Hi. This will be my attempt for this campaign hope I can get it finished as I am starting a little late?
Should go well with my companion piece, the ammo carrier, which I am doing for the Panzer Return Campaign.

Here’s my newest update on the build so far. I’ve replaced all the kit tools with better ones from bronco, afv club and dragon. Also the awful .50cal that came in the kit was replaced with a mixture of Tamiya and academy. I’m planning to rebuild the loaders hatch as it’s poorly detailed and has those two nasty cut outs on the side.

Hi!

A while ago I saw a b&w photo on some web site I can't remember that depicted the SP heavy artillery used by the US Army sometime in the early 50's. It included the M-37, M-41, M-40, M-43 and T-92 HMCs with their crews. Since then, I wanted to build all of these big boys in 1/35 scale but most of them were not available in kit form. Well, at least not to me.
So, when the M-40HMC from AFV Club went out to the market a few years ago I was pretty sure that I could build the M-40 (of course) and the M-43, as they used the same chassis. So, when I saw this campaign I knew it was the opportunity to start with this endeavor.

I may be changing my entry....I am still quite new to the hobby and having read through the instructions it seems like quite a tricky build for a newbie.

I have since picked up a couple of other kits and one of them would fit the requirements for this so I may go with that instead.
Funnily enough, same size gun It's Trumpeter's Sturer Emil (12.8cm).

Any rules regarding sswitching projects? I haven't started the 12.8cm gun from Great Wall Hobby yet if that helps.

RobG57, Right now I am finihing my 28 cm German Rail gun,the 1/35 Leopold. I have the Moeser 54cm,and the ammo schlepper. I plan on doing them nest. I look forward to your build and what I can learn from you! Please post and post photos. Also perhaps post under the Constructive criticism folder. My K-5e is there. Good luck and again please post updates.

OK, reporting first actions. Got the AFV Club M40 HMC kit (AF35031) and some extra aftermarket details from Eduard and Tiger models (Now closed!).
https://gallery.kitmaker.net/data/28539/2013-07-05_22_04_09.jpg
https://gallery.kitmaker.net/data/28539/2013-07-05_22_08_09.jpg
https://gallery.kitmaker.net/data/28539/2013-07-05_22_05_17.jpg
I'm aware that this kit has a number of issues or errors as they've been published in Armorama and other web sites through the years. Nevertheless, most issues can be fixed with relatively easiness.

I’ve finally finished the turret build and boy is this thing heavy. Once I added the muzzle break to the barrel, so much weight tips the turret to the point were I will have to glue it down once finished with the painting. I’ve replaced the fuel can with ones from bronco and legends. The tow cable is from afv club with wire from an old dragon kit. Now I can focus on the hull which should go by much quicker due to the small number of.

That barrel and muzzle brake really stand out unpainted.

Looks good Chris.



Jeff

Great work!

Christopher, you have made that monster of a kit look real cool
mate . I just wish I could get that barrel here in Germany



Paul

Well, I just ENLISTED! I need to build something different so I will use the Italeri M110A2 with the 203MM gun.

I think that is big enough!

All these nice looking builds made me do it. I'll have pictures later.



Jeff

Thanks guys for the comments I did screw up a bit on the barrel, there should be a sleeve and collar that the main barrel slides into, but did not notice this until after everything was glued together. Overall I happy with how things are turning out even though you could not pay me enough to build another one of these kit from kinetic again.

Paul you may want to check out sprue brothers' website, I got the barrel through them and they ship all over the world.

Hi everyone!

One of the main issues with AFV Club M-40 HMC (and definitively the most obvious) is the 155mm barrel length. To put it simple the thing way too short. Several fixes have been published on the web but most of them only add some sort of extensions. However, after putting together the nice machined barrel with the rest of the cannon and compared it against a scale drawing I realized that is not only the total length affected but also the individual lengths of the different pieces! Merely adding extensions will not produce an exact replica.
https://gallery.kitmaker.net/data/28539/2013-07-16_21_46_41.jpg
Being unable to change the length of the beautiful metal barrel, I have to rethink and re-engineer this build. I'll continue with other sections in the meantime.

Just bought Italeri's M-109A6. I'll pick up some etch and new tracks, but should have plenty of time to finish it.

Progress report:

Even though the barrel issue is still unresolved, I went for the suspension bogies. I finished assembly of all six. The chassis will be next.
https://gallery.kitmaker.net/data/28539/2013-07-18_19_47_47.jpg

Hello Mecanix,

I've been eyeing-up that Scale Link 60-pounder kit for while, but the hefty price and the lack of decent photos on line showing the quality of the components has deterred me. Having seen the parts you've posted on this thread, my interest has definitely been renewed - Looks really finely detailed. Is this a recent purchase? As you mentioned, the kit dates back to the 1980s, butI'm hoping the moulds are a little newer and that they used the original patterns to make them.

