Hi guys.
Finally I made together my Somua, it's time to painting.

Hello Pawel

Nice one. Which camouflage will you apply? It looks as if Tamiya did a nice job on the cast surface.

Best Regards

Dennis

Hi Pawel,

your Somua looks good, very clean built ! Have fun with the painting work

nico

I'm glad to see a Somua. I have one near the top of my stack for months now and will look forward to seeing how yours come out.

Hi all. I have made a little progress on my Meng AMX 30B2. just a couple progress shots. This kit has a lot of mold lines to deal with and some flash but I am enjoying it. Tracks are built. Here is where in at with hull.

Thanks guys for kind words. Exactly, Tamiya did good job with cast surface but in some places I had to correct cast surface, definitelyi at the connetion parts on commander cupola and tower.

Nice AMX 30 B2 Brian.

I've resumed working on my EBR. TOday, I noticed that Hobby Boss made a huge mistake with the elevation system. While the trunnions are well positioned, the axis of the oscillating turret is placed too much rearward.
So I decided to drill out the trunnions and add some bits of rods as axis. However, this was not enough due to the way HB had molded the lower part. My dremel helped correct the inner faces of the part. Again, for some reason it was not enough and the part aws not moveable as I needed. I finallt decided to glue the both parts.
At least, the axis is at the riht place and the elevation is like on the real thing which you can't achieve with HB system.
On the picture, you can see the HB axis through the TC hatch.


The putty was used to fill the turret basket holes which are useless for the version I'm building.

Olivier

I nearly completed the hull and fixed HB mistakes.









The turret has got the TC "cupola". All the vision blocks have been filled with plastic card as their location was hollow.
On the roof, the ventilator cover has been cut to show the flat edge near the cupola.







Olivier

What exactly are the letters on top of the turret ventilator supposed to mean?

I really don't know Tim but on the real thing there are the same.
It probably is the manufacturer mark.

Olivier

I have been fondling a number of kits from the pile that looked attractive for this campaign. One in particular seemed to be getting more thought then the others, a Bronco Hotchkiss H-39. My eye liked the cover art which shows a tannish vehicle with bright red hearts painted on the side of the turret. The kit comes with a metal barrel, a bit of chain and an interior with driver's compartment and drive train. I have never done a tank interior before and this kit looks good to further my modest skills.

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/115240-bronco-cb35001-h39-hotchkiss

In pouring over the destructions, I noticed the color call out is for OLIVE DRAB and a Tamiya number is listed which also turns out to be the same paint Tamiya sells for US OD.

Well, this is a bit of a disappointment! I had gotten my mind set on some interesting French sand color and now find it should be plain Jane ole OD. OK, I can paint it this color, I have OD in stock but I wonder is it possible that the color call out is incorrect? Could the illustrator have gotten it right?

I am hopeful that someone might know what color the H-39 might have been painted and give some guidance. If it is in doubt, I may follow the box cover art and build the model the way my eye would like to see it . . .

Hello Paul,

I also did not use Tamiya Olive Drab on my H39s. It is, in my opinion, to greyish. I made a green tone mixing in some warmer colours like brown and red to get it a little warmer. Tamiya is not always right in their colour choice but naturally the want to sell their stuff and recommend "somewhat matching colours" from their range (naturally) on a regular basis. Do not take their advice to seriously....

You have a lot of possibilitiesfor painting a H38/39. See http://www.tanks-encyclopedia.com/ww2/france/Hotchkiss_H35_39.php for example.

When building Broncos H39 please be aware of the fact that, regarding the interior, the complete ammo rack is missing.

The road wheel boogies are alos a real pain in the ass, as the holding pins are to small and to not help very much to align it. So glue the front ones first with a strong glue, like two part-epoxy and then move to the back with one pair after another... Check alignment all the time or you will pay dearly later.

And you should be prepared to invest some putty, as the gearbox cover and the upper hull usually leave a huge gap with a 1mm difference in height. So you should be raedy to sand there a lot. Do this best before you will attach any smaller parts as I did need some rough handling while sanding.

That was one of mine; unfortunately never got finished as I dropped it on the way to an exibition. I also got the thing a complete new cast surface, as the models one is not the best rendition, I guess.







Best regards


Dennis

Dennis - Thanks for your help and the link to the page on the little Hotchkiss. I'm sure not wedded to this build or to the interior if I do build this kit. It might be fun to have the driver's hatch open to see inside but it really doesn't matter that much. I'm more concerned with the suspension issues you mentioned. I'll have to look this over carefully.

I like what you did with your paint. The narrow black separation lines look like a real challenge. How did you do them?

Hello,

I have not been very happy with these. In some places they got pretty wide. Anyway, the camouflage was sprayed using PanzerPutty to mask with sharp borders and then the seperation lines where hand painted. The important thing here is to paint in a 90°-angle the whole time. This simply means that you have to constantly move the tank around in your hand to reach everywhere. Then simply take your time, dilute the colour properly and retouch only after everything has dried with the Airbrush. Thats all.

Regards

Hello Dennis,
Your H39 looks fantastic, I really like your paint job.

Hello Pawel,
Thank you very much. The most difficult part was to brush the french flag at the front. Unfortunately, as I said, the model was destroyed in an accident. [auto-censored] happens....


Anyway, I plan to use a similar pattern on my Panhard during this campaign.

I will make some pictures of the painting process after I have finished the construction.

Best Regards

Dennis

Hi all,

Olivier: very good job so far !

