Thomas, Phillipe,

Thanks guys! I'll try and snap some shots tonight. I setup my little photo rig where it's a lot easier to work with.

I assume you used Mr. Surfacer to achieve the cast texture. Although I plan on buying all three grits, I am focused on this build. Which grit did you use?

I used both thinned Tamiya putty, and Mr. Surfacer 500. That was after I did a decent bit of work to correct some of the shapes based on my reference photos.

Jesse, are you using Testors liquid cement to thin the Squadron putty?
Joel

Very, very nice. The weathered look is working well.

I can't recall if I used model masters (in the black angled container with the metal needle point), or Tamiya extra thin.

Thanks Russel!

Worked with some enamals/oils this morning, so going to wait till tonight to shoot a flat coat, and then I can take some pictures.

Used Vallejo Matte Varnish for the first time, and it's a REALLY nice flat. I did have to add a couple drops of water to make it flow better, but no complaints.

So far, all the weathering is with oils and enamels. I haven't touched the pigments yet, or the airbrush. Stowage is painted, but not attached. I also went back after the flat and started picking out points with a pencil for a metallic sheen, like the .30 cals, drive sprocket teeth, and the idler.

And onto LOTS of pictures...

Oh, and more good news! Paul from Panda Plastics was able to sell me one of his new "worn" WE-210 tracks, so I've got some really pimpy tracks coming in the mail. I'm excited about building and painting those as it should be a really nice addition.

So, less than 3 weeks till the AMPS InterNational show...
1) finish weathering
2) build and paint 3 figures
3) assemble, paint, weather tracks [once they show up]
4) finish stowage, including hanging some stuff along the sides (will do AFTER tracks go on)
5) put together some sort of base to make it look all pretty.

Yes, but less than a week till our April club meeting, so let's get crackin'...

Looks great Jesse.

Dave

LOVE the painting on the stowage, looks superb. Is the handle missing on the rear engine access door?

Starting to really look the biz!!
J

Well, today some silly bunny is getting in the way of bench time. Let's see how far I can get by Saturday.

I'll have to check. I left off some stuff on the engine deck while fitting the stowage, so I may have forgotten to add it.

The stowage came out pretty good. The castings were really nice, but in typical Blackdog fashion, some of the stuff they make just isn't realistic.

Thanks for following Jerry!

What an impressive build to date. The stowage looks realistic both in placement, painting, and weathering. looking forward to your next update. Hopefully the new tracks will be on by then.

And yeah, that dumb bunny came here to an really put a serious bite in my bench time too.

Joel

Tracks showed up today. I assembled about 6 links without any issues, and then decided that since these tracks are 2 distinct colors, being a mix of rubber and steel, I was going to attempt to paint the pieces separately and then assemble so 'most' of the work is done before hand, and I can touch up as needed.

They're on a sprue like this:

http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/reviews/vehicles/panda/images/panda_wd212_01.jpg

So I basically clipped one side of sprue off, leaving 1 attachment point. I could then clean up the one attachment point, and I had a handy sprue holding 6 links at a time, which I sprayed with a dark grey/black color.

Hopefully the paint doesn't make the interference fit too terrible when I go to put the end links on, but we shall see.

But good news is that all the links are now painted. Tomorrow I should be able to get the end links painted, and then maybe late this week I'll start assembling them. Assembly is pretty easy, just like the AFV club tracks if you've ever done those.

Also primed the 3 figures for the Grant, so I can start painting those if I get bored with the tracks.

Jesse, Good luck with the tracks. Sure sounds like you've worked out a realistic plan.

BTW, the link doesn't work. Just says to go to the PMS, and find the thread.

Joel

http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/reviews/vehicles/panda/panda_wd212.html

Here we go.

Ahhh...the ole Panda Tracks, eh? Well all I can say is that I loved the look but absolutely hated the monotony of assembly. Painting them was actually quite easy after assembly as they do stay workable if you use white glue instead of plastic cement. However, the enamel washes from AK weakened the white glue so they came apart in a few places while I was working on them. Nevertheless, these will look really GREAT once you get them painted up and on that Grant.

Kudos Jesse. This is one awesome build!

Thanks Don!

This is the first time I've built Panda tracks. But they're just like the AFVclub M3/M5 tracks, except bigger! So they should be easy enough to assemble. Tedious, but easy. I'm not looking forward to cleaning up the end links, but oh well.

Magnificent. Very beautiful...a masterpiece, with a paint-job worthy of the extraordinary detail.

Jesse, thanks for the corrected link. The Panda tracks look great. Did you have to add that spacer and thin the teeth a tad on the sprockets as they suggested?

Joel

No, because I'm using Tasca drive sprockets. If I used the Academy ones, I would have.