Having not seen your subsequent posts, I rang up Scale Link in Dorset to see if they offered traction engine wheels as an alternative to the usual iron shod wooden wheels in the box art. Bob said a company called South Eastern Finecast make wheels that might be adaptable - Is this where you got yours?
He also said he could obtain them for me, but I wondered if you could get them direct?

I was just curious to know, as I prefer the look of the gun on the heavy traction engine wheels. I believe this would make it a Mark II carriage, where the gun could not be drawn back on the carriage when in transit, so I wouldn't have qualms about soldering it solidly together.

Look forward to seeing this build progress,

kind regards,
InterWar

Here is my entry and a couple of progress photos.







Despite the reviews, I have encountered only minor fit issues and no ejector pins or sink marks with the Italeri M109A6. I won't be posting much, until I get the pe set for it.

Just enlisted!
I've been wanting to build this thing since I got it, but I've been putting it off untill I got other things finished.
Here is my entry.

Hi all,
here we go then, my M109A6 Paladin from "Ital-Amiya"



I'm using this new set of track links from AFV Club, hope they work out well



still got some sanding to do as the fit wasn't 100 %






That's it for today.

@ Christopher, I checked Sprue Bros., I would pay the 16$ for the Barrel, but not the 15$ shipping fee. Looks like I'm using the kit barrel



Paul

Paul sucks to hear about the shipping price ouch For the tracks, be careful as I found out the some of the openings in the connectors are not wide enough and snapped some of the pins of the tracks them self. You will have one complete sprue of tracks left over to work with.

Looking great guys, sorry I haven't been around lately. Keep at it.

Paul,
Great photos of the museum.
My grandfather drove one of those M4 HST but with the 110th AAA battalion. Used to take his girlfriend (later bride) out on dates with it.

I hope you're allowing What ifs I don't know where else to add in my newest build this Jagd E-100.
Got it in the mail this past Monday


and it goes together so easy



but I couldn't resist making some field modifications:

Boy, I wish I'd seen this post earlier. I just finished a Verlinden 1/16 shipboard 11 inch Dahlgren from the Civil War. If my conversion skills are right, I think 11 inches is about 280mm. And you did say any era!!!

Good luck with the build.

Brian
http://firstmasscavalry.blogspot.com

Chris thanks for the heads up on the tracks . I did notice one thing about the tracks though, they do have the spare track links for the hull front as well but they don't mention them in the instructions
As for the barrel, well that's life. Here's the kit barrel almost completely cleaned up:



Here the gun crutch with a change and the filled and sanded hull seam:



Here's the exhaust which I drilled out and added some spare punched etch and the changed coolant cap:



and here we have the added spare track inks and tie downs:



and last but not least, the changed rear door, stowage box and telephone reel:



J.Poitras: thanks mate, maybe one day I'll get the 1000 or so
digital and real photos loaded up to here for everyone to look at and use



Paul

Some pre-primed pictures of my Scale_Link 60 pounder.
There are, I believe, three things that you need to do to turn the kit into a tractor wheeled version set up for traction engine and not horse towing.
Firstly of course,traction engine wheels and reversing the brake system from the kit's external shoes to shoes acting upon the inner surface of the new wheels.
Next replace the horse fittings with new tractors ones. The only picture I could find was in a US Army manual this is the closest I could get.
Thirdly the towing bracket needed "beefing ''up and a friend in the US sent me some shots and measurements of one outside his local VFW.

As Paul suggested I used SE Finecast wheels. The real ones are 60 " high. SEF wheels although of the same scale actually scale out at 72" but they are the only ones I know of and are easily available. I filed down the lozenge shape at the hub and replaced it with card. If I were doing this again I would replace the axel (part 28 ) completely with plastic rod and metal tubing as its length needs to be increased by at least an inch either side to accommodate the new wheels. I didn't and had to put a dummy wheel nut,hub and drag rope fitting on the outside edge. Again if I was to repeat this I would use card rims instead of the kit supplied w/metal ones.
The new traction engine pole for the limber and tow fitting at the end of the trail were straight forward plasticard builds.





I have built a fair few w/metal kits back in the day when resin was a novelty and some of the techniques I remembered, some I found out the hard way.
This is a heavy but still quite delicate kit.I managed to twist, bend and snap off a fair number of parts,most I replaced with Evergreen. The parts are well cast with a small amount of flash and casting ridges needing to be filed down. As usual with w/metal, all thin, rod like parts need to be replaced with brass/plastic rod if you want them to look straight.
My main, if minor, problem was with the instructions. Some parts mentioned in the build instructions were not shown on the drawing and vice versa, however I muddled through.
Paul I sent you a PM regarding the wheels and as always I am happy to share the walk around photos, sketches and measurements Jaques sent me from Illinois.
For now, into the paint queue whilst I get one with the Holt 75 that will tow it.
regards