A quick visit back to the rear hull stowage basket to add a small box courtesy of Voyager....



Next up will be the water can holders on the turret.

Gary

Okay, 'fess up. You're either able to miniaturize yourself so do this kind of work, or you temporarily enlarge the model and all the parts, then shrink it back down when you're done.
Am I close?
Gawd.....

Wish that was the case - would be a lot easier

The more I looked at the commander's hatch, the less I liked it. I really felt that even though DEF had done a decent job, the periscope ports let it down. So I opted for the Tamiya part in the end, grafting on the hatch stop from the rein part and adding Aber periscopes, padlock clasp, fuse wire handle and Mr Surfacer for the cast effect....



Loaders latch gets its missing locking latch....



Gary

First holder made up and in place....



Still need to add some welds.

Gary

Great to follow your outstanding work, Gary.

I have decided to turn a pigs ear into a silk purse. I am building Tamiya's really old Pz. IV. Not the recent release - the really old one

I am using some extra detail sets for gun, aerial, wheels etc. In addition I hae dug up all the left over parts from various other Pz. IV kits I have build over time. Hope they will be able to improve the kit significantly. It might ed up being a ausf. G/H hybrid in the end, but quite realistic still.

I will finish it in Bulgarian colors and markings. I have not decided on he actual scheme, but something colorful.

More to follow later

Hi All,

Having been given the ok by Eugene I am now in a position to commence (or, more accurately, re-commence) this build. The Panther was at this point when I asked if it would qualify for the campaign...



Those are Fruil tracks, which are the first after-market item.

I have been waiting for the other items I need to improve the model...



The second item is the excellent set of shackles by RB...



The third item is the Eureka XXL cable set for the Panther...



The fourth item is the Atak resin Zimmerit set for the late Panther A...





The Panther is going to represent a vehicle from the 5th SS Panzer Division 'Wiking' in Russia 1944. I decided to do the turret as I will have to do a lot of remedial work on the hull to fix the Zimmerit and this may take a little time.

The sections of Zimmerit that were intended for the turret were cut from the sheet. The Zimmerit is very thin, but needs a little sanding to remove the slight lip on the edges before fixing. This is done carefully as the sections are quite delicate...



I then commenced with the back plate as this was the easiest part to start with. I have never used this product before and I had no idea how easy/difficult it would be to apply. I needn't have worried, it was quite straightforward, I placed the section on the back plate and using thin CA I allowed it to run between the resin section and the back plate. This worked very well and I had it fixed in a matter of moments...



Encouraged by this success I then applied all the other sections...

The front plate...



The turret side...







The rear plate was then glued in place and the whole structure seemed to be coming together very nicely...







Finally I added the front plate and the armament...





Well that was as far as I got, the rest of the turret paraphernalia will be added and that will be left then while I get on with the hull. Until the next update, all comments welcome.

All the best,

Paul

Nice job on the zimmerit, Paul. Looks really good.

Looking forward to see more.

Hi Jesper,

Thanks for that, the Atak product is really easy to use and I can recommend it unreservedly. I managed to do the rear plate without too much drama - unless you count the 3.5cm cut along my left index finger from trying to remove the original storage boxes - I will try to post the photos later.

All the best,

Paul

Here is the rear plate after replacing the stowage bins and adding the zimmerit sheet...





I am also starting to add the zimmerit to the sides of the hull as well...



More updates soon...

All the best,

Paul

So I had ordered the Academy M3 based on the reviews I had read, which indicated this was a good, technically accurate kit, but in all the discussions of measurements being within scale tolerances, blah blah blah, they had managed to completely overlook the fact that the no19 radio (which the Grant turret was specifically designed to accomodate) was completely missing, and the exhaust and air filters were for the Lee and all wrong for the Grant. So in true whole hog fashion, I found a Resicast radio on evilbay and ordered the proper rear end from Formations.

Running out of piggy banks to smash!

Gentlemen, I always wanted to participate in a project like this one! Count me in.
But before I start, please help me to choose the more interesting subject.
Would you like to see this one



or this one?

Hi Marek,

I would like to see the C7P, it is an unusual vehicle and lots of opportunity for weathering the interior. Also it is not seen modelled very often and was actually a quite important vehicle.

All the best,

Paul

Unfortunately, a severe bout of stomach flu and the resulting Bell’s Palsy have had me away from the bench for awhile, but I managed to get back at it this weekend finally. Before I post my first update photos, please allow me to wax prosaic a bit.

I know that many of you are immediately going to spot any number of technical inaccuracies with this build—of some of them I am even aware myself—but this is my first attempt at a vehicle interior and I’m trying to make do with the resources and supplies available to me. Have tried to scratchbuild a few upgrades as best I can from the photos, but I know they’re not 100%. I could never match Gastec the Great! Frankly, I’m ecstatic I could get the ammo rack on the rear firewall to actually come out looking something remotely like an ammo rack (especially doing it with only one good eye!).

