Hi,

About five years ago i bought the Program M49 Monitor from Masterpiece models.

A long time ago,more than 20 years,i had built the Monitor from Nimix and made the following diorama.

I really wanted to build another dio (the last one is almost ten years ago) and started,following the instructions,with the hull bar armour.I decided to keep the little parts till the end,so i have not to worry that it will break.

Building this Monitor,you really need the assembly tips and details tutorial from brownwater.net.
Then i decided to start with the Mark 48 turrets.(photo from tutorial)

That was a very smart decision,it is already really frustrating to cut and clean the bar armor support arms and almost impossible (for me) to built the turrets with it.After a few days and “a lot of” super glue i started with the bar armor and now,what a disaster,despite the super glue,some of the bar armor support arms suddenly fell from the turret or broke.
On Armorama i saw the topic about scratch-building a programme monitor from gizmo21 and he rebuild the turrets,this will be a big help (thanks gizmo21) for me later on.
Because i allways disliked scratchbuilding and i hadn’t the confidence to start with it,i thought,okay tomorrow i will try it.

So after about five years,a couple of months ago,i saw that masterpiece models sold there monitors again,i couldn’t help myself and bought the program 5 Tango and the Command and Communications Boat.
Now i had to build the M49,i decided to save the best for last (the 48 turrets ) and started with the bar armor on front of the monitor.

That wasn’t so difficult,then i made and glued the deckhouse and began with the Grille Bars.

That is “a little bit” boring job,i needed a lot of rods (not enough in the box) and a lot of patience to cut and glue so many rods.
These are just a few of them.


Greetings from Amsterdam

A little progress with the monitor,i made the last grille bars.




and glued them on the deckhouse.





As you can see,not all of them,because i have to put a lot of stuff behind the bars,sich as cardboard boxes and what kind of other things did they put there???


Now it’s time to start with the M49 turret.

That bar work looks soul destroying, well done.

Wow!! Thanks for keeping us posted!! Be sure to continue!!

Congratulations Sir!!

Cheers

Romain

I'll be following this build, I've always had a fondness for the brown water navy.
Nice work so far.

Great work on our kit Ronaldo!

It is indeed a time consuming task to do all of the bar armor, but the effect you get is outstanding! Looking forward to following your build.

Hi,

Thank you all.

I need figures for the dio i'm going to make,in the past,it's allmost ten years ago,i allways used figures from Verlinden.Now i need something else,otherwise it's going to look like the first monitor.
I like the Vietnam figures from BRAVO 6 very much,so i ordered these and to begin with some jungle plants.





I have to buy more figures,more plants and i have no paint and brushes anymore.
I don't even know if i still have all the parts from my airbrush.

I love river dios. If this looks anything like your older duo it should be brilliant. Keep the posts coming with plenty of pics/updates.

Heya, Ronaldo,

Fantastic work!!! Keep it up!!! The bar armor is looking AWESOME! Did you build a jig or frame to lay the bars so exactly for each of the separate frame assemblies??

QUOTE: "As you can see,not all of them,because i have to put a lot of stuff behind the bars,sich as cardboard boxes and what kind of other things did they put there???"

I have seen pictures of various items behind the bars on monitors and similar boats, including: sandbags, C-ration cases, 55 gallon drums, 40mm ammo boxes... Both Verlinden and AFV Club sell 40mm Bofors accessory sets with the 40mm ammo boxes (which can also been seen in pictures on other Riverine craft and M48 Pattons).

Thanks, Ronaldo --- keep up the good work!

With Regards and Aloha,

Johnny B.

Hey Johnny,

Thanks,no,after i build the first bar,i used that to build all the other bars.I placed it next to the second one,etc.

I thought about that items but the 40mm ammo boxes ??? i don’t think the crew of the monitor is going to like that.

I can start to paint some of the figures.


I saw that one of the figures had a twin brother in an other box (with the helmet),so he got a make over.

Awesome, Ronaldo!! Wow --- hand placing all of those bars...and so evenly. That is some fine work!!!

And the figures look great!! Do the Bravo-6 "Too Darned Hot" tanker figures come with separate heads or did you have to saw off and replace the heads with the tanker's helmets?

I've been eyeing the same figures for similar Riverine projects (I recently purchased that Program 5 (H) Monitor as well).