Here is my Nieuport 17 begining, painting of the interior before gluing the PE on both sides:









cheers
nico

Hi all,

my Nieuport-17 interior is close to be .... closed! So here are the last pics before the closing process :









Cheers
nico

Nice looking builds everyone. Nico, I like how you painted the interior of the fuselage to look like wood.
Olivier, I have been looking a lot at your walk around pictures of the various AMX 30s in order to determine what tail and headlights to use. Thank you for posting all thoes pictures. Concerning the vehicle mounted tools, axe, sledge hammer, etc. we're thoes painted the same color as the tank itself? They have a lot of dried mud on them but I think I see green paintq on even the wooden handles. Would this be the case for the Dauget 30b2's tools as well? Were they just left on the vehicle and painted the desert cammo? Thank you.

Hello Everybody,

after some weeks I want to show the next step building AL-BYs Panhard AMD.





The part I want to take care of is the one marked with red circle here. All over the vehicle some of these vision slots are situated. As the kit is rather old, these details are far beyond being called "acceptable" and have to be replaced. The one specimen shown here is one with a "better" definition so you can imagine how the others look like.I decided to replace them; not because mine will be better but because the original ones a barely visible in some parts.



The first step was to draw the outlines on measurement paper and glue the paper on some sheet. This way you avoid drawing the outlines directly on the sheet which can be very challenging. The scale is, obviously, also very helpfull. It used thinned PVA-glue and let the whole thing dry thouroughly.



Idrilles 4 holes here using the papers scale as a guidance. This way the holes are somewhat symetric; at least when talking about the fact that the hole thing is only 4mm wide.



Afterwards I did cut out the part using the printed lines as a guidance and removed the paper. The part looks really ugly now. This comes from bending, as the sheet is very thin. After cleaning up it showed that it is both symetric and cleanly cut.



The next steps where simple. First I cut a short lenght or round profile and glued it into the recess I created to simulate the vision slot and to give some volume to the part. I also applied some putty. I also created some rivets using heated sprue. I simply put a lenth of torn sprue into one of the holes, heated one side with a burning match until the rounded head formed, pressed it into the hole and glued it from the backside with Tamiya extra thin. Good enough for me.


Now I had to replicate the part as I, you understand, I guess, did not want to replicate this part over and over again.


To replicate very simple parts as these, I started to use "Oyumaru" some time ago.




Oyumaru is a substance which becomes extremely soft when heated up and cures to a solid state after some minutes. It is reusable, does not stink and is easy to use. As it is also very inexpensive, I gave it a try.





These is a cristian medallion which I replicated for a mate. He wanted to create a roadside shrine. After casting even the letters around the figure are readable....





Procedure is easy: lay the part on a flat surface liek a glazed tile (show side up), heat the Oyumaru in a bowl with some boiling water for some minutes and, after it became soft, place it on the part. Press it from all sides to avoid air-filled cavities and thats it. After some minutes the stuff got cured and you have your mold ready after removing the master part.

To pour the parts I used some simple pouring plaster ("Gießkeramik" here in Germany) which is very inexpensive and easy to use.



I gave the finished parts a fast swipe with some thinned Vallejo to show the details better. Making pictures of white plaster is not very easy. To make sure the plaster will not break on the model, I simply dipped in some liquid foundation fluid ("Tiefengrund"), a stuff which is used to seal plaster, Gypsum, concrete and other porous stuff. This makes the parts very stron and rock hard. I used it before to seal Gypsum bunkers from Verlinden or Costum Dioramics for example to make them more sturdy and prevent them from soaking paint. I do not mind the bigger rivets as I by now do not know of a better way to replicate these. I did not want to buy aftermarket but rather tried what I could achieve. The next parts will look better perhabs but for now I will go with these.



The finished parts. As you can see, the right one is distorted while the one in the yellow cirlce is ofbetter quality. These to are just the first prototypes which I painted grey to see where I have to rework the mold. Clearly visible I have to give the part a small sanding. It is very difficult to see imperfections on the master so I gave it a try to determine where to improve. After that is done, I can make several molds so I do not have to wait for a part to cure before I can do the next one.


The next step should be the casting of the parts. I look really forward to this as I want to enter the paint stage soon. Not to soon, but at least in some foreseeable future...

Best Regards

Dennis

This ones done.I ended up using the Tamiya one piece tracks anyway.Straightfoward build painted with Tamiya and faded with AK Dust Effects.Nice Campaign everyone,thanks for looking.

Very nice Anthony! Looks great! What happened with the Takom tracks?

Silly me,I had already assembled the kit when I ordered the tracks,they went together well,but I couldn't squeeze them under the fender,I thought I could but I couldn't.I shouldn't have cemented the rollers in.

Oh bummer! Especially after assembly. Hopefully there is a different project you can use them with. If not let me know I will buy them off you, will save me some time!

Nice AMX13 Anthony. If I may I'd suggest some minor corrections.
The French army used to paint the tools the same green as the vehicle or leave them unpainted with just some linse oil as protection. So the color of unpainted tools should be lighter than yours.
The dust cover color is nearly unnoticeable on the period pictures. It was quite close to the French army green.
Last, you can add some sag to the tracks by the old trick of the pin inserted in the hull sides.

For your information, Duroc was a tank of the 11th regiment of chasseurs deployed in West-Berlin till 1993 or 94. Like all the French vehicles there, it sported a darker shade of green as the paint was provided by the German government. At the time the Wall collapsed, AMX13s had been replaced by AMX30s.

Now it's time for me to stop commenting and resume my EBR

Olivier