I do have to give mountains of credit to Gary Boxall and Mike Roof for their expert advice on working with PE. I can’t say soldering PE is fun or easy yet, but it’s not the non-stop frustration it used to be. BTW, for any doubters, the paste solder and butane torch are worth every penny!

So without further ado, the lower hull interior is done and ready for priming:



On the front end I added some missing controls, conduits, and the transmission fluid filler cups.



On the back end, plumbed the fire extinguisher system and the oil reservoir, and opened up the vents in the firewall. I also thought replacement brackets from Eduard were too two-dimensional so added tiny bits of solder to build up the rivets to something more reasonable.

Still have some items of stowage to go in after the overall painting is done. And I just found in the photo the missing seat adjuster lever I lost!

Okay, so not great by the standards of most around here, but I'm pretty pleased for a first attempt at interiors.

Right! Ready to receive incoming rounds!

Marek, Go for the C7P! Clearly the most interesting in my mind.

Nice progress, Mark. Glad you feel better and are back to the workbench.

Well, been putting off any suspension work while I sort out the facts on the notorious bogies for this kit over which Academy has taken so much grief. It appears that even though this is a brand-new kit it still has the old, incorrect bogies which we supposedly corrected in a re-box a few years ago. Now, for my part, I cannot even tell with the naked eye that these bogies are bad, and actually had to do quite a bit of measuring and re-measuring before I was confident they are the wrong ones. So I have heretically decided--and I hope this won’t get me kicked out of the WHOLE HOG campaign—NOT to order AM replacement bogies. Too many replacement bits on the market for this vehicle as it is, and I’ve got to draw the line somewhere.

I am, however, put in mind of a bit of humor: What do the Academy M3 Grant and the Letterbox version of Casablanca have in common? I shouldn’t have to say it, but the Bogies are too tall in both…

Okay, to more serious business. Got started on the suspension with cleaning up the road wheels by chucking them in a drill and taking a file to them—they needed it. Had to re-work the drive sprockets to accommodate the Bronco track link: sprockets were too narrow for the links, and the alignment pin on the inner sprocket had to be removed since it was preventing the inner and outer sprocket teeth from lining up properly. Weird that, since I’ve never heard it mentioned in any other build logs or kit reviews. Lastly, I got the seams off the road wheel rocker arms and added slices of plastruct hex rod to replace the wear plate retainer bolts.



Also got the lower hull interior primed after discovering some bits I had overlooked amongst all the sets of instructions strewn about the bench.

Baby steps...

Two votes for C7P, thank you Paul and Jesper.
And now, the most ungrateful job is waiting for me - cutting off and cleaning all those resin parts.


The resin is shiny and almost white. It hard to work with it as it is very difficult to see the tiny details. Luckily I have many parts from an earlier release when the resin was much more darker. So I will use these older parts as often as possible.

I've started with the Saurer Diesel VBLDb engine. Currently, I'm in the middle of my work.

You can easily distinguish the resin from the latest and older release.

And the other side.

Marek, my vote is for the T-70, but it appears that I'm too late.

Good start, Marek. The worst thing about resin is cleaning it up. Especially the big lumps that needs to be done with a saw.

Looking forward to see more.

Quick update: even though I said I wouldn't pursue new bogies, I discovered MRC had styrene replacements for this kit, and even though I didn't buy the kit from them originally, they graciously agreed to sell me a set of bogies for a rock-bottom price. Two thumbs up for MRC!

Alas, the fit of this kit is proving to be very problematic. Having gotten all the upper hull slabs nicely aligned and glued together, when I tried to dry fit the upper and lower hulls together I found that the top edge of transmission housing sits a full millimeter above the front edge of the upper hull. This is going to take major surgery to correct, complicated by the fact that the I've already glued it down.

Add some Sherman parts...that'll hide everything!!

WoW everyone what great projects you all have definatley captured the spirit of what i hoped in my head was a good group build. I cannot wait to get started.

Euge.

Hi everyone. All the builds are looking great so far. here's some progress on my stryker.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_NTXxG1KUhTZjZmUGpUREhlZEU/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_NTXxG1KUhTcWRfN1dFd2JUUDg/view?usp=sharing

I'm going to take a break for a bit to finish a couple of other projects before i tackle the slat

Hi all,

This is an awesome campaign! I will be building a T-72B.
I will be using the Tamiya T-72A, the Miniarm old T-72B turret and conversion, a trumpeter workable tracks, a ModelPoint barrel, a PanzerArt late wheel set, and a Eduard T-72M photoetch set.

Now that the trumpeter T-72B is out, it is time to build this project.