracks, and the grousers. Mixed up mixture of Tamiya flat black, gun metal, with a few drops of clear blue and dark brown added. Next time I may use a bit more black in the mixture, but for now, I think that the weathering process will bring everything together.

Once all that was done, the Future had set up, so it was time to throw on some decals. Looked at a few pictures, and went through my spares box to come up with some stuff. Decals are a combination of Dragon halftrack, and Tasca Sherman. A coat of MircoSol settled them nicely over the surface.

After that, glued on the grousers. And at that point, realized it was well past my bedtime...

Shot some pictures this morning of yesterday's progress...

Looking good Jesse. Looks like I see a bit of orange peal, not that it's going to matter when you weather it

Yeah, the orange peel came from the coat of Future. With another coat of Future, weathering, and coat of matte going on it eventually, I'm not too concerned.

Put on a 2nd coat of future to seal in the decals and give myself a barrier before the next phase.... which was....

Started the weathering process. Brushed on an overall light wash of raw umber mixed with burnt umber. Came back and added a darker wash with the same mix and some dark green added in to give a grimy color. That went sparingly onto the lower hull and suspension bogies. I had previously removed the tracks to paint the rubber sections of the tracks, the inner piece in the case of the T36E6 style, Tamiya Nato Black. The dark wash was also liberally used on the tracks.

Then mixed up a light olive drab color with windsor & newton oils and began a light drybrushing. I try to just barely get definition out of my drybrushing, as I think it's easily overdone a lot of times. Also did some more detail painting of the tools, .50 cal, and some canteens that will eventually land themselves inside the turret.

And finally added the radio mast. The radio mast is from Formations, and the music wire is cast directly into the resin lower piece. Then that was glued to the PE with superglue.

Some pictures.














To be "finished", I still need to finish detail painting of the headlights, taillights, and touch up a few things around the tools, stowage, and .50 cal. Then I'll shoot a very light filter of something like Tamiya flat earth on the lower areas, and then deck tan on the upper services to give a dusty look. I plan on trying some pigments, using alcohol as a carrier on the lower hull areas. Finally, a shot of clear flat should finish it up.

Thanks again for looking. I'm hoping to be done Friday night, as our monthly meeting is on Saturday.

Nice work Jesse, It's looking good!

FINISHED.

We're gonna call her finished.

Found some clear lenses from a Tasca Sherman that fit the Tamiya headlight housings. Painted the inside of the clear styrene chrome silver, and then attached the lens with white glue. Then added some clear red to the tail light. Touched up a few areas with paint.

Then used Tamiya flat earth thinned down with alcohol and water as a filter, applying fairly heavily on the bottom side of the hull, and getting progressively lighter towards the top.

This was followed by applying DOA pigments. I attempted to use alcohol as a carrier, but it ended being more muddy than the texture I was looking for, so ended up applying them mostly dry. Again, concentrated mostly on the lower hull and in the underside of the sponsons.

After that was done, added some little areas of the previous wash to get back a little definition on some areas, but this was done very conservatively.

Then moved onto installing some stowage into the turret. Mostly pieces from the Verlinden interior, and a map from another Verlinden set.

Once that was glued in, sprayed a coat of Krylon flat clear, and called her finished!

Can't wait to start the next project.... as soon as I figure out what that is.















Please give me feedback on the model, as well as the build log itself. This being my first blog, what do you want to hear more about? What did I bore you with? More/less pictures? Etc.