I had a little time this morning, so out came the MrSurfacer and I blended the different parts of the mantlet. I will more than likely smooth this up considerably, seems like the M51 and M50 mantlets are both very nice castings...
Anyway, the pic:

I also need to see if I can scare up some more of those lovely Dragon DS T80 (I think- the metal chevron double pin) tracks for this one. I think they would be most appropriate.

Work you've done here looks very nice so far Rfbaer. what colour scheme are you thinking of? IRL shades or something made up?

Thanks, Timothy.
I'll be going with something that I think looks a lot like a mid-'70's IDF sand gray, Krylon "khaki" camo paint.

Nice start, Russell.

Looking forward to see more

A little more progress on my axis command walker. I am not particularly happy with how the wash turned out. Seems to be to yellowish and shiny. I believe I can fix it in the coming weathering and detail painting.

More to follow

Was it an oil wash? I do believe any unvarnished oil paint can be removed from the model surface with a strong enough application of thinner.

Jesper, it's certainly interesting, good luck with your paint.
More on my M26:
Hull is together, running gear on and tracks from an old build test-fitted. I would really prefer to use some steel-chevron (T80E1?) tracks on this one, and have one set that I have ear-marked for the next M26, so if I can scare up another set, I'll be happy. I thought I had a set of Friul T81, no go, so it'll probably be the HB tracks, which are actually pretty good.
I've also started adding stuff to the turret, and moved two of the smoke launchers, but still not happy with them. And I need to start thinking about now much I want to change the engine deck area to make it look like there's a Cummins in there. For sure a big exhaust, but maybe more.
Pics so far:





I'm very happy with how the mantlet came out, thinking now on whether or not to mount a 50-cal on it....

Thanks for the tip. It was a vallejo water based wash, so no chance to remove it. However, I think it will work better if I apply weathering directly on top of it. The main problem is that it is shiny and has too large streaks in it. Should be possible, but thanks for the tip.

Man-o-man, if I just had the time to get into another campaign...I'd try something along the lines of the two 'prototypes' below...





The latter one looks like it would take at least 3 KV chassis, 3 KV turrets, 2 BT 5 like turrets, at least 3 sets of Friul's...and on it goes...lol...and I would move the aft turret up some as to provide the obvious room for the large a$$ engine size needed to have to move this beast!!

Paul, I was thinking about this as well, something like this at least. If I were to ever build mine it would be a Churchill/Ferdinand with a late war 20lb gun. It would become a difficult however cause of the rear engine and drive wheels.

Food for thought.

I picture something like a M551 body with the turret of a striker MGS or an M163 topper. Making a small fire support Vehicle. Too many ideas and not enough time!

John, that KV land battleship looks like it would break in half the first time it tried the drive over a sharp ridge. It would have to have a flexible joint somewhere in the middle.

Naw...'Ivan' would only weld on more rolled steel first to stiffen' the beast up, and secondly, with an unintended 'false positive', it would stop anything the allies could shoot at it!

Some awesome buikds and ideas here already!

And so, at last, my build begins...
First, the Fennek: an absolutely beautiful kit! Stunning in the level of detail and so far the fit is immaculate. Only on page 2 of the instructions so far but really, really, really loving this kit.



With all the detail painting it might be a different story

And then the weapon station....wow! Goes together like a dream, but there was one nightmare moment. One critical part was missing and was going to take Live Resin a few weeks to recast as they are out of stock of this kit. However, a friend bought the other LR RWS as part of the same order and on checking his parts he had what was needed for mine in his set, but not used on it, so Iwas sorted and could continue. Some wiring, using stretched sprue, and the ammo feed chutes just to be added before painting.

Looks like an awesome kit, Sean. Looking forward to see more.

I have finished my build for this campign. The 1/48 Dust Tactics Prinz Luther. A nice lile kit. I applied too much weatering to the white camo, but overall I am satisfied.

wo set of pitures as the flash really makes a difference in the look of the model.

Comments welcome

Really awesome...Well done my friend...




http://www.facebook.com/povHG
http://battletankpower.blogspot.com/

Thanks, Hakan. Appreciate the comment.

A fictional stable mate for the Javelin Air Defence SEV...

Shoot! I just realized the Flak II campaign hasn't started yet! Oh well, I will paint the Javelin SEV in a fictional scheme and add it to this thread

Looks great, Graeme. Nice details and something out of the ordinary.

What do you have in mind for camouflage?

Well done, Jesper. That's still a good result, whether you like it or not.
Graeme, as always, very nice!
I did some re-arranging of the items on the turret sides on my M26, and added a couple of ventilators to the turret roof. I like it better now.....




My thought was that to make it truly look like a plausible "what-if" I should make the turret look as much like the M51 as possible.

Okay, about to start the build. Will add some kind of mine protection to the hull. When i was about to start, i realized i'm out of my styrene plates i guess it will take plave later

Thanks for the comment, Russell.

Nice progress on your build. Truly unique looking, but realistic at the same time. Looking forward to see more.

That's my goal, Jesper: keep it plausible. Is it a contradiction in terms to say that I like my "what-ifs" to be realistic? Hope not....
Anyway, some work on the engine deck, exhaust and rear happened last night.



As a preface, I now have pieces from all plastic M50/51 kits on this model. I need to get some HobbyBoss M26 parts in there somehow....Okee dokee then.
The intake covers are Tamiya M51, cut and turned front-to-back to clear the underside of the turret bustle. Small splash shields are Dragon. The exhaust cover is from the Mp Models M50, and the actual "pipe" is Academy, from their M51. I blanked off the M26 exhaust opening, added a weld bead from Vallejo putty, and filled all the holes in the rear plate. Then the rear bin from the Academy M51 was built up and added, with the gun travel lock from the Tamiya M51 attached. The crutch itself is just laying there for pics, comes off for adding stowage/painting.
A searchlight mount from one of the tan plastic kits was added to the mantlet, and I'm deciding whose searchlight to use: I have Dragon, Academy and Verlinden parts. It is noice to have a big parts stash, one of the reasons I like to grab old kits at shows and such.
I do believe my major construction "hurdles" are behind me. I can't say this has been difficult at all, it's actually been (so far) one of the easiest builds in recent memory.

Progress so far

Got a bit of a problem with the 'cage', but it's fine right now. Won't start the CROWS,since i got the idea to replace it with the one from live resin. A friend of mine told me 'that kit could kill a person', and he's not completely mistaken, about a quarter of it was true

Interested in seeing that....