@Jesper Here you go. I had already started to take some of the large parts of the sprue but most of the small parts are still untouched. The model also came with a sprue of WWII soldiers that can accompany your Vietnam era tank
also on the bottom of the turret is the copyright mark cica 1966

Casey, thanks for sharing. This fits the campaign very well - weird scale wheels, blob figures and all. All we need is wrong length tracks

Looking forward to see you tackle this one. I am sure you will make a silk purse out of a pigs ear

I hope you paid the guy for the extra kit?

Okay I went ahead and pushed to finish the Tamiya M41. I painted it forest green, dry-brushed it, and added the decals.

The decals were easy to add. The markings are a bit misleading though. They instructions would have you add the USA number "USA 3016739" to one of the JGSDF options.






The kit was a fun, nostaligic build. It's a decent kit for its age...though I would buy the AFV Club kit if I wanted a serious M41. Without digging out the references....
The 50 cal is garbage, but typical for Tamiya's 50 cals in that age. Same for the jerry cans. The aerials are garbage. Those can be easily replaced.
The driver's periscopes are horrendous. They really should have molded them solid. The grab handles are meh and seem destined to be crooked no matter how hard you try to keep them aligned.
The thing that really annoys me are the mid-storage boxes on the fenders. The actual tank has reinforcing "X"s on the sides. Tamiya chose to mold them smooth. However, they have them included on the box art and the markings illustrations. They also omit the tow cables...they go along the sides. These are also shown in the markings illustration.
And I didn't even bother with the kit's figures.

Anyway, that's it I guess. This could be a good kit for someone getting in to the hobby. They are inexpensive...I think I paid $10 for it...and it goes together well. I'll probably monkey with this one at some point. I don't think I'll try to fix it, but I might use it for some what-if project.

I've made a start on the Panther which seems to be going together reasonably well. I've built a couple of these in the past and they're as I remember them. One of the problems with the add on zimmerit is that it never sits right.



While it's only about 1mm above the edge of the turret that would be a lot in real life and of course the zim is level with the top of the turret. I needed to do a bit of fillering as well to get it looking right and then trim it level with a no 11 blade and sand it back.



I've had to order a metal barrel which wasn't part of my plan(with it being a cheap and cheerful fun kit to build) as for reasons unknown the cement melted the barrel and rendered it capable of firing around corners so that had to go in the bin. I've ordered a set of the Aber PE grilles as they finish the kit off nicely. I found an Eduard set which I bought some time ago when I was building another one. It was cheaper but alas the round grilles were slightly too big. It was for a DML Panther and naiively I thought they'd be the same size. Just goes to show you can never trust manufacturers to agree on measurements so I'll have to wait for those.



This is as far as I've got with the upper hull so far. There's a few gaps between the zimmerit and the front fenders so I've filled those. The zimmerit plates also need trimming and fillering along the top as well. Valuewise I can't grumble as it's a reasonable kit for it's age and the idea of putting torsion bars in on a DML kit put me right off buying one of their's. Obviously more accurate but I've never understood the need for complicated parts when you can't see them. There's no interior at all on this Panther, not even a breech mechanism but as I intend to have crew in all of the hatches noone would be able to see inside anyway. Next is the laborious job of painting the road wheels which has to be my least favourite job on German tanks

Karl, nice start. The zimmerit is always a struggle, but better to have it a bit to large than to small.

Looking great so far!

Thanks Jesper. I'm quite enjoying myself if I'm honest as it's not a bad kit really. The advantage of this zimmerit as opposed to PE is I can use liquid poly or cement to attach it rather than gluing my fingers to PE as I usually do lol. You're right about it being better being too large as at least I can trim it back rather than try to reproduce it where it's come up short. Did the bottom half of the hull today and got the road wheels and tracks on. I was quite surprised to see that the tracks are gluable. They're rubber band tracks so superglued them. They're not bad tracks really as they do look like Panther tracks and as you know I hate doing individual links as they drive me mad. That's why I'm having a break from half tracks for abit lol. My last three builds have been half tracks and I've had enough of tiny track assemblies for a bit. I'm hoping to mate the top and bottom tomorrow so I'll stick some more pics up. I've picked a crew out of my figure stash for it as well now so that'll be a diversion while I wait for the barrel and grilles.

Just realised I'd forgotten to join

Well got the hull together and for the most part it fits together well for a four part hull. Only real problem was with the back plate and trying to line it up. Still need to sand it and probably add a little putty but the seams are not to bad for such and old kit.

