Sean: good work. Look forward to seeing more.

Happy Modelling, -zon

Woo. A lull in the action in this campaign.
I'm plugging away on my Toyota beater. Here's where my scratchbuilt engine stands now.

I'm using the Wolf kit's oilpan as a base, and going by internet photos of Toyota HZJ engines, I'm building up from there with all number of plastic scrap materials. I still have confidence in this project (hopefully not too basic and cartoony at the end). We'll see how this turns out.
Oh yeah, and my Trumpeter Chinese Volunteers with Recoilless Rifle has arrived, so that's how she'll be armed.
Cheers!
-Sean H.

Gentlemen,
great work all around and some very inspiring scratch building going on.
I wonder, if I can join with a GMC CCKW353 2.5t 6x6 with 40mm Bofors AA Truck. This kit was released last year by Hobby Boss.
32 of those vehicles were made in Free French workshops in 1943. As the 353 was never originally intended to carry a Bofors gun, I hope it'll fit the bill of this campaign.
Let me know what you think!
Cheers and keep up the good work!
Guido

http://armorama.kitmaker.net/review/7325

More detail under the hood (if it were to have a hood)...

and more...

At this point, I realized that the master cylinder was on the left and wiper motor on the right in my engine closeups (from Australia if I remember right), but on the Libyan truck, they're reversed. Then it dawned on me that my closeups might be right-hand-drive. That was the signal I needed that there was enough detail on the engine.
Next to cobble a body together...

A diagram of the HZJ75 found on the internet, printed to exact 1/35 scale. I colored each separate panel a different color as a guide for myself.

Careful comparison reveals that the suspension from the Mercedes kit is nothing like the Toyota technical (as expected, I guess), so like the cab interior, that'll remain "close enough". Hopefully people will focus on the engine and cannon when it's done.
Happy Modeling!
-Sean H.

Guido ,,ya mate that works for this campaign mainly cause it wasn't a factory designed truck , the lads came up with is in the field .. so yup its a technical

Sean H .. dude very nice work so far and what can only be called an extreme build
Keep it up bro cause i want to see this one for damn sure .

Phill

Thanks for the confirmation, Phill!
I did go ahead ever since 12th March anyway and covered some distance down the road.

The engine is quite nice OOB, but some things are certainly missing. So a bit of scratch building and adding pipes and tubing comes in handy.



This is a very inspiring campaign. Keep up the good work.



Cheers,
Guido

Very nice detail on the engine Guido....I'd almost expect it to actually run!

Sean and Guido: Very nice scratching for both of you!!

Happy Modelling, -zon

Guido, kudos on that engine! Very impressive work!

Okay, more plastic! Oh, it keeps going...


I eventually realized that when I went to paint it, I wouldn't want the tires on it, so I pulled them off again.
I've sanded down the joints between pieces to hopefully hint at formed sheetmetal instead of quilt squares. Almost there with the truck cab, then on to the inside door panels, the truck bed, and what remains of the front fascia.
It's actually going faster than I anticipated. Hot weather has come, so cleaning the garage out and yard work might interfere a bit, but I'm excited about my own progress on this, as it gets to look more and more like the photos.
Cheers!
-Sean H.

I'm making progress almost every other day lately, so I'll show you my progress every other day.
I've added inside door panels with minor details, batteries with tie-down brackets and cables, hood (bonnet) and windshield hinges, and most notably front headlight mounts. The one on the viewer's right is styrene for straightness and for easy gluing. The other is cut with an X-Acto knife from wine bottle foil, to the shape of the first, but then crunched down in my fingers to match the appearance of the prototype photo.


Next the bumper mounts and truck bed!
Cheers!
-Sean H.

Guido,Damn man if thats how good the engine is then the rest of the kit will look bloody amazing
Only to happy to let this in

Sean ,,Dude its getting better and better , and hurry up cause i want to see this finished ..its really impressive so far

Phill

Working on this a few minutes here and there everyday. Here is how the past week has gone...

In checking against the plan, I discovered that the wheelbase was too short. No idea where that happened. Anyway...

