I'm going to try this one as a real build log. I picked up this entire combo from Rob of Formations at the recent Atlanta show. Wasn't really interested in the M8 HMC, but this combo was just too good to pass up. That and after some fairly simple out of the box builds, I wanted to try something that might teach me some of this real "modeling" you guys keep talking about.

I don't have much for references, and I'll be going by some random M8 pictures I've found via google, Terry's build on PMMS, and anything else I dig up along the way.

Tamiya's old M8 HMC
-Formations hull
-Formation M8 suspension update
-Eduard Photo-etch
-AFV Club Stuart suspension kit
-AFV Club tracks (indy link not shown)
-Verlinden interior set
-Decals....? The original Tamiya ones have the extra thick carrier film, so I may use some spares for the relatively simple markings. No particular vehicle in mind for this build, just a generic Army M8 in the ETO. (unless someone has some better ideas? )




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Started tonight, and as you can see just to the bottom right of the Tamiya box, I've got the bogie assemblies done.

Going through the Eduard set, at least a fair bit of those pieces won't be used on this build, as the updated hull, suspension, etc already include the details.

Jesse I have listed this as a Blog for you.

So didn't get as much time in at the bench as I was hoping over the last few days. But here are some progress shots. Suspension went together without problems, and mated up nicely to the Formations hull.



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Then looking through the Verlinden pieces, I test fit the transmission into the hull...



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It's a couple of mm too wide for the Formations hull. That said, the Tamiya front armor plate has very little visibility, if any, into the driver's compartment, so I think the razor saw will make an appearance and solve this problem rather quickly. In the end, it will be mostly buttoned up, so no big deal. I'll be more concerned about the fit of the turret pieces. That's what Tamiya's instructions say to go to next, so that's what the next update will likely include.

Nice work thus far. I've got this on the bench as well (there's a blog on Armorama somewhere), although just the Tamiya kit and Eduard PE.

Thanks Rudi!

In my online search for M8 information, your blog/writeup popped up.

If anyone's interested, I've got the extra wheels from the AFVclub suspension set (1 pressed, and 1 open) and an extra set of the Formations rear swing-arm locator set. (pale tan piece at the rear)

So... I lied. Instead of going to the turret, I started working on getting the hull to fit together, and converting it to a little more standard ETO form.

Here's the unaltered part, except with some light scribing marks on where to cut based on photos.



From the side...




First rough cut made...



Here's the underside showing all the locating pins, tabs, etc that have to be removed to fit to the Formations hull.



And the progress so far, with the fenders shaped fairly well, and filed down to get a thinner look. From my photos, looks like the tiedowns are there, but some of the other detail will need to be removed.




Next up... the Formations hull is meant for the AFVclub kit I believe. As you can see here, there's a pretty decent length discrepancy. Simplest way to deal with it was to basically cut off a section the rear sponsen filler from the lower hull, remove a section, and glue it back on. Not the most accurate thing in the world, but it'll look the part.




And finally, a shot of the main hull from Tamiya, with some surfacing as the kit piece is completely smooth. I swiped a thin mixture of liquid cement and putty on the the surface, let it dry, and went over it with a light sanding. Eventually there will be a couple of weld beads added. Also, I've cut out the molded in screens from the top of the hull, as the Eduard set has replacements for these. In the left rear of the picture, you can see the assembled PE exhaust louver that sits up under the upper hull in the rear. However, with the length issue mentioned previously, it doesn't look like it's going to fit. Once I get further along, I'll see what I can do to add it back in.




Anyway, we'll see if I can get some bench time this weekend. Thanks for looking.

No, it isn't. WE covered this on April 07, 2009 in THIS News report...

http://armorama.com/news/5127

Yes, I knew that AFVclub was planning on coming out with the M8. When it's all done though, I'm hoping this combination of pieces will at least look the part pretty well. And I wanted to try it because it WAS going to require some work to get it looking good. Up until now, I've only build stuff OOB, so this was a challenge. That and all of these pieces combined still cost less than what the M8 is gonna cost when it's finally introduced.

