Well, here it is. I finished it enough to submit it to our local Hobby Town contest. I got 3rd place but I think it was because there were only four entries in it's category and the other three won grand prized, 1st place, and 2nd place. I'm not quite done with it so any comments will be appreciated.

Rodger's M7 Priest

Looks good. I would darken the inside of the barrel and dull the tracks, they look a little shiny. Good work.

Rodger --

I think you tried to rush it a bit to get it to the contest. I've done this before and it never seems to work out!

About the ammo: I tried to give you a quickie answer Friday night and might have missed something. The tips have WAY to much yellow on them. There is a color diagram od the 105mm ammo (and lots of other goodies) on this site: http://afvinteriors.hobbyvista.com/m7/m7a.html See picture 10.

Roger, I enjoyed your pic's of the M7. Overall it looks like a good effort on your part--it's an interesting piece of weaponry. I like how you removed some of the duckbills off the track,--that's a nice little touch.

Some dry brushing with lightened OD would really make the various high points snap, i.e. the various hinges etc around the hull, and on the 105.

Congrats on your placement at the contest.

Steve

Nice work on your M7. Looks like its been in the field for a while :-) I agree with the OD drybrushing, and a dark wash here and there as well. Maybe some paint-chipping in the interior ? A crew figure or 2 would make this M7 Priest come alive. Great job !

Cheers !

Alpen

evey nice. that priest looks out standing.
i heard this kit was a pain to build.
thats why iam shying away from building my priset

I am staring at my M7 box and instructions right now. Did you swap tracks with another kit?
Mine are not with duckbills

Looks pretty good Rodger.

Try to tone-down the rust on the tracks. It looks a bit too bright.

To all who replied, thanks.

Steve, I will darken the inside of the barrel more, and I wasn't happy with the tracks either, I'm going to have to keep working on them.

Hollowpoint, thanks for that link. I missread your post Friday night, but having this picture gives me a much better idea on how to paint those rounds.

WeWillHold, I only did one round of dry brushing, I was afraid I'd mess it up if I did too much. I will try your suggestion of doing more and even lighter.

Alpen, I did put one dark wash down, I think with highligting more, as you and WWH suggested, it will bring it out more. I was hoping to have a figure or two in it but didn't get around to it.

Tazz, it really is a pretty nice kit. In fact I'm waiting for a trade to come in so I can start another one, back dated to an early version, for Treadhead's Incoming campaign. The biggest thing about it is where Tamiya might use one part, Italeri will use four or five.

ShermiesRule, yes, I swapped out the tracks. The kit tracks are awful, by far the worst thing about the kit. I stole the duck bill tracks from a Tamiya Jumbo I doubt I'll ever build.

Ken, I totally agree with the rust on the tracks I tried something new. I primed them with a rust colored auto primer before painting them. I wanted some rusth to show through but too much came out. I need to tone them down.

looks good rodger,

the other guys have just about covered it,
one thing i might add maybe a bit more stowage would look good?

most of the pics ive seen show them pretty much covered in packs and tarps etc

i really like the duck bill tracks, i need a few sets for some of the shermans ive got in the stash, but im not too keen on indylinks.

cheers

joe

Howdy Rodger,

Just stumbled across this thread, and was a bit surprised! (you do know that there's no ship called the U.S.S. M7 Preist, right? ).
Anyway....very nice work sir. Most of the comments that came to mind have already been addressed by our learned members. I would go into the whole 'bogey' thing but then I might get Hollowpoint's blood up.
Are you going to enter it in the Fort Collins show?

Tread.

Is this the pic you're talking about Hollowpoint?


Tread.

Maybe you should get out your .0000000 micro brush HalfYank and paint in the yellow writing on the shells as well! :-)

Just about 90% done with my M7 for incoming. it's been painted factory fresh awaiting weathering and addition of crew gear and pioneer tools. To me this last 10% is the hardest part trying to individualize each pack, tool, box, etc...