Just saw this thread. I wanted to say that I am in amazed at your detail work in the slat armour your creating from scratch. I'm sitting here talking notes cause I want to add this to several of my future projects and buying all those PE set was going to be expensive. Thanks for sharing your ideas.

Mike

Hey Meaty....
How'z it going?
I started on my engine...(never worked resin before....terrible directions!!!! )
I researched the electrical...and you were right no M1128 has raised headlights....(except for one blurry pic...and since I don't yet know how to add a photo... )
Hope to hear more of your build...

Hey guys, I'm trying to get the guys over at Eduard to produce a slat armor set for the M1128 MGS. Please please click on the link and let them know!

https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/194616&page=2

I don't mean to leach on the thread but maybe for us guys who are interested in a slat set for the M1128, perhaps Eduard could do it if they get enough responses from us! So please let them know!

thanks Jason for the positive feedback, means a lot coming from you given the great pieces i've seen you put together.

look forward to seeing you and all the guys at the september show. cheers, bd.

Excellent work Bruce!....and a belated Happy Canada Day to you too!

hi C Johnson, glad you are enjoying the MGS blog and find it useful for your own project plans. i will try to expand on your questions from your post:

1) the second grenade launcher is omitted on the later MGS which features the skate mounted MG with gun shield as the shield would hit the launcher mount. i have seen some pics where the second launcher is missing even with the older axial MG mount. the mounting base is still there on the turret but the launcher framework is left off.

2) the wire conduit that is made from L angle metal runs wiring to the additional lights that are on the front slat portion. additional lights were required to help drivers at night as they found the standard lights going through the slats insufficient.

this photo is for discussion purposes only


the above pic shows the headlights and L angle to hopefully clarify this as the lifting hooks are used to mount the square supports for the angled forward slat panels so the original headlights could not be moved to the attachment lift points.

the guard rails for the headlights are omitted as the slat armour protects the headlight cluster.

3) the arc slats on the sides where the turret would otherwise hit is broken up into 2 portions on the left side. i will be working on this section after i finish the back slat portions as this is off the chart in the "complicated" spectrograph. hopefully once finished it will clarify this area.

later MGS' appear to have an additional "lip" around the 2 left hatch edges. perhaps after production began they found that these hatches distorted during explosions and needed additional material on the perimeter to keep them from buckling. for whatever reason, the AFV Club should be updated to have these added.

4) the rear slat is simple yet complicated. each element is fairly simple but getting everything in the correct proportion and placement will be complicated. the rear section opens in a "double gate style" with drop in pins to keep it locked. the lower slat is mounted directly to the doors. i will take some clear pics of this when completed.

5) the slat armour has four orange hazard lights mounted and i chose to make them out of bits of round styrene and plasticard of various thicknesses. they are so small i plan to paint them to look orange/clear rather than fuss with clear styrene which is harder and more brittle to shape. i will be adding all the wiring that runs to them as well.

i think once the model is painted all these tiny details will be clearer. i don't believe my camera can show these small pieces well when they are all white.

hope this helps and thanks Mr J for the great discussion on this project. this is the kind of thing that makes this forum fun for me. cheers, bd.

Hey there Alberta!

I loved the info about the second smokes on the right side….I went through 100 hrs of surfing to find a dozen references,,, and verify..that you were so correct. Good work on that piece of info!!!

I was also intrigued with your fist photo “shepherds_mgs_build01” because I had not seen the in the front add on you did, anywhere else. So I spent another 100 hrs of surfing and it seems to me that bit of add-on is for the electrical covering that goes from the original light placement to the attachment/lift point, and the Extended light system….but I could find no image of that type of covering without the headlights ALSO being moved to the attachment/lift point. …. Do you have an image of this?
I also have a question as to how you made the curved bar armor and its interaction with the ‘escape’ hatch on the left side …I had seen this detail in only 1 or 2 partial view photos. I am also intrigued with the add-on you put around that hatch.

The other bar detail I’d love to see your work about,,, is the Rear door /Bar setup.
I’ve been attentive to your updates…great work (( any more helpful steps with your curved bars???))


PS love the additon of the Trillant headlights into the bar armor....where did you find clear parts> could you show the details of your addition....looks good....I've been searching for months for these 1/35 parts....

thanks Sean and Walter for the kind words of encouragement.

slat armour progress continues:




a little stop to test fit the turret





i am beginning to understand why i haven't seen any MGS' with slat armour in 1/35th scale... this is a bit on the elaborate side of scratchbuilding madness.

got to say i'm still having lots of fun slowly putting this one together though. hope the pics convey some of the process for those looking to represent their M1128 in field service.

happy Canada Day to my fellow canuck modelers. cheers, bd

Wow, looks fantastic, Bruce.

