Hi Mike H - good progress, sounds like you‘ve got your gunmetal color sorted. For what it‘s worth, I have good luck with Vallejo Dark Steel pigment dusted on a black finish.

Angel, excellent work as always, you‘re really sprucing up that golden oldie of a kit.

Lap Man, another kit from my youth you‘re tackling - looking forward to it!

Mr. K, I built Panda‘s 2S6 Tunguska (more or less the same chassis) last year, and that part of my kit went together pretty well - the gun and missile tube assemblies were tricky, though, but that was one of Panda‘s first kits and I think they‘ve gotten better in the meantime. Can‘t wait to see what you‘re going to do with it!

Richard, good work so far on your SA-4.

By the way, isn‘t the deadline for this campaign Oct. 31st? I wouldn’t be able to finish my ZSU by Oct. 1st either.

Jerry

Sorted out the gunmetal color. (base is not it's "final resting" place)







Mike

Looks pretty damn awesome, Mike!

Coming along nicely Mike.

Mike, looking good - you nailed the gunmetal color!

Mike, nice diorama.
Ok, it's about time to shift into the sixth gear. Kids are leaving tomorrow so I can get serious about this campaign.
I managed to work a little during last month, mostly simple things like gluing.

At the moment I am in logistic nightmare, organizing parts and preparing for painting.

Since we have 7 weeks until end of this campaign, I will add one Sd. Kfz. 7 as a towing vehicle for flak 88 and two more flak 38's.

C[ ]

Here's some painting progress on my Japanese 25mm AA gun:

The colors are simple; Tamiya IJN Grey (Kure Arsenal) acrylic (XF-75) – slightly lightened for scale effect – for the mount, with NATO Black for the gun and clip. The only other color is the brown leather padding on the shoulder rests. I’ll probably also add a bit of gold for the brass cartridges just visible through the sides of the clip too.

After the acrylic base colors cured, I gave the gun and mount a very thin wash with Grumbacher Raw Umber artist’s oil. Wiping almost all of it away with a wide brush left a filter which helps to integrate the colors and also to grunge things up a bit.


Once dry, the shiny wash mattes down leaving a subtle grime in the crevices on the mount.

Welcome back Bogi

Tim, nice finish so far. Looking terrific.

The portable platform that came with the kit looks cool, but I thought the display might look even better with a little section of deck below it too; Northeastern Scale Lumber 3/32 inch scored wood sheet should serve nicely.

According to Janusz Skulski’s Anatomy of the Ship – The Battleship Fuso, that ship’s deck had 177mm teak wood planks (5mm wide in 1/35 scale), and his Anatomy of the Ship – The Battleship Yamato indicates that Yamato sported 127mm wide hinoki cypress wood deck planks (3.5mm wide in 1/35 scale). Although this is a bit wider than the 3mm width of the scored planks on the Northeastern sheet, there was evidently a degree of variation among ships in the Japanese Navy – so I figured there might have been some narrower planks in use as well.


Anyway, the deck looks the part!

As does the build and the weathering!
Superb gun, Tim, well done!

Excellent build Tim! Using a bit of the wooden deck really finishes off your model. Well done!
Mike

Looking very Schmik Tim. The deck will give a nice colour contrast.

Thanks guys!

At the risk of overdoing a good thing, as a final step I thought I'd attach the whole to a display platform.


The base is a re-purposed plastic piece from an old Accurate Miniatures 1/100 scale Spitfire kit.


Preparation of the base was straightforward, consisting of an airbrushed coat of Tamiya Desert Yellow (XF-59) acrylic followed by an application of Winsor & Newton Burnt Sienna artist’s oil paint.

Applied thinned with some streakiness left in, artist’s oil over acrylic is a simple way to simulate the look of a wood base.

Okay Tim, that one is going in my great ideas book....

Heh, mine too.

And thanks Gents for the compliments. A lot of work around the house has precluded bench time - new carport, deck work, built-in 6-burner grill, and some "small" stuff.

Today, after my VA appointment, I hope to add some light "chipping" and some grime to the gun and mount, which should conclude the build of the gun itself. The base it's on is not the base I'll ultimately be using but scratch from foam-board and other purchased materials. That may or may not be done by the campaign's conclusion so I'm not including that in my final product (yet).

Mike

And done!

Oh Yeah. Just a fantastic presentation and build Tim.

Looks really good, Tim!

Tim, what the others have said - great AA gun and a creative presentation method!

Jerry

The hull is coming along. I'm about to start on the launcher platform and the support rails for the missiles.

That is one big chunk of plastic Richard!

Yup! It’s sitting on the back of the keyboard cover of my Surface Pro 4.

Hi all. Thought I'd give a little update on my getting well soon. Just when you think...hey we are getting somewhere...I can walk again (be it for short distance), my doctors decided on a draw back(they pulled my big toe nail out, just to keep me on the couch for at least another 3 months. Your healing process will benefit from this he said.
So today after one week of pain, healing seems to hurt a lot, I had my second checkup in Bangkok, (location where the did the surgery), another draw back.
Possibly additional surgery, but hey...first we make a CT Scan, due October 18 and after that we will decide.
Well, I hope Christmas 2020 will be a good one.

Meanwhile, keep up the great work, really enjoy the various subjects that show up. Will follow along.

Kind regards,

Robert Jan

Robert, I am sorry to hear bad news. Hope things will get better soon.