Here's another small update. It was finally time to start to individual link tracks. Clean up was fast with a file to remove the nubs left from snipping the links off the 12 piece sprues. I decided to make two equal size tracks using all the links since they just snap together. No glue needed, and you end up with true flexible tracks.

I then did the basic painting. A base coat of Tamiya XF-1 Flat black. Then a coat of Cidadel Boltgun. When dry, I followed up with a few coats of Burnt Umber and black.

I had already glued on the wheels, drive sprockets, and Idler wheels. I also had glued up the fenders without the side skirts, that I've decided to leave off.

I turned the M24 over on it's back, and proceeded to slide the tracks under the glide wheels using a pair of tweezers. No issues. This never happens. Way to easy. Over lapped the ends, removed the excess links, and glued the tracks to the bottom of the wheels.

Ok, time for the 2nd track. Thought that this one would be a breeze as well. No such luck this track fought me every inch of the way. guess one of the guide wheels wasn't lined up perfectly, and the track kept on getting hung up on it. Finally got the track through. But this time the links kept on separating. I'd fix one side, then the other side would have a link let go. Just when I thought I had it made, a link parted from the rest of the links right on the drive sprocket just past the fender I really struggled, but finally got everything buttoned up.

Here's a few pictures of the tracks installed.

Joel



You'll notice that one of the links came undone by the drive sprocket. Didn't notice it till I saw these pictures. Fix took like 15 sec.

Good to see some paint on, looks a nicely detailed kit.

Paul, thanks for the kind words. This continues to be a slow, but a fun build that I'm really enjoying.

Joel

Hiya Joel, Chaffee's comin along nice man, Got paint on and thats always a good sign.

Gary

Hey Joel,

Check your tracks, they are going different directions! Hopefully a quick fix. They look great! Love the tire color as well, what paint did you use?

Terry

Gary, thanks for looking. I really appreciate it. As for the tires, I start off with Tamiya XF-63 and add a few drops of Xf-1 to darken it up a tad.

Terry, yep I saw that after everything was dry and glued up. I double checked it, and as usual screwed up the tracks. Another issue I'll have to live with. It's not like I didn't look, just got my orientation half ass backwards. Maybe I should stick to subjects that have wheels.

Joel

Been a while since my last update. I've been working on the interior of the turret/main gun, and breech assembly. The turret has turned out to be quite well detailed, but there is no floor, not any lower hull detail, so I'm going to paint the visible hull interior flat black.

The instructions; step 25 have you start off with the breech guard assembly. I tried this and found that it was nearly impossible to correctly line up and glue the guards correctly it attaches to only one point. So I left this assembly till after I fully assembled the main gun. Then I built the breech guard and assembly. Parts fit was much easier and a lot more accurate in placement.

The main gun assembly does include a working plastic recoil spring. So I installed it, and it works. But for the life of me, I can't see why they would include something like this, as you don't see the spring, and you're certainly not going to play with the model once completed. Just a waist of resources IMHO.

Next up in step 28 was gunners seat and controls. Nicely detailed, and goes together without any issues. There is a foot PE foot rest that I ended up making out of Plastic strip.

Next came the building the turret traversing mechanism. Once completed you need to very carefully add the seat, the gunners seat assembly, and the Traversing assembly all at the same time, as each assembly is dependent on the other ones. I ended up fiddling around with them for a lot longer time then I thought I would need to, but once done, and the glue has dried, these assemblies are fairly rigid.

Now came the assembly of the main gun to the mantlet. Again, I found the assembly to be overly complex. I pre-painted everything, then attached the mounting brackets to the mantlet, then worked them on to the locating pins on the shield. Then installed the main gun, then the the coaxial MG.

After everything had dried. I glued the gun assembly to the lower ring with the top of the turret in place to help with alignment.

Next up is the exterior of the turret.

Here's some pictures of the turret assembly.

Joel

Sounds about like mine, including replacing the PE foot rest with plastic after the PE one got knocked off for about the 3rd time.

I really think the black floor will help to hide the 'void' below the gun breech.

Jesse, I'm hoping that the flat black paint will do the trick. As for the foot rest, you really can't even see it once the turret is buttoned up as you're basically looking straight down. In your build with the removable top cover of the turret, you can see everything. I'm still debating adding some ammo cans like you did.

Joel

FWIW, I glued the turret top after taking the photos. It fit pretty well without glue, but there was still a visible gap in a few places.

I thought you left if removable for competition purposes.
Joel

Nope, I didn't do any detailing outside of what you can physically see through the hatches. If I left the whole top off, you could see all the stuff I did NOT do.


Same with the Grant. The hull is fully glued down. The only way to see the interior is through the hatches or from my photos.

Yet your M3 Grant interior is well detailed, and you made all the corrections. Compared to you, I'm just a hacker who keeps on trying to to get a little better with each build.
Joel

It's not about who has the most detailed build. It's what each of us individually wants to build. The Grant and Chaffee were really involved projects. The Firefly I built before that was pretty simple. Just a few exterior details, but otherwise out of the box.

You're way to modest.

Joel

Started working on the turret shell, and of course I dropped a bracket on the carpet, and the carpet monster has his 1st meal of the work session. Just couldn't find the part. of course it had to be a part with compound curves and brace on the top.

After kicking myself in the butt for loosing the part, I tried to duplicate with scrap PE and sheet plastic. Here's the final glued up version. It's the best I can do, so it's going to have to do.

Looking good. The turret is pretty good from the start. Just a LOT of little bits to glue on.

Jesse, yep. But it's those little pieces I keep on loosing to the carpet monster.
Joel

Finally finished painting the turret, and the MG plateform. Added two 5 gal. gas cans. Next up is a coat of Pledge ,so I can add the decals, then a 2nd coat of Pledge to seal them. Will have to paint the stowage before the weathering process starts. Naturally, I haven't even started any of it yet. Here's a few pictures of the M24 with the painted Turret added.

Joel

Great looking Chaffee Joel!

I hope to build one of these in the near future.

Dave