Well, the Bishop is on hold for a while as my review kit showed up today and has priority. I will be following along with this campaign as I work and I look forward to seeing everyone's progress! I hope to be back at the Bishop within a couple of months. I'd estimate I'm at 30-35 percent on this project so it's a good place to take a break. The tracks and painting the hull are next up and then the 25 Pdr and superstructure!

What are you reviewing? (I'm doing the 1K17... might as well kill two birds with one stone.)

Andras,
I'll be reviewing the Takom Mk.1 Female. Got to get the in-box review sent off and I really haven't decided whether to do a blog or a build review. What type review are you doing?

Paul H

All,
Part 1 - I know I said I wouldn't start till later this month, but I have become bored with my builds for the Flak is Back group build, so I started my Takom MkIV build a couple days ago. Despite the plethora of parts, it is a quick and smooth build. Fit for most part is excellent. I am following the kit build schedule, although if I get the MkV (The version US Army used) I might build the track sponsons first then build the inner hull against one of the sponsons. As is, the hull will require some "adjusting and clamping" to get to align with the track sponsons.

Part 2 - Mk IV build,


It is a waste of parts and plastic for the drive train, although the bulkhead through which the chain runs is required. The single piece track blocks were the easiest I have ever assembled. Took less than 15 minutes to assembled two 90-block sides. The kit instructions call for 92 blocks per side which may be correct for the kits original 5-part track blocks. I had to use 90 per side with the idler wheel as far out as it will go. Takom allows for four settings for the idler to get track tension correct... I did not paint the road wheels as they are invisible. An addendum to the instructions directed not to glue road wheels to axles and not to glue axles to sponson sides. I glued everything as it made lining up everything to close the sponsons much easier. Don't waste your time unless you plan to show a track damaged or off the vehicle. The instructions call for adding the tracks before adding the suspension sections to the center hull. It adds a little difficulty with later painting, but latching the two ends together around the track runs is easier without the rests of the model in the way.

Part 3- MkIV build for today,

Below are several photos of the six-pounder guns and mounts. It is such a shame to hide these guns inside the gun sponsons once everything is closed up. I plan to try to leave one sponson hatch open as the swing away from the hull, which should restrict line of sight to just the sponson, as there is no other interior. I am paining the inside of the gun sponson white, per photos, but painting all other interior surfaces black. I will only open one sponson to keep light from shining through.I will add the ammo rank under the gun mount and maybe the other ammo rank if it can be viewed through the hatch.

You're a fast builder, Jeff! That looks all nice and clean. The best part about this kind of "hardware" is the amount of mud one is allowed to put on and still keep it realistic Looking forward to see more of this!

Paul, that's an interesting subject. I think while it is more work, a blog might be more useful for most modelers since this way they can chime in on the way and share there thoughts and questions. On a second thought, it might also be easier for you to write down your experience with the kit as you build instead of all at once at the end. Just my two cents! Make sure you let us know once you have the content up online.

Cristian,
You haven't seen my marathon with my AFV M730A1 Chaparral build! Takom has molded a fast building kit Fit is excellent and the large plates and bulkheads are interlocking so building is quick. With no interior, except the gun mounts, painting steps are greatly reduce,d although my intent to try and leave one gun sponson open will slow down the build. The great thing about armor, being land-based critters, you can hide small issues with dirt, mud and camouflage.

I had some bench time over the past few days so I finished preparing the missile and the last remaining pieces. I'm done with the plastic, now on to painting and weathering!

Cristian,
I think you fall into the fast builder category yourself...

Paul H

Thanks Paul! I don't think I'm anywhere close to the major league here

More progress on the MkIV. Connected the two track sponsons to the center hull and also the left hand gun sponson to the hull.

I pieced together the ready rack for the right gun sponson. I found a picture of an MkV...it should be similar. I painted the interior flat black to hide it as there is no interior. I hoping this will restrict views to the sponson as seen through the sponson door.
The half of the ready rack contains ammo magazines for the machine guns. The kit comes with four machine guns and four circular magazines. I split two in half to get four in the rack. The excess machine gun and one magazine are being reserved for another WWI project.

The building phase is completed. Now onward to the paint booth:


Jeff

That was a fast one, Jeff! Looking forward to seeing some paint on it.

I got distracted from my Scud by a Christmas present I "had" to build immediately (Revell's 1/72 Gripen). Hopefully I'll be back into this within the next couple of weeks.

I've got a few of the DML sdkfz 251's in the 3 in 1 packages and was wondering if they'd qualify. I know the part count for the boxes are over 500 but I'm not sure how many parts are used in each build. It's got those awful tiny self assembly tracks which send my eyes mental with gluing on the rubber pads. They look good, I just hate them lol. I've got three seperate ones so a choice of 9 variants. I've pretty much decided which ones I'm going to build but thought I'd check to see if they're eligible for the campaign as if so I'll photograph my progress. I've not started any of them yet as I was building other stuff.

I can't find a part count for the one I want to build (the Sdkfz 251/7. The pioneer version with assault bridges.) but on PMMS it lists the other Sdkfz 251D 3 in 1 as over 600 parts so I'm guessing that this one will be the same or higher once the pioneer equipment (very generous equipment sprues) starts going in. On that basis I'll go for this one if that's okay. I'll take a picture of the box in a bit and make a start as I've been itching to crack on with this one.

I think that estimation is good enough to make these kits a fit for the campaign. Welcome aboard!

I got one side of the beast done, and the other started when my ADD kicked in and I needed to find something else to do for awhile. All those little knobs area killer.

Any idea what the hey they're for?

What a monster!!!

PS: What is ADD, by the way?

Attention Deficit Disorder, the need to stop doing what your doing and so something else, repeat.

Mainly afflicts children, and old men (me)

It's why I have dozens of models that are partially done, and order new ones to take their place.

I find that if I have a purpose, like vehicle a friend or family member served in, I can push through, and get it done. Like I did a swift boat for a friend that captained one in Nam. I hope the campaign provides the same purpose - we'll see in a year

Sorry to hear about that, Dave! I hope we can help keep you on this with the campaign.

Even swapping out rubber band tracks for 216 Fruil links (not counting the wire) the base kit for my Tamiya Jagdpanzer IV would be less than 500. I'm even losing one piece replacing two halves of the gun barrel with a single metal barrel. I'm out of this one

Sorry to hear that, Alan! Make sure you check back in, in case you can find a new kit!

Hello everyone. I am sure this will be an excellent campaign and I have been impressed with the work displayed so far.I am not sure my work will be as good a level, but I am sure there is lots of good advice out there. I am currently building a Meng Leopard 1A5 which has 902 parts in just the tracks but that one is for the Leopardmania campaign.

The kit I will be building for this campaign is the 1/35 HOBBYBOSS AAVP-7A1 Assault Amphibious Vehicle(w/mounting bosses) I believe it has over 800 plastic parts and meets the criteria for the campaign.I cracked the box today but used yesterdays newspaper as a start date guide as I have not bought a paper today.

The following are the photos I took to signify the start of the campaign for me.

A great choice for the subject, Brian! Glad to see you're starting the build.

However, the images are not showing up correctly for whatever reason. Could you please check and correct them?

Thanks!

ETA: I think you have renamed the gallery from "500 plus 2016" to "500 plus" after posting the images.