No issues so far. Some minor ejection pin marks have been sanded, but most of them I just left as they are covered by weapons mounting rail. All dry fitted as undercarriage and cabin will be painted separately.

Looking real sweet Damian.

Looks good, Damian! Trust good ole Tamiya to keep the ejector pin marks hidden.

Gaz

I can now consider the running gear and tracks done:

Gaz, this is a mark of the excellent engineering. Just after making this photo I attached upper shield over the doors. It has four small ejector pin marks on the inner side, quite tricky to remove due to fine details around. I decided to check first and apparently, weapons rail makes all of them completely invisible. So unless one is mounting cover in the open position it is no need to bother about them.

Gary,

That lower hull looks great.

Thank you, Mark!

Gaz

Very nicely done Gaz. The dusty tone is really effective

Thank you, Peter.

I have added top part of the doors, rear bumper and radiator grille. Armoured radiator louvres will be added at the painting stage since the radiator is black as per instructions. Some very minor and delicate details to be added. I skip them for now as I have ordered radio set from LZ and installation will definitely require free handling of the cabin. Until resins will arrive I have a break, unless I will go ahead with frame painting.

Here is my starting photo.

A Staghound from Bronco with some PE from Voyager. I don't think i will use all of them.

I choose this vehicle.

An early Staghound Mk I named "Tęcza" (IPA: [ˈtɛ̃n͇ʧ̑a], Rainbow in English) of the 2-nd Squadron of the Carpathian Lancers Regiment.
This is the sole vehicle, at least one I could find, that had cross country tires on both axles. In most cases Polish Staghounds had highway tread tires on the front axle. Unfortunately, nobody makes them in 1:35 scale.

Damian,
You've really smashed it together quickly and neatly. Hopefully your after market won't be delayed too long.

My Voyager PE is still in limbo, somewhere.

Gaz

Mark C.,
The stadiums looks like a Mini- Sherman when it first pops into view. I'll be interested in seeing how it looks completed.

Gaz

Some great Progress, gentlemen!

The M3 looks great, Damian!

Gary, nice job on the running gear. That's a novel way to build a tank, never thought about finishing the running gear first. Are you now going to mask it off with tape?


Marek, got that one in the stash, too, so I'll be watching!


Here's a Little Progress on my side - main components just dry fitted. The "finish the running gear first Approach" could be beneficial here, as the side skirts obscure everything…




Cheers!
Stefan

Stefan,
Great start. Do you think you'll be going with the cover art camo?

I've only recently started finishing the tracks and running gear, but I do like it more and more.

Gaz

A little work on my StuPa:

Mostly I worked on the Sturmhaubitze (StuH) 43 L/12 developed by Skoda. The detail is nice, and though it'll mostly be covered by the armored fighting compartment, there are some hatches I want to leave open... though there will be crew present.

The single-piece barrel is nicely molded with rifling detail. I airbrushed this with a shiny aluminum paint, and used a black oil wash to highlight the inside of the tube.


On many breech faces, there is a lot of bare metal. I like the look, so I've painted it to show.


I left the breech open so that light could pass through.


I dry-fitted the fighting compartment to give me an idea of what to expect.




Gaz

Looks good Gaz.

I hate to mention this but it appears the gun tilted to right in the first picture. Is that intended/correct?

Followed Peter's advice, I have some Hussar tires now and Hornet heads on the way. Also waiting on the Archer interior set. I will take a pic but I have to repaint what I have already done from German grey to yellow. From the pic it appears the bumper has been damaged/different design and the right side light does not exist. For the figures, I think I might use the German driver lower body, replace the boots with the Tamiya Jeep driver boots and upper body. For the second figure, some lower body mods will be needed to correct the man spread. Not sure about his arms yet. Will need a new left arm as the chicken wing won't work if sitting normal. Not sure I can do an action pose with the rifle at the ready.

No, something is a touch off; looks like the bit that makes the gun elevate isn't quite sat in the hole on the upright section of the carriage.

Guys,
Thanks for the heads up. The gun isn't glued at the base, and the left trunnion seems to be out. Hopefully I can get it closed up without damaging it.

Gaz

My Entry


=

Looking good Gaz. Maybe you can add some cyano to the trunnion and clamp it to hold it tight to the gun. You will then likely need to bend the sight section back into level too.

All things considered though, with the mantlet piece added and the gun glued down, you probably wont see this either.

Welcome aboard Jose.

Here is where Annie sits at present; I started on the 21st:

(Wife and youngest child out of town until Sunday evening, oldest child likes to read and watch movies and is cool with arranging time to do our own things at the same time so I should get everything done up to the final primer coat)


It is sitting all dry-fit together as I need to spray the interior before assembling the main components into the final stage.

I generally build out of box, but I expect to have time to embellish it with parts bin items, and am considering replacing the kit decals with the Peddinghaus set. I am also considering using the brown stripe pattern they put on the Anzio gun while at Aberdeen for lack of a better choice; I don't have much to go on visually for that time frame. I will try to paint the figures which will likely consume the bulk of the remaining eight months, but don't expect me to recreate the metal framework they put on the barrel to attach camouflage onto. That's just not gonna happen. I haven't played this game long enough to achieve that unlock. It will also be sitting on unpainted rails as I am working on a way to display both Trumpeter and Dragon rail kits on the same base. As you can see from the shelf above, this is neither my first nor my last railway kit. And another reason why I do mostly OOB; only way I can get multiple kits finished.

Anyway, good journey to everyone else who has started and hopefully we'll all meet at the finish line.

Jose,
Welcome to the campaign. Looking forward to see how that Autoblinda Ab-41 comes together.

Gaz

Peter,
Thanks for the recommendation. I have the trunnions a tentative squeeze the other day, and there was no budging. I fear that I'll have to do some surgery on the elevating mechanism to assure a proper closing of the gap.

I've been letting the oils dry, and have been very short of modeling time this week.

Gaz

Shell,
Glad to see more done on Annie, and enjoyed gawking at your 109's, too.

Can't say I blame you for not adding the framework. I'm more of an OOB kind of guy, myself.

Gaz