I have also been bugging poor Vladi for some dedicated Riverine crew figures: cut offs, shorts, no shirt, t-shirt, t-shirt and flak jacket, talk-helmet, no web gear or pouches, etc. etc. etc. Casual poses, maintenance poses and combat poses, firing .50 and M16s, etc. etc. Keep up those requests to Vladi!

And you keep up the great work, Ronaldo --- you are inspiring me to move forward on my larger Riverine projects! First I have to finish my old Dragon LSSC.

With Regards and Aloha

Johnny B.

Hey Johnny,

I had to saw off the heads and have replaced them with heads from Hornet.
I wish it was true that he sold all the figures you mentioned,because sadly,there is no much choice with Vietnam figures you can use on a monitor and it's Impossible to combine for example Bravo 6 with Verlinden.

Thanks again and success with the Dragon LSSC.

Hi Ronaldo
Great build on the last project, this looks as if it will be just as Great a build.
Will be watching this progress as I've just placed an order with Masterpiece models for 3 kits. Will need all the help I can find so keep building & updating.

Hi Shaun,

Thanks,I’ll hope when you are going to build them,you show it on Armorama.
As i said before,it’s strange you almost can’t find them on internet.

A little update,i’ve build the M49 turret,i’m glad that is done.It was a lot of work,to begin with,the cleaning of the bar armor supports and then
The instructions are not a big help,you really need the tutorial on brownwater.net.

After looking for a thousand times at the photos i glued them on the turret. Then the bar armor,I glued the first one at the bottom and the next one at the top,after examining how much space i needed between the other bars i glued the other eight bars.
That sounds much easier afterwards,I was really glad that i succeeded in doing this.
Despite it is super glue,you still have to wait each time you glue a bar on a support arm and the next arm,etc,so i used a cold drink and a newspaper for not loosing my patience.









Meanwhile i received some other stuff i ordered,modelling is indeed good for your health,running down all those stairs each time the postman arrives.

Looks like you have a good start on this despite the long and tedious work on all the "grills". You also picked out some excellent figs to use with it as well. I will stay tuned.
J

I’ve build the Mark 48 turrets (almost finished)i haven’t used the parts of Masterpiece.





Instead i used Evergreen strips,as i sead before,i don’t like scratchbuilding but i had no choise.
It’s not 100 % correct,don’t look at it with a but i’m satisfied.

Hello Ronaldo
Those Turrets look Very nice, Well done with all that bar armour work.
Like the choice of figure's have some of them in the stash.
Great improvement over the old Verlinden & Dragon Vietnamese figure's.

Shaun

pm

Those mark48 looks awesome, great build

Hi

A little bit late,but thanks Shaun and Chris.

Almost the end of January,it's time for an update.After the last one,i started with the sampan from Verlinden,i saw the top of the sampan, don't they check these parts before they put it in the box???
Now i had to make another one,i had to improvise and took a peace of cardboard,cut it in the right size,glued some bandage on top of it.I painted it immediately to see what it looked like and it looked like a peace of cardboard with bandage. I took some plaster and brushed it on top of the bandage.That looked fine now but It allready smelled terrible from the paint (still use Humbrol,i now acryl is better,but "i grew up" with it and now what coloures i need)and after a while i knew again why i hadn't built anything for so many years,i didn't feel well and had a bad headache for two days.After a week i started to clean a lot of the parts from the Sampan and yes i know,you have to take care with resin,that's why i allways work with the door or window wide open.

The resin from Verlinden smells awfull and i had worked too long,there was my headache again.
With the holidays ahead i decided to stop till the next year.

In the first weeks of January i glued the last parts of the Monitor and started painting the sampan and the figures.







Don't wanna make the same "mistake" as the previous month,so i just paint one hour "every day".
Here are some pictures,it's not finished yet.



I'm not satisfied with the pictures at all,that's not mine cup of tea i've made a lot of them,but i don't get the colours right(too dark,too light,shiny spots)especially with the figures.(skin look pale)I'll hope i get it right the next time.


This afternoon i airbrushed the base color,Testors Marine Corps Green (FS34052) on the balcony.

Holy....

Mooi gedaan.. heel mooi gedaan

Harald

That monitor looks the biz !
J

Thanks Jerry,if you refer to the diorama with the Monitor from Nimix,that's an oldie,like this topic.
Almost all the photo's (imageshack) were deleted,tried to put them back,but unfortunately i don't have all the pictures anymore.

Two photo's (more as two years old) the M49 Monitor and the sampan,i made another roof,didn't like the first one i made.