You'd better use metal foil to give more thickness to the straps.
I'm used to work with the kind of foil you get around the neck of the bottles of wine.

With the straps and the buckle Heller gives you, you will get a result close enough to the real one. If you can try to add the padding on the brackets just by adding strips of styrene.

Olivier

Here is another try, which I think looks much better than my last attempt. This is using completely scratch-built parts. I used styrene and aluminum foil (didn't have any wine bottles around). Also, used styrene for the rubber 'pads'. The first photo shows the one I am attempting to emulate (from Olivier - Thanks). Have 3 more to make... Might be a couple days before I get them done as long as this one took me, well that and work.



Close up (of course will be sanding a bit after it dries completely)


After working on this, I must also add that I am extremely impressed by the scratch build skills I see on this forum!

This one is better John. Keep on the good job

Kind of a dumb question, but for the camo, I have been looking for a picture of the belly. I am assuming, but not sure, since I haven't found an image showing it that the belly color will be just green. The camo would stop at the end/edge of the front and rear of the tank.

Yea, I do feel dumb asking...

Since I have no picture evidence, I'd say you're right about the belly being green.
I'll try to find a picture to confirm it.

Olivier

Well, got the rear of my tank scratch on the fuel barrels mounts. Also added a couple small details to the storage on the back of the turret. Need a little sanding to smooth a couple things out, but after that it should be ready for the 'paint shed'.



FYI, I find it really neat how when you post a photo, you can see things that you didn't notice when you were working on it...

Now, back to watching Hockey Night in Canada. See there are good points to living right near the border! Get this show every Saturday over my antenna.

No new pics, but just giving a quick update. I have gotten the tank re-primered, which as normal showed some cleanup that was needed. I am also working on the tracks which look really cool, but WOW, what a lot of parts 430+ per track. I am about 1/3 of the way through one and have decided to change my approach. I was cleaning each of the pieces for each link, assembling then moving to the next link. Now, I have decided to clip a bunch off, clean them up and assemble as many tracks in a row as I can. See how/if that speeds that up at all.

Just a little warning for those of you doing some of these Bronco link tracks. Anyhow, there are 6 pieces per, but worth it, if you're careful!

The directions are off. See in the first picture, notice the little tabs on the back of the lower parts of the link...



But also notice on this picture the image on the back of the box that my tweezers are pointing at (which is correct and my mistake for not noticing right away...)...



If you follow just the directions, your track is wrong, but if you reverse the parts with the tabs, you're tracks look like the photo. You can see that I got a bunch wrong, but corrected it. The correct ones are the ones with the 'pads' on the inside of the track (left side of picture)



Luckily only enough that I will be able to hide it under the sponsons behind the armored skirts. Whew.

Wow! Really nice work on the fuel barrels mounts. Must have taken a lot of time.
Good you spotted this error in instruction in time!
Looking forward to seeing it with tracks in place.

Good luck with the remaining track John, better you than me

Olivier,

You are soooo right. They look great, but they 'hurt'... So time consuming!

Jaroslaw,

Thanks, hope the build continues to progress well! Started the painting today. Got the base green on!

John

Still working on the track...

But also got the first coat on the tank. The green is the Tamiya XF-5 with a little white to lighten a little...



I then gave it a coat of Future. When it was dry, I noticed it had 'puddled' a little on one side of the turret. But I got lucky. The camo in that area is the Black and maybe will 'hide' my mistake.





Moving right along it is. Hoping to finish for a show on the 18th. Fingers crossed.

hi,
good job!
for the "real" french green use XF5 T with a little yellow (not white!) to lighten this
bye

Hmmm. Thanks for the tip. I was looking at the camo again and it looks like I have to do some respray anyways...

Thanks again!

Okay, so I am a day behind (actually 2 now with the dry time of the paint before the future and it's dry time). Got the tank and turret resprayed with the XF5 with Yellow. Tomorrow will re-future it...

John,
will you paint the other colors freehand or do you intend to use some masking?

Olivier,

I am not so confident in my airbrushing, so I picked up some blue tack to assist in the masking process.

John

I got the first track assembled!!!! Woo-hoo!

That was a LOT of work. And I have 2/3rds of the other one to complete still!

Here it is.

I got the brown on the chassis, then will do the black (won't be for a few days). Then I will do the turret. With the way the camo 'tucks' under the turret, I was having a challenging time getting it to line up well with just the brown, so doing a few steps instead.





BTW, got the one completed tread primered today too.

Got the flat black on the tank body today. After removing the tape, found I have some 'misses' where I mis-masked and either had a couple gaps to touch up. Do any of you have that problem often? Here are a couple more pictures.

Masked...


Painted...


After paint...


Thanks for looking.

BTW, if you use the Bronco tracks, be VERY careful with your parts. There are not extra pieces! I came up one link short and had to order another set. It should be here Monday. I think I might try to cast a couple extra pieces, just in case.

Hi John! Very nice colors! I like it very much.
What paints did you use?
Cheers

Hello Jaroslaw. Thanks for the nice comments. The colors are Tamiya. I used XF-1 Flat Black, XF-5 Flat Green and XF-64 Red Brown. The green I lightened with Tamiya yellow.

John

Here is an update. I got the brown on the turret, plus was able to fix a few previous spray mistakes. Here was my progress...

Masking... (again)...



After removal (yes, I did knock off the wind gauge again!)



For the major colors of the camo, just the black to touch up and add to the turret! Then gloss coat, decals and flat.

Progress, yea!

Got the final color on the turret now. This is the most complex airbrush scheme I have tried since getting back in the hobby. Plus this is actually the closest I have gotten to actually finishing a kit. Thanks for putting up with my posts. They keep me going on it!

Here are a couple more of prepping the outline and masking.



And here are a few shots of the final paint job (before future, decals and dusting...)

Looks good to me.
You should fix the angle of the third fuel drum bracket. It looks like it was hit and is no longer in place.
It's strange you didn't get enough track links to complete both runs.
Keep on the good job!
Olivier