Lucas the M-109A2 looks great BUT to painted the ballistic cover for the panoramic telescope used for laying deflection.The glass needs to be clear or you cannot aim and or lay the piece!!! In the A 2 they armored the cover Make the face clear ballistic glass and you will be spot on

Lou--no worries, I have that covered (literally; I painted the glass with Alclad Armored Glass transparent paint and masked it off with Parafilm). I'll take the mask off of the glass and the TC's periscope only at the very end of the build. Only then will I know how well the masks held up...

the build looks great so far Lucas. Also, what color did you use for the actual spade part of the shovels and heads of the other tools?

Looks great, I was in 1/3 ACR from 85 to 89 when the vehicles were still painted in the desert scheme like yours. Brings back memories

I used Polly Scale Grimy Black, then dry brushed with Testors Steel from the square bottle.

Thanks James!

Excellent build Lucas. I really enjoy reading your detailed build blog.
Now the older images are visible again from photobucket ... you fixed the warping problems with sprue D way better than I did ;-)

Keep on the good work.
Cheers
Walter

What company is this kit from?

Lucas,

On the storage, those two larger cylinders appear to be the canisters that the powder charges for the 155 comes in. I know tankers would have at least one on their tracks to store maps.

I've seen camo net bags lashed to the side of the hull on one side, with the poles already assembled lashed to the other... In the end it depends on the Battery or Battalion commander as to what gets stowed and where. I'll look through my stack of pics from when I was with 1/17 FA , 1/101FA, 1/102FA, and DIVARTY 1AD to see if I have any showing how equipment was stowed on the 109's.

http://www.usarmymodels.com/ARTICLES/Building%20155mm%20Gun/building155mm8.html

Here you may find details about the storage cartons.

Thanks, Paul. That link is pretty helpful. I talked to my friend about what kind of stowage his unit carried and have changed my plan accordingly. It seems they almost always carried, in descending order of likelihood, cammo nets, tarps, and duffel bags or rucksacks in the baskets. I'll stick to these three items. I'll have to make cammo net to fit, and will use a tarp and duffel bag to round out the stowage.

I just got back from a business trip that kept me away for most of the week, but last week I managed to get quite a bit done. Here's my update.

I first heavily dry-brushed the tracks with MM Gunmetal (not the Metalizer kind, the standard one, which is a dark blue-black), then sealed them Vallejo flat. I then gave the tracks a wash with AK Africa Dust Effects. Here's what they looked like at that stage:





I then gave the tracks another wash with AK Dust Effects and used ground-up pencil graphite to burnish the areas that the sprockets and idlers would rub free of dust and paint. Finally, I dry-brushed a bit of Testors steel paint on the guide horns. Here is the final look of the tracks:





This was my first time using AK's washes. They were fairly nice, although I found that they settled in the bottle really fast--I had to keep stirring and shaking them constantly to keep the pigments in suspension or the wash would quickly thin and then become almost entirely devoid of pigmentation.

I also used a new (for me) set of washes on the main hull and turret--Vallejo's acrylic Dark Brown Wash and the Detailer Black wash. Here is what the turret and hull looked like after being glossed and pinwashed with both of those products:







I then sprayed everything with Vallejo's flat coat. For some reason, this time I got a bit of white frosting on the turret (and only the turret), even though I had no problems with the same flat coat what I used it on the hull or the running gear. Go figure. I've managed to eliminate most of the frosting since I took the pictures.











That's mostly where things stand now. In looking at the pictures of the turret, I can see multiple places where I did not properly blend the pin wash--I thought I had caught all of them before shooting the flat coat, but evidently that was not the case. Unfortunately, it is now too late for me to do much about that, except to try tp soften it with filters and weathering. I also started painting the stowage items, but since I've changed what I will be putting in the baskets, half of that work is now beside the point. Let me know what you think.

Well, I continue to plug along slowly but surely on this kit. In the past two weeks I've finished the stowage and started the weathering. For the stowage, after talking to my friend I settled on the duffel bag, the rolled-up tarp, and a camo net. I had a couple of camo nets in my drawer, so I took them out to see if they would do the trick. One was Echelon's Barracuda camo net in brown and green (it looks like a decal and is just as fragile), and the other was a Pegasus green camo net made out of gauze-like material. This is what the Echelon net looks like once unpacked:



And here are part of the instructions--you basically treat it like a huge decal:



And this is what the Pegasus net looked like:



I first tried using the Echelon net, since it looks the best. I succeeded in separating it from the carrier sheet, per the instructions, without any damage, but when I tried to roll it or fold it, it just shattered into hundreds of tiny flakes. Scratch that. The Pegasus net could be easily rolled up, but it just looked like rolled-up green gauze. I finally decided to combine the two, since the Echelon net has an adhesive side. Right after removing the Echelon net from its backing, I laid down a piece of Pegasus net over it, tamped it down with a soft towel to make sure it stuck properly, and set it out to dry. Once dry, I tried rolling the combo net. I had better luck than with just the Echelon net, but it still shattered and tore in many, many places. I had wanted to display the net with the Echelon side out, but that was clearly not going to happen. I opted to instead display it with the Pegasus net facing out. I then used Vallejo's Dark Green Wash to darken the color of the visible parts of the Pegasus net once I put the rolled-up net in the turret basket, as the Pegasus green was way too light. The combo net still looks better than just having a roll of gauze, since Barracuda nets have a mesh woven into one side, but I'm disappointed with the results. Oh well, it will have to do.