Begun work on my dog.
Talk about a POS.
Used Testor's putty to "make mud" in the running gear as the outer road wheels are the only things molded to the tracks. Outta sight/outta mind

Joe, a true dog I love that the tracks are just a solid band with ribs on it.

Looking forward to see more

Hi All,
I am joining the campaign building a T-80U using the Skif T-80UD and the SP Designs conversion. I have been putting this project on hold ever since the Xact Models T-80U kit came out. I should have lots of fun just getting the lower hull squared, and ready for the upper hull.

Raul, those Skif kits have a really bad reputation. Fits this campaign very well. The resin looks really nice though.

Looking forward to see the result.

Tom, that jeeps a cracking build. If you hadn't shown that it was the old Tamiya Jeep I wouldn't have known You've done a really nice job on it. Even on the crappy old Tamiya figures. Nice work mate.

Bit more progress on the Panther. It got a bit confusing at one stage as I'm building three Panthers at the same time. This one which was new, another A which was an old one that was a wreck ,courtesy of my ex girlfriend, for the Unfinished Business campaign which is two wrecks canibalised to make one good one and a Panther G. All Italeri (I know not the most accurate but I like their Panther's and Tigers as they're a fraction of the price of DML abd don't contain 7 million parts with crap instructions lol)which made it more complicated. This is where I am so far. I've got the new barrel to replace the one that melted so once that's on I can crack on with the camouflage. I'm going for straightforward green over dunkel gelb.

I know this is a late start, but I'd like to jump in with a 1/30 Bandai Hummel kit from the 70's. I am doing this as a commission build for a friend over on another site who collects pre-built armor like 21st Century and Forces of Valor. I have sold and built a few kits (Monogram white boxes) for him to pad out his collection, and he managed to score this one cheap recently. He wants the kit static, but because the axles are required to hold other parts I will be assembling the guts to this kit anyway. The figures are pretty sad; like gnomes from a poorly drawn cartoon.

The technique I'm giving a shot will be the oil dot filter.

Shell, that looks like a real dog! I think the figure must be the worst one we have seen in this campaign so far. And we have seen some ugly ones!

Looking forward to see more

Shell, that has got to be one of the weirdest figures I have ever seen. Are you going to build and paint it just so we can admire it's weirdness?
Almost finished the Panther despite a major balls up on my part which was down to complacency. I'd put it in a box lid with the other two I was working on to put out of the way and thought it looked a bit different which it shouldn't have being the same kit as the other A I was rebuilding. Like an idiot I'd glued the part of the hull with the driver and radio ops hatches in upside down! Moron !Fortunately I'd used liquid poly so it was an easy job to take it off, sand back and put in the right way up. I think what did it was the fact that there are rivets on the back of the lip so it looks like it should be visible, combined with me being tired when I was doing it and being overfamiliar with the kit and not looking at the instructions. Oh well, no real harm done. I've got the cam sprayed now so it's just a case of adding the tools and doing a bit of light weathering for the time being. It's going in a dio so I'll wait until I've built the groundwork before I apply dirt etc as I've got a couple of vehicles to do and want them to have consistency in the colour of the dirt. I'll get some photos up once I've finished it off.

Amazing in those pictures the parts are identical to the venerable ESCI 1/72 Hummel. The kit was awful in 1/72, I can't imagine how plain it must be in 1/30!!!

And the figure looks very close to the characters from the 1960/70's anime Speed Racer.

Shell, that's the doggiest I've seen so far. Don't let that Aliens dude from History Channel see that figure as he'd sure spin a story around it.

My plan is to paint the eyes so they appear to follow you around the room.

Hi Jesper,
Building two complete SKif kits may push a modeler beyond his limit of sanity , especially now that the Trumpeter and Xact Model T-80s exist. I am slowly working on a Skif T-80UD kit, sometimes thinking of giving up and building a T-84 out of it. It is a shame it cannot be part of this campaign.



As for the T-80U, I had glued the lower hull plates, using styrene pieces to try to keep it squared. I will be lowering the suspension as for my liking it is a little bit high. I am also preparing the upper hull, to minimize the amount of putty that I will need. I am working on the turret, which is requiring more putty and super glue than I thought.

LOL! That was a good one!

Raul, that is a double dog! I feel your pain, but on the other hand it is also sometimes fun to make a silks purse out of a pigs ear.

Running late here, but time is on my side, how about a Mirage Vickers E 7TP?

Clayton, I build that kit many years ago and even then it was a dog! 😉