Trimmed back the bed pieces to account for this error in length.


okay, basic truck bed is on, but again, I've made the wheel wells too tall. I chopped them down and added them, then covered and sanded to shape.


Next onto smaller details. Here I've drilled holes for the fuel fillers, and I'm about to file the holes to shape with this square-section jewelers file.

Taking this crazy scratchbuild in tiny, easy pieces! I hope this commentary isn't too tedious for the reader. I can skip sections, but I like to see step-by-step from others when they're doing something I hadn't seen before.
Cheers!
-Sean H.

Wow Sean, coming together nicely!
I like tedious photographic step-by-step progress documentation, like you are doing.
It's how I learn stuff

Allo guys .. well that Ural of mine is painted at last ,,well one colour anyway lol .. so here;s a few pics






Detail painting comes next and then the fun really begins

Phill

Phill,
That's a nice one! I hope all that detail (read: rat's nest) under the hood doesn't overwhelm you for painting. I'm going to follow your lead, so I'll be watching closely.
cheers!
-Sean H.

Sean: coming along nicely. Very nice scratch work all around.

Phill: Looks good in that color. Mean looking cannon. Unique recuperator. Looking forward to more.

Happy Modeling, -zon

I paused for a few days here with my kids' priorities, but they've let me use my workbench again!
I wasn't sure what to do about making a cloverpack. Trumpeter's recoilless rifle figure set came with plenty of ammo and even a crate, but I wanted to model a cloverpack (I learned that word, and now I'm using the heck out of it. ) as an internet photo shows. I didn't like the idea of softening styrene strip (with heat or liquid glue) then shaping and setting it, so I drilled a stack of 4 small sheets that I had glued together along one edge outside of the final build area. (Does that make sense?) Then I shaped the stack together with files and sanding. My final sawcut separated the glued portion from my final pieces, so they fell away from their siblings (with a little prodding with the X-Acto).





Now I'm just working with the tiny kit parts on that gun, then off to paint and weathering! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!
Cheers!
-Sean H.

Sean: Nice work on the ammo storage. What a clever idea.

Happy Modeling, -zon

Would a beute UE with PAK gun count?

Sean ,,, dude thats coming along real nice .. the 106mm is really going to stand out on there .. well done so far buddy
Well as for painting the rats nest ( well described dude ) will will paint it in light shades than black , say like a dark gray ,will look like dull black and with the weathering side of things will make them stand out but no over power eachother ,,here's hoping anyway lol

Zon .. thanks man the gun is a Russian 122mm D30, pretty damn old now but bloody near everywhere in Russian supplied countries ,still wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of one tho

Matthew,, Ya man ,, that little machine was moded by the Germans for pretty much everything and carrying guns was one of them .

Expect more from me very soon .

Phill

That's what I figured just thought I'd ask before adding something else to the work bench I really dig the UE's in all it's incarnations

Sean Nice work on that ammo rack, will you be doing a camo pattern like the 1 in the photo Looking forward to seeing more

that red and brown camo pattern is tempting, but I'll stick with civilian white and try some spraypaint slogans.
Thanks, guys!
-Sean.

Still plugging away! I've primed it with a mix of black and gray spray paints, each coat quicker and lighter than the previous, for three primer coats total.





After a day for the primer to cure, I masked and sprayed the body panels in white to match prototype photos. Over such a dark primer, I had to come back today and spray another coat of white, but as rough as the final vehicle will be, I'm not overly concerned with an even finish. Heavy weathering will be a key to this project. The next step though, is graphics on the sides, then detail brush-painting.
Really nice Meng pickup builds going on in separate threads too! I'm reading those closely for pointers.
thanks for looking!
-Sean H.

Details all painted:


Then weathered with acrylic paints, rubbing alcohol, old brushes, a rag, and a Q-Tip swab...

I don't read Arabic, so I tried to copy some photos (I assume no profanity in an Arabic nation), but I probably garbled a few different words together. My apologies...


Oops, hadn't weathered/swabbed the engine area. Now it's complete!

Ta daa!
I posted photos to the gallery , finishing second to Sal. This was a really fun campaign!
Thanks!
-Sean H.