Here's what the combo net looks like:



I have also been busy with the weathering. First, I used MIG's rain marks to subtly stain the surface of the whole vehicle. It's barely visible, but it helps break up the surface and give it some depth.





Next, I airbrushed some AK Africa Dust Effects on the lower areas of the hull and immediatelly stumped it with a flat brush to create dust streaking.





Finally, I used AK's Rainmarks for NATO Tanks to create rain marks/dust streaks on both the hull and the turret:









On the spades, I drybrushed Testors Steel to simulate the worn edges where the spades dig into the ground for firing.



On the turret (and on a few other areas of the hull, such as handles, I used a graphite pencil along edges to create worn areas. I kept this effect very restrained, as I did not want to go overboard:







If you look carefully at some of the hull shots, you will see I also painted some rust around the exhaust and that the paint on the front mudguards is chipping. It turns out that the vinyl parts in this kit (the front mudguards and the cloth cover for the mantlet) will simply not hold paint, no matter what. I tried several different painting methods, including priming with Alclad primer, but the paint always chips or flakes off at the slightest provocation. That's why I'm not using the mantlet cover--every time I tried to put it in place, it shed paint like crazy. Even if I had managed to get it on and repainted it, moving the gun would have caused the paint to come off again.

The next step will be dust buildup on the rear of the hull and mudguards, then I will mount the running gear, fix the hull and turret to the base, and add pigments. Once that's done, I will call this build done!

Let me know what you think.

Whow!

The tracks look like the real ones now!

What a mighty beautiful howitser you build.

Thanks, Paul!

Pls., read your email-box

Nice weathering Lucas.

Interesting to see how the camo net turned out. This is not easy and thx for sharing your experience.

I personally don´t like this vinyl stuff on the cover and mudflaps. I think of substituting them.

Cheers
Walter

Wow your painting and weathering made grey desert MERDC look great. It's usually my least favorite next to summer verdant. I'm going to have to try out the rain effects you used.


Erik

Thanks, guys! Walter--you are definitely better off replacing the cover and mudflaps. I don't have the skills to scratch the mantlet cover, but if I had to do it again, I would certainly build the mudflaps myself.

CAMO NET -

Hey I discovered this a while back - next time youre at the grocery store check out the scrubber sponges. There's several that have a nylon net covering that has the twisted and curled look of a modern vinyl camo net. You can cut this off the sponge, bunch it up with a couple of drops of super glue and fit it into place. It looks like the right scale and has the right shapes for a rolled up piece of camo net. Of course, these are usually stored inside of a huge vinyl bag/envelop but sometimes are temporarily rolled and stuffed into a compartment.

Looking good so far...

That looks pretty interesting--I'll see if I can find it at a store near me to try it out on a future build. Thanks for the tip!

Well, I've nearly reached the finish line. We were snowed in on Thursday, so I got extra time to work on the model. I weathered the exhaust with black pigments, splattered some dried mud on the rear of the hull, put on the wheels and tracks, chipped the paint lightly, added straps to the stowage on the top of the turret (thanks, Paul!) and dusted the horizontal surfaces of hull and turret. Oh, and I added a carbon fiber antenna from Accurate Armor. Now all that remains is to attach the M109 to the base and present it to my friend!

Here's a shot of the tracks while they are being glued down. I placed superglue on the top of the roadwheels and pressed the track down on them to make sure it would stay firmly in place. I used foam earplugs to keep the track in the correct position while the glue set.



In these shots, you can see the straps I added to the stowage using lead foil.









For the exhaust, I masked the area around it, then put on black pigments and fixed them with Tamiya X-20 thinner. I then added an oily stain running down below it using AK's Engine Grime. Here's what it looks like.



I couldn't resist putting the hull and turret together for pictures, so here are the first ones of the whole howitzer put together:















I'll take more pictures with a neutral background later tonight and post them tomorrow. Let me know what you think!

What I think?


That you just finished a very well done, detailed, realistic looking replica of a very good gun.
Don' t touch it anymore!
It looks GREAT!

Excellent Lucas.
The lead foil straps look good ant thx for the hint with the ear-plugs ;-)
Like your finish and weathering job a lot.
Thanks for sharing your work.

cheers
Walter

Thanks, guys! I've posted the final pics of this beast in a separate thread. Here's a link.

It looks absolutley amazing! I've been following this build for some time, waiting to see the end result, and it is beutiful!