The pieces had been collected by Rob for his own personal build, which he decided he would never do. He just wanted to get rid of it. The hull wasn't a perfect casting, and not good enough to sell to the aftermarket, but it's fine what I wanted it for.

I'm also not including the money for the indy links, as the AFVClub kit won't come with those either.

Nice one Jesse, interesting conversion.

If it's ok I'll take those pieces you mentioned, what do you want for them, I've got plenty of figure sets.....PM me if you want.

Regards, Paul

And we're back... Spent a fair bit of time working with the upper and lower hull to get them to fit correctly. Lots of filing, sanding, cutting, etc. but it seems to be dry fitting nicely at this point.

Onto some pictures.


Here's the finished front end. The fender detail is now correct, and the detail at the front bottom of the glacis plate has been removed, as I've got a replacement from Formations that fits the lower hull. It's primed because I had to fill and sand, and wanted to see how it looked before painting. Unfortunately, as you can see, the front end isn't all that open, so a lot of the detail of the driver's compartment will be hidden.


Here's a first try at adding some weld beads. Not great, but I'll take it. I'll sand it down some since it projects out pretty severely. Also you can see the grab handles formed with wire on the engine covers.



Here's the start of the lower interior. The Verlinden and Eduard conflict with placements of some stuff, so I'm basically just picking out what I want to use. Probably not the most accurate thing in the world, but it should definitely look the part in the end. You can also see that I had to cut away the flanges at the edges to fit the trans into the hull.


I've cleaned up a fair bit of the lower interior pieces, but haven't installed them yet since I'll need to do some detail painting first. But for fun, I dryfitted some of the pieces to get a feel what it's going to look like.




I'm planning on using Terry's build (http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/models/vehicles/m8hmc/tam35110.html) as a painting guide for my build, unless anyone sees any big flaws in what he's done. I know on the open topped tank destoryers and such, that any surface visible from above was painted OD. Terry differs slightly from this by having some of the lower hull interior still painted white, where at least at some angles, the white would still be visible.

Everything's going together fairly nicely. One problem that I have found is that the taillights are missing from the bags of parts I got. I may have to just build a tarp to hang over the rear to cover the missing pieces. the headlights and siren(?) are also missing, however, I have some spare headlights and siren from a previous Sherman build that should work well enough. Also looking through my spares box, I'll be using some dragon pioneer tools.

I'm having fun and picking up some good modeling experience along the way on this project, but I'm gonna have to do something simple after this build.

Looking good, mate. Real good!

Btw, don't you just love it when someone gives the "why bother with this kit when you could do that kit" shpiel? Especially when the alternative kit has been on the pending list for more than a year Build what you want, how you want I say.

Keep on truckin', mate!

Rudi

Thanks Rudi! Glad at least someone is following along.

Ok.... the mrs. is going to sleep early, so looks like I can get in a couple hours at the bench... off I go.

Got a basecoat of white for the interior last night, and fitted the brass screens to the engine deck. Did some more research to get a few details that Verlinden and Eduard both missed, but didn't get around to actually building them.

Got it! Thanks Juan.

Some stuff I already had, but some nice new stuff.

Juan,

Yes, that's a copy from Terry's build on the PMMS site.


http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/models/vehicles/m8hmc/tam35110.html

Started work on the turret, including using the photos Juan sent me to detail the gun breech.

Here's the turret sides. Sorry it's not in focus. Not too much to see here. I noticed the PE bin on the right side is wrong once I got the reference photos from Juan. Eduard's instructions are wrong here. It should be further back.


Onto the breech... here's what Tamiya's pieces look like.


And here's Tamiya's final assembly from the instruction sheet.


Here's my version...



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Getting pretty close to joining the turret halves together. I'm heading out of town on a vacation on Saturday, for a week, so I'm not sure how much I'll get done before leaving. Not sure if I should try to paint turret halves now, or assemble and then spray it. I'm afraid it may be hard to get into all the crevices and what not, and also to then do some detail painting on the seats and whatnot.

As always, thanks for looking, and feel free to leave a comment.