Thanks for the kind comments fellas.

I'm 100% done with assembly. Unfortunately I'll have to wait until my next days off before I can't paint.

I used jewelers wire for the tow cable.






Cheers,
Dustin

Loving all the progress photos guys!!!!!Lions and Tigers and Elephants Oh my LOL

It's been a while since I had last posted here. There is certainly no shortage of awesome builds going on.

My E-25 is now officially done. Stowage and sideskirts are scratchbuilt from sheet styrene and from the spares box. There's a fair bit of chipping going around to represent a proud, war battered vehicle that had been out in the elements for a lengthy amount of time.









Hope you like it.

Paul,
You've really got a lot done in a short amount of time. And, it looks great! Any chance of a couple of figures to give some scale to that monster?

Gaz

Shawn,
Wow, what an indestructible looking beast! Can't wait to see the scheme you come up with.

Gaz

Dustin,
Real cable looks so much better than any kind of imitation. Looking forward to some color!

Gaz

Bryan,
Congratulations! You're the first to complete their build. And it's smashing, too! The extra details you added make it look like a predator that has evolved from the Hetzer series. Nice weathering and I really dig the slight bends you've put into the fenders.

Purely Excellent!

Gaz

wow...very nicely finished. Congrats

Great job, love your rust!

It does need something to give scale but figures are way beyond my skill level now. I'll shoot some pics of this beast next to some other vehicles next week. Too bad I have never (yet) built a Tiger, this KV-5s intended prey. It will have to be something else.

Here are some pics of last night's progress:

That E-25 is a pip. The small size would have made it hard to hit and the camo is effective enough to make it hard to spot. It would have been formidable!

That E-25 is awesome


Question; Should I give my toe cables a bit of bends and what not to make them look like they've been used and abused? Or do they look just right?

I would think a couple of kinks would look proper, but not too much, as they'd try to replace them...;-)

Dustin,
Those cables are like two inches thick. They'd be hard to kink, and very, very heavy. I would try to get them to connect with the running boards in a couple places to simulate that weight.

They would have some semi-permanent bends in them, like yours do now.

If you go over to Tigers im Focus and look at pictures of SPzAbt. 506 you'll see how long, heavy cables look on Tiger I's when not held in the usual brackets.

Gaz

You are right, Gary, the word "kink" was the wrong word to use, maybe "sag" or "distortion" to mean less than a straight and smooth cable...
Paul- Looking very good, I love rust...;-)

See some nice work. So paint on, decals on, did a little chipping, now onto so pin washes before the rest of the weathering and details are painted.

Thanks for the ideas fellas.

Paul,
The weathering looks great on your KV. My modelling club meeting las week, somebody brought in the chassis of the beast. Face to face, just can't believe how ling it is.

Kevin,
Your Su looks great! Like the way you've worn the paint.

Gaz

Gun sight assembled, 11 parts.

Bryan - Love the E-25. I always enjoy seeing your paper panzer builds, a man after my own heart. What MG barrel did you use on the turret?

Gaz - Thanks, this thing makes my T-34/76 on the bench look like a childs toy.

Paul - That KV-5 is very impressive, looks like a solid kit. I might be adding that to my stash here soon.

Thanks for the compliments, it sure does give you the motivation to keep trying harder and learn a bunch of cool new stuff in the process.

Shawn - the mg barrel was from the bronco german infrared device kit. The box has enough parts to build 4 devices along with 2 sets of mg34 and mg42 and is stupid cheap to boot.

Kevin - Your SU-76i is looking mighty fine. The Russian Stug is a really intriguing subject.

Paul - That thing is huge. I could imagine the German panzer crews shrieking in terror when it approached...which was unfortunately never...

Dustin - Can't wait to see that mammoth all painted and and weathered.

Man, reading this thread makes me wanna build some of the big stuff but.......I'm running out of places to put them

Guys..

My second entry for this build.. the miniart su122 will be completed when this 2nd entry finished.

This second kit is an old classic kit from tamiya 1/25 series..

This kit was made in 1972 but the one that i bought is reissue in 2010 but all the parts are still original 1972 classic with the removal of the RC parts. It also come with a new partial instruction manuals and the original manuals(in japanese n english).

I will pretend to be innocent with this kit and ignore all the inaccuracies in this kit. Although i will try to improve it to the minimal. Here it goes.. progress was 3 days old.

The kit did not supply periscopes. With this large scale the empty periscope opening is too noticeable.



So using 2x4mm strip..i scratchbuild 4 of them. Very basic shape.

Then i cut an old film negative for the periscope 'lens'.


The gun mantlet are smooth so replicate the cast steel effect with mr.surfacer 500.


Add rust texture to the exhaust pipe too.


This kit is an open sponson kit...so i will cover the opening with styrene sheet ..

This is the progress so far


Very huge beast...


Thanks for looking

Sil

Zaidi,
Amitious, two builds at once! I like your method for replacing periscopes.

Gaz

Awesome kit Sil I've toyed with the idea of building it myself. Is the suspension fully working? And are the tracks rubber bands? It was designed originally for remote control as you said.

Dustin great work with the Elefant. Isn't the Tamiya Zimmerit just the shiz? Just love the jeweler's wire for tow cables! Looking forward to seeing her with a coat of paint.

Bryan love the E-25 interesting camo scheme it certainly is eye catching. And the IR gear looks truly deadly!

Paul great work on the KV it certainly is BIG! I can't wait to see what you put it next to to give an idea of it's size and bulk.

Okay so I started work on my wingy thing and here is where I'm at after two days. This kit has photo-etch in two thicknesses the I.P is made from stainless steel close to a mm thick and it's totally next level in terms of detail. It does need undercoating though because I didn't and the paint literally just wipes off it. There are also parts to make the headrest. The harness is around .25 of a mm and has aerials and the band for the drop tank.

The kit would lend itself to have an aftermarket resin engine quite well as the cowling is a multi part affair. Being multipart though does create some complex joins that require quite a bit of finesse to get them to meet up. I built the engine cowl, the fuselage and the wings as separate assemblies. I then joined the wings and the fuselage together got it to fit reasonably well let it cure for a couple of hours and then attached the cowl. The bottom of the cowl where it meets the wings and fuselage was a definite challenge. The armoured ring that goes around the oil cooler at the front also has a representation of the front of the BMW801-D reduction gear ignition harness ring which will look good behind the cooling fan.

I'm enjoying this kit quite a bit I built the Fw190-D version of it in the promodeler boxing but it didn't have the etch that this does and it was the inline engine not the radial. (Wonders if he's just lost the armor fraternity)

For you guys that like aviation subjects as well, looks at Gary, if you get the chance to build this kit I humbly suggest you do. The wheel wells are a mini kit in themselves, with bracing and barrels for the MG-151 eight separate pieces in all. The landing gear is also very nicely detailed with an accurate depiction of the mounting of the gear doors ( to me at least). Anyway enough waffling onto the pics!