Wow - hats off to you speed-builders! All the entries are looking good.

My own Allied "four barrel flak" is as done as it gets, although I might want to add more weathering in the future. I kept it simple, even if the real one was sent round on a month-long tour of the front in Feb '45. The markings are Fort Garry Horse, but it was passed round a number of units for testing against ground targets since the Germans no longer had any air targets handy.





Thanks for the great campaign!

Wow Tom, excellent model! You picked a subject we don' see often, thanks for the inspiration. Wished they made a 1/48 scale kit or conversion. Congratulations!
Take care,
Don "Lakota"

Howdy Y'all
Did a little airbrushing today on my Flak 18. The kit was a quick build, I want to use it to practice my weathering skills.

Next up-gloss coat and an oil paint wash.
Take care,
Don "Lakota"

You've done a really nice job on that Tom, very impressive.

C[ ]



https://www.shapeways.com/shops/spectre-scale
I have a 1/48 version available as well, designed for Tamiya.

Iain,
Those are pretty cool. Now to locate Tamiya's M1A1 Sherman, I'll keep my eyes open on EBay. Also like the Sci-Fi guns, do you have any photos of built-up models using the guns?
Take café,
Don "Lakota"

The guns are for the Skink, I made them separate from the turret so that people could choose with or without barrels since I wasn't sure how good the barrels would turn out printed.

Hi everyone,
Finally I'm starting build my model for this campaign. I hope I'll be on time.

Hi guys. I am finished.
So, green

then tan with some chiping

and finished model

How is the weather in Sweeden BogiBG? We still have some nice and sunny days over here, so im forced to finish building outdoor sauna Amazing how quickly you wrapped up several kits. Great work.

Tanks Darius. Wether is totally Swedish, cloudy and rainy, good only for work and modelling. Considering speed, at the moment I am chasing after campaigns, trying to finish everything I planed for this year. But again, this is close to my normal pace. No masterpieces, but god enough for my standards and my collection. Greetings, good luck with sauna build...

Done some work on mine entry. Bottom before installing all the wheels and tracks:

Wheels and tracks installed:

Now i have to wait until everything dries solid, then will blend everything together with some more mud, dust and splashes. Plus, i got to finish weathering ammunition and wooden accessory/barrel boxes. And yes, got to start painting trailer. I know there should be some sort of braces holding ammo box lids open, but i haven't found any reference yet (at least Sd.anh 51 and 57 have those). Im thinking about depicting trailer closed, but haven't decided on this yet. One more picture of dry fitting to keep motivation up.

Tom, great work on the skink. Great to see something unusual built. Nice addition to the collection.

BogiBg another fine result. Up to your usual standards for sure.

Don and Darius looking good guys. How are your eyes after building that one Don? Braille scale is a challenge for me these days.

Welcome Pawel. Plenty of time as long as you don't need sleep

Looks really good, Darius. Canvas cover on windshield is your work?

Thanks Peter, BogiBG.
Yes, canvas cover is my work. It is done using tissue/white glue with a twist. I have built kit windshield, with all PE brackets etc (should of replaced them with styrene triangles tho), then, i applied modeling acrylic paste, for initial tarp shape, plus, i needed to blunt sharp edges of roof fixing parts and windshield brackets. When initial shape and bulk was formed, i just applied wet tissue, trimmed to shape and left it to dry. There was no real need for shaping wrinkles etc, only some work on edges. I find it difficult not to poke holes in wet tissue without using acrylic paste as filler. Next time, i might opt for mixing this paste with microbaloons, used as lightweight filler for epoxies.

Sounds like lot of time and work. But it looks so real. Well done.

Not much work to tell the truth. Yes, it takes time to build the windshield, but then you know all the bits will show up, not like windshield cover provided by Bronco. I use this product:
https://www.royaltalens.com/brands/amsterdam/auxiliaries/grounds/amsterdam-modeling-paste-1003/
In 250ml package it comes in more convenient tooth paste like container. It completely dries (if thickly applied) in half day, but is touch dry in less than hour. You dont need to be precise, as tissue is going to cover everything. After drying, it remains flexible. I have also used it to do zimmerit with good results, altho it dries quite fast. Most art supply shops carry this, or similar products. I sugest everyone pay a visit to such shops localy, as they have lots of goodies, like graphite pens (very soft ones, 6B etc), quality paint brushes, solvents, pigments etc. Aand they come cheap, as they dont have "modeling" in their name.

