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Desert Storm TOW missile launcher
jrutman
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Posted: Tuesday, March 03, 2015 - 11:44 PM UTC
This is another commission from an old Army buddy that I served a long time with and yes,also during the "Storm".
I am using the antique and very brittle example from Dragon. This is the only kit I am aware of so....
I have included the box top mainly because Rons' artwork is so vey very good.




Here are the associated tow parts



I started on the 3 man crew. The fourth guy in our unit(82nd Abn) was the driver. Thus,a 4 man squad,two squads per section,two sections per platoon,five platoons in the Delta,or heavy company. Each of the nine Inf Bns of the 82nd had a Delta Company.

From left to right,squad leader,gunner,loader. They are in various stages of developement. The leader has re-posing and clean up and some undercutting accomplished already. the gunner a bit of undercutting and the loader none. The guys are all kit figures from the tow kit but the loader has the Dragon gunners' body included in the kit but I added a WWII Para set of legs to him. These will be altered to show the BDU style of course. I have to make sure Romain doesn't get too excited! LOL



Another view



Crude by todays' Dragon standards and they will need a lot of work but hey....we are snowed in pretty much.
J
justsendit
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Posted: Tuesday, March 03, 2015 - 11:53 PM UTC
Thanks for the preview. I'll go get my popcorn now!

—mike
disorderly
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Posted: Wednesday, March 04, 2015 - 12:17 AM UTC
Yeah, definitely following this one.
Excuse my ignorance, but what exactly is undercutting?
Graywolf
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HISTORICUS FORMA
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Posted: Wednesday, March 04, 2015 - 12:47 AM UTC
First of all, congratulations. Not much people dare to use these old kits nowadays as there are some resin or better detailed alternatives. I will follow you and I am sure final will be a good one. Good luck Jerry.
best regards
Engin
jrutman
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Posted: Wednesday, March 04, 2015 - 01:33 AM UTC
Mike and Pat,
Thanks for checking in so fast on the new blog. Pat,undercutting is when you get a nice new sharp number 11 hobby knife and use it to bring more definition to the soft details on these old old soldiers. Using a pocket flap as an example you scrape along the bottom of the flap with the sharp part of the blade facing towards the figure. This will define the edge. I then make that edge sharper or the pocket flap thinner by reversing the blade so the sharp edge faces away from the figure. I then go along the previous scraped area. This gets rid of the sort of blended in look that a lot of the older plastic figs have.
I will try and post a good before and after pic using one of these figs here.
J
jrutman
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Posted: Wednesday, March 04, 2015 - 01:35 AM UTC

Quoted Text

First of all, congratulations. Not much people dare to use these old kits nowadays as there are some resin or better detailed alternatives. I will follow you and I am sure final will be a good one. Good luck Jerry.
best regards
Engin


Thanks buddy,
I would rather use some nicer figs but don't know of any. Any ideas?
J
DG0542
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Posted: Wednesday, March 04, 2015 - 02:05 AM UTC
AFV Club Makes a Newer Tow Launcher.

ACT-35021
disorderly
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Posted: Wednesday, March 04, 2015 - 02:07 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Mike and Pat,
Thanks for checking in so fast on the new blog. Pat,undercutting is when you get a nice new sharp number 11 hobby knife and use it to bring more definition to the soft details on these old old soldiers. Using a pocket flap as an example you scrape along the bottom of the flap with the sharp part of the blade facing towards the figure. This will define the edge. I then make that edge sharper or the pocket flap thinner by reversing the blade so the sharp edge faces away from the figure. I then go along the previous scraped area. This gets rid of the sort of blended in look that a lot of the older plastic figs have.
I will try and post a good before and after pic using one of these figs here.
J


Thanks for the explanation, Jerry.
I've plenty of old Tamiya figures that could be doing with that.
ReconTL3-1
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Posted: Wednesday, March 04, 2015 - 03:20 AM UTC
Hey Jerry,

I think it's pretty cool that you are able to do some commissioned work for old Army buddies. It means alot to those guys and since you have first hand knowledge and experience with the real stuff, it goes a long way. I look forward to seeing what you do with these figures. It's not an easy task to make the older figures look better, but if anyone can do it, I know you can.

Cheers,
James
Karl187
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Posted: Wednesday, March 04, 2015 - 04:33 PM UTC
Judging by how well the Panama Airborne figures turned out we are in for a treat here!
jrutman
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Posted: Wednesday, March 04, 2015 - 11:17 PM UTC
Thanks Karl,
Very nice of you to say!!
As far as the undercutting goes,here is a body before.



You first point the sharp edge towrds the fig



Then scrape the same area with the blade facing away from the fig


Hopefully,you can see a difference now between the left pocket flap and the right??




jrutman
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Posted: Wednesday, March 04, 2015 - 11:19 PM UTC
Some tedious work begun on the launcher. Before



And after I opened up the grill work in the middle of the tripod. Not very good,but more accurate a little bit?



Has to be cleaned up a bit
Graywolf
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Posted: Thursday, March 05, 2015 - 01:56 AM UTC
As I know, not much good resin figures w/PASGT that can be used with TOW. Blast has some kneeling ones but I see yours with undercutting will have better details.
Nice surgery on tripod.
keep safe
Engin
1stjaeger
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Posted: Thursday, March 05, 2015 - 02:09 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Judging by how well the Panama Airborne figures turned out we are in for a treat here!



Yes, I'd heartily agree to that!

Go ahead and amaze us again m8!!

