A lot of truly outstanding work in this campaign! The Marder and T64 look the biz! I have not had much to post on my F4F-4 Wildcat build of late. Most of the work I have been doing is filling and sanding, not very photo worthy at all. Below are a few shots of the wing interiors; I plan to display the build with folded wings, and a shot or two of the wing to fuselage join. Finally there are a few photos of the pilot figure I built for display with the model. The lighting of my workbench is overly direct and harsh, washing out most of the subtle shading on the face and uniform, but it gives a decent look at the finished product.

F4F-4 Wings by Ernest Roth, on Flickr

F4F-4 Wings2 by Ernest Roth, on Flickr

IMG_0703 by Ernest Roth, on Flickr

IMG_0701 by Ernest Roth, on Flickr

IMG_0698 by Ernest Roth, on Flickr

Pilot2 by Ernest Roth, on Flickr

IMG_0699 by Ernest Roth, on Flickr

Ernest,
Absolutely phenomenal work on that pilot. I cant wait to see how the whole Wildcat turns out.


Mark,

Can you share that email address used for ordering replacement parts?

Ernest,

Your aircraft will be the first one I have seen with folded wings. This will interesting to see how it is done and looks. I say that because I have yet to build an aircraft model.

Mark

Thank you for the kind words Shawn.

Ernest

I hope the wing fold turns out as well, we shall see.

Ernest

I did some very minor scratchbuilding adding fastening parts for the Jury Struts to the wings and leading edge of the horizontal stabilizers. I will have to make the Jury Struts as well, and I am still working out how, and what, to make them out of. I also finished the base painting of the model. I sprayed a random pattern of black before spraying the BlueGrey base coat. It is hard to see under the direct lighting on the bench, but the base coat has a subtle "depth" to it. I hope it will really come out when a spray the highlighting/fading in a later step, we shall see if I can bring the effect off.

IMG_0705 by Ernest Roth, on Flickr

IMG_0706 by Ernest Roth, on Flickr

IMG_0707 by Ernest Roth, on Flickr

Hi,guys!
I present you the final look of my project in the campaign.
It is a real pleasure for me to participate in this campaign, as it was the first one for me.
Thanks everyone for the comments.

Here's what I made up.







Success!

Kalin,

Very nice finish, you did a awesome job with those models. Not over weathered but looks like they done some traveling and fighting. Nice dust effects.

Mark

Ernest,

You must have used a microscope to see those fastners to attached them as you did. Nice work.

Mark

Thanks Mark!
I hope it was interesting to me as well. I will follow with interest the further progress in the campaign!

Hi Kalin, very nice work on the prime mover and the artillery piece. They look they have seen some campaigning!

Ernest

Ernest, fantastic work on your model. Paintwork on the pilot figure is wonderfully rendered. Amazing small details you've added to the wings and stabilizers.
Kalin, your halftrack and howitzer tuned out magnificently. Nice, subtle weathering.

Good luck everyone on their projects. Bill

FINAL REVEAL on my Marder I.










I did some more filter weathering, and added the crew/stowage. I had a wonderful time participating in this fun campaign. I've enjoyed watching and got inspiration from everyone's builds. Good luck with finishing your projects. Thanks. Bill

Nice lookin' Marder Bill ! And your figures, WOW ! Is there a diorama in the future for the Marder ? If so, I hope that you'll share it with us !

Bill,

Excellent build. Really like the weathering, looks like you have a light coat of dust which really tone down the decals so they look as faded as the rest of the paint job.

Mark

Some progress.

Excellent job on your Marder Bill. I like the restrained weathering, it is a nice counterpoint to the builds that display the subject looking like it has been in the elements for 20 years.

Ernest

A bit more progress. I am trying out the Maketar Masks for the insignia on this build. They are more work than decals, and I had a bit of a struggle getting the circular portion of the mask to be circular. I am sure there are some tricks that make the process somewhat easier. I have to say the insignia looks pretty good once spraying was complete. I did not get everything perfect, but got close enough to satisfy me for a first time run through. The final photos shows the test fit of the very simple scratchbuilt jury struts that I made. I am at the phase where I'll be installing the engine and landing gear, and I'll post some photos when I have finished those steps. Comments and advice are welcome, especially in the area of the masked and sprayed insignia.

Ernest

IMG_0709 by Ernest Roth, on Flickr

IMG_0713 by Ernest Roth, on Flickr

IMG_0714 by Ernest Roth, on Flickr

Hello!

here are the real start-up pictures…





Will get stuck into this very soon.

cheers

Matthew

Ivanhoe, Mark, and Ernest....thank you for the kind comments.

Ernest, the painted isignia is beautifully done.
Matthew H., good luck with your VK 3001 build.
Matthew N., the engine and cab turned out wonderfully.

Happy modeling. Bill

fantastic work Panzerman.

Cheers!

chuck

Latest updates to my Trumpeter KV II for the Trumpeter Campaign. I decided to try my hand at some minor scratchbuilt improvements. I was able to replace the molded on deck screens with some aftermarket PE mesh and decided to show one of the side tool/storage boxes in the open position.

Chuck, your Gigant is progressing nicely. The P.E. screens are a nice accent detail. Great job on the open tool box. You got the curved lid perfectly bent. Keep up the good work. Bill

Update on the NBCRV. Ive finished all the sub assemblies and moved into the priming. Due to all of the surface details and irregular shapes the priming has taken a lot longer than normal. The wheels, stowage, and figure have all been primed as well, and they wont be added onto the vehicle until I finish the painting process.

One interesting thing I noticed about the kit is that it did not include the air horn commonly found on the Stryker vehicles. The real air horn is not omitted from the real NBCRV, and this must have been an oversight by Trumpeter.

The kit does not include a winch cable or the head for it, so I salvaged a tow cable end from a German AFV. This was the closest thing I could find in my spares box without actually shelling out any more money on this project for a more accurate cable end.

Well folks the build had a bit of a disaster a couple of weeks ago. I was away bowling in a tournament with my sons and my sister-in-law visited with my 10 year old nephew. He does not do well when told to stay out of places he is not supposed to go into and knowing that I always lock the "man cave" up if am going to be away when they come over - if I know they are coming that is; which sadly this time I did not. The young man got his hands on the build and it did not fare well at all. Needless to say I was not best pleased about this when I got home, and was even less pleased to hear my sister-in-law thought I was to blame as I did not lock the room and "Oh little Tobias could have gotten injured if he had gotten his hands on some sharp tools or poison stuff." Unsurprisingly, this caused a family dust up; I am a fairly recently retired NCO serving in the infantry, so I don't react well to stupid.

At any rate, now that the drama is out of the way; I have rebooted the build - I had another kit in the stash, and after a few days of grumbling pulled it out and got started. I did not have another Grand Phoenix AM cockpit, but as I mentioned earlier in the thread most of its detail is wasted due to the curvature of the fuselage hiding the majority of it. On the bright side, I get to test my new macro lens for my new camera with this reboot. I still have a lot to learn to get the right balance of light, distance and camera settings to get the most out of the lens, but it sure does get up close and personal with the subject - ALL the little mistakes show up in their glory when they are shot 1:1!

Here are few examples of the reboot build's pit, and the new scratchbuilt attachment points, that I like a lot better then the first ones I did, still in the early phase of fitting.

Enjoy!

IMG_0719 by Ernest Roth, on Flickr

IMG_0718 by Ernest Roth, on Flickr

IMG_0717 by Ernest Roth, on Flickr

IMG_0716 by Ernest Roth, on Flickr

IMG_0720 by Ernest Roth, on Flickr

IMG_0722 by Ernest Roth, on Flickr