Good luck with the anti-skid-surface.

cheers
Walter

Looks great! Fantastic job on the slat....

hello everyone,
i've returned to my MGS slat armour project and have made some progress:

next will be the arc pieces for the side panels.

hope everyone is having a great modeling weekend. cheers, bd.

thanks everyone for the great discussion and wonderful models showing some exceptional skills at producing anti-skid.

this opens a lot of options for my project and i would like to express how much all the input makes this forum a big part of my enjoyment from our hobby.

i agree that having anti-skid texture on the correct panels as part of the box model would be the ultimate situation and one that was provided in AFV Club's Wiesel kit, which was a nice bonus and perfectly done to scale.

why can't this be something on AFV Club's MGS??? i guess they want to leave something for the modeler to challenge themselves with LOL.

cheers, bd

I think the textured paint from a spray can technique looks just as good and doesn't clog or scratch up the needle on your airbrush. It's just easier all around in my opinion.

The results.

Rob, the mr.surfacer method is basically the same as what Chris suggested.
I tried both, results are about the same...

Cheers

Hi Guys,
I have been following along and like the great work going on and wanted to pass along that I just read an article about adding texture with Mr Surfacer sprayed through an airbrush at high pressure, it seemed to work well.

Cheers Rob.

Some previous projects with the same "Putty-Mixture" sprayed on:




And here the MGS I am working on


But as Jason has correctly identified the truth to our dilemma .... the producers should have such significant features on their models right from the beginning!

Cheers
Christopher

Bruce,

Really nice work on your MGS. Whatever technique you use for the anti-slip make sure you practice on a scrap model or plastic sheet.

I really like the technique and results that Christopher used...top notch look!

If you are considering a textured spray look for a "fine" or "extra fine" texture. There are lots of options at Rona or Home Depot.

There are different grit levels of textured sprays and I think some guys pick ones that look a bit out of scale for the LAV/Strykers....but those heavier sprays are great for other AFVs...such as a Leclerc.

I guess the real solution would be for model producers simply to include the surface texture on the kit in the first place....I'd pay extra to have that on the kit parts!

Christopher, that is absolutely the best anti-skid texture i have ever seen !!! what a great technique.

you really nailed the scale down perfectly. i will try this tip out on some spare parts and weigh the pros and cons of whether i will try just using paint.

took a look at your photos and was hoping to see more of this particular model. you have some other projects that are really cool but there isn't more of the one you posted here.



cheers, bd

Heh Bruce !

If you have got the regular "grey" Tamiya putty just delute it with some turpentine so you kann spray it like paint under high pressure.
Go close with the first layer to build up some "strength" then delute it some more and spray it vericaly at a distance of around 20cm for the final finish.
It's quick and very realistic.





Cheers
Christopher

thanks Jim, the horn was on my list of to-do's but i just kept putting it off until i posted a pic on another website and a fellow there kindly pointed out that all in service MGS have horns.

here is a pic that Hans-Hermann Bühling has kindly shared with everyone at Primeportal's website and i link here for discussion purposes only:


this is of the NBCRV variant but it shows the anti-skid very well from point blank. i noticed that though you can see the texture at the lower (closer) portion of the photo the anti-skid appears more of a "modeled" pattern mid-way in the photo. i was looking at another reference pic similar to this when i pondered whether a faux painting effect would be better than actually adding roughness.

another point i had read was that people who textured their models (whether subtle or overdone) they all encountered the same problem... when adding a wash the anti-skid area was noticeably dark than the rest of the model which they struggled to correct.

this is all new territory to me but i am excited to try to solve this riddle for my model.

i also got some great pics of palm trees on my vacation and can't wait to try to create these for my diorama.

cheers, bd.

Good plan, I find most model Stryker anti-slip treatments overdone. If you look at a real photo you can barely make out the grit - it's very fine, like playground sand. In 1:35 it would be barely visible. A spray texture paint like Rustoleum is close, but a rough 'orange-peel' finish would work too. I like how you did the horn; too bad no one makes a turned metal one yet!

Jim

thanks for the input, it is very helpful in figuring out the way i should address the painting. Gino has an excellent point about getting a better adhesion if i build everything before paint goes on.

i plan on doing the anti-skid texturing a bit different then i have seen most people go about it for strykers. my research shows that the texture is very subtle and is not really as "bumpy" as you might see in 1/35th scale.

the plan is to create a different surface texture in the paint process rather than actually go into adding textured paint or pouring on baking soda.

the one method that i tested that worked really well was to soften the model's plastic surface with Testors liquid cement and then take a toothbrush or brass wired brush and lightly texture the surface. this worked really well for the scale.

but in the end i think i may try a faux paint technique to see how this pans out. thanks for all the help. cheers, bd.

Are you going to put an "Anti-Skid" coating on before you fix the Slat ?

Cheers
Christopher

Well i build a M1126 with PAM slat and it was glue in place before painting with spray can.
No issue even the resin wheels were on.

Good Luck with the build
Cheers
Seb

I have built two full slat M1127 Strykers. I fully installed the slat befor painting and had no problems with them. In my oipnion, it made it easier to install them before painting. I didn't have to worry about scraping paint to get a good glue joint nor fit after a layer of paint.