Cheers
Romain


jrutman
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Posted: Thursday, March 05, 2015 - 02:43 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Hey Jerry,

I think it's pretty cool that you are able to do some commissioned work for old Army buddies. It means alot to those guys and since you have first hand knowledge and experience with the real stuff, it goes a long way. I look forward to seeing what you do with these figures. It's not an easy task to make the older figures look better, but if anyone can do it, I know you can.

Cheers,
James



Thanks bro,
Yes,the old bunch is keeping in touch,even though one now lives in the Ukraine!! Pray every day for his safety.
J
jrutman
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Posted: Thursday, March 05, 2015 - 02:45 AM UTC

Quoted Text

As I know, not much good resin figures w/PASGT that can be used with TOW. Blast has some kneeling ones but I see yours with undercutting will have better details.
Nice surgery on tripod.
keep safe
Engin



Thanks,
I didn't worry about replacing the heads on the squad leader and gunner as you will not see the faces much any way. I will use a resin head on the loader though.
Can't wait to see what you make next on your dio,
J
jrutman
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Posted: Thursday, March 05, 2015 - 02:46 AM UTC
Thanks for the kind words Romain ol buddy. I will try not to disappoint!
J
grimmo
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Posted: Thursday, March 05, 2015 - 05:27 AM UTC
looking good! I have this set, along with the aber photo etch set.
Trisaw
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Posted: Thursday, March 05, 2015 - 05:34 AM UTC
I reviewed this kit many years back and I am wondering if you could get the kneeling TOW gunner's head to line up with the TOW sight. I could not as the kneeling TOW gunner is too short compared to the TOW launcher. I also could not get the Dragon gunner's missile to be level to fire...the missile angles downward.

I guess you could have the TOW gunner kneel on a little dirt hill to get him level with the TOW sight, but on a flat surface, he's just too short. The same goes with the Dragon gunner...perhaps have the Dragon's legs prop up against a hill as the Dragon launcher's legs are also too short. Something to bear in mind as you construct this kit.
Stickframe
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Posted: Thursday, March 05, 2015 - 09:07 AM UTC
Hey Jerry,

Alright, great to see you've got another one in the works!

So that base - what, a 1/4" cube? Easy to ream out, then carve in a pattern of opposing triangles on all four sides, while not snapping off the legs, piece of cake! Ok, 5/16" cube, easy!! Haha! Looking good Jerry - a real demonstration in patience! And yes, I know, much less easy than it may seem!

Cheers
Nick
jrutman
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Posted: Thursday, March 05, 2015 - 07:33 PM UTC

Quoted Text

looking good! I have this set, along with the aber photo etch set.


There is a PE set?? Oh well,too late now but thanks for the heads up. This is what happens when an airplane modeler gets back into armor after 10 years. I really have little idea what is available.
J
jrutman
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Posted: Thursday, March 05, 2015 - 07:38 PM UTC

Quoted Text

I reviewed this kit many years back and I am wondering if you could get the kneeling TOW gunner's head to line up with the TOW sight. I could not as the kneeling TOW gunner is too short compared to the TOW launcher. I also could not get the Dragon gunner's missile to be level to fire...the missile angles downward.

I guess you could have the TOW gunner kneel on a little dirt hill to get him level with the TOW sight, but on a flat surface, he's just too short. The same goes with the Dragon gunner...perhaps have the Dragon's legs prop up against a hill as the Dragon launcher's legs are also too short. Something to bear in mind as you construct this kit.


Thanks for the forwarning Pete,
I was anticipating fit problems as a lot of these older kits are not ,shall we say...precise? So my plan was to build the tow launcher first so I could get an idea of how the gunner fit into the equasion. The real launchers' legs could be adjusted from straight up to all the way on the ground but the way this kit is made it doesn't work like that. I think this will be a relitively easy fix but I suspect the harder thing will be to get the gunners' arms to look natural wrapped around the pedastal.
Thanks again for the heads up. I won't be tackling the Dragon though.
J
jrutman
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Posted: Thursday, March 05, 2015 - 07:39 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Hey Jerry,

Alright, great to see you've got another one in the works!

So that base - what, a 1/4" cube? Easy to ream out, then carve in a pattern of opposing triangles on all four sides, while not snapping off the legs, piece of cake! Ok, 5/16" cube, easy!! Haha! Looking good Jerry - a real demonstration in patience! And yes, I know, much less easy than it may seem!

Cheers
Nick


I knew you of all people would appreciate what a PIA that bit was.
And now I find out that there is a PE set that would have fixed this. Of course,murphys' law of modeling 101.
J
rossgary
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Posted: Thursday, March 05, 2015 - 09:29 PM UTC
Good start on this one Jerry, will be watching closely..
If it turns out as good as the Panama figs, we should be in for a treat here! You probably already know this but, after the undercutting, use a glass-fibre pen to smooth it out then, clean up the scrapings with a bit of blue-tack. Works a treat!
One day, I'll move out of my comfort zone and try building something modern. Until then, I'll rely on you to come up with the goods!
All the best mate,
Gary
jrutman
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Posted: Thursday, March 05, 2015 - 09:50 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Good start on this one Jerry, will be watching closely..
If it turns out as good as the Panama figs, we should be in for a treat here! You probably already know this but, after the undercutting, use a glass-fibre pen to smooth it out then, clean up the scrapings with a bit of blue-tack. Works a treat!
One day, I'll move out of my comfort zone and try building something modern. Until then, I'll rely on you to come up with the goods!
All the best mate,
Gary


I did not know that thing about the glass fiber pen. What is this pen? As for cleaning off dust I usually use a camera lens cleaning brush and then the good ol airbrush with no paint!
Glass fiber pen huh?
Thanks for the kind words brother,I know these old figs are a pain but they are certainly cheap!
J
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