Great choice Zon. Fits the theme no problem and Tamiya buildability!

A small update on my sd.kfz.251/6.
I have soldered PE parts for the very first time in my life. It is not as hard as I expected but I need more practice.



The AFV's tracks are glued and they are still workable.


I have also made a PE floor. There is a gap between the floor and the walls but it will be hidden during further works.

Great work Marek. There is a knack to good soldering and once you get that it becomes easier. Main things are the level of heat, not too much solder on the iron and flux only where you want solder to run.

If you are interested, I use a system of magnets and metal plates to hold my brass for soldering and to make sure the joins are closed properly. Very simple idea from parts you can buy at office supply or hardware stores, but it works - I put up a post in the BAT 5 campaign a while back:

https://archive.kitmaker.net/forums/271032&ord=&page=3


Scroll down nearly to the bottom for my pics and comments. There is a little more commentary a couple of posts later too.

There were some great ideas in that thread.

Nice work, Marek!

Thank you Gary and Peter.
Peter, you were reading in my minds. My biggest impediment during the soldering was a lack of extra hands. Your idea of magnetic table is just brilliant. I will definitely do the same. The whole tread is very interesting. Thank you once again.

2 scratchbuilt added antennas for the RCIED system, and I call it done ! Thank you for this great campaign built !

Pete: Thanks of the approval. I'll get crackin on it.

Marek: nice work

Alex: Looks great! I love the overall look. One thing I'm curious about is the metal antenna shelf interaction with the soft top. Seems like there should be holes or something in the canvas for the legs to come through? Mostly just wondering. Your subject is really cool and you did a good job on it.

Happy Modeling,
zon

Great job Alex. It looks marvelous. I have really enjoyed watching you put this one together, especially with the scratch built parts. Thanks for joining in.

Quick Tip - any Musical instruments stores near you? When you go past, pop in and ask the store person if they have any old metal guitar strings they are throwing out. The thin E string is the one that breaks most but those strings are fantastic for whip aerials. They are strong, straight and don't warp easily. The larger ones are great for coil wrapped cables, etc. My son is a guitarist, so I get a reasonable supply

Marek. I'm glad posting the idea was worthwhile. You will be amazed how much easier it is when you have hands to help out.

That is the best part about group builds, sharing ideas and getting new ones yourself.

Keep building guys

Zon, Peter thank you. Glad to have finished this kit.

Zon, you are right about holes in the canvas. I can't say how it is under the tarp, I have not found any interior pics for the rear compartment.

Alex,
Great job!

Yeah! Awesome job, Alex!

Gary, Richard, thank you very much.

Good continuation on your model !

Current progress is slow. I'm in an essential service, so no time off work for me. Anyway...

To my horror, I discovered my Miniart Figs are actually overscale. But I'm going to use them nontheless, though more deeply ensconced in the turret for two of them.


And I'm closer to done on detail painting.


I was wishing I had made masks for the many anti-slip panels. However, they all have rounded radii, and there are a few different sizes. So I did them by hand, then dry brushed em to show the texture.


So, all that is left is final detail painting. Adding the figs and propellers. Matte coat. And final pastels for a post swim look.

Happy modelling!

Almost there Gaz. Looks great. People come in all sizes so Fritz, Hans und Herman are just 'big boned'....

I have been tempted to buy some of the flexible tape being advertised for masking jobs like the anti slip. Going around curved corners seems like a perfect reason for it.

Nice work Gary.

Well, everyone...
Like all good things each build has to come to an end. Here is the final rendition of Takom's Spahpanzer Luchs in 1/35 scale:











Special thanks to Peter for organizing this interesting and inciteful campaign.

Happy Modelling!

Gary, welcome to the finish line with this dusty Luchs. Crew members don't appears overscaled as you said.

Thank you Alex! I buried the figures as deeply as possible to hide their size. If I stood one beside a Dragon figure, they'd be a foot taller.

I've finally been able to work on the Wiesel 2 AFF radar system.



Even at 1:35 scale it's tiny...about half the size of an Abrams or a Paladin. I've held off on putting on the mirrors and the other small details until after the decals are on.

Looks great, Richard!

Thanks Gary!

I'm hoping to be done with it this week so I can start priming and painting the M730A1 Chaparral for the Shep Paine Tribute campaign. I've got all the major sub-assemblies put together.

With all this work from home time I've had I've been able to squeeze in some model time too! Shhhhhh...don't tell the boss though!

Here is my addition to the campaign. A Russian 64N6 Big Bird radar with Maz-74106 By Modelcollect. i have before this kit came out i tried to build one of these from scratch but then gave up because Modelcollect was coming out with it. i have been waiting a while but now i can finally build one.





I intend to do a detailed build log later showing how i make Big Bird radar.

Finally managed to get a little more work done on the Auklarungspanzer38(t).
Dragon instructions said to put it in the tiny alcove between the sponson and the fighting compartment roof, which is simply not practical. In addition the front MG position was plugged and welded shut (and likely the visor too) so it really seems likely that the RO's position was dedicated to holding the Fu.2 & Fu.5 and accoutrements. So, using what meager references I had, and following a thread in here not too long ago, I whiz-banged my way forward with radio racks and associated electrical wiring and trunking. A rack for ready ammo was fashioned for the other sponson side, in such a way as not to foul the turret underhanging seats and radio set when these are added later.





The Dragon set included an entire sprue from the Sd.Kfz. 251/17 set, which included 2 delicious racks chock full of 20mm magazines. So, to fill space in the spartan interior, and in the spirit of 'you can never have too much ammo' I put these in with appropriate frame bracings added.



While purists are likely foaming at the mouth about now, I'll plug on to get the upper hull interior ( elfenbein - ivory white) and radio stuff painted and then the 2 halves joined up. I have a lot of catching up to do!

Cheers for now.

Johanan

I have made some more progress on my AB 43 recon car. It is the Italeri 1/48 kit.

For the first time I used AK Interactive's masking putty. It is very easy to work with. However, it is slightly fluid which causes significant problems for three color camouflages.

I will try to explain - I used the following process:
Paint the AB-43 green overall.
Wait 24 hours.
Mask what needs to be green.
Paint the brown camo color.
Wait 24 hours, mask the brown.
Paint the sand color.
Wait 24 hours and remove putty.

Since the masking putty is slightly fluid, it will move due to gravity over 24+ hours. This caused a significant problem for the green areas masked first.
After I painted the brown I waited 24 hours before painting the final sand color. In these 24 hours the masking putty covering the green slightly "bled" and flowed to cover a bigger area. This causes significant part of the green areas to get a brown shadow. This leaves a lot of touching up to do, making sure there are no brown shadows.

Hopefully the pictures below show the issue a bit better than I can explain.












In the picture above you can see the brown shadows I am referring to.

That looks good, Jesper.

Love the magazines, Johanan.