As for time it takes with this paste, well, it compensates for frustration when you tear or poke tissue tarp while trying to apply it. Tissue part took me 10-15 mins at worst., and paste part maybe another 10 minutes added to building time. You can do other stuff while it dries anyway.

I will do step by step next time i will scratch window on my model

That would be nice. I will try to combine my way with yours. I made this, in both cases, in less then an hour, including painting and weathering.


With this


One side is self adhesive so it's easy to work with it. Down side is that paint can be scratched easily. In next atempt I will try to put tissue paper over it.

Aluminum tape - that's a good one. Got exactly same roll waiting to find use for it It has certain advantage over tissue due to zero drying time. Ive tried baking foil, but that was way too thin, and ended up in non realistic tarps. Tissue has texture, which is good for fabric imitation, but it requires skills to apply, hence the reason i use backing for it. Now your method is brilliant for canvas doors, and if texture is needed.... well, just put single layer of tissue with glue over it. Great tip, brings lots of good ideas to try. Thanks for sharing!!

No problem. You try, I will try too, maybe together we can find good looking and fast way.

Howdy Y'all
I've tried kitchen aluminum foil on a 1/48 GAZ jeep. It worked fairly well.
Latest progress on my 1/72 Flak 18. Gloss coat and oil paint pin wash on the gun. Ready to cut mask from paper for the shield.

Here's the mask I completed.

Next step is spraying some camouflage RAL 7008 which is supposed to be Gray-Green but looks like khaki to me.
The braille scale isn't too bad as long as you don't drop a piece on the floor. The old Hasegawa kits are very simple so there not too difficult to build. I try to pick them up at swap meets for a pittance. In fact this Flak 18 was free, a friend gave it to me because I bought a couple of other models from him.
Take care,
Don "Lakota"

Hey guys,

Wow, a lot of impressive builds have been shaping up here. Sorry that I seem to have disappeared since the beginning of the campaign, but there was a reason: my Panda Tunguska kit really sapped my modeling mojo for a while, to the point that I didn‘t feel like taking any progress pictures because I wasn‘t sure for a long time whether I wanted to finish.

This kit actually doesn‘t completely deserve its somewhat notorious reputation. The main hull and turret assemblies went together pretty well. What lets this kit down are the very detailed assemblies, the 30mm autocannon and the missle pods (the search and tracking radar were okay, though, except for all the sink marks on the search radar dish) - these segments of the model had massive mold lines and sprue attachment points, wrong instructions, incorrectly modeled parts (there should be four right-handed and four left- handed missle tubes, and the kit gives you eight right-handed ones) and, worst of all, indistinct or non-existent locating points for parts. All these things can be overcome, but it takes LOTS of patience. I also insisted on adding all the weld beads to the model (the kit is missing them all) and that didn’t exactly make anything less complicated.

Anyway, enough of me blabbing, here are the shots of the completed model (except for half of one run of tracks).











Pics of the paint job coming soon.

Happy modeling,

Jerry

Howdy Y'all
I was able to do a little work on my little Flak 18 today. I painted a oil paint dot wash over the model. Here's a photo of the subassemblies dry fitted.

Next up: flat coat, chipping and dust, I'm still undecided about decals.
Take care,
Don "Lakota"

Nice subtle finish with the oils Don.

She sure is a beast Jerry. Nice etch work too.

Really coming along nicely guys.

Ok, after following some advice, i washed of the mud from my FLAK. I knew when i did it it was too much, but as stated in my last post, i lost my mojo.
I am happier with this finish, though still not my best build/ finish. I am actually screwing it up worse the more i handle it.
Prussian blue and white highlights. Oil pin wash.
I might finish my FLAK 7/2 before going back to a tank model.
Shield view shows shield cocked, but it was loose for the photo.

I need to redo my lighting in work area. It is terrible for trying to model.
And time to replace a lot of brushes. Some are over 10